Namaste!

Welcome to the year of 2066 and the months of Kartik (october/november)!

A little more than a week ago, I was at the airport in Oslo, with my somewhat fragmented expectations and blurry visions of Kathmandu. My heroine inside smiled at challenges presented at our preparatory course - "this I can do! And this will be fine - nooo problem, I'm a survivor and a stayer, and I've been waiting for this for months! - whatever challenge - I can deal with it!"

Reaching the airport, feeling quite dizzy and jetleged, I could see the hilltops unfold and embrace the airplane - it was green, it was astonishing, and I knew this was somewhere beneath the Himalayas - and I could feel the tears coming - finally! I can't believe it! And inside the airport... everything was just a mess! I felt completely disoriented, though the airport wasn't even that big! But health schemes had to be completed, visa schemes had to be completed, and my brain was rather blank. I was so tired, so lost, and had no money for the two-months visa I had planned on buying. I obviously expected an ATM inside there, but noooo. So I had to work my way out of the airport (which for an exhausted girl was not so easy!), with more than a little bit trouble of explaining my needs. Knowing that I had some people welcoming and waiting for me on the other side didn't make me less stressed!!

Since I didn't at that point have a clue on how many US dollars 1000 rupies were, I thought that it of course had to be enough! Turned out it wasn't more than 10 dollars, and that gave me only a month's tourist visa. Stay tuned with follow-up on work permit... whops, have no idea how that might turn out!!

Anyway, finally getting my visa, finally getting my luggage (which had managed all the way from Gardermoen to Frankfurt to Doha to Kathmandu without getting lost! I am impressed!!), I got out on the street - chaos! Lots of people welcoming everybody, lots of signs, but no Nepal Music Center. Lots of taxidrivers eeeeeager to get me out of there, when finally a tall white guy came towards me with a big smile and gave me the warmest welcome! Puh, a little bit assured that I had come to the right place! A few seconds later a smiling, nodding and happy Nepalese guy came to welcome me as well - my first meeting with Sudarshan, a happy helper, angel and friend! He helped us bargain a taxi, and we were on our way to school and the apartment!

What happened next, was not so exciting - BED, BED, BED, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. I was here, I was not here - foggy and completely out of tune with this world...