Just a moment

U.S. to Hong Kong--in retrospect: Beef was a bad choice.

Hong Kong airport is one of the cleanest, calmest airports I've ever been in. Which says a lot about the city. Hong Kong is a port city, made up of skyscrapers with varying architecture. Even though it's located on the sea, the hills directly behind it make Hong Kong big, but not spread out. The tropical rainforest really adds to it as well.

Of course, I would have never known this had I not stepped outside the airport during my 12 hr. layover, and I wouldn't have stepped outside, had I not met Jim.
Jim was the quiet, soft-spoken Punjabi grandfather who sat next to me on the ride over the Pacific. We ended up spending the entire day together: taking the train, riding the ferry, going to coffee and eating lunch, all which he bought for me (except the coffee-- I paid for that one.)

After he left to go to Dehli, I got on my plane to Kathmandu. This was easily one of the craziest flights I've ever taken. There were 3 major Nepali families, all with upset infants. The mothers would get up, pass the crying children around, yell at each other and at the poor Chinese stewardesses. I met a girl Alicko (?) from Canada, who was coming to Nepal to study Buddhism. We went through check in together, and almost had our bags run-off with an overeager worker at the airport trying to make some cash. I met the girls picking me up for the volunteer house.

The drive into Kathmandu was crazy--stray dogs, trash and people milling about everywhere, but the volunteer house is beautiful. It has a garden, marble floors, and children running everywhere. I have two roomates, plenty of other volunteers and orientation tomorrow.

(sorry if this is a repeat post--the buttons here just say "?????", so posting is kind of trial and error.)