Friday night I went to my first Thai boxing match. Rach and I decided it would be a good cultural experience, and was probobly one of those things we should see while we are here. We had a really great experience (contrary to what we expected) because we went with a guy who is in school with us who spent a year here Thai boxing. He was able to explain a lot of the cultural parts and point out the sportsmanship to us, which made it much more interesting then 2 guys beating the crap out of each other. Rachel and I bet a beer on one of the fights against the people we were with. We picked our man based on his really awesome tiger cape... we found out that a cool outfit does not always equal good fighter. He got wailed on by the other guy and we were out a beer.
We spent the weekend at the beach with some of the other students. It was so hot, and the ocean is so warm it is barely refreshing. It was very beautiful and felt awesome to get out of the city. I have loads of work to do this week, I think the course just gets harder from here on out.

My holidays abroad....

Sad to say, I have missed all three of my favorite holidays in the few months I have been away from home. October 31st,always a good time in the states...dressing up, eating lots of chocolate and celebrating with friends. Luckily, Nepalis are always happy to have reason to celebrate and they surely did use the excuse of our "festival" to drink until 3 in the morning. As for the Americans, we ate snicker momos (deep fried snickers) and drank Thumba (fermented barley in buckets which they pour hot water over). It was a good time, and wearing my pajamas which were doctor scrubs I almost felt dressed up. Next came my birthday, which is ofcourse the most important of all. Germaine and I celebrated with the Deedee of our tea house with an apple pie made specially for the occasion (I even blew out a candle). I think our Deedee found the whole thing entertaining, since they do not even know when their birthdays are, much less their exact age. I am now a quarter of a century old...wierd. And last but not least Thanksgiving. I must say my expectations for a Thanksgiving dinner in Thailand were not high...I figured curry would have to do. Rachel and I decided to go to the grocery store in hopes o finding something "Thanksgiving-like". We found chocolate ice cream...it doesn't scream Thanksgiving but was tasty non the less. We then came to find out that the Irish bar in town was hosting a turkey dinner. We arrived and sure enough, in came a turkey n a box, and all the fixings, including gravy and cranberry sauce. And for dessert....pecan pie. I was quite impressed. We felt very multi-cultural when we realized, we were eating Thanksgiving dinner in Thailand, listening to Latin music, at an Irish pub owned by a Brit and an American, managed by a Canadian. So that was our Turkey day.

School is going really well, I am finding it all very interesting and fun. I taught my first class the other day, all went smoothly. Going to the beach this weekend!!!

Well as promised, here are some pictures. I wish I could post more, but I not allowed to on the computers here at my school. The first three are from the Langtang Valley, which Germaine and I know refer to as "our" valley since we fell so much in love with it. The last 2 are from the Annapurna circuit. The one of my mom and I is on the highest pass in the world, Thorong La (17,600ft).

I am now in Thailand as you all know. It is hot as can be, but life is good. School is pretty intense, lots of hours every day. I am teaching my first lesson to Thai students tonight. My lesson is on Auxilary verbs...do you know what those are??? I just learned a couple hours ago. I am really enjoying the classes and am looking foward to teaching. Oh and he food here is amazing and cheap. I get plates of yummy stir fried vegetables or curries for under a dollar for every meal. OK off to class!

Hello Everyone!!!

Wow, I have spent the last 7 weeks walking through the mountains...I feel really good. I am back from my second trek, which was INCREDIBLE. My friend Germaine and I went to an area called Langtang...we felt pretty lucky because we started our trek the day before a new law went into effect saying that everyone must have a guide in order to trek. The Langtang area is not quite as popular as the other regions because it does not have the enormous 8,000 meter peaks, but it was one of the most incredible places I have ever been in my life. The Langtang Valley felt so magical. It was a beautiful valley with a glacial river running down it, littered with huge boulders (we were really mad we decided against bringing our climbing shoes) and surrounded with both jagged and snowy mountains. I felt so at peace there. We hiked up to Kanging Gompa which is the village farthest up the valley, and spent about 4 days there exploring. We hiked up to the bases of some glaciers, went up the valley further, and climbed a "peak" (more like a hill among the huge mountains) where we had a really cool view. From there we went back down in elevation only to climb back up to Gossinkunda at 14,500 feet. This is a really sacred place for many Nepali people. It is located in the head of a valley alongside alpine lakes. It was really really cold there (Germaine's contact solution froze during the day in our room). We spent about three days there. We hiked up to the ridge of the valley which was really cool. The two sides of the ridge were like day and night, the other side was covered with snow and clouds and our side was clear and dry....but not for long. When we got down it began to snow, and snow. It felt so nice to be in a snow storm (other then missing skiing). About 4 inches of snow later we went out and had a snowball fight. Germaine and I got our butts kicked by 40 year old men, it was pretty pathetic.
Unfortunatly, the most epic day we had was not on the mountains, but on the bus ride home. We ended up on a bus whose steering went out about a half an hour in. All I remeber is suddenly flying through the air, my head barely missing a metal pole. When I picked myself off the floor, I saw panic in everyones eyes. I knew something was very wrong when the Nepali man next to us was trying to jump out the window. Germaine and I were the last ones off the bus. We were shocked to see that the bus was feet from driving off a sheer drop into the valley below...luckily the brakes didn't go out as well!!! It took a little while to process everything, but when I did, the tears started rolling. That was a really intense experience. Now I am back in Kathmandu enjoying showers, coffee, beer and all that good stuff. I am hoping to do some rafting before leaving. Once again this computer is not cooperating, it won't let me put pictures on. I will try again soon though. Hope you are all well, Much love!!!!