Week in Thamel

“Not all who wander are lost”

The past few days have been filled with adventure! On Tuesday night we met a traveler in our hostel (A) who told us about an air flight tour of Mt. Everest. The girls didn’t want to go but I did. Usually I wouldn’t have because I had to be up at 5am and I would have been too worried about sleep. But I wanted to do it without thinking and complaining. So the next day A and I took a cab at 5:15 to the airport.  Since I had booked my ticket later we had different airlines so I went by myself. It ended up being amazing. It was a small plane (about 15-20 people) with all window seats. We took off at 6:30 so the sun was still rising so it was foggy when we first got up in the air. Ten minutes later everything cleared and the Himalayas came into view. It was absolutely amazing. The guide told us about what the different mountains were called and where they were and we were allowed to go up front with the pilots when we reached Mt. Everest so we could get a proper view. The only words I can use to describe the whole thing are: breathtaking, vast, and amazing. Getting up early was totally worth it!

The next day, A came with S and I on a canyoning (aka snappling) adventure. A car picked us up and we drove about 45 minutes to a village called Sundarijal. The view was amazing! We walked for about 10 minutes to these little huts where we met our guide and put our wet suits on! We thought we would start right away…we were wrong! First we had to actually hike up the mountain to repeal down it! WEAR HIKING BOOTS! S wore hiking sandals, which were great for the waterfall but bad for the mountain. It took us a while but we FINALLY made it! Once there we repelled down 3 waterfalls, the first one 20 meters, the second 35 meters, and the last one was 40 meters! It was so awesome! I was so proud of myself that I made it up even though I was SO tired. Words of advice: if you are not prepared to climb through a jungle this is not for you! The three of us had a really special bond encouraging each other. By the time we got back to the huts and changed we were in greats spirits. We had an amazing meal and they took us back to Thamel. A wonderful day!

Today we went to Durbar Square (about 20 minutes away fro Thamel). There are all these temples and statues everywhere.  I went with E and S as well as the other American girl (Sh) so the four of us spent the afternoon exploring. There was also a concert going on! Obviously we didn’t know any of the songs and couldn’t understand but it was so much fun! We also ran into a few people from our program and made plans to go out later in the night. After Durbar Square we picked up some things in Thamel, had dinner and met up with people from the program.

Everyone is really, really nice and it was awesome to finally meet the people I’m going to be spending so much time with! However, it was really frustrating not knowing Hebrew.  Everyone was talking and laughing and not only could I not contribute, but I couldn’t even understand what was going on. They weren’t trying to exclude me or anything like that, it’s just everyone was so excited that of course they wanted to talk in their first language (including me).  I know it will get better but I had a couple lonely moments. Fortunately the night ended on a good note and I laughed a lot.

Tomorrow is the official start to TBT. I am excited and a little nervous but just glad it’s finally starting. We move into the house we will be living in for the next 5 weeks. I’m not entirely sure what I have gotten myself into but I guess I’m about to find out!

Singed,

Ready as I’ll ever get