Namaste!!
Well, we're finally here. Actually we've been here for about 2 days now, but the internet at school has been broken and today is the first day we've come to town. So sorry for all those that were awaiting an email a few days ago.
Ok, so the past few days have been full of craziness, newness, happiness, and sleepiness. It's been amazing though, and I'll try to recount the last few days since leaving scranton.
Left JFK airport at around 2:30 for Tokyo, and 13:45 later we were hanging out drinking a beer in the tokyo airport waiting for our connecting flight to bangkok. The 13 hour flight wasn't that bad...they played What a Girl Wants so it made the flight that much more amazing. Kidding, it sucked. But we slept, listened to music, read, stretched in the back, snuck up to first class a little bit and took advantage of all the spaciousness...and then we got kicked out. Oh, and I taught Geraldine cribbage. On that note, you should have seen the study rooms at Scranton the night before we left. Everyone was in there after packing playing games, and so many people were learning and playing cribbage. It was beauty. I brought four cribbage boards with me, and i even had to break out the second one to handle the mad demands!! But i digress.
So our flight to Bangkok was easy, and when we got there we were greeted by an FJV who is working there. That was nice to meet up with someone who was familiar with the area. When we were in line to show our passports, i realized i left my wallet on the plane. After we got out bags, I went over to the lady at the northwest counter, told her, and about 20 minutes later it showed up minus $120. Damn. Oh well, I hope their kids have nice shoes to wear, huh?
So the evening in Bangkok was great. We got there at around midnight but were
fired up to go out. So we took a taxi after checking into our hotel to the city,
and walked around and looked for a place to eat. 
There were so many people there,
and it was all so different than what i was used to. We found a little place
and ate on the sidewalk at a table...pretty good. Then we bought some fruit,
walked around a little more, and headed home for some sleep. A busy day.
Woke up a few hours later and navigated ourselves via taxis back to the airport for our last leg of flights. We flew Thai Airlines, and I must honestly say that was the best flight experience i've ever had. Thais Airways rocks. They kept serving us coke and orange juice and and gin and tonics, the food was incredible, the people were great, and they had flowers in the back for anyone who wanted them.
Ok, KEVIN OFFENDS THE LOCALS, PART 1.
So in the Nepali and Indian cultures, it's extremely offensive to show the bottoms of your feet. So Colleen and I are sitting in a two person row that faces a wall. Across the aisle is a family, probably from India or Nepal. I took my shoes off, and a few minutes later, i smelt a funk. I turned to Colleen and was like Do my feet smell? She said no, and then I was like, Here, smell. I brought a foot up as a joke, not expecting her to smell them, and she put her nose right up to my feet to smell them. At the same time she says No, they smell like buttered popcorn I look over and see the Dad with the most disgusting look on his face turn to his wife, who proceeds to look over at Colleens head in my feet, and gained her own disgusting look. We felt so stupid, but then couldn't stop laughing. Man, this will be a long two years. Whoops.
Ok, so we flew into the Kathmandu Valley and it was awesome. So green, so many
hills and villages scattered about. We couldn't see the Himalayas though, but
it was still great. We got there, and after a long time in customs, were greeted
by the FJV's and Father Cap. Miller. They gave us a Khada (?), a buddhist 
scarf
used to welcome or say goodbye. We loaded the cars and took off to Godavari.
Brother Herman drove us, and I must say I was not expecting a car ride like
that. I've heard of other countries not paying attention to sides of the road,
but have never experienced it. What a stressful but exciting half hour up to
Godavari. People swerving in and out, passing people with cars coming so close,
motorcycles whipping by, people walking everywhere. I seriously felt like I
was in a movie. The part of Kathmandu that we saw then was really run down,
broken buildings, no sidewalks, run down houses and people everywhere. It was
SO different than I was expecting. That mixed with no-rules driving
added to all the craziness going on. Everyone honks here, kind of like to say,
hey what's up, I'm here, you need to move. What happens when two cars going
the opposite way start honking at each other i have yet to find out. Hopefully
I won't let you know.
