Life in Nepal

So as you all know, Kat and I are staying with a host family in Pokhara. My volunteer placement is a ways away from our home, so I rented a bicycle and cycle to and from work everday. It is ~10-15 minutes there (nice gentle downhill slope) and 17-25 minutes back (uphill, of course). The main obstacles are major potholes, erratic motorcyclists and taxi drivers, stray cows and water buffalos, and the ever present black exhaust from every vehicle. I swear my lungs must be black by now. Oh yea, I forgot about the suicidal buses. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant enough ride. On the way home I cut through Chipledunga (how cool of a name is that?) which is a market area, and buy goodies. Like the other day I bought a kilo of mangoes for 50 NRs. Yes, I overpaid, since I heard a local getting them for 40 NRs, but in CAD, 10 NRs is really not much. Like 15 cents. Today I bought a cucumber for 5NRs. They are 15NRs per kilo. Food is pretty cheap here. Kat and I like going to the supermarket and stocking up on cookies and candy :) North American brands are obviously more pricy, but the things produced in Nepal or India tend to be pretty cheap. We've been trying various types of cookies. The last pack we bought was mango creme cookies, for 20 NRs :D So in addition to the LOADS of food that our host family feeds us (seriously, its tons, I'll take a picture tonight :p ) We are eating tons of junk. Good times. So get ready to see Kat and Dan Ver. 2.0. meaning twice the size :p lol jk