In Nepal again at the moment, the hotel I am staying at is swamped with American contractors. They are loud and their conversation is bland. Now, I know that I am not supposed to trash my people but these people are not usual, or are they?

They are on the fat side. They are wearing khakis and grey t-shirts and they are not uniforms - officially anyway. They usually sit in the same place and comment where their "usual" space is occupied.

Last night, while placing their food order one woman in particular ordered chicken cordon bleu, french fries and a diet coke. Why the diet coke??! Was she really skipping on the calories? Hmmm...
Anyway, when she found out that they were out of diet coke she was so confused. She didn't know what to order in its place. Normal coke? She asked, "what is a lassi?" You are kidding me. You are working in South Asia and you don't know what a lassi is. Have you even been to an Indian restarant in the US? In the end, she settled on an iced tea. Whew, crisis averted.

I know I sound bitter and perhaps I am? I am by myself. I keep eating alone and then going back to a room with no tv. It is great for getting lots of work done, but terrible for getting a mental break and is just more than a little lonely.

Tomorrow there will be a couple more people from my organisation arriving and that will be nice because there will be someone to eat with and be loud and order diet coke with. ;)