Today we started the day extra early - 4:30 am. To ensure we could head out at 5:30 am from the Nirvana home hotel, Ishwar, the taxi driver and I drove to the bus stand where it took us about an hour to realize we needed to go inside the actual bus stand because we were getting no luck outside of the bus stand. We finally found a bus headed to Manthali, purchased our ticket and proceeded to the bus where we waited for about 45 minutes before we departed on the road. I noticed that people would kind of give me a second glance when they heard me speak english, almost like they knew I was foreign because of how well I spoke it, even though my guide clearly spoke it back to me in conversation. While on the bus we made many stops along the way, some stops were interesting because a little girl or older women would get on and hand you a card with an "appeal" and note written on it, hoping that you would give them some rupees. As we drove I witnessed many of the harsh conditions people lived in throughout the city and it was similar situations for many people in the many areas we drove through and around. The pollution was evident as the haze rolled over the hills in the rural areas. As we drove the roads became incredibly windy and reminded me of the road to Hana in Hawaii. I closed my eyes for some of the journey, un-aware of how other people handled the drive. We stopped once for lunch and then the next stop was Manthali. The drive took about 6 hours and it made me quite nauseous. Once we reached Manthali we were met by Niruta who lead us on the hike to Ramechhap. The hike was extremely strenuous and I knew that the journey would take some conditioning. I kept thinking to myself "wow, these Nepali's sure are strong and have some great calf muscles to make journeys like this on the daily, and also I was glad that my journey to Kathmandu would be mostly downhill. Niruta lived near the top of the hill, we stopped there for some tea and a snack before meeting Ramesh and Baje who then lead us up to Baje's house where I will stay for my placement. That is also when I found out Ramesh was the principal of the school I would br teaching English at for two weeks. The view on this hill was absolutely breathtaking. Once I reached my homestay I was relieved.