Optimism

Last night I met with Michelle, a Dutch woman who I met through a series of connections. We had a lovely time and she is so far proving to be a great help. She has provided me with lots of tips for job hunting as well as apartment hunting. Today she followed up on all her promises and introduced me, via email, to two other resources to help me out. One is here in Nepal and also looking for accommodation and the other has recently left here and is now in New York. The latter had some useful advice regarding jobs here. She did a lot of business writing for NGOs here, which is work that I would be really well suited for and would love to do.

Tomorrow I will be joining Michelle and a handful of her friends to do a day hike. I am looking forward to getting out the city for a day, breaking in my new hiking boots and meeting some other expats. If I have it right, we’ll be on the edge of the Kathmandu valley, so should get some good views of the mountains. One of the other trekkers is Leila, the woman who is apartment hunting. She promised to talk to me tomorrow and fill me in on the housing scene. Unfortunately people don’t place classifieds for this kind of thing here – you have to go with notice boards, signs on buildings and word-of-mouth. It makes it somewhat difficult.

I am feeling very optimistic at the moment. I expect that neither a job or apartment is going to fall into my lap, but I am encouraged that both are within reach if I apply myself. The good news is that I’m feeling more motivated than I was when I first arrived. I am really ready to start doing something, even if it means an alarm clock 5 days a week. It’s time to be productive.

Wish me luck.

P.S. I have bought myself a phone. If anyone wants the number, just let me know via email and I’ll send it to you. The telephone network here is about as reliable as everything else in Nepal – meaning not at all. You may have to retry several times to get through, but don’t give up.