A slight hitch in my giddy-up

Well, we all knew that I would never escape a year long trip around the world unscathed, right? I should have known by the skeptical looks I recieved when I told people I was travelling to Lhasa, Tibet that it would be a little harder than simply showing up at the airport and actually making the journey. To make a boring story interesting, Im still in Kathmandu. I should have left on Saterday. Dude at the airport broke me the increasingly hilarious news- I need a visa to get into Tibet, which my friend Robel tries to convince me is damn near impossible, but, but , in order to get one, I need to go to the Chinese consulate, no? Well, the consulate, poor dumb tourist, is closed today, even though its a saterday because, of course, its a Chinese bleeping holiday. I stayed with my Robel on Saterday, and then again on Sunday, and today, being Monday, a working day, I waltzed over to the consulate with my best "I am an American tourist damnit, not a terrorist" expression, only to be harshly turned down. The holiday lasts for seven days. Sigh. Returning back to Robel, he shakes his head in gentle disgust. He works for the UN, and understands these governmental bureaucratic trivialities more than I do. So, all in all, Im still in Nepal for god knows how long. I have a flight from Lhasa to Kathmandu continuing on toBangkok in about two and a half weeks, so if all else fails, I may have to stay in Nepal until that flight. Good news is that if I do get a visa and am able to fly, I dont have to pay more for a changed flight. So, dont worry about me folks. Ive found some cool peeps to pass the time, and laugh at the irony of this situation, being stuck where you kinda want to be anyways. Keep you posted.