Living in a mud hut in Nepal and living as a tourist (is that what I am?) in Nepal are two very different things.

Firstly, I generally have running water. And, an indoor bathroom. But what's most disorienting to me right now is that I get to relax (or try to). And pretend I'm on vacation. It's been suprisingly difficult going from an intense work schedule (emotionally and physically) to paragliding over the Himalayans.

Maybe you need some more background on that...

So the day after TBT ended a group of us headed off to Pokhara, a beautiful lakeside city in Nepal, 7 hours outside of Kathmandu. We spent a few days there ( recovering) and for the first time we got in some R & R. Good food, some sleeping, and an occasional hot shower. One of the days I woke up, decided I felt like going paragliding and voila- I flew over the Himalayans. By the way Tbaums- skydiving was wayyyy more fun. Still, flying over Everest? Pretty cool. Nepal, by the way, is rife with outdoor/adventure sports- most of which I won't get to do this time. Maybe some other day....

We also went hiking, took walks, and went on a great bike trip around the gorgeous Phewa Tal lake. (Best part was stopping off at some quiet lakeside gazebo and cafe and just lying in the sun for hours..)

I headed back to Kathmandu after the long weekend and have been hanging out with some Nepali friends here. Yesterday, I worked on Bijay's Hebrew U application with him and got to see his house- shocking, but a Nepali bachelor pad looks VERY different than an American bachelor pad. By the way, Bijay is amazing. He started an organization for working children in Nepal at age 16 and has been involved every since, working with the UN, the Nepali government, and of course, TBT. He also started (through TBT) the first social activist youth movement in Nepal, Hami Yuva. When I get disheartened about the situation here, I just think about people like Bijay- they're going to change this place for the better.I'm sure of it. (Btw, Nepal now has a Prime Minister! After 17 tries! Still no cabinet though....)

I've also been wandering around the city on my own- you know what the best feeling is? Walking around a foreign city with a map in your hand and actually figuring out how to get places.I wouldn't say I'm perfect at it (I'm in Nepal after all, there are no addresses...) but the difference to how I felt on day two of TBT (our Alone Tour) and now is HUGE. And that's great.

I also visited the Creative Womens Workshop- an amazing 'factory' (aka four women in a kitchen working) where they make BEAUTIFUL paper items- journals, cards, albums, anything. They can even make skirts. Out of Paper.

(yes that's PAPER!)

And everything there is organic, inexpensive, natural, and helps support destitute women. Aranja, the woman who manages the place seems to be another one of those gems. She's studied abroad in Israel and Canada and now works with a whole bunch of micro-finance programs and started the workshop in order to generate income for poor women here.

So cool.

I've also been working on finalizing my travel plans to India. Looks like I'll be leaving Nepal in a week or so and starting off in Goa. Just thinking about leaving is hard...