So we finally made it up to Godavari. The landscape is INCREDIBLE. There are
tiered rice fields everywhere, gentle GREEN slopes in the distance leading up
to bigger hills, and a dynamic cloud filled sky to cap off the beauty. Our part
of the village is enclosed by giant tree filled hills....Plenty of hiking to
be had. It's really breathtaking. Our house is called Keshar Mahal, and it's
old property which used 
to be owned by the Rana Dynasty. It's big and red and
square, with a really big yard filled with trees and plants of which type I
have no idea. I'll let you know later.
So I have my own room down the hall, the two new girls share, and the three old ones share as well. Our kitchen is tiny, but it's all we'll probably need. After we hung out and relaxed a bit, we went up to play a staff basketball game. Figured we'd just jump right in to life in Godavari! Got there and there were a bunch of guys already playing, as well as one girl. The four of us were invited to jump right in, so we did. It was fun to run around and start the process of befriending. It's always so nice when that's done through sport. I was ABSOLUTELY SOAKED at the end of the game....big surprise. I have no idea what they thought of that, but I looked ridiculous. Apparently they've already signed us up for the staff tournament in a few weeks...it's a bunch of great people, and I'm very excited to get to know all of them.
That night Mary and Liz cooked us some Dahl Bot, the traditional nepali meal consisting of rice with a lentil grave poured on top. on the side is sort of a vegetable stew thingy which was my favorite part. It was all pretty good, however I can see myself missing the bready carbo loaded diet I was used to. We'll make due though. I'm not the first person to do this.
So after that I was done. Dead, needing rest. I passed out before i walked in my room, and woke up the next morning and got ready to go up to school to meet everyone. What an amazing experience. We walked up the trail, and were greeted by all the children walking to school too. Okay, so in Nepal, when you greet someone, you say Namaste (na ma stay) and put your hands together like in prayer, and put them up to the center of your head. Namaste means I see the inner light/god in you...what in incredible way to say hello, huh? Although the children don't say namaste because we're going to school, and school is all english, they still do the hand thing. So we're walking, and all these kids are running up to us saying Good morning miss!! good morning sir!!! That was my first time doing the hand thing, and it was so incredible. i don't think I'll ever get tired of that. It's hard to explain, but it just feels so awesome. And with all these kids coming from everywhere, yelling good morning sir/miss......we got to the school, and kids started coming out from all the classrooms to get a glimpse of the newbies. it was so fun. We got to go into the classrooms with the JV's and meet everyone. They all asked us questions like height, weight, favorite wrestler/soccer player/band/singer/song...what our goals were, sing the national anthem, favorite country, what we've studied. It was great...a lot of fun and laughter. They all wanted us to sing and share. The one thing that I noticed was how much pride all the children had for Nepal, and everyone for that matter. Everyone asks what we thought about Nepal, if we thought it was beautiful and what not. That's so great, especially bearing in mind the state of the country. When I was in Monica's class, I got my first view of the Himalayas. I was looking out towards the hills, at the trees on top. The clouds sort of broke and there they were, way in the background...breathtaking....can't wait to see them up close. So jagged and towering, snow capped and soaring. This country is beautiful.
Ok, so that was the jist of the day. that night, after sleeping the afternoon
away and playing another game of basketball 
(i twisted my ankle while trying
to rebound from a 6-2 priest from India, Fr. Augustine. can't really run, but
can still walk, so that's good.) we went to the local restaurant to celebrate
Liz and Monica's 1 year anniversary. The restaurant was called Saddah Bahar,
which means Ever Green, and we sat up on the rooftop and ate and talked and
played guitars. All of the JV's friends, which we now inherit!, were there,
and they all sing and play guitar. We traded songs and it was so
much fun. They actually were singing English songs which I've never heard before...kind
of weird...but they also played these amazing Nepali Classics Rock
songs which were so nice. Can't wait to learn those. The singing part will be
the hardest part. Anyways, a few of than basketball players were there (Santos
and Vicki), as well as the son of the Vice Principal of the school, Dheeraj
He's awesome, and he promised me he'd take me all throughout the hills. We was
born and raised in Godavari, so he know them pretty well. Can't wait for that.
Ok, have to run now. We're in Kathmandu right now waiting to meet up with the Other JV house so we can start Phase 2 Orientation. Phase 1 was so incredible, it's hard to explain. such fun new people...Phase 2 will mostly consist or sight seeing and language and stuff like that, but I'll let you now as it happens.
Alrighty, love ya, and I'll talk to you soon,
Kevin