Friends

Adventures in Nepal, Part IV: Basundhara Park

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Debora

The next day was gray and rainy. (January 17th, if we’re keeping track.) Emma, Elizabeth and Bee Striit met the two Tibetan students at the hotel again for another photography class.

I like the grass-carpeted balcony!

When the lesson was done, our trio braved the weather and visited Basundhara Park in Lakeside.

This park entrance sign is another example of either ubiquitous ad placement or random tributes to popular brands.

Basundhara Park lies along the shores of Phewa Tal. On a clear day, the Himalayas loom majestically in the background. But even on a rainy day, the lake is beautiful.

Colorful boats!

Elizabeth and Bee Striit.

These boats all had Kit Kat ads on their canopies:

And back to the narrow streets of Nepal.

More to come!

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, Family, Friends, Holidays, Life, Love, Nepal, Travel, Weather | Tags: Basundhara Park, Lakeside | 2 Comments

Adventures in Nepal, Part III

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Debora

This is Sabita’s neighborhood in Pokhara. Elizabeth says the light and air were lovely here compared to the heavy smog of Kathmandu.

I enjoy the random absurdity of this photo. Hello, abandoned toilet and loose cow.

On the morning of the 16th, Emma, Elizabeth and Bee Striit met up with two Tibetan students from Paljorling refugee camp to give them cameras and their first photography lesson.

It was a rainy day, so they met in a hotel near the camp.

After the lesson, Emma, Elizabeth and Bee Striit went shopping for a SIM card that would let Elizabeth use her phone in Nepal.

This looks like an indoor mall…

…but Nepal just has some really narrow streets!

I’m keeping these posts shortish because they’re image-heavy and some of our friends don’t have broadband. Stay tuned for more!

Categories: Family, Friends, Holidays, Life, Nepal, Travel, Weather | Leave a comment

Adventures in Nepal, Part II: The Road to Pokhara

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Debora

While I wait for Elizabeth to sort out more favorite photos from the 100 bajillion or so she brought back, here are more impressions from the bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara.

One thing that struck Elizabeth about Nepalese culture is that there are corporate logos literally everywhere. She got the impression that many of them aren’t even paid advertising, people just like the designs and paint them on their stuff. One example was this small Shiva shrine, which had Castrol Oil logos on the sides and back:

Another thing was the haphazard way structures there are built anywhere they can be squeezed in, seemingly out of whatever materials are on hand.

Tata freight trucks. Like everything else about Nepal, they are bright and colorful.

Breakfast smoothie on a pit stop.

Snowy Annapurna Massif in the far background, the section of the Himalayas that borders Nepal.

Adorable Elizabeth is adorable.

And finally, they arrived at the home of family friends, Sabita and her son Bee Striit.

By happy coincidence, they arrived on Emma’s 23rd birthday! Sabita was ready with a beautiful Ganesha cake and traditional trimmings.

What a warm and gracious welcome!

More to come!

Categories: Birthdays, Celebrations, Family, food, Friends, Holidays, kids, Life, Love, Nepal, Travel | 2 Comments

Adventures in Nepal, Part I

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Debora

Elizabeth’s BFF, Emma – she of the sparkly handmade Christmas card – went to Nepal in January to give cameras and photography lessons to some students in the Paljorling refugee settlement. Emma’s family has friends in Pokhara, and her mom founded the Himalability project, a program that helps young Tibetan refugees continue and expand their education. Emma invited Elizabeth to join her, and of course Elizabeth jumped at the opportunity. Luke and I were super excited for her and totally not at all jealous.

During the initial planning stage, Emma emphasized that she did not want a flight layover in China. She had had unpleasant experiences with Chinese airports in the past and is not a fan of China in general. The girls opted to layover in Dubai instead.

A few days before their departure date, Iran launched an attack on a couple of US military bases in Iraq, in response to the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran threatened to attack Dubai if there were any reprisals, and in all the tension and uncertainty a civilian passenger jet was mistakenly shot down in Iranian airspace. For a few hours on the night of January 7, we thought we were watching the opening salvoes of a new war.

Even after the crisis deescalated, the whole situation still felt volatile and unpredictable. But life is a daring adventure, as Helen Keller famously observed, or it is nothing at all. Luke and I dropped Elizabeth off at the airport on the morning of January 11th and we all hoped for the best.

The photos I’m using for these Nepal blog posts were all taken by people other than me. I have permission to use them from everyone involved. This first post is just about the journey to Pokhara. Following along from the comfort of my Internet connection, it looked exhausting. Nepal is a long way away, yo.

