Dear Students,

As we get closer to your arrival in Nepal, we are excited to get to finally meet you all. These past few weeks have been spent by your Instructor team intentionally putting every piece of the puzzle together for your time here in Nepal. As we continue to prepare for your arrival we wanted to engage you all in a pre-course activity before your upcoming semester in Nepal.

We request your participation in the following activity –

1. Please take a moment to learn one thing about the country (Nepal) you are travelling to this fall. We have outlined a few topics below that might help you with this process.
2. Geographic Location / Political History / Geo political background
3. Music & Arts / Economy / Food
4. Education / Gender / Human rights
5. Religion / Spiritual practices & philosophy

We believe this way we can slowly start to develop an understanding of the place and connect with the local people in profound ways during our time here. We intend to have continued discussions during different points in our course.

2. Please also read “Why We Travel” by Pico Iyer. It’s a classic, stimulating read that covers our own travel motivations and philosophy pretty eloquently. Select 2 – 3 quotes that you find interesting, agree with, disagree with, or just resonate in some way with you and write these down in a notebook that you will bring with you to Nepal.

During the first few days of orientation, we will discuss this article and your thoughts on it.

We hope your final preparations are going well and we look forward to seeing you all in Nepal very soon.

Best Regards

Your Instructor Team (Him A)