Note: this is one of those posts that makes me reflect on my life and wonder how on Earth I ended up here and question why life is the way it is. If anyone has the answer to that question I'd welcome your opinion.
Yalama!! I’m already starting to fall back into the swing of
school and I haven’t blogged about my summer break. That’s probably for a few
reasons: I felt totally exhausted the first few days home; I never know how to
talk about my experiences here; I’m lazy; and I’ve been spending too much time
reading about things like artificial intelligence, global warming, and electric
cars (I’ve never experienced a more tremendous paradox than reading about these
things in a country that is still mostly without internet).
Also, less so now, but at the beginning I really didn’t like
writing this blog. I felt weird about writing and publishing into the abyss
that is the internet, and I was (still am) just embarrassed to have other
people read my writing, even if this is only an informal blog.
I still feel most of that, but I also have learned to
appreciate it. In a world of limited internet access and the total
impracticality of phone calls home, this blog has allowed me to document small
bits of my experience and attempt to share it with everyone I love.
So I’ve learned to welcome this blog as an opportunity to
grasp onto a connection, or an attempt at a connection, with important people
in my life whom I would not otherwise interact with (even if it is one-sided
and virtual).
Yet I’m still so bad about posting regularly. But what to
do?
So summer break…
[Backstory: summer break is pretty much the equivalent of winter break in the USA. It's a two week holiday right after mid-term exams before the second term starts. I used my break to travel east with all of the other BCF teachers.]
Writing a play-by-play of everything I did would be really
boring. Like always, I’ll let pictures do most of my talking. But a quick
summery would include:
- Traveling two days in a bus to the east side of
Bhutan, to a Dzongkhag (district) called Trashigang.
- Traveling halfway back and stopping to spend
time in central Bhutan in the Dzongkhag of Bumthang (sadly it’s actually
pronounced Boom-tong).
- Reconnecting with the other BCF teachers from
all over the country in a whirlwind of stories, venting, drinking, games,
inspiring ideas for the future, and another sad goodbye.
- New experiences including:
o
learning how to transplant rice paddies in the
fields,
o
trekking for a few days and crossing a pass
4,200 meters high,
o
rolling dice and having my future told to me by
a caretaker at a monastery,
o
finding coves and little pools in the rivers of
Bhutan to swim in,
o
and many other experiences too small to mention
in a blog but that sprinkled my holiday with more awe and wonder and left me feeling like I actually live in a sci-fi novel that combines: “Little
House on the Prairie” “The Lord of the Rings” and a history book about Buddhism.
Some other cool things happened like having pizza and
French fries on the dinner table but they were almost untouched at the end
because everyone preferred Bhutanese for some reason. Or taking a nap next to a
river under a sea of prayer flags with a friend and being woken up by a villager
who spoke no English but then invited us to his family’s puja (religious party
thing). Or being welcomed by villagers who asked us to sing songs from our
country and ending the night with everyone belting “Bohemian Rhapsody” much to
the villagers confusion. Or traveling to many different communities physically
near to each other but separated by mountains and culturally unique. Or.. Or… Or….
Traveling across Bhutan is the best of times, and also the worst of times. Once you get past the constant fear of falling off the road to your death and your spine adjusts to the bouncing and jolting, then God's green Earth smacks you in the face and you decide there's nothing you can do to control the situation and you might as well stop worrying and smell the roses.
See above comment.
Really cool monastery with the 8 stages of Buddha's life depicted in statues.
Traffic jam!
Not bad scenery for a primary school. The fence is the boundary of the school grounds.
Have you ever seen a trash pit lined with grass and little flowers?
This school is doing it right with Degradable and Non-degradable sides to the trash pit.
Toilets can be beautiful too.
Flowers 4,200 meters high.
A little rain never hurt anyone.
The mountains are inhabited by nomadic communities of yak herders. This is one place where we ran into a few yak herders taking "shelter" from the rain.
After hours of going up up up, all of a sudden we came upon the pass. And also this yak.
At first he was not chill
. 
Then he was chill so we snapped some pics.
Up in the clouds. Check out those stacked stones.
My little contribution.
Too many pictures. Not enough captions.
Made it down into the valley :)
"Burning Lake" - Bhutanese belief has it that Pema Lingpa (now a saint) jumped into the lake with a burning butter lamp, retrieved hidden treasures, and reemerged from the water with the lamp still burning in his hand. It is a very important spiritual site for the Bhutanese.
Bumthang honey production! Real life - Bumthang honey is the best honey.
Death has never been so sweet.
A lhakhang (temple) in the Tang Valley built into the rock cliff. This is where I rolled some dice and revealed my fortune. It was actually only one word, meaning "good". No need to wait and see how that plays out in my life.
Old Bhutanese art work.
The Tang valley in Bunthang, the last day before I traveled back west.
Alas! All exceptional things come to an end and I'm back in Thinleygang in the middle of a work week. Maybe I'm still riding the high from vacation, but so far the second term is going really well. I'm enjoying more responsibility and have a better sense of what the heck I'm actually doing. Let's see how long that lasts :)
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