It's the Weekend!!!

Right now, I'm in Thamel, the central tourist area of Kathmadu. I decided to come in for the weekend for a change of food and scenery and to see some sights.

Work has been good this week. There are a few new kiddos at MSPN. One of the mom's came into the classroom today and asked me to teach her some English. I was teaching the alphabet, and it was slow going, and then one of the kids came over and recited the whole thing, which discouraged her. If she comes in, I will try some more next week.

I also succeeded in teaching the kids Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, the Hokey Pokey, and all the body parts. Yay!

So anyway, I'm in Kathmandu now and it's somewhat nice. I forgot how annoying all the people here are. Everyone wants money or something. I made the mistake of indulging in a tiny candy bar for once, and was mobbed by a mass of children. It was really irritating, but it made me feel absolutely horrible to ignore them... Tonight we are going to a cinema to see a movie!! I'm excited. It's also only 200 rupees, which is about $2.50. Speaking of which, the dollar just went up! When I got here it was 68.6 rupees per dollar and now it's 71.62!! Yay! I hope this continues.

Prices here are very odd. There's this type of candy bar called a Crunchie which I can't find in the US. It's my favorite kind of candy. Sometimes, I decide to indulge in a Crunchie, but they are 50 Rupees! That is expensive for Nepal. 3 Crunchie bars (150 rupees) will buy you a nice scarf, 1.5 hand knitted wool hats, and entire meal in a nice restaurant, or a pair of silver earings with gemstones in them. But then ultimately, I usually decide that since 150 rupees (3 Crunchies) is about $2, I can affort to buy the crunchi, the scarf, a meal, a hat, and the earings... Lol.

But anyway, so cinema today and then tomorrow perhaps the Natural History Museum. It's supposed to be really weird and creepy with lots of things in jars and whatnot. I'm excited. We might go to Nagakot, a village on the edge of the valley which has amazing mountain views, but I may wait until later in my trip because the views will be better then.

P.S. I know this is unrelated, but I saw on CNN last night that America invaded Pakistan. Are they kidding?!!?!??!? Pakistan!?!?!?! I thought we were FRIENDS with Pakistan. Crazy crazy crazy. I am so angry at Bush that I am going to go register for my apsentee ballot right now and vote for Obama. SO there! I just hope it doesn't screw me over when I have a 12 hour layover in Abu Dhabi. Hopefully we won't be at war with them too by November, but in this administration, who knows!