A Day in My Life

I address this topic in another blog post, but life here has become very regular and routine through my eyes, and I am afraid to say, when people ask how Bhutan is, I don’t have much of a response anymore besides “Oh, good. Busy. It’s fun”.

However, I am somewhat aware that although life here has become regular and routine to me, it is not to my friends and family at home. So, I thought I would give a detailed recounting of a regular day (15 May 2012).

The students are awoken at 5am, but I normally get up around 7. I start my water boiler, brush my teeth, and then put on my kira. I wear 1 kira a week, normally over a tee-shirt and shorts (was long pants or leggings until about a week ago)- and although we use the term kira for the whole outfit, its actually 3 pieces, a blouse called a wonju, a long skirt that’s the kira, and a jacket to cover the wonju and the top of the kira that is called a tego. When I am not wearing it, I keep it folded on a chair (you can see this week I have a black wonju, green tego, and black and blue kira. This one is wool, and is very, very warm, which is perfect for Gasa). By the time I’m dressed, my water is boiled, and I make a cup of coffee. Depending on whether I have leftover curry, I will either have rice or oatmeal for breakfast. I eat my breakfast and read a book, or look through the Bhutanese papers for articles for my students to study.

My room 

I walk to the academic block around 8am, and sign in, and then assembly is at 8:15. It begins with mindfulness, prayer, and then the national anthem. Next there will be some student speeches, today there were 2 on the topic of happiness, one was in English and one was in Dzongkha. Next the Teacher on Duty conducts the rest of assembly, reading announcements (today there was a reminder to the house captains to submit the names of the students who will be participating in the extemporaneous speech competition). Lastly there is a daily pledge (Tuesday’s pledge is about empathy and compassion) and then the students sing a traditional song.

I always have 1^st period with my homeroom, which is class 7b. Because I am their class teacher (as opposed to just their subject teacher) I have to take their attendance, and do other homeroom like duties. Today they had news corner where I read them an article from the newspaper and they identify the 5Ws, plus define new vocabulary.

Interval is the 15 minute break in between 3^rd and 4^th period, and it is kind of like a mini recess for the students, who can leave their classroom and go talk and play with their friends. The teachers take tea, and momos, which are made by our wonderful cooks in the mess hall. It is, without a doubt, the highlight of most days. I mean, its naja and momos, and not a lot can top those two things J

After interval I taught Class 6, and we are studying a story called “Flood Waters” about a family who is evacuating their home due to the flooding of the Mississippi river. We made lists of what we would save from our homes if a flood came. Most times, I read them the story, and explain each paragraph in detail, since a lot of the vocabulary is very hard for them, and its not feasible to learn 50-60 new words for a 3 page story in the 2 weeks we have allotted to study it. We also spend time making story maps, and identifying the different features of a short story, since that is what they are tested on.

After 4^th period is lunch, and I go home, and make rice and curry. Today I made potato and cheese curry with chilis and tomatoes as well. I will read a book, or watch some tv on my computer. Tuesdays are lucky days for me, and I don’t have class in the afternoon.

My lovely kitchen!

 Today I was a substitute for a teacher who was out of station, so I subbed in 7B. I took the free time I did have to grade assignments from my class 8, plan lessons for the next day, and to consolidate grade results for 7B from the quarterly exams. After 8^th period ends, the students have afternoon prayer, and I went home, and took a bucket bath.

This evening I plan to do some laundry, finish reading The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho, and call the lovely Reidi, who is another western teacher working in Bhutan. Sometimes a go down to visit my class at evening study and play go fish with them (it helps them pose English questions). Other times I go on walks with some of the other women teachers, or hang out with Zam and watch movies. I’m normally exhausted by the end of each day and end up going to bed no later then 10 or 10:30.

That’s my life in a nutshell.

My lovely shelf/windowsill with all of my books and calendar and lamp. its cozy :)

My scary water heater as I heat water for doing laundry

And as the weeks turn to months...

First off, I am sorry that I have been neglecting this blog. My intention (which remains) is to write about every week or so.

I cannot blame poor internet for not doing so. I have wifi. Yes, other BCFers, I have been hiding this from many of you because every time one of you finds out you look like, or sound like, you are going to murder me- but just remember, its like people who have good old regular broadband in the sense that when the power goes out-as mine did for 5 days last week- it’s even more useless then the bmobile data sticks.

Nor can I blame a ridiculously busy schedule (although the BCF teacher who has the largest courseload still manages to blog about the most out of any of us…Dave, you rock). Honestly, its slipped my mind here and there, and when it has crossed my mind, I haven’t had anything specific to write about (although there is a post coming up on the great Bhutanese holiday of teachers day) or I just haven’t been motivated to write at all. I have been rather lethargic of late…school is fine, but has been exhausting, and I often am in bed by 9:30 (and quite honestly, the last 45 minutes of that is waiting for the girls in the hostel to go to sleep first). It’s a terribly embarrassingly early time to go to sleep, especially in Bhutan where people are night owls, but I just can’t help it most of the time these days. I admit I also am not getting much rest on Sundays as I have been gone for many of the past few weekends to go visit the lovely Noorin in Kuru which is only 2-3 hours away- absolutely nothing by Bhutan standards.

And more than lethargy, my failure to write has also come from what I like to term mental immersion. We have been here 3 and a half months or so…and I consider myself used to the culture and environment. Not an expert on knowledge or practice, but definitely used to it. The stuff that would amaze me (both in good and bad ways) 2 months ago is just routine now. Some stuff is still perplexing and confusing as ever, but those events seems to occur only a few times a week now, compared to the beginning when they came a few times in an hour. I have talked to a few friends from home this week, who all eagerly ask me “How is Bhutan?!” and I find I don’t have much to say, besides the bland “Oh, its fine. Getting a little warmer. Just finished exams”. Of course there is so much more to here then that, but at this phase of my experience, I can’t really see past the normalcy.

Don’t get me wrong, things are good here- really good. I am happy, have made lovely friends and enjoy teaching and all of that. However, it also feels really normal. Regular. Ordinary. Not boring, of course, but normal. Its such a juxtaposition to describe such a special place in those words, but for the moment I can’t help it- that is what I see and feel. Maybe this will change soon, or maybe this is a stage in the cultural adaptation process that no one tells you about. In any case, its certainly not a negative one, but does shed light on why I have not been particularly vocal about things here lately. I try to write everything down in my journal…even stuff that seems bland and normal to me now, because I know to others it doesn’t, and I know when I leave and look back, everything I considered normal will seem strange and fascinating once again, like it did in the very beginning.

In counting down the months until my mother comes to visit (3.5!) I also came to the realization that I am 1/3 into the experience here. Which is kind of a weird thought; in a way it doesn’t feel that long. I was in Thimphu last weekend and everyone kept telling me it would feel strange because I hadn’t been to the city in 3 months. But it didn’t- it felt perfectly normal- the strange (and wonderful) part was getting to take a hot shower in my friend’s apartment and sit on a comfortable couch.

So, all in all, things are going along smoothly, and normally. And nothing seems odd anymore, which is an odd fact in itself. And the days turn to weeks and the weeks turn to months…I have finally realized a lot of the time here is gone already, which is unnerving. As my friend told me as he was about to leave Bhutan after being here for almost 2 years,

 “Enjoy the rest of your time, it will be over before you can say kuzuzangpo-la”