Hello! My name is (NOT!!!) Jenny!

So.... here my new name is apparently going to be Jenny. All of you at home know that I'm not wild about the nickname, but the Nepalese can't really pronounce Jennifer or Jenn. Oh well. Whatever. What's in a name, right?

On friday night we went to the Cinema, which was an AWESOME experience. The film was in Hindi, with no subtitles, but we managed to figure out what was going on anyway. It was called "Rock On" and I'm also now the proud owner of the lovely soundtrack. CDs here cost about 100 rupees, which is less than $2, so I plan to buy a few while I'm here. If anyone has a request, let me know and I'll see what I can do....

So rule of thumb is that you don't walk around Nepal late at night. However, out in front of the theater, there was only one taxi and as we were a group of 10, we decided to walk until we found two. It was definitely safer to stay together than to have half leave and the rest walk to the main road. As we were walking, this person appeared out of nowhere and ran toward us maniacally with his arms outstretched. It was totally creepy. As he got near us, he suddenly turned off and started spinning around and laughing. It turns out, he was a teenage boy, not so frightening, but he was clearly very very drunk or high on something. (Side note: Many of the street children or beggars are addicted to inhaling glue and it is likely that was what he was on. Some of them have HIV or other diseases and got addicted to glue because it's a pain killer). Luckily just after that, we saw two taxis and got in. When we finally got back to Thamel, it was totally creepy and diserted. A law was passed a week ago saying that everything has to close at 10.30 pm, so even though it was only 12, the streets were practically empty except for some other high teenagers and some soldiers. Like I said, we were a big group with two big strong guys at the front, but it was still pretty scary.

On Saturday, we went up to Nagarkot, a village on the edge of the valley. We booked it through an agency and for about $21, we got direct, private transportation to and from (a 2 hour ride) a really really nice hotel, all all meals included. All in all, it was a really good deal. In Nagarkot, I got my first look at some snow capped mountains, although it was too cloudy to see Everest. We got up at 5am to see the sunrise although it was really cloudy. Unfortunately, I got a little sick because it was colder than I expected plus I didn't get much sleep. I took the day off of work yesterday and now I'm better.

I *think* that's all that's happened since I last posted, but I always think of more to say right after I've submitted... Oh well, that's all I can think of for now...