I left my wallet in the taxi.

After finally arriving in Kathmandu and taking a wildly swerving taxi cab through dark streets full of potholes and abrupt turns, I stood in the hostel of the organization I would be staying at and had this horrible revelation. I was already mentally exhausted, sleep deprived, and emotionally drained from a 31 hour plane trip from Orlando, Florida to New York to Dubai and finally to Nepal.

As I stood in the lobby of the organization, shocked and feeling utterly stupid, I thought to myself “what a start!” This year-long trip that I had spent so long planning for and investing so much thought into was unraveling upon my arrival.

Yet almost immediately, things took a turn for the better. I heard a shout from one of my Nepali hosts and as I ran outside I saw that the taxi driver had driven all the way back to the organization to return the wallet he had found in the back of his cab. As I thanked him profusely I marveled at my luck, but even more than that, the kindness of the Nepali taxi driver.

As I have spent the past 6 days here in Nepal, I have noticed this theme over and over. Arriving in a completely foreign place alone can be at best disconcerting, and at worst paralyzing. Yet the kindness and generosity of those around me here have repeatedly given me comfort and confidence in such a different place. But back to the start of this adventure.

Bleary eyed, I got on the plane in Orlando after only one hour of sleep. I tried not to think of those I was leaving behind by focusing on the immediate issues: I could not miss any of my connecting flights. The ticket agent at the counter had filled me with a pang of terror as he told me, “since you don’t have a return ticket, they might just make you turn around in Kathmandu and come all the way back here without ever actually leaving the airport.” I could not let that happen.

Receiving this fellowship to travel while at Harvard was one of the most exciting moments of my life. To actually be able to pursue my dream of discussing wildlife around the world… it was too amazing to be true, and yet somehow it was real. Yet with this amazing opportunity came a lot of stress—it turns out it can be pretty nerve-wracking to plan a solo round the world project. After all of that combined excitement, anticipation, and anxiety… I needed to at least be able to step outside of the Nepal airport.

After a long flight from New York to Dubai on the cushy Emirates Airlines where I watched 5 movies and didn’t sleep a wink, I found myself in a far less glamorous budget airport, waiting to get on the last leg of my trip to Kathmandu. Surrounded by locals sitting on the floor, the loud whir of power drills as walls were being constructed around me, and a blaring announcement over the P.A. system stating “There may be a fire in the airport. Standby,” I struggled to stay awake.  After two nights without sleep, I could not let myself slip into that tempting slumber and miss my flight, but my nodding head and inconsistent vision was making it difficult to stay cognizant for the three hours until my flight boarded.

Somehow I managed it, mainly by attempting to read Anna Karenina (kept on leaving consciousness so it took a half hour to read a paragraph) and trying to walk around (almost walked into multiple display cases due to same lack of consciousness). And then I was in Kathmandu…

And learning that I had left my wallet in the taxi that had dropped me off from the airport. With that I promised myself to be even more alert, vigilant, and ‘with it’ than I had already told myself I needed to be. I had no idea what would be coming next; the first item on the agenda was to go bed, and only after that see what my first day abroad would have in store for me.