We have arrived safely in Kathmandu after 32 hours of traveling. The movies and free wine on the flight made it quite enjoyable though. We are taking off to the Annapurna region tomorow and starting our trek the following day. I was ready to get out of the city pretty much right when we got here...I am such a small town kinda gal. Being in the city has been interesting along with overwhelming. Last night we went to dinner at Germaine's host family's house. The food was delicious and it was very nice eat with local people. Not understanding the langauge has been a challenge for me, it makes me feel like a real tourist. I came down with a cold yesterday so I am going to go back to my room and rest up for tomorrow.

One of the joys of being a Taoseña....our favorite teachers in highschool are now some of our favorite people to go have pizza a beer with.

I have less than a week left before leaving to Asia for a year and a half-ish...wow that is a strange thought. I just got my wisdom teeth out which has forced me to stay home, allowing me to deal with of all those "gotta take care of that" things. So for once in my life I am not freaking out about trying to take care of everything last minute. This summer has been really great: I made some much needed money, spent a ton of time on my bike, did some hiking, a little climbing and spent some quality time with my family. I had a few vistors along the way which was really nice. Rachel finally got to experience NM in all it's "third-world" wonder. We did some hiking, a little bouldering and ate lots of green chile. This is us at Tent Rocks, a pretty cool hike a couple hours south of Taos.
Desiree came all the way from Montana to bike in the enchanted circle century race with me. 5000 ft of elevation gain and 100 miles later we realized that we did much better then expected, in our dorky homemade "Fermentation Bitch" jersies and all.



We also spent some time in Colorado during her stay. We went to The Great Sand Dunes National Park and hiked Blanca Peak, one of the 14ers. Unfortunatly we were lead astray by our 14er guide and what was supposed to be a 9 mile round trip hike turned into an adventure almost twice that long. We also went on a sweet bike ride near Pagosa Springs.

Right now I am really excited to embark on the adventure ahead of me, but at the same time I cannot help feeling a little sad about leaving a lot behind. I feel so lucky to be part of two beautiful communities filled with incredible people, (Corvallis, OR and Taos, NM) and I will miss them both very much. I wish you all the best and hope you know that you will be in my thoughts. If you have an inkering to go to South Korea (who knows, it could happen) please come visit.