One week in Kathmandu and it's getting chillier and chillier... so many contrasts: I have a beautiful apartment in an old building in a garden behind Piero and Clarissa on a hill above the churning masses below. Marble floors and brass and carved wood balistrades, but none of the outlets work and when I flush the toilet the water comes spraying out the back in a flood. we have had a "puja" or prayer cerimony up the road for a week and we are going CRAZY with the constant sound of it: the songs start at 6:30 AM and then prayers and chants over and over and go on to 9 PM... I went through stages of "wow, that sounds so great and folkloric" all the way to literally wearing earplugs while I'm home or running away to do some shopping at the "supermarket". And this morning it started to sound more and more like "Yellow Submarine" and "Ive Been Working on the Railroad" and "Oh Mamma Take Me Home". The hot milky spicy tea is lovely, as is the buffalo ("buff") dumplings and wild boar stew and so much for vegetarianism: I haven't eaten this much meat in my whole life and definitely more than in the last year. I miss my San Juanico fish!

I cut all my hair off: not shaved my head like most people here though. It looks HORRIBLE. so no photos... I can't wait to grow it out and it's growing so fast I'm not worried. This isn't as healthy as I thought it would be: there's tons of meat, as I said, and fried food all over the place. Well, I have to go pretty soon so I'll put some photos up.