Evil Monkeys and Dirty Nepali

(after breakfast-the 15th)
We had coffee instead of masala chiyaa this morning. At first I was disappointed but after I got the first whiff I melted. Real coffee!

Where did I leave off yesterday? Ah yes, after class the four of us nearly died crossing the street, flagged down a taxi, and headed to Thamel. I actually knew where I was almost the whole time. We wandered, shopped, bargained. Ooo! I was so good at bargaining yesterday. I am quite proud of myself. Upon more reflection I did overpay for one of the shirts that I got but the other was dirt cheap so I like to tell myself it evens out. One shirt started at 700 rupees and I paid 200. Oh yes, I rock. Thank god for Stella and Zorba! I'm also proud because I succeeded in buying two shirts (which I desperately needed) and resisting any more skirts or scarves. Do you know I've only picked up one scarf? One! My self restraint astounds me.

We took a break at the Funky Buddha (no joke) and ran into the Nepali version of happy hour. The other girls insisted on ordering nachos and we each ordered a drink. (sorry Love, but if it makes you feel better I did look at the labels to make sure they were real western brands and watch him make my drink.) Nepali happy hour, we found out means two-for-one. We thought we'd get every other drink free but they brought us two drinks each. Interestingly, it was easier to try out our Nepali on the employees after we finished our first drink. Funny how that works. Thankfully the employees were thrilled at our bad Nepali, helped us with our pronunciation, and taught us new phrases.

The good news is my 6 bug bites are almost healed. The bad news is I have a new one on the side of my wrist and now that's driving me up the wall. It appeared yesterday morning and last night another bug bit me in the same spot again! Dirty cheaters.

Currently we are sitting outside waiting for kesher to take us sightseeing. I'm kind of bummed that we don't have a lesson today but having an idea of what is around can only be a good thing.

(after dinner)
We are laying here creating dirty sentences from our lonely planet phrase books. We can't decided if we should check our grammar with kesher tomorrow in class or not.

Once again, today turned out far better than I anticipated. We visited a Hindu temple, Buddhist temple, and a combination temple. No, I cannot remember their names but the stupa that appears in every picture of Kathmandu (with the eyes of the Buddha) is more stunning in person than the best photos. Unfortunately, I took one picture and my camera died. I had a moment of panic before I remembered I have two months to come back. The "Deer Park" provided me my first monkey encounters. Also, to my surprise, it actually houses deer. Nepali deer are cooler than ours but probably just as inclined to get hit by cars if given the opportunity. But these guys antlers are cooler. Then we went to the monkey temple and a monkey stole Leah's cotton candy. Well... "stole" is misleading. He walked toward her and she panicked and threw the cotton candy at it. It did make for a great picture. Despite being evil, the monkeys are pretty damn cute. Today also allowed me my first glimpse of riverside creations. That was a stumper for me. How on earth am I suppose to know what to feel in that situation?

The half of the day my camera worked captured some superb pictures. At least I think so. I was channeling Mamma so be prepared for a ton of perspective shots. This camera captures color perfectly!

Oh! I nearly forgot to tell you I washed my hair for the first time! My special tiny travel towel works great for my body but very few people can conceive of my amount of hair without it being right in front of them. That is definitely true of the person who designed my towel. And I scrubbed my face, mamma. All of my stuff is in a jumble next to my bed and it's driving me nuts. I can't wait to stay in one place for a while so I can nest!

To explain today adequately I have to do it in pictures, so I apologize for the short entry. Tomorrow I should post this, since we're going to Thamel again. For now my eyes are shutting...