Where I’m Spending My Summer

Posted on

by cookiesnchem

I told you in this post from last week that I was going to have a BIG surprise for you! This summer, I am going…

Wait.

Before I tell you, let’s first see what I’ve done in previous summers! You can click on the link to see the page.

As you can see, I am a firm, firm believer that summers should certainly not be “wasted”!

Anyways…

k’/fgf] u’Daf M ;f]n’v’Da’sf] ;a}eGbf k’/fgf] u’Daf Tofªaf]r] u’Daf . of] u’Daf ^ ;ojif{ k’/fgf] u’Daf xf] . t:jL/– a’4jL/ /fO{ .

I am going to be a medical intern in Kathmandu, Nepal, during the month of July!

Here are some of the details:

  • I will be there for four weeks. Three weeks will be volunteering all day at the hospital, and one week will be for touristing and fun!
  • I will live in a group home with a Nepalese family.
  • I will be leaving from Vancouver at the end of June, and coming back in August.
  • The hospital is in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.
  • I have to get shots 😦
  • My aunt Mimi and uncle Charles have been to Nepal a couple of times.
  • I will be going with Volunteering Solutions, an organization that does trips like this one. My school’s academic advisor recommended it.
  • I will definitely be blogging there (hopefully every day) to keep everyone updated, and do it in a journal form.

I know.

Have you ever done a volunteer trip? What did you think of it? If you could go back in time to a summer that you didn’t do much, would you want to travel to volunteer?

I am so excited, but nervous of course!

Check out some of the interesting information I found online 🙂

22 Cool Things About Nepal

  1. HALF the population of Nepal survives on $1 per person per day.
  2. Nepal spends $68 on each person for healthcare each year.
  3. 80% of the world’s highest mountains are in Nepal.
  4. Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, is located here. Tourists attempting to conquer the great mountain helps the Nepalese economy.
  5. In Nepal, Everest is called “Sagarmatha”, which means the “forehead of the sky” (see #11).
  6. Nepal had never been colonized, despite the many attempts. There is no independent day.
  7. Nepal is South Asia’s oldest country.
  8. Buddha was born in Nepal.
  9. Nepal is sandwiched between India and China. Nepalese people aren’t Indian or Chinese, but rather proud to be Nepalis!
  10. 45% of Nepal’s population speaks Nepali (official language).
  11. 81% of the population is Hindu.
  12. The head is considered a sacred part of the body.
  13. Namaste, said with hands pressed together, is a Nepalese greeting. No handshakes here!
  14. According to the Nepali calendar, it is now the year 2073 and Nepali New Year is celebrated in mid-April.
  15. Cows are the national animal of Nepal. Slaughtering cows is absolutely banned.
  16. Nepal has the densest concentration of World Heritage Sites.
  17. Touching anything with the feet is considered offensive.
  18. Nepal’s flag is the only national flag that is NOT a square or rectangle! On the flag, blue represents peace and red is a sign of victory in war. The triangles symbolize the Himalayan mountains, and the white symbols show the two religions (Hinduism and Buddhism).
  19. Momo, a type of dumpling, is the most popular Nepalese fast food.
  20. 75% of adult women have NEVER had alcohol!
  21. The left hand should not be used for eating in Nepal.
  22. There has never been a clash in Nepal because of a religious or ethnic riot. In other words, religion has NEVER caused war or disagreements in Nepalese history.

What do you guys think?! I am so curious about your feedback, first impressions, and ideas!

40 thoughts on “Where I’m Spending My Summer”

  1. Firstly welcome to Nepal. As we Nepalese say “Swagatam”. Its good to know that you are travelling this far to helping us with medical services. I am also a medical student and I wish to do the same thing like you. How do you organise these trips? And of course thanks for choosing Nepal. Visit again. Soon. Nepal loves you. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  2. […] I’ve been to Disneyworld and Disneyland in California and Florida (as a kiddo) and lived in Taiwan and China for a couple weeks. Two summers ago, I lived in Quebec and spent last summer with my sister in France (BEST. SUMMER. EVER). We’ve also visited the lovely Sunshine Coast before I moved to Waterloo, Ontario. This summer I’ll be able to add to this map because I will be living in Nepal! […]

    Like

  5. Oh my goodness! I’m so excited for you Cindy! I’ve never been to Nepal, so I can’t wait to live vicariously through your travels haha. Good luck with those shots 😦 😦 You’ll get through them!! I feel for you though! 😦

    Liked by 1 person

  9. The cows and Buddha facts about Nepal are so wonderful 🙂 I am SO jealous that you’re going to such an exotic and beautiful country! I am very excited to see your documentation of your time there! If I could do a volunteer trip, I’d also want to visit Asia or Australia!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Girl, you made me realize that I’ve NEVER seen a real cow before in person :O
      Join me! It would actually be so cool if we had a blogger rendezvous… in Nepal, haha! Do you have any plans for the summer?
      Australia seems beautiful as well. The coral reefs are on my bucket list!

      Like

    1. Did you really?! Oh my goodness! That is so cool. The blogosphere is really filled with some amazing and interesting people with the coolest stories and connections 🙂 That sounds incredible and I’m happy that you think I will enjoy it!

      Liked by 1 person

  12. Awesome! I’m so excited for you! I really mean it. I’ve been wanting to go to Nepal myself for a while now. This is going to be an incredible, memorable, and life-changing experience for you, I’m sure! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  14. This is so awesome that you are doing this!!! Good job! I am travelling quite a bit this summer too so I’m glad to see we are both spending our summers doing things we enjoy! It’s a big step for me, since my job won’t allow me to take so much time off and I will have to talk to my boss soon about my options for this summer, you’ll hear all about it in a blog post sometime in the future I’m sure, I’ll stop going off on a babble and leave it for that post haha!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Stephanie! 😀 I didn’t know you were working while in school – is it part-time. Does McGill have a co-op program? I really do want to hear all about your work and summer plans in a future post, so I am looking forward to that!

      Like

      1. Nope, I actually work part time at a bank! Very unrelated to nutrition or my field of study haha. Since people from my job read my blog, I’ll only really share it once I’ve settled everything with my boss! For now, I will see how things play out 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s