KATHMANDU!

C: P just as we found our contact from the Fulbright. His body language, at least from my point of view at the time said a lot. I've been to some ragtag airports in my time, Sicily at the top of my list thus far, until Kathmandu. The valley is relatively small, so when you come down, you come straight down. You walk right out of the plane into the Kathmandu smog and humidity.

P: Two things not shown in the pictures. A) Thai Airlines shows you the landing on the screens in the plane. At first it was all clouds, which opened up to a green valley framed by sharp ascending hills. In front of us one runway and a little airport, made of orange bricks. B) When I first saw the airport from the plane I have to admit that I said to myself "Holy Shit!" The thing had one runway, and was so rundown. The reality of it all, after such a surreal and long trip through aseptic airports, hit me like one of those bricks that the Kathamndu airport is made of.
C: I was busy chatting with another Fulbrighter when my first free roaming (holy) cow caught my eye... and here she is. Overwhelmed is a complete understatement for what I was feeling at this very moment. It was complete sensory overload. I think the general condition of things- the mess of roads, the garbage, the traffic, the air quality, what seemed like millions of people, the cows, the buildings, garbage, saris, bare feet, babies, bright colors, nepali script, car horns honking, dirty water holes- all smacked me upside my head. The ride from the airport to the Fulbright office is not the prettiest of ones. I had this sort of sinking feeling and this feeling of we're really doing this, we're gonna be here for 10 months, straight up, no visit before hand just straight up living here. I also think we both had the ability to see beyond the surface of the moment and felt excited. Our adventure. Holy @#$%ing %$^t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd always thought that I had seen poverty, but I have never seen anything like this.

P: I felt the same way, although I only told C after a few days. I was like "this ain't nothing!". Well, partly I really did feel quite calm, but partly I was questioning what did I get my self (and C) into. But I also felt super exited, just trying to absorb it all in a sense. C's description does the situation justice, although I would add: tin shacks, a million store fronts involved in as many activities plus some unidentified ones, goats ready to be sold, trees growing out of shrines, banana plants; it was a completely different place than any other place I had ever been to. I was struck with what I perceived, however problematically, as poverty.