DOH!

we were soooo close! about as close as you can get actually. after arriving at 6 am to catch our 7:15 flight, we found out we were bumped due to all the flights that were cancelled the day before because of weather. lukla, the world's highest airport we've been told, is way up in the mountains and since the pilots fly by sight only, no auto pilot, we can only fly if they can see the runway! we missed the window by 5 minutes! after tons of typical nepali nonsense, it was 12:45 by the time we took off and we were the last flight to lukla for the day...all flights to other locations went out with no problems. so, after 45 minutes of a bumpy, bouncy flight through clouds and over magnificent scenery and with the hum of the propellers in our cotton filled ears, we had to circle in the air and return to kathmandu. a whole bunch more nepali nonsense ensued back at the airport, but let's just say we got on an 11 am flight this morning after leaving the airport at 4 pm yesterday. what did we do with our free afternoon? called up lydia and went and had a fat meal with 2 glasses of wine before coming home and crashing...we were exhausted! hope today's better and...i hope you don't hear from me for another 8 days! bye...love, janice

heading off to everest

i will leave saturday morning and return next sunday (oct 4-12). 8 days of trekking in the everest region awaits. we've hired two porters/guides and have everything ready to go. unfortunately, lydia had to back out because of work commitments, but we still anticipate having a blast. the plane ride in, is supposed to be a trip...literally landing heading for a mountain on an uphill runway...turning at the last second possible without colliding into rock. ah well...so much for not liking to fly! i'll think of it as disney world himalaya...yikes! i'm bringing my good camera so get ready for tons more 'vacation photos' when i return. i wish you all could join me...really! talk to you when i get back; have a great week. lots of love, j

hike in nagarkot

bike ride with temple trip

bike ride with side trip to temple

last weekend a few of us went out for another bike ride through the valley. well, first we had to climb and climb before we could ride down through the valley farms, but it was a beautiful day so the huffing and puffing and oxygen debt of the steep uphills was largely marginalized. it would be a drag to live high and come down only to have to climb your way home. i much prefer living low, getting the sucky part out of the way and then gliding home! ram (r-ahh-m) is the finance guy at our school and his wife is one of my 2 t.a.s, poonam. we were with 3 other guys, but they split off for more technical stuff. glad we didn't go with them cause a) i don't like technical riding and b) one of them crashed and broke his collar bone. ram took us on an excursion to this isolated temple in a forest. as always, it was interesting and fun to see the locals preparing the grounds for the day. being up and out so early in the morning allows us to see more of the nepali way of life before it gets too hot. people are up with the sunrise and out and about. i thought the pollution would be less at 5:30/6 in the morning, but i was mistaken; that's when all of the women are out sweeping their stoops and curbs with 2 foot long straw hand brooms. there was dust being pushed up and into the street so face masks were, yet again, necessary. it was a good day in any case and i love being out in the country side. this time next week i'll be in the everest region trekking for a week...wow; it should be unbelievable!! lots of love, j

BUH BYE Matt!!!

...don't let the door hit you on the way out, either. who else can detroit clear out...they have some good momentum going...

JOY JOY HAPPY HAPPY

thanks to lincoln shipping, i was able to procure new bedding for the hardest-frickin-bed-i've-ever-slept-on-in-my-entire-life-bed that i've had for the past 7 months. I AM SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!! i went to overstock.com and picked out a few items that didn't break the bank, but looked soft and plush and had them sent to the florida address. the internet's great! i gleefully checked the ups tracking number approximately every 6 hours to find its latest progress, delighted with any new city's scan or sign of it getting closer to florida. i'm not kidding...there was a chance that these items wouldn't make it by the cut off date and/or the bundle was already too heavy and they would have to send the shipment from florida early...delaaaaying my joy and happiness for another month. OMG! you should have seen me...i was like a child moping around when she doesn't get her way and is sorely disappointed by not getting the doll she wanted for christmas. i am nearly 40 years old...and am not proud of my behavior, but all is well because it did, it dID make the shipment by the thread on the pillow case and i've been delighted ever since. no more achy hips, no more shoulders falling asleep, no more tailbone hurting, no more not sleeping on my belly...i slip into bed on my pillowy soft topped bed, fall asleep and wake up in that same position because I want to flip over...not because i'm miserable. HOORAY!! as you can tell...this means a lot to me and i wanted to share. thank you for listening. : ) love, j    p.s. that's not me in the picture...

between a rock and a hard place

pulling rocks out of the river bed

lower caste workers crushing rocks by hand...albeit with a magnificent view

gravel loaded on trucks to be taken to road construction sites

smaller scale crusher

and the people who load it

needless to say, it's all backbreaking work. the lowest caste, who does all of this kind of work, is born into a life of thankless, low paying labor. i love the guy wearing the red cap in the lower photo, though. despite it all, and that i was a considerable distance away, he still gave me a giant sized smile. the rocks are crushed down and used for construction purposes, but namely building new roads. all of this was going on right next to the road in the middle of a small town with traffic and pedestrians moving past. incredible amounts of noise filled the air, not to mention never ending billowing dust. i just read a report from WHO (world health organization) that puts kathmandu at 2nd worst polluted cities in the world...next to beijing. great. i have my face mask and wore it during the bike ride that took me past this site. pretty. such is life in kathmandu...at least i'm not a rock breaker...geesh that would be a tough life. makes your job sound much better, eh?! love, j

it's all fun and games...

...until you have 50 papers on african imperialism to grade. doh! i forgot about that crappy side of teaching... should've given a scan-tron test! : ) other than that, all's going well with my job. i'm playing nice with all the cool teachers and making tons of new friends and contacts. it's so interesting to hear what brought people here and what has kept them here for as long as they have stayed--everything from lovers to orphanages, from buddhist callings to trekking, from anthropology to photography. i know i can't stay here much more than another year, but i just sit and listen to their stories and can't help but feel inspired to pursue other things i once thought out of my realm. days go by quickly here and i'm busy with after school activities or meeting up with new friends. on the weekends we've been riding our bikes up hill to prepare for two major treks coming up in october. at the beginning of the month we'll go to the everest region for 7 days and then at the end of october, a couple friends are flying in and we'll go to the annapurna region for 8 days. there are teachers at school who live for trekking and count the days in between breaks. they say the mountains are spectacular and the peace and tranquility is unmatched. i could use some of that! this is just a short note to say what's going on with me because my dear friend dean emailed me that i hadn't updated in over a week! hope all's well...love, j 

slug bug HUGE!

while out on this long mountain bike ride saturday, the nepali guy we were riding with (who's also my colleague at lincoln) took us to a forested area where there's a famous temple. so, we parked our bikes and walked along the pathway through the trees to see it. all along the way were these crazy, huge, slimy slugs. i put my shoe in there for perspective...it was ginormous! very interesting...i'll post more shots from the ride soon. love, j