I haven’t written much here, but I want to get my first post
published in the hopes that I’ll be able to begin to make a habit of blogging. Everything
is different, and there is so much I could say, I’m not sure exactly what to
blog about or even how to describe it. Today is my fourth fifth sixth day in Bhutan and
everything still feels surreal (I wrote this a few days ago but haven't had internet to post it). Of course I must start somewhere so I’ll begin
at the beginning with my flight into Bhutan. On the flight we had the most
stunning view of the Himalayas, specifically Mt. Everest.
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At the time, I expected that to be somewhat of a general
highlight of coming to Bhutan. I never thought I would see Mt. Everest in my
life and it was a wonderful surprise. I realized pretty quickly once we landed,
however, that beautiful mountains and hills would not just be a
scenic view from the plane but that they would be my view for the next year. It's not often that places end up being exactly the way you imagine them to be from pictures and internet hype, but so far Bhutan has done exactly that.
We (the 16 fellow BCF teachers and I) are now in the capital
city of Thimphu for the next 7 days while we attend an orientation with the
Bhutan Canada Foundation and representatives from the Ministry of Education.
The first two days have been filled with contract signing, informational
sessions about school, life, and culture here in Bhutan, and shopping. I bought
the material for my first kira today (the national dress that I will wear to
school everyday), but I’ll have to wait for the tailor to finish with it before
I can post a picture.
There are many other things that I should talk about, but at
the moment, I can’t find the words. There are also still many unknowns for me.
We will hope that by the end of next week I might have more of the answers. I’ll
post some pictures with descriptions and hope that they will suffice for now.
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| This is our hotel building in Paro. All of the architecture in Bhutan mirrors this. The incredible details on the buildings are all painted by hand. There are two vocational schools in Bhutan for students to learn to paint buildings like this one. |
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| Hills in the Paro valley, where we spend our first two days. |
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| Rice fields in the Paro valley. |
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| Some of the piles of chilies in the market. Chilies are served in one form or another with almost every meal. I avoid them :) |
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| Sleeping dogs - they're everywhere! And so cute, not how you would imagine wild dogs. For the most part they look healthy and happy and are nice to people. |
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Puppies!!
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