Like many BC students, junior Bud O’Hara had a rather limited geographic reign. Hailing from Chatham, New Jersey, his travel experience extended beyond the North East only for a few tropical vacations and a weeklong excursion in Germany. That is until he decided to go “off the grid” for study abroad in Kathmandu, Nepal last semester.
Bud delved into Nepali culture at the Center for Buddhist Studies at Kathmandu University, taking history, anthropology and philosophy of Buddhism as well as a Nepali language course. While the university follows a similarly Western structure of teaching, there were certainly elements to adjust to, like sitting on the floor and being lectured to by a Tibetan monk, in Tibetan. “He would speak and we’d be sitting there with no idea what he was saying, until the translator explained.”
Bud also had the opportunity for full immersion through his home stay with a local family, consisting of two parents, a thirteen-year-old son, and a seventeen-year-old daughter. Communicating with the mother and children was somewhat difficult, due to their limited English, but Bud developed a strong relationship with his host-father, enjoying long, post-dinner conversations every night.
Living in a developing country with a host family also demanded a certain flexibility in regards to hygiene. Showers, for example, were very much self-operated—Bud started off his mornings filling a large bucket with water and using a smaller ladle to douse himself, in lieu of a showerhead. “I had to abandon any reliance on the relative comforts of home,” Bud explains. That includes Internet access, which was shoddy, at best, in downtown cafes and completely unavailable at home. “When you finally get on [the Internet] you can get really sucked into it,” he recalls.
Without all the usual amenities of a developed country, Bud noticed a decisively slower, more relaxed pace of Nepali life. People are often hanging around and chatting with neighbors and others on the street and “everything takes a little bit longer to get done.”
What are Bud’s must-sees for future Nepal visitors? Pokhara, a nearby city and tourist destination, is home to the beautiful Phewa lake and traversed by the Seti river, where Bud spent time white water rafting. And of course, you have to trek the Himalayas. “I was there for my 21st birthday, so I got a great picture of me chugging a beer on one of the peaks.” Sure hope my first beer is somewhere as beautiful.
Upon his return, Bud feels especially attune to the relative homogeneity of BC’s student body. He cautions that the program definitely isn’t for everyone, recalling feelings of isolation and images of extreme poverty throughout Kathmandu. Overall, he deems the trip and his personal goals to “gain a more whole perspective on both humanity and my own life” a success.
What’s next for the English major, philosophy minor and BC lacrosse middie? Who knows, but further traveling is undoubtedly in the equation. “Argentina, Thailand, somewhere in Africa…I want to go everywhere.” Amen to that.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BC chapter.