Saturday, October 26, 2013

Dawson! Come Back Dawson!

Greetings all!  As some of you may have realised, Dawson, my faithful laptop is unwell.  I've come to Bajo to try and get him some first aid treatment but, probably since it's a holiday, all shops which advertise computer repairs are shut.  I've been told that they may open later but I'm getting increasingly nervous.  It won't matter too much since I can stay here another night but it will be another night of Dawson with what looks like horrific black goo behind his screen!
Anyway, I'll stop writing about Dawson's horrible disfigurement and move on to what has happened since I last blogged all those months ago.
Most importantly, my daddy visited! And he got to see my school's variety show! Twice!  To be fair, there were some different acts on the second night.  For example, on the first night my sixth graders sang 'Bound for South Australia' and on the second night my eighth graders sang 'Wild Mountain Thyme.'  And what some lacked in knowledge of the tune they made up for in enthusiasm!
And here are some of my class 8 students doing something more traditionally Bhutanese than Australian or Scottish folk songs.
And this was the Candle Dance done by year 8 girls.  You'd swear at least one knew she was having her photo taken.
After Samdinkha/Jibjokha it was off to Phobjikha!  (I've never looked it up or asked anyone, but I'm guessing 'kha' means village or something)  All my photos are on Dawson so I'll annoy you with them later.  We did go on some nice walks where we heard a cow, or possibly bull, which I'm sure was part tyrannosaur.  It wasn't the best sound to hear when walking in the forest.  Even after we actually saw the beast, I was still sure it would happily eat a lawyer sitting on the toilet (if you don't recognise that one, I feel very sorry for you).
Sadly we were too early for the cranes which visit the area every winter but some of us are going to try to go to the crane festival in November but since we didn't book ten years in advance, we will be staying in a farm house if it isn't already booked.  Who needs indoor plumbing anyway?
And since it is tourist law, after Phobjikha came Paro and Tiger's Nest.  And since I had successfully made it on foot, we decided to go on horseback this time.  I can remember dad's horse's name but mine was Tinka, who I dubbed Tinka the Flatulent.  He was a slightly badly behaved little horse and at one point seemed to want to push dad and his horse off the mountain but was fortunately unsuccessful and did manage to get me as close as horses are allowed to go.  Again, my photos of this are on Dawson but I'm sure you'll be thrilled to see them when they are recovered.
But I got this from Dad's facebook page
Then dad had to cruelly leave me but he did leave me with poptarts (supplied by Alexander. I love Alexander! Almost as much as poptarts!) and Mozart Kugeln which I trying to save for exam marking time.  I still looked too hard when daddy left thought (see Swallows and Amazons).

At school we are catching the odeargodtheexamsarealmosthere fever which is not entirely fun but we've almost finished all the work and can start on the revision soon.  And I did have fun with my year sixes yesterday when they had to design their own pony.  I've been sort of bribing them/using My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic as a listening exercise which they all love and decided that the herd had to increase by 22.  Well, 23 if you count Dragonfire, the pegasus pony with a fire-like mane and tail which I created to show them an example.  There were a few Dragonfire copies but I also got 'Rocky,' a zebra-like pony with a blue mane and a nose ring, 'Thunder Heart' whose cutie mark is a heart split in two by lightning and 'Stallion Thunder' who is an impressive green pony who is apparently best friends with Rainbow Dash (this part may be dull for those of you who do not appreciate MLP).  To help the kids with thinking of names, I wrote a whole bunch of words on the board which the kids could mix and match to make a name like 'Silver Rose' as one student did or 'Shining Diamond' or something.  Sadly, I realised that some words could be combined to make what sounded like a perfectly suitable name for a person who enjoys making a living dancing in decreasing amounts of clothing.  Fortunately, I don't think the kids thought that.
I'm also anticipating somewhat amusing answers in the upcoming exams.  I recently read an essay where the student was talking about staying healthy and avoiding diseases like tv.  Was it an mistake or social commentary?
Anyway, that's probably long enough for now so I will end by saying that I shall be departing for Australia in under two months (I leave Paro on the 21st of December) and leaving Australia at the end of January to come back for another year (if the ministry okays my contract renewal)!
Hugs and I still miss T'eo.  And Camille who I haven't actually met but is my parents' new rescued cat!