I just have one week until my triumphant return to the States. I can barely wait. I am looking forward to seeing Jenna, Ronin (my dog), my friends, and family. Not to mention I am excited for American movies, food, and beer. I am also looking forward to my short time in Amsterdam. On my way to the States I am spending a couple days in Amsterdam to sight see. Who knows if I will ever see Amsterdam again, right? So why not?

Probably the most eventful thing that has happened since my last post if the I.S.E.R. picnic. Dirgha (the director of the institute) and Meeta (Ph.D. student) had been arguing over the provision of alcohol at the picnic. Dirgha was arguing that the picnic was an opportunity for the staff of the institute to express themselves, so beer and rum was fine. Meeta didn't want hard alcohol at the picnic because she felt it changed the whole dynamic of picnics and perhaps gave the wrong impression to the staff. Needless to say, we had both kinds of alcohol for the picnic. It was a lot fun. We drove a couple of hours from the institute into a wooded area. I thought it would be a quite picturesque place. In fact, it was more the opposite. It was filled with people (mostly high schoolers) and the location was on a degraded hillside. In addition, every picnic group had their own music blaring from giant speakers. After we got our speaker system setup, however, I don't think anybody could compete with the sheer noise they produced. We had a covered area to ourselves. The cook had help from a catering service. Everybody got comfortable and played cards and ate food for awhile. Then we starting playing some games. For instance, in one game everybody tied a balloon around each of their feet and when the timer started they had to scramble and pop everybody's balloons without their own being popped. I didn't last long but it was pretty fun. Then the alcohol came out and things got pretty loose. One thing I learned was that dancing is mandatory at a Nepali picnic. The interesting thing is that no one is self-conscious about it like they would be in the States. Even guys. Usually guys in the US are so afraid to dance. In Nepal, they could barely wait to get up and cut a rug. I was eventually beckoned to dance, and dance I did! They also played another very interesting game. The girls and guys grouped up on opposite sides. Then the microphone was passed around to the guys first and they sang a verse. Then the microphone was passed to the women and the responded with their own verse. As they kept doing this I realized that the verses were being made up on the spot to respond to the previous verse. And all of the responses were flirty and full of insinuations about marriage and so forth. I had no idea what was being said at all most of the time except everynow and then after a particular good response somebody would translate for me. You knew it was a good response when everybody would laugh and mockingly shout at each other. At some point I realized that my friend Alex, a Ph.D. student from San Diego State University, was getting pretty drunk. It happened very fast. We were talking very casually when I noticed that he was spilling his food everywhere. He then starting dancing with abandon which was a clear indicator of inebriation. Around the same time one of the cooks, Rishi, appeared to be astoundingly drunk. He was sitting on the floor and somebody was pouring water on his head. I helped him up and with a friend we drug him to the bus to fall asleep. Eventually, the picnic was packed up and we headed back to the ISER guesthouse. Good times.

My birthday was Nov. 18th. I am now 28 years old. Wow. Most of the people from ISER were Kathmandu and so unfortunately we couldn't have a big celebration as I had hoped. But the cooks came through. They got a cake that said "Happy Birthday Nek Carter". I loved it. They asked what I wanted for dinner and like a child I said pizza and ice cream. We also had some beer to wash everything down. It was a small affair but perfect. The morning of my birthday I received a group call from my friends in Ann Arbor, MI. Jenna had asked a lot of our friends to come to her house. She called me and then everybody wished me a happy birthday at the same time over the speaker. It was awesome and really set the tone for the rest of the week.

Then on Thanksgiving, the cooks made a special meal as well. They work hard to make my stay as pleasant was possible. They made chicken (which I didn't eat because of the whole vegetarian thing -- but the other guests at it), corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, green peas with almonds, and a special vegetarian souffle. This was followed by apple pie with vanilla ice cream! Not bad at all.

My work has been going slowly. I still don't know what the verdict is on my application to camera trap. The application is in the Ministry of Forests and is slowly working its way through the bureaucracy. I hope to know the result before I leave Nepal. I have my fingers crossed. The other aspects of my work are going slowly but surely. Till next time.

