Happy First Day in Kathmandu! From Blythe and Alisa💛

Namaste! 🙏

How cool was our lay over in Abu Dhabi?

What started out to be a bump in the road ended up being an unexpected cultural adventure!
✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈
The first thing noticed by our classmates when leaving the airport was that all the cars were 98% white. I guess maybe because it is hot there? After arriving at the nicest Holiday Inn ever, we had the pleasure of seeing the biggest mosque in the world! I don't know about everyone else, but a lot of us noticed the gender specified entrances. Also, the girls had to cover up way more than the boys. However, with all that aside, we noticed some interesting differences and similarities between the Abu Dhabi and Nepal. Aside from the obvious being religion, we noticed the similarity in the respect towards it. In the mosque, just as in the Thankas, there is a large focus on incorporating prayer into art. In the mosque there were prayers etched into the walls and ceiling. The beautiful words we could not read created stunning designs within the mosque.
✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ 
Just as well, the Thankas in Nepal interpreted different religious aspects of artistic applications. Both used beautiful art to highlight important messages within their religion. As well as with art, both cultures have very modest clothing. We found it very respectable in multiple aspects. For example, as mentioned before, all of the girls who were wearing anything even slightly revealing in any aspect were required to put on a long-sleeved floor-length dress that had a hood attached to it, which was provided by the mosque 💁. Similarly, the general fashion custom that we have noticed so far in Kathmandu has been mostly loose and conservative clothing worn by both the men and the women.
✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈

One of the coolest things we had the chance to do during our first full day in Kathmandu was getting an inside look at the life of a Buddhist monk, and their typical lives as a student in a monastery. It was really interesting to learn about all the different levels of education that most monks strive to achieve. As our monk guide, Kunchyap, revealed to us, sometimes the monk life chooses you, and sometimes your parents choose it for you. Hopefully in the upcoming days in the monastery, we will be able to determine the source of the mysterious beating drums behind the forbidden doors in the sacred Shechen Monastery. Stay tuned for more adventures during our conquest of Kathmandu!