my day off.

last week on my day off i spent the night at my friend Gloria's house. Gloria is from Uganda, she's a volunteer here, supported by some church in Finland that she's never visited. i love staying at Gloria's. we always have a big breakfast with lots of breads and spreads and her neighbor makes great coffee. her garden is so verdant and tropical. i feel like i'm in Peru or maybe Kenya in the Spring. it's defnitely a rejuvenating experience. the first sounds of the morning are the birds on the balcony and the landlord's yoga-chanting downstairs. on this particular day off, i hopped on the back of a motorcycle with my friends Bill and Janet. yes, three of us and our bags on one motorcycle - quite exciting slash i'm glad i couldn't see much of the oncoming traffic due to Janet's hair.

bill dropped us off at a bus park and our goal was to get into Bhaktapur without having to pay the tourist fee of $10. i've been hearing about Bhaktapur since i got here and i just had to know what all the hype was about. it took janet and i about an hour to infiltrate the walled/guarded city unnoticed. even as we were trying to cross bridge after bridge i was telling myself, -- oh, this is probably going to be really lame and not worth all this effort... but i was wrong, it was so worth the effort. this village-suburb was one of the most bizarely charming experiences. such a European feel. actually, Germany provided the funding for this town so it really does resemble a quaint little European village with cobblestone streets winding in and out of larger open air plazas, in this case the plazas were graced with beautiful ancient-looking temples. no cars, no pollution, no noise, yes the local men still hasseled me so i just escaped to the most pleasant roof-top cafe. i had the place to myself. i sat at the end of one of those long, skinny tables in the Italian movies usally adorned with a white table cloth dancing in the wind. there was a light canopy above and green vines and plants all around. they only offered Nescafe, but the surroundings were perfectly pleasant. i'd like to go back sometime.


read while waiting in the line at the immigration office - Annie Dillard's the Writing Life - captivating, intoxicating, brilliant
currently reading - Announcing the Reign of God - seems like a good idea, but i'm not hooked yet