When I arrived in Pittsburgh in the end of March, I got a new address: 10 Allegheny Center, Apt. 115. Here, on the North Side of this bustling city, I sought to create a home away from home.

A framed picture of Pittsburgh at night adorned the most expansive white wall, but I wanted to make my Allegheny Center apartment Nepali, too. I hung posters from Nepal -- of Kumari, a living goddess; of Swayambhu, a Buddhist temple in Kathmandu; of Nyatapola, a temple in the ancient city of Bhaktapur. I uploaded Nepali songs to my laptop and hummed them as I cooked Nepali food.

A neophyte chef, I've experimented these past few months, often mixing the wrong ingredients and condiments. Now that I've nearly mastered my native cuisine, it's time to leave!

Almost five months after setting foot in the United States for the first time, I have realized how significant these things are. The things that I took for granted in Nepal.

I must admit, though, I have fallen in love with Pittsburgh, which has a similar topography to my hometown of Phidim. Phidim, an idyllic hamlet in eastern Nepal, has two rivers. I spent many childhood days on the banks of those rivers.

Here in Pittsburgh, I walked over the Allegheny River every morning on my way Downtown to work at the Post-Gazette. The soaring yellow bridges are a far cry from the rusty and rickety suspension bridges in Phidim, but a river is a river.

I am thankful to the strangers who showed me the way when I got lost. One gave me a ride when I was nearly stranded at the Greyhound station on my return from a trip to Harrisburg.

It is both challenging and rewarding to explore new places. You are acutely aware that you can run into trouble any time. But the rewards of overcoming trouble are sweet like a song.

I have published a number of articles in the Post-Gazette, and I have come across an unusual reader (Bill, I hope you are reading this). He has been quite a critic of my write-ups: exhorting, condemning and at times suggesting story ideas. I call people like Bill "familiar strangers;" they pop up on the Internet, never revealing their true identities.

I've met all sorts of people in Pittsburgh. Coming from the country that hosts the highest mountain in the world, it turned out, was not always easy. You have to walk tall.

I'm often asked if I've climbed Mt. Everest. I offer a polite no.

I did grow up in the foothills of the Himalayas, and the glistening mountain played a backdrop for my childhood. But life was tough. It is not easy to appreciate beauty when you are rubbing shoulders with poverty and hardship, when you belong to the tumult and deprivation that is today's Nepal.

A local physician and philanthropist mailed me, asking for some unusual assistance. He wanted me to help him gauge the credibility of a nonprofit group working for the street children in Nepal. In Nepal, many of the so-called nonprofit organizations, channeling foreign aid, make the biggest profits. I promised that I could help after I return home to see what the group is actually accomplishing.

The other day at a library talk I gave on Nepal, I was asked by an elderly lady if kids ever go to school in Nepal. I was living proof of that. But some misconceptions about faraway lands never seem to diminish.

During my time in Pittsburgh, from 8,000 miles away I saw my country descend into chaos. I left a monarchy and will return to a constitutional republic without a constitution. It took three months for the elected members of the constituent assembly just to pick a president.

Still, it was a thrill to see on the Post-Gazette international page -- my favorite -- a picture of Ram Baran Yadav, a physician from a farming family in the southern plains, as he was installed as the first elected president of the Republic of Nepal.

Gradually, Nepal seems to be making headway as it forms a new government, but the process is often frustrating. I remain an optimist, which is not always easy.

Recently, when I spoke with my father, a schoolteacher in Phidim, he asked me what I was bringing home. What came to my mind first was: knowledge. And, of course, experience.

Living in Pittsburgh and working with the best people in the news business has been remarkable. I shall cherish this sojourn always. Thank you, Pittsburgh.

First Published: August 23, 2008, 8:00 a.m.