My first two days!! wooo

Hello everyone!

I know I've only been away since Friday, but thought I would write in here and tell you all how its going so far! I got here on Saturday at about 11.00 in the morning, but was completely tired, so spent most of the day sleeping at the hotel Excelsior in Thamel, a tourist area in Kathmandu. The journey from the airport to the hotel definitely waked me up for short time though! I think the roads here are very similar to what I've heard roads in India to be like! There are cars, vans, motorbikes, dogs, cows, monkeys and who knows what else coming from evry direction! I really like it, especially when trying to walk- very unpredictable. Another really nice thing about being here is the noises! We (me and Roshina) were up in our hotel room for hours, just listening to all the different sounds coming from around, ad because this a tourist area you can hear bollywood music playing really loud late into the night!

The temparature here is about 10 degrees, but it actually feels much warmer because its sunny, which is good! The only trouble is that there is no central heating, so whilst its ok if you're outside, its really cold inside- I have basically had to buy some lovely woolen socks/slippers, which happen to be bright pink and orange- very lovely! Even though its quite difficult living without hot water or heating, and having power cuts (there is a 56 hour power cut per week in Nepal), its fun; apparently I don't need that stuff nearly as much as I thought I did!

So far, I have quite a few volunteers, and had the traditional Nepalese dalbhaat for dinner yesterday- surprisingly ok tasting! I think I'm getting more familiar with this area now, as me and Roshina went wandering around today. The great thing about today was also that one of the workers took three of us to a rehabilitation centre for children and parents who are malnutritioned. We got to look at pictures of children before and after being rehabilitated, and you could really see what a differnece had been made by those people who had helped then get some of their health back. It was very interesting and definitley an eye-opener!

Anyway, I will be moved tomorrow to my host family, so hopefully will be able to write soon with details of that. I'm not sure if there is an internet cafe there, but I should be able to get back Thamel soon if not. Until then!

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