Elizabeth’s flight out of Austin was delayed an hour by weather, causing her to miss her connecting flight in Las Vegas, but the airline rebooked her for a later flight.

She left Austin…

…had a stop in Las Vegas…

…and finally rolled into Ontario Airport around 6pm Pacific time. Emma’s family picked her up and took her out for dinner in Temecula, and she spent the night at their home in Anza.

They checked into LAX bright and early the next morning, ready for their adventure!

And off they went!

It’s a 2.5-hour flight from Los Angeles…

…to Seattle.

And then it’s a 15-hour flight from Seattle to Dubai. Most of the scenery there was obscured by cloud cover, but Elizabeth did get some nice views of Scandinavia.

Dubai did not get attacked by Iran, so that was nice.

After that, a 3.75-hour flight from Dubai to Kathmandu.

First views of Nepal:

Factory smokestacks and smog:

By the time the girls arrived in Kathmandu, they had just enough energy left to check themselves into the Kathmandu Guest House…

…and then slept the rest of the day away.

They woke up hungry, and wandered out into the streets of Thamel in search of a restaurant that was still open past 10pm.

Success!

The next morning they boarded a bus to Pokhara. This is an eight-hour drive, including pit stops.

And at last, nearly five days after we dropped Elizabeth off at the airport in Austin, she and Emma arrived in Pokhara on the afternoon of the 15th.

Stay tuned, there’s much more to come!

Categories: Artwork, Family, Friends, Life, Nepal, Travel, Uncategorized | Tags: Kathmandu, Kathmandu Guest House, Thamel | 4 Comments

A is for Armadillo

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Debora

Two of my artist friends inspired my resolution for 2020. There’s this thing I do where I get a great idea for a Christmas or birthday card, but when I go to draw it I get all bogged down in details and the pursuit of hyperrealistic perfection. Then it stops being fun and I wander off and never finish it. The last card I managed to finish was this one in 2017. I spent way too much time on it, and when it was finally done I realized that I liked the cheerful storybook simplicity of this card better anyway.

So for my 2019 Christmas card I planned to keep things nice and simple. I would draw a cartoon-style armadillo next to a festive little yaupon tree full of winter berries. Easy peasy. Except I seem to have forgotten how to draw simple shapes. No matter how many times I started over, I couldn’t figure out how to depict a card-worthy armadillo without obsessing over all the little details that make armadillos so adorable.

I didn’t feel too bad about my unfinished card. Mailing out Christmas cards seems to be falling out of fashion anyway in these busy times.

But this year we received a hand-drawn card from a young family friend. And it brought me so much joy.

She made it look so effortless. And I know it wasn’t effortless at all, or if it was it’s only because she works on her art constantly, all the time.

I have another friend who challenges herself to draw something almost every single day. She shares the images online. She’s been doing this for a couple years now, and I’ve watched her artistic skills develop pretty dramatically in that time.

So on Christmas Day, as I stared enviously at the handmade card from my young artist friend, I resolved to follow the example of my other friend who draws something every day. Except not literally every day, because then I’d have to give up some other hobbies that i like. The best I can realistically commit to is one completed sketch per week. Still way better than my current average.

The goal is to learn how to quickly draw images that capture the spirit of the subject without a lot of unnecessary details. The rules are simple: I will post one sketch here on my blog every week. If my sketch isn’t finished I will post it anyway, even if all I have is a rough outline. Hopefully I will improve with practice.

For my first sketch I wanted to finish that armadillo. I grumbled to Luke and Elizabeth that it’s basically impossible to draw a cartoon armadillo, because they’re too…textury.

They both immediately drew cartoon armadillos.

Luke drew this one:

His first draft only had three vertical stripes down the middle. “This is Texas,” I said. “We have nine-banded Armadillos here.” So he added six more stripes and the ballcap, because Texas.

Elizabeth drew this one:

“It’s not nubbly,” I said. “It has no nubbles.”

“I might color it later and add nubbles,” she said. “This is a cartoon armadillo.”

I went back to my drawing board, and eventually produced this:

I like it, but it took too long to draw. Maybe a year from now I will be able to draw a simple armadillo without spending a week on it. That’s the goal, anyway.

Happy New Year! 2020 is going to be an exciting year, I can feel it!

Categories: Animal Alphabet, Animals, Artwork, Christmas, Friends, Holidays, Life, Weekly Sketch, Wildlife | Tags: armadillo | 7 Comments