Hello friends and family,

Sorry for the long gap in between posts. I must say that it was, in part, deliberate. Since my last posting on October 4th I have been working mostly on my camera trapping application to the wildlife department. I thought that it would be important to get the application submitted before or during the Global Tiger Workshop that was taking place in Kathmandu on October 27-30th. Prior to the workshop a colleague of mine and I started meeting with people (wildlife managers, naturalists) in Chitwan who would have insights on the permission process and also inform us about the general state of tiger conservation in Chitwan. I think we were successful. I met with lots of folks in Chitwan who are quite knowledgeable about tigers and tiger conservation. Then I went to Kathmandu to try and meet with the members of the wildlife department including the Director General. I think I was very successful there as well. I met with the several people from the Department and they gave me some feedback about the application. I got some support letters for the research and submitted the final application just a week ago or so. At any rate, I couldn't bring myself to write a blog when I was so focused on that process. I was also very fortunate to be in Kathmandu for the first couple days of the tiger workshop. I was able to meet with tiger conservationists who I would not have had the opportunity to meet in any other way unless I traveled to their neck of the woods. I met with Dale Miquelle, the program director for Wildlife Conservation Society--Russia. I have been looking forward to meeting him for some time. After I graduated college I cold sent him an email stating what my interests were (tiger conservation) and if he had any volunteering activities for me in Russia! Ha. He actually wrote me back and told me to go to graduate school and keep pursuing my interests. I have written him periodically throughout my graduate schooling and he has always quickly responded with very thoughtful emails. I can honestly say that he is the only person that has ever been so considerate and reliable with his emails. At any rate I feel like he took me under his wing a little at the workshop and introduced me to several other conservationists there. It was great! I made some contacts and learned about global tiger conservation in the process. Before I left Kathmandu I went to the famous and popular Swoyombhu Stupa, also known as Monkey Temple. It is a giant temple for Buddha that sits up on a hill overlooking Kathmandu valley. Its most striking feature are the giant painted buddha eyes on the side of the building. Unfortunately, they were renovating those walls and so I didn't get a chance to see them. Nonetheless, the temple is a fun and interesting place. I took lots of pictures of monkeys running around without a care in the world.

In late October I also experienced the Tihar festival. It is 4 days long and celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. Specifically, the first day is dedicated to crows, the second day to dogs, the third day to cows, and the last day to brothers. No one was at work so I was mostly alone at the guesthouse. However, Rishi, the caretaker, came over once in a while to check in on me and feed me sometimes. He also took me around his neighborhood on his motorcycle. When we pulled up to his house I saw a dog wearing a colorful lei and in between his eyes was a white patch of fur with a bright red streak of dye. This is a tika given to people (and animals apparently) as a blessing. I didn't know about the second day of Tihar being dedicated to dogs so naturally I was tickled pink over the idea of a dog with a lei and a tika. I called Jenna and told her to put a tika on Ronin. Amazingly, the dog in Nepal didn't seem bothered about his accouterments at all. In fact, after watching him some I got the distinct feeling that he knew that day was all about him and he was quite proud of himself. On the 3rd day of Tihar my friend Krishna asked me and Alex (other researcher staying at guesthouse) to come to his house for Tihar. Krishna explained to us that the thing men anticipated the most about Tihar was gambling. Apparently, men play a card game called 'marriage' all day and night in big groups virtually during the entire Tihar festival. We sat in on Krishna and his friends playing. The game is surprisingly complicated. So that night I asked Krishna to teach us how to play. Krishna also told us that gifts are supposed to be exchanged between the brothers and sisters on the last day of Tihar. I was not aware of this and so the next day when Krishna informed us that his wife, Sabitha, would be our 'sister' for the day I immediately went to the market and picked up a little handbag. Most of Krishna's family came over for the celebration. It was lots of fun. I got a traditional Nepali hat from Sabitha in addition to a blessing and the tika (see pictures).

I am now back at the guesthouse working on other aspects of my research. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to do any field work. I am hoping to start a survey about community forest management policies next week which will enable me to get out and about in Chitwan. I have been cooped up in my room a lot working on applications and letters and emails and calling various people. I have also been playing lots of Badminton with several of my colleagues. That has been a blast. In fact, I look forward to it each day. We go out right after the work day and play on a nice court next to the guesthouse. Its good exercise and fun. Till next time. Check out the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/nhcarter07/ and the album is VariousThingsInNepal.