An accidental engagement at a football game

Well the tshechu's over and I guess it will be a little while before I get the comforts of Season's pizza and the Zone's burgers.  But I did manage to download the video of the Doctor Who cast and crew doing '500 Miles' by the Proclaimers so that should keep me happy.
Pi Day activities went well with my class sixes.  Frisbee games were the focus of the lesson.  Sadly, the students won't actually learn about pi until class 8 but I still tried to explain it very quickly and was wearing my pi shirt so they would at least know what the symbol looked like.  Frisbees flew everywhere including occasionally, where the students wanted them to go.  The final activity was a competition to see who could throw the frisbee and have it land closest to a target.  Despite me explaining it three times and demonstrating twice (I even got pretty close which I wasn't expecting) a few students still thought it was a 'Who can throw the frisbee furthest' competition and so didn't do so well but first and second place got within a metre which I thought was pretty good.  They were rewarded with a chupa chup as it was the only round prize I had.  I've been asked if I can bring the frisbees back and so would be grateful for any Frisbee game suggestions.  I know ultimate frisbee exists but have no idea what the rules are.  I know I could look it up the next time I have net access but I may be busy looking at pictures of T’eo and other quadripedic and nullpedic Seccombes (I’ve been promised that there will be new photos by this weekend and there’d better be!).
At the moment in Samdinkha, and possibly Jibjokha, we are having slight electricity problems.  It started on Wednesday when one of my lights flickered and then started to smoke.  I thought I had solved the problem by turning the light off and assumed that I had done something to cause the burning.  You know, I might have looked at the light the wrong way or forgotten to top up the gatorade in front of my amber statue of Tesla and angered the electricity gods.  The electricity vaguely thought about staying for a while but then decided it was too much bother.  We had actually had a power surge in the building and I got off easy but my neighbour now owns a completely fried laptop charger.  I think his laptop’s ok though.  Naturally, the electricians were able to fix everyone’s power except mine but it was back on when I got back home from school yesterday but now, for whatever reason, all the lights are off but the power points are fine.  Why is that?  None of my neighbours, including people in other buildings have lights but our rice cookers and water boilers are all working.  Can someone please explain that to me?  Keeping in mind that I really don’t remember any of the electricity stuff I studied in physics.  Thank you!
And today marked the start of what I think will be a long and celebrated career for me as a football, as in soccer, coach.  The house competition starts next week and it was clear that the girls expected me to do something even though I thought the best thing I could do was stay far away.  I realised when I got there that I might not have quite entered in to the spirit of things when my first thought was, ‘Bugger, I’ve left my book in the staffroom.’  I was then asked by some of the girls where they were meant to stand and what the positions were.  I think I deserve points by not answering the first question with ‘On the field.’  Fortunately another house master was able to sort them out and I stood on the side lines and yelled things like, ‘Excellent kick, Dawa! Oh, it’s gone out. Never mind, it was a great try!’  And I sometimes got in trouble from the alternates for my house who were standing next to me when I yelled ‘well done!’ and so forth for members of the other team who made a good save or something. The Ravens scored the only goal of the practice match so at least I didn’t get in trouble for cheering for a goal against us.
The alternates, rather than paying attention to the game, decided to talk to me and ask lots of questions.  They were also fascinated by my white hands and at one stage three of them were poking my hands in way that suggested that they expected some weird chemical reaction would take place.  Sadly, many girls here feel that dark skin is unattractive and there are tonnes of ads for skin-lightening creams everywhere.  I try to explain that thousands of dollars are spent on tanning booths and fake tans in Australia but I’m not sure they believe me.  Fortunately, they find it very funny how I sometimes go red in the sun and I point out how lucky they are that they don’t have that problem.
They also asked why I’m not married, to which I gave the answer I always give here which is that I haven’t found a guy who likes both snakes and sailing, and then they asked me who I’d like to marry.  Not really knowing what answer they wanted and obviously not thinking things through, I said ‘Tom Hiddleston.’  This was a big mistake because now they are convinced that I know Tom Hiddleston and we are engaged.  I tried to explain that he is an actor and I’ve never met him but just like guys who act like velociraptors but that didn’t really work.  So if Tom Hiddleston would like to come to Jibjokha to help explain the situation, I would be quite grateful.  And then we can have a Jurassic Park movie night.
Oh and I almost forgot!  About a week ago, an MP came to Samdinkha and I was invited with three seconds notice to a dinner with him and a bunch of other people.  I don’t think anyone minded that I was wearing trackies and a sweater.  Or if they did, they didn’t say so.  At the dinner was also the 2010 winner Bhutanese Idol (I don’t think it’s called that but you get the idea) and the 2011 runner-up.  During dinner, which was outside around a bonfire, they were asked to sing for us.  Unfortunately, the sound system wouldn’t accept their usb and I was asked if I had a laptop plug into the speakers so they could play the backing track.  I got Jerry they seemed happy enough but they must have clicked the wrong button because through the speakers for all of Samdinkha to hear came, “Mr Dixon had been up the fell before breakfast and brought down the news that the ice on the tarn was bearing properly at last.”
I think it was GNH that guided the hand of whomever clicked on that as nothing could give more happiness than Arthur Ransome.  Except perhaps T’eo.  I sat and enjoyed the book, expecting it to stop any second but it went on for so long that I actually went to help them even though I knew that no singing competition winner could be better.  The singers did sing very beautifully but I still wish that Winter Holiday could have gone on longer.  I also got to take part in some Bhutanese dances which are conducted in a circle.  This is useful for me as it means I can watch the feet of the person opposite me and do my best to copy.
Wish my Raven girls good luck on Monday for their first match and Happy Birthday to Camille on the 31st!  I may be able to get to the internet again before then but just in case I’ll say it now!
Hugs to All!

