On my old homepage, “Background” was what would have been the about me page. Since I revamped the homepage, I have decided to do away with that page but to kind of “archive” it by reproducing it here.
NB. It appears to have been last revised and updated sometime while I was in Malawi. In other words, around 2006-07.
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I am Nepalese by nationality, Tibetan by ethnicity; a teacher by profession, a vagabond by heart! I have been wandering the globe for a while now.
My wanderings began when I realized my boyhood dream — from when I was 12 — of going abroad for further studies. I pursued my last two years of high school education at one of the United World Colleges (UWC’s): The UWC of the Adriatic.
The UWC’s, of which there are ten in the world, provide scholarships to students from all around the world to live, work and study together for two years. It is hoped that in the process the students build bridges of understanding that in the future will contribute to peace and justice in the world.
When I was a student in Italy, we were two hundred of us representing approximately 65 different countries; there were fewer countries then too! The pursuit of education took me to a few other countries such as the US, UK and Australia.
My first job took me right back to my old school in Italy. In the years since, work has involved a wide range of different jobs — teaching, hosting radio shows, working as a travel consultant etc. — and a few more countries as well.
To date, I have traveled to about a dozen and a half different countries; lived in countries as far up North as Norway and as far South as Australia; trekked to altitudes as high as 5500 m (~17000 ft) in Nepal and scuba dived to a depth of 31 m in the Philippines; skied in the Swiss Alps, snow camped in Norway; hiked in the Dolomites in Italy; and have been on wild-life safaris in the tiny national Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal and the awesome Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Plain in Tanzania. (Check out You Know You… for more on my interests and other tidbits.) There are however many more things that I want to do, places I want to visit and people I want to see (checkout My bucketlist for more on that). I am always ready for a new experience, a new place, a new people…what can I say, I am a restless soul! (To see what my movements around the world have been like and the kind of interests I have pursued check out My Movements Around the Globe.)
In spite of all the traveling I have done and the time I have spent abroad, I must add here that Nepal still occupies a special place in my heart. It’s a beautiful and an amazing country filled with equally beautiful and amazing people! And I am not saying that because I am from there…of course!
It is because I have traveled and lived both abroad and in Nepal that the country occupies the place it does. (More on that as I add stuff on Nepal.) But the political and social situation in the country saddens me…greatly. Maybe one day I can help change it for the better…one day when I finally decide to return home for good.
In the mean time, there are a host of other things I want to do such as setting foot on all seven continents!
