Namaste from Kathmandu!

Hello, world!  Welcome to my blog.  I'm new at this, but it's my goal to post regularly to keep you posted on my thoughts and experiences while teaching abroad.

I've been in Kathmandu for 2 weeks now.  The past two weeks have been a whirlwind!  I finally got internet at my house today and I'm beginning to establish a routine.

I wake up and I can hear dogs barking and horns honking.  I look out the window and it looks like this:

Not too shabby.  Actually, my first few days, I used to just sit and stare out the window while the sun rose (I guess there are some perks to jet lag...).  Then, I'd walk up to my rooftop and look at it some more :)

Once I'm relatively awake, I go to my bathroom and run the water in the shower.  It's solar powered, so it has to run for about 5 minutes before it gets lukewarm.  While the water is running, I brush my teeth with bottled water.  Then, I try to shower relatively fast before the water gets too warm, because I'll be insanely hot (is anyone surprised?)

After I get dressed, the school "bus" (a.k.a. van) picks me up and takes me on a bumpy, but air conditioned ride to school.  This was the case, until they started widening the main road up the hill to my house.  Now I enjoy a lovely trek up and down the hill to my house.  Trust me, it's steep.  And I'm at 5000 feet, people!  Lots of sweat is involved.

Then, I come to my beautiful classroom.  My classroom.  It looks like this:

My classroom is so open and light.  It's a place that I like to come to and my kids love to come to.  And I can sit in my desk and see Swayambhunath Temple and the Himalayan Mountains. My students feel comfortable and they smile all the time.  My classroom is also nice and cool :)

After school, I stay and do some work and take the 4 or 6 o'clock bus home. I trek up the hill and then sit in front of my fan.  I go out to eat with friends or hang out.

This past weekend I really spent some time organizing my room and it's starting to feel homey.  I'll post pictures soon.  It's amazing to me how quickly things are becoming normal and I'm beginning to feel like Kathmandu is home.  The dog barking, the cows wandering, the slow pace and which things happen; it all seems normal.  Perhaps this is because it reminds me of India, and actually is comforting to me in a way.  I feel like I've been here for much longer that 2 weeks already.

Well, I better get off to bed.  We have back to school night this week with the parents.  I know this post was kind of random and surface level, but I'll post again soon.

Cheers, friends.

-Chelsea