I really love frequent internet access!

Well, I’m still in Thimphu and have spent most of my time downloading resources for my students.  They really should be grateful as I’ve hardly looked at cheezburger at all!  Mostly, my downloads have been youtube videos on Australian animals and things for choir like a piano program and a metronome but I’m hoping to squeeze in a bit of cheezburger time before leaving.

I’ve also finished the Simpsons math book and have discovered that I need to re-watch many Simpsons episodes to see if I can catch the mathematical references and jokes.  This is purely for my mathematical education, of course.  I’m now back on Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly Everything and was mortified to learn that Richard Owen, the guy who came up with the term ‘dinosaur’ which, though scientifically inaccurate, is still cool, was a total, total git.  He stole research and claimed it as his own, as a student he stopped others from studying if he thought they were going to be too much competition, utterly ruined another scientist’s life and was horrible to his own family.  The last thing Owen tried to do was stop a statue of Darwin from being erected in the Natural History Museum because they had a falling out many years before.  Not a very nice person.  The only nice thing he seems to have done was insist that the Natural History Museum was open to everyone, not just scientists but still an absolute git.

On a happier note, there a fairly impressive thing happened at school the other week.  I didn’t include it in the last blog because I worried about making the entry too long for my dear readers.  Anyway, a week ago last Saturday we had no classes because some teachers were presenting what they learned at workshops over the break.  Fortunately, this means all my doubts about how to assess students here in science are over.  That really kept me up at night.  I am hoping I can help with the scouts though.  I learned last year that they really don’t know how to tie any knots and they are also meant to learn some songs which I’m happy to help with as long as there is NO Kum Bai Ya or however you spell it.  There weren’t any classes but the students still had to do social work like gardening and picking up rubbish but most had left by the time the meeting was over.  This meant that the teacher in charge of scouts had to lower the flag rather than one of the scouts doing it.  She had not done this for some time and got a bit tangled.  Sailors and people experienced with flags may be able to guess what happened.  She managed to get the halyard off the top of the flag but was having a bit of trouble unhooking it from the bottom.  I thought about grabbing the halyard but wasn’t quick enough and up the mast it went.  Or flagpole, I guess.  I wondered if there was some sort of long hook we could use but there isn’t a lot of overhauling course bunts (ask a James Craig crew member) so such a thing wasn’t available.  Fortunately, the flagpole could be unstepped fairly easily.  The only issue was that there weren’t enough of us to lift it.  Luckily, there were still some class 7 and 8 students hanging around so we called them over to help lift it but the first one to arrive had other thoughts of how to solve the problem and just swarmed up the mast.  The teacher next to me immediately began to freak out and panic about the student's safety but I behaved much more sensibly and reached in my bag for Johnny, my ipod.  Sadly by the time I had found him and got him onto the camera setting, the little Gibber had grabbed the halyard and was back on the ground.  He probably would have gone up again if I asked him but he was clearly puffed and I could just see him climbing up again just for a photo and then falling and breaking 27 bones so I’ll just be better prepared next time the halyard goes up.  I did tell him that he should join as a topmen on the Craig which seemed to please him.  So if someone could please inform Morrin that if Kinley Dorji ever comes to the ship he is to be given climbing training as quickly as possible.  

I shall leave you with a photo of my first big crochet project which is a blanket and hat for the soon-to-arrive baby of fellow BCF-ers, Matt and Lucy.  I was too late to give it to the mom, who has already left for Australia but just handed them over to the dad.

I made them both Bhutanese colours to confuse the baby about his or her nationality.

And Happy Pi Day for Friday!  I've planned some frisbee competitions for my class sixes and so must buy some sort of circular prizes. Hugs to All!

