The monsoon season has finally kicked in. It started a few weeks late this year but now it's raining every day. I've started going to Chialsa monastery in the afternoons because my schedule at the school changed and it's not unusual for it to start raining while I' hiking up or down the mountain. Everything gets really muddy and slippery but so far I've managed only minor slips and falls.

When I got back to the school on Sunday, I was greeted by the daily "GOOD MORNING TO YOU SIR," which is getting slightly less creepy since they seem to be doing it with less enthusiasm each day. I think they realize how much it weirds me out. I always walk into class and kind of turn my back to them while they're doing it, and then I always freak out when I eventually turn around and they're still standing up all staring at me (they won't sit down until you tell them to...). I'm now teaching 6th grade math too, and the 6th graders can get pretty annoying. When I ask a question to the class they all SCREAM out the answer as loudly as they can. So, I'm doing my best to teach them how to answer quietly.

Natalie was supposed to leave Sunday morning but her flight was cancelled because of the weather. Apparently it was the fifth day in a row that flights had been cancelled. When even met two trekkers we had met near Namche (one from the States, one from Paraguay) who had walked all the way to Phaplu because the Luklu airport had shut down because of the weather. But, Monday morning, the weather was nice and Natalie was able to fly out. Later that day, I showed up at the school for class and there was no one to be found. Apparently that morning the principal had received news that a bunch of the 10th graders had gotten high marks in their national exams and had cancelled school. School kids in Nepal get a ridiculous amount of days off. There are a ridiculous number of national holidays, and anytime any group or organization has any type of political or social grievance, they call for a strike and everything shuts down, including schools. A couple weeks ago, a group that had separated from the Maoists held a strike in Salleri and the school in Nayabazaar shut down, even though most people didn't have anything to do with the strike or even know what it was about. It's not a big deal when school is cancelled. It sort of fits in with how relaxed Nepali culture is. Everyone just says "Ke garne?" - "What to do?"

Wednesday morning, one of the VSN Nepali-teachers from Kathmandu showed up at the house (I can't remember his name. I've been trying to figure it out.), told me his brother was getting married and asked me if I wanted to come. As we walked to Durga, which is like a thirty minute walk past Nayabazaar, he told me we weren't on our way to an actual wedding but a kind of ceremony to celebrate the arrival of his brother's bride, and after a lot of questioning I got most of the story. His family and the bride's family had been in talks about arranging a marriage (most weddings in Nepal are arranged), and the previous week his brother had walked nine hours to his perspective bride's town to meet her and talk with her family. This was the first time he had ever met her but, deciding he liked her and she accepting his proposal, they decided to get married. On Tuesday, the bride had made the long trip to Durga. Wednesday, there was a ceremony at a house in Durga (i'm not really sure who's house it was) where everyone present (including me) got a tika on their forehead (I don't really know enough about Hindu culture to properly describe what a tika is, but people seem to get them on many different occasions. Someone basically smudges this red paste mixed with rice kernals and stuff on your forehead). And then there was a big procession of friends and family from Durga to Salleri, with the bride and groom near the front, where the bride was introduced to the rest of the groom's family. I didn't get to stay for the whole thing, but it was really fascinating. Also, I got a free lunch, which was pretty sweet. And I got to eat with my hands for the first time since I've been here. Most people eat with their hands in Nepal, but the family I'm staying with always gives me a spoon. It was kind of fun eating this big, wet, sloppy mess of rice and vegetables with my hands.

In other news, I discovered, much to my surprise, that my host family's tv has a couple English channels. I knew there was a tv in a kind of secret living room on the second floor, but I wouldn't have guessed there were any English channels. Natalie had been here like 8 weeks and hadn't known. So, every afternoon, after I hike down from Chialsa, I get my daily dose of Aljazeera News. I'm starting to really like Aljazeera, even though it doesn't really try to hide its bias most of the time. Most news networks in the US don't really have the international scope that Aljazeera has. And it always seem to be covering things that actually matter, like the US turnover of major cities in Iraq, the coup in Honduras, the Yemenian Airbus crash, the Iranian election aftermath. Yesterday there was a huge special about human rights violations in Nigerian prisons. I feel more well-informed up here in the Nepali mountains than I do in Davidson.