my first trek!

i was up and out of the apartment by 5:30 to head over to school for 6:00.  it was dark and there were no taxis, but a nice mini van driver who works for a travel agent was waiting for petrol...actually, waiting for the petrol station to open...at 8 (there's also a shortage of this...huge problem). so i asked a group in which this man was standing about taxis and he said wait 5 minutes.  5 seconds later he said ah, i take you...300 rupees.  what a steal considering the time of day and that i got to sit in the front of a nice mini van!  i got to the school and the gate was locked and since they were having their load shed time, there were no lights on at all. i couldn't even tell if anyone was up, to be honest.  i stood out in the cold until a kid from a neighboring home came out to practice his english with me.  finally, 20 minutes later, someone came out and let me into the grounds.  nepali time is similar to african time, by the way.  we jammed 7 good sized westerners into the small-in-stature, nepali 6 seater and were off to the mountains.  well, the foothills which are still mountains considering kathmandu is a mile high. we started our trek at 1800 meters and ended at 2500 with me suckin wind most of the way.  i can't blame it all on the altitude, either...i've only recently begun my 'get back in shape' campaign with the lure of spa services. the scenery was beautiful and the climb fairly intense single track shoots, although the descent was a wide switchback road?? heeeyyy...  we had tea and biscuits up at a nice campground, country restaurant place that was expecting us...but still had their gate locked... : ) our guide pointed out annapurna, pokhara and a haze covered everest, so i can't really say i've seen it. we came back to our starting point and were served daal bhaat (nepali staple of a heavy vegetable sauce with bhaat/rice). when we arrived back at school around 3, i caught another taxi home. we were a group of about 15 people and it was a beautiful day, yet chilly when in the shade.  i loved every second of it and can't wait to go on more treks!  ...even christy hasn't been on a trek yet here in nepal, so i think she was envious; but we're already planning out our travel time...it's coming!  i'm wiped out but very grateful for the chance to get out of the city.  hope your day's going well!  love, j