Well you never know who you're going to come across up here.

The other night we were eating dinner in the tea house, huddled together, me slurping my tomato soup, hands cradling the bowl, trying to keep warm, when I noticed the girl across the room looking at me. I smiled and paid no attention until she came upon us and said "I know this sounds weird but, are you one of the doctors at Wollongong Hospital?". Turns out she's a paramedic and recognised me from there. I was afraid to ask her why she remembered me--perhaps my annoying accent stood out, or I used a swear word too loud, or maybe she was so impressed with my clinical skills, she wanted to be like me. Anyway I dare not ask. I was just so excited to have a friend to talk to! We chatted that night and the next morning, gossiping over mutual friends and how sick of the cold we were. Hopefully we will see Alicia again on this trip, or again in The Gong someday. Small world hey!

Today we woke to the sun shining. It had finally stopped snowing! We went for a pre-breakfast stroll up a ridge to a stupa and got some great photos then enjoyed breakfast. Unfortunately it got cloudy and cold and started snowing, AGAIN. We were freezing, laying in our sleeping bags, and realised unfortunately, the only way to get warm would be to don our rain gear and go for a walk. Three hours later we were still walking in yet another snow storm. But we were so so warm. Of course as soon as we got back to the tea house it stopped snowing and the sun came out!

I had a pretty tragic shower fail today. The hot shower was outside and for 400 rupees, my greasy hair wanted one. I stripped down to my birthday suit and turned the water on, freezing. Hot water never came. Frustrated I redressed and informed the owner who came down and turned it on again. It was hot. She walked out and I again stripped down. As soon as I got in, it was snow cold. I yelled out and she came running in, with me completely naked. Um, excuse me! Then she started calling for her husband and I was trying to say, get the f out and let me get dressed; I'm naked and freezing. She leaves and I dress just in time for two men, presumably the husband and son, to rush in. 20 minutes later I'm running around and jumping, trying to rewarm my dirty body, when they said the fixed it. I decided a shower was no longer necessary. After all it's only been three days, what's another three or four? Gross.

Perhaps you can gather I'm over the cold. As I write this it has just started snowing, again. Tomorrow we have the option of ascending 300m and hiking three hours. It is the safe option considering our 600m ascent yesterday left me with a massive headache unrelieved with ibuprofen. But our second option is to ascend 650m and hike 6-7 hours. I honestly think I would prefer that splitting headache to being freezing cold. As is I'm inside wearing a neck warmer, balaclava, ear warmer, wool hat, two pairs of thermal underwear, fleece pants and jacket, down vest, and three pairs of socks, and I am COLD. At least it's beautiful. And soon the yak s*** fire will start which will moderately heat the room for a bit, the smell which has become all too familiar. Something to look forward to.

PS. I misspelled Dingboche yesterday. In fact many words in Nepali are spelled phonetically and so the spelling differs on various maps and signs. The owner here says it is Dingboche, not Dengboche.