Things are looking up (a little)

Today's my last day at the Kathmandu Guest House, and officially the start of my English-teaching program. Today I get in a rickshaw (scary?) and try to find the Student Guest House...hopefully I won't end up paying 50 dollars and getting completely lost. Who knows what this place will be like, but I think I might have my own bathroom (hurrah!) so that's something. The in-country coordinator is supposed to meet me there and tonight we are supposedly having dinner with all the volunteers. So crossing my fingers that we all get along...and that maybe I make a friend!
The last couple days have been a lot of the usual (feeling really lonely and wanting to go home, etc.) but also some fun. On my second day here I was lurking in the garden as usual and saw a young-ish woman sitting alone so I finally got up my courage and went over to talk. She was British and had been traveling by train for two months, stopping here on her way to a job as a massage therapist (hmm...) in India. Anyway we decided to venture out and walked from the guesthouse to Durbar Square. It was great to get out and be smack in the middle of it all, and also really nice to just have someone to talk to! Thamel is such a weird mix of modern (knock-off North Face stalls, internet cafes) and old (fabrics, pots, and random shrines and temples all randomly thrown together).
Then yesterday I called Raj's (my dad's just-moved-to-the-US Nepali friend) sister, who came and picked me up with her 16-year-old daughter and younger son. They took me to the Buddhist monastary of Swayambunath where there were tons of MONKEYS everywhere (they laughed at me becasue I got so excited), then to the big Hindu temple - I forgot the name - where really loud Nepali music was blaring and about 50 bodies were being cremated along the river, then finally to Bodhnath, the Tibetan community/mondastary where I'll be teaching. They were all really friendly and it was especially fun to talk to the daughter...she spoke good-ish English and on the way back whipped out her cell phone/music player and started playing me Rihanna and singing along in semi-English (her cell phone was also all in English...much be weird to live in a place where so much is not in your language). She also asked for my email and said she would write me. Which was cute...Raj's sister also said she wanted to take me out again so I am supposed to call her later this week. Yay!
Anyway my time's running out on the internet but that's the gist of things so far, I'll definitely update soon about the new hostel/program/weird people I'll hopefully meet. As always though I can't explain how much I miss you all and please write me things!
Much love.