Daily life

My Mum wants to know about the details of my daily life in Kathmandu and I thought I may as well share the answers on the blog. To answer her specific questions:

Do I wake up to birdsong or traffic?
Neither. I usually wake up to the far less exciting sound of my alarm clock. I sleep with earplugs in because of the general cacophony outside - a combination of birdsong (there's some sweet twittering but it's largely drowned out by an unpleasant squawking) and the dozens of stray dogs in competition to see who can bark the loudest. On my first day, as Rabi was driving me here from the airport, he told me how quiet the neighbourhood is, and in as much as there's very little noise from people or traffic, he's right. It's probably one of the quietest neighbourhoods in Kathmandu. Yet the animal sounds I've described seem louder to me than the traffic at the intersection of Bay and Bloor (that's a very busy intersection, for my non-Toronto friends.)

What's my daily routine like?
On weekdays, I wake up around 8am, get dressed and have a breakfast of warm bread (not to be confused with toast - there's no electricity on weekday mornings so Sita briefly heats the bread in a pan but never for long enough to actaully toast it!) On Mondays and Tuesdays I'm at OGN from about 10-4 and I've already described a day there in some detail. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays I'm at MotherCare from 8:45-3:30 and I'll write about that in a separate post some time soon.

After school I either go to the gym and then rest at home or vice versa, depending on whether I time my visit to a scheduled aerobics class or just go to use the machines. Either way, at Banu's I get to have a long, hot shower that I can stand under which is appreciated since the dust and smog in the city always make me feel dirty, and that's even before it's mingled with work-out sweat.

At some point in either the afternoon or evening, it's usually possible for me to spend a little time on the internet, checking emails and writing this blog. Otherwise, I read. I've been reading voraciously - eleven novels and short story collections in the last five weeks. Whole new worlds are opening up to me. Sapna and Rabi have more than enough to keep me going.

I usually eat dinner at home with Sapna and Rabi and the evenings are pretty quiet; more reading or possibly some television. Sapna's got me hooked on American Idol season!

Of course, there are exceptions; afternoons with friends rather than the gym, dinner and drinks out, choir rehearsal etc.

On weekends I enjoy the dual pleasure of proper toast and the opportunity to go sightseeing.

What's the weather like?
Temperature wise, it's perfect - mostly in the high twenties and getting hotter. It's a dry heat and there's rarely any wind and certainly no rain. But, as I've already mentioned, Kathmandu is dusty and smoggy and polluted and that makes being outside in the city for any length of time rather unpleasant, particularly for someone who is turning out to be rather suseptible to bronchitis. This is another reason why I can't wait to get off trekking into the clean air.

So, those are some of the little details of my daily life.

Anything else you'd like to know?