We have arrived, and I must say that Nepal is probably one of the greatest places in the world!

 Arriving in Kathmandu was an unreal experience. Despite the big, polluted, and crowded city, I found the place strangely addicting. The driving is insane (but very enjoyable with a local driver)! In the picture above we have what looks to be an alley. However, it proved to be a 4 lane road instead! On the drive to our home in Banepa we saw cows on the highway, scooters with 4 people on them, and public buses with goats tied to the roof.

 We arrived at our apartment in Banepa and were greeted with beautiful views of the rice fields and the Himalayan foothills. I have to say that I am going to love calling this place home for the next year!
The people here are amazing. Many people in around the town will greet you with folded hands, a smile, and "Namaste". Most of the children love to practice their English on us. Some shyly wave their hands as we pass them on the street, while others may shout from windows in their homes or schools: "Hi! Where are you from?". We've also been blessed to have made some local friends our age that have been kind enough to show us around town and take us on hikes.

The town of Banepa. The Brownish building on the right is our apartment, the long red roofed building is Scheer Memorial Hospital, and the other red roof next to the pine tree is Esa Memorial School.

We had our first full day of school today. The kids call us Andrew Sir and Elliott Sir. They are probably the coolest kids I've ever met, and they absolutely have a blast at school. When one of the teachers was asking questions, kids were so excited to give answers that they would jump out of their desks, run to the front of the room, and shout answers at the teacher's face! We've also had a blast playing football (soccer) and basketball with them. There are already a thousand great stories to tell and just as many pictures of the kids, so I'll have to save that for another blog post.


While all of these great things are going on, Elliott and I have still found ourselves in a completely foreign land. Every day we are learning more about Nepali culture, we are exploring new places, trying new foods, and most importantly trying to stay alive! We discovered throughout this process that we say some pretty funny/naive things. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to share a "quote of the day" as often as possible. We hope you enjoy.

Me- "Elliott, what was that noise?"
Elliott- "That's the sound of my body running on rice!"