I can kill two birds with one stone - I love nicotine and I want glasses!

So, the quote is from Lucy, one of the girls on the trip. She has always wanted glasses and her eyes are just barely too good to get them. She also smokes and, upon discovering that smoking leads to poorer eyesight, made the aforementioned statement.

I've added many more photos to my flickr account (comment!).
The following is what I have written over the last week or so.

(this was last week, right after we got to Kathmandu)
Yesterday I had a stomach x-ray done. Pretty interesting. It looked cloudy, which I correctly suspected to be a bad thing. So now I'm on medicine, which is good, though I'm not particularly thrilled about the way the next few days are going to go.
I'm sorry for waiting so long to write - I've been expecting to be better every day and it just hasn't been happening (though it should now!).
Alright, where am I? I am currently in Kathmandu, Nepal. We are staying in the Tibetan sector, which, as far as I can tell, I very much like. There is a lovely monastery in which most of the monks seem to have purpose and many old Tibetans are always making slow circles around the stupa.

It’s weird to order room service here – they tell you it’s completely fine, but the person who brings it always looks quite perplexed and a little put out. Nonetheless, I have enjoyed room service twice (the third is on the way), and I’m not sure if they know why I don’t leave my room.

Here, as with everywhere I’ve been in India, people spread out barley (wheat?) to dry on the rooftops. It’s fun to watch the fat pigeons slowly discover the goldmine before something (and rarely the person in charge of the goods) scares them away.

Oh, there are also roosters and turkeys on the rooftop next to our hotel.

.............

So, on Thursday (I think...), the group left to trek to Mustang. I had gone to the doctor a second and third time in the two days preceding this, and the doctor basically said that there is so much stuff stuck in me that it will take a while before I'm ready for any kind of serious exertion. I was definitely upset, but I managed to ignore it for the most part until after everyone left. It's hard, though - I don't feel exceedingly tired because I've been taking it easy, though I definitely am still stuck in the vicinity of my bathroom. I am glad I didn't go, simply because I would have been miserable. Of course, there is the fact that I am missing the highlight of the trip and the closest environment to pre-invasion Tibet in existence and everyone else is on it. What can you do, though, right?

I bought these to cheer myself. (:

I'm doing pretty well, though. Not much exciting to report, though, while reading by candlelight outside my room the night everyone left (the power went out around 5:45 while I was at dinner), the hotel manager PD (“You can call me PD – like Puff Daddy hahahaha!”) came and offered that, should I get bored, I am welcome to go sit and talk with the employees downstairs. Super nice. I took him up on it a few days later and have since learned 1. how to play one of the most popular Nepali card games and 2. that I should never ever play for money against locals. I was smart enough to refrain and simply watch, but they went through money like crazy!

So, I'm getting pretty good at bartering. I've also bought more jewelry than anything else, and I just keep finding more that I want to give people! It's hard to keep from spending money here, though I'm doing a pretty good job so far.

Oh, so PD is taking me shopping tomorrow, which is exciting. I will get much better deals with him there. Also, we're going to take the hotel scooter/motorcycle, which will save money but be a little terrifying. I've never ridden on one before!

so, here are some pictures that I like. But go look at flickr for more!I think all goats should be spoken to in German. I swear they respond better to it.This was right before leaving D'sala. My Amala didn't come...
This is my best picture from the drive down from D'sala.
Yeah, this was in Delhi and we were all thrilled. We had Sbarro and Subway and McDonalds.
This is the Bah'ai lotus temple. Look, we're cute!

This was taken as I was walking down the stairs from the plane after arriving in Nepal. I found out at the bottom of the stairs that it was a completely illegal thing to do. Whoops.



This is the top of the stupa.