Musings in Kathmandu
It is one of those rare moments. So rare only few of my closest friends have witnessed it. I was having a tantrums after the work day session ended. I am in Kathmandu for a weeklong series of activities for work.
My colleague is meeting with a Nepali friend and asked me to join them. Her friend is kind enough to accompany her to look for a restaurant to dine in the next evening (for the cultural night). After the day's session has ended, she hurries to the hotel lobby where her friend awaits.
I intentionally delay going downstairs thinking that if I do so, they will go ahead without me. Few minutes later, another colleague sees me in the meeting room after everyone has already left. He asks for the whereabouts of our other colleagues. I realized, I need to go out of there lest I want to join them wherever they will have dinner. I want to be alone.
I pack my stuff and go to the hotel lobby, somehow hoping that I won't see anyone I know in there. That way, I can go to straight to my hotel room freely and just take the night off. But my colleague is still there, chatting with her friend. She sees me and waves at me. I walk up to them, dropped my bags to the seat next to them, before dropping myself heavily in the remaining space. She introduces me to her friend. I did not even look at him when I let out an exhausted, "hi". Noticing my (rather rude) behavior, she asks if I'm okay. I let out a sigh and says I'm just tired. She says it's fine if I don't feel like going out and prefer to just sleep. However, I am not sleepy tired. I was exhausted. Of everything. She reminds me that I can either just go to our room because if our other colleagues will see me, then they'd ask me to join them instead. I decide to just join them. It's better than sulking, I think.
As we are walking away from the hotel, her friend says we could perhaps go for drinks after dinner. My face lights up after hearing the word beer. I smile in agreement and say, "Or we go straight to the bar after this" (after checking out this restaurant he suggested). My colleague laughs. But I am not kidding.
This is me, doing a favor (modeling~ a photo) for my colleague and bugging her to just reserve this space for the next evening just so we can go drinking already. It's been so long since I wanted to drink as an outlet for my frustrations.
In the first place, I wasn't thrilled to be joining this trip. This is already my third time in Nepal and all the excitement of travelling (for work) is already gone. If I travel, I just want it to be for pleasure, not for work, I tell myself. I am going through a crisis, again. I though of quitting and find myself a new environment where I can flourish.
However, when I come back home from Kathmandu, I feel refreshed and ready to take on the world again. It probably helped that during this trip, I was able to pour (some of) my heart's content to my colleagues. That probably helped me see things clearly. It probably also helped that during this trip, I met interesting characters, got to know colleagues deeper, and shared new experiences with them. And by new experiences, I mean having conversations with them late in the night, over drinks. Doing vices is still the best way to know more about people.
My colleague is meeting with a Nepali friend and asked me to join them. Her friend is kind enough to accompany her to look for a restaurant to dine in the next evening (for the cultural night). After the day's session has ended, she hurries to the hotel lobby where her friend awaits.
I intentionally delay going downstairs thinking that if I do so, they will go ahead without me. Few minutes later, another colleague sees me in the meeting room after everyone has already left. He asks for the whereabouts of our other colleagues. I realized, I need to go out of there lest I want to join them wherever they will have dinner. I want to be alone.
I pack my stuff and go to the hotel lobby, somehow hoping that I won't see anyone I know in there. That way, I can go to straight to my hotel room freely and just take the night off. But my colleague is still there, chatting with her friend. She sees me and waves at me. I walk up to them, dropped my bags to the seat next to them, before dropping myself heavily in the remaining space. She introduces me to her friend. I did not even look at him when I let out an exhausted, "hi". Noticing my (rather rude) behavior, she asks if I'm okay. I let out a sigh and says I'm just tired. She says it's fine if I don't feel like going out and prefer to just sleep. However, I am not sleepy tired. I was exhausted. Of everything. She reminds me that I can either just go to our room because if our other colleagues will see me, then they'd ask me to join them instead. I decide to just join them. It's better than sulking, I think.
As we are walking away from the hotel, her friend says we could perhaps go for drinks after dinner. My face lights up after hearing the word beer. I smile in agreement and say, "Or we go straight to the bar after this" (after checking out this restaurant he suggested). My colleague laughs. But I am not kidding.
This is me, doing a favor (modeling~ a photo) for my colleague and bugging her to just reserve this space for the next evening just so we can go drinking already. It's been so long since I wanted to drink as an outlet for my frustrations.
In the first place, I wasn't thrilled to be joining this trip. This is already my third time in Nepal and all the excitement of travelling (for work) is already gone. If I travel, I just want it to be for pleasure, not for work, I tell myself. I am going through a crisis, again. I though of quitting and find myself a new environment where I can flourish.
However, when I come back home from Kathmandu, I feel refreshed and ready to take on the world again. It probably helped that during this trip, I was able to pour (some of) my heart's content to my colleagues. That probably helped me see things clearly. It probably also helped that during this trip, I met interesting characters, got to know colleagues deeper, and shared new experiences with them. And by new experiences, I mean having conversations with them late in the night, over drinks. Doing vices is still the best way to know more about people.