How come the entire country celebrates Sarah's birthday and not mine?

Happy Sarah’s (fellow BCF-er) and King’s Birthday!  Because of them we now get three days off to recuperate after the first few days of school.  To be fair, my first few days of teaching have actually been quite enjoyable but I’m still quite happy for a rest.  If you’re interested about what I’ll be teaching this year, and let’s face it, who wouldn’t be, I’ve got the same grades and subject as last year, 6, 7 and 8 English.  Happily that means very few names to learn in comparison with last year as I already know the years 7 and 8 kids.  So only 27 names instead of last year’s 96.

I am happy to report that I already have an unintentionally funny answer.  In a poem the word ‘hue’ came up and, after learning the definition, the students had to write a sentence using the word to show understanding.  Unfortunately, one student didn’t pay much attention to the spelling of the word and so told me that their favourite hun was green.  I personally don’t have a favourite hun as I only know one but if I had a favourite it is very likely that they would pretty green now too.  Or at least bits of them would be.

My current year 7s are happily very eager to learn more of what I taught them last year, at least in the field of My Little Pony.  Perhaps the international brony community could extend a friendly hoof to my year 7s.  It could be a fun pen-pal project.

The other news is that I have been made a house master.  Yes, a role which often includes helping students with sporting events has been filled by me.  I suppose I should probably look up the rules to football and volleyball.  All I know about them right now is the first you lift your shirt over your head when you score and there is an offside rule which women aren’t meant to understand and the second the aim of the game is to have your forearms turn as red as possible, or at least, that’s what happened to me in P.E. class.  Fortunately there are also literary competitions, half in English, half in Dzongkha, and a Dzongkha teacher has been appointed to help me with the Dzongkha and the cultural dance competitions.  The most exciting thing for me about being a house master is that my house is Raven House.  My first thought was about how many literature-inspired cheers we can come up with.   There are the obvious like ‘Takin shall win Nevermore!’ but I wondered if we could think of something involving Odin and his ravens, Huginn and Muninn.  The only other literary ravens I could think of were the raven who flew from the ark and never returned and Ravenclaw house from Harry Potter.  I am hesitant to use the latter as I decided many years ago that I would be a proud Hufflepuff (yes I would and will explain why if you are confused) so it seems wrong to use Ravenclaw references in cheers.  There is, of course, another problem that nobody would understand the cheers but I often find that nobody knows what I’m talking about so it might not matter.

  And the last bit of news is that I have started my choir.  About 14 students signed up for my singing club and we had our first session on Wednesday (the 19^th of February if I’m not able to post this for a while).  The first thing I did was make sure that shoulders stayed down while breathing and was pleased to see how receptive they were to breathing and voice exercises.  I think the favourites were the sirens and being snakes (they went ‘ss, ss, ss’ for a diaphragm exercise).  We then learned Yellow Submarine as I felt a repetitive, small range song with a trippy cartoon to accompany it was an easy thing to start with.  I’m hoping I won’t have drop-outs as kids are allowed to swap clubs for the first week or so but I’ll have to wait and see.  I did have a few extras as most clubs started with a discussion about what they wanted to do and after that the kids were given free time.  Some of my singers got nervous when it was obvious that they had an audience outside so I made the audience either come and join in or go and find something else to do.  I can completely empathise with not wanting an audience too early in the singing process.  I also learned that apparently I was the only teacher who planned an activity for the first club session, so go me!  I’m afraid my club will be more of a dictatorship than the other clubs seem to be but I have told students that they may suggest songs but I also said that I couldn’t promise that we would be able to use them.  Many of the kids like Justin Bieber and no.  Just no.   

It is now a couple weeks later and I’m back in Thimphu as Punakha is having its tshechu (religious festival) so we get six days off.  I’m celebrating by sitting in Ambient and eating French fries.  And just a few kilometres out of Samdinkha we saw a deer!  Not entirely sure which species but it was a deer.  Funnily enough, it wasn’t as thrilled to see us as we were to see it and so did not pose for cameras which were hurriedly being dug out of bags.  I can’t really blame it especially since the caretaker’s van is in worse shape than usual and so makes more strange noises and produces a lot of smoke.

After a few weeks of classes, I have come to the conclusion that my students think that I don’t have enough work to do and so they have helpfully forgotten EVERYTHING I taught them last year.  Or they’ve decided that word types are unfair and fascist and every word can be a noun, verb, adjective or whatever else it wants.  ‘He clarity the speak’ is much more equal!

I shall leave you with the most delightfully assonating phrase which I made up while getting youtube clips of the new group animals and that is ‘Puggle Hugs!’  Puggle Hugs to all, especially T’eo and Padraig!