The first of the Student Videos

One of the items I've been working on since I got here was a collaboration with some Env. students at Royal Thimphu College (RTC). I gave them a very brief introduction into making documentary videos and then had them make some short films. They only had 4 days to do this, so the film is short, but I was quite impressed with the quality of it, especially given it was their first time doing these and it was a very short time frame.
At any rate, here is one of the videos they made.

Why God created Wisconsin

Alright, this is slightly off topic, but my brother sent me this one today, and I really connected with its message:

And God Created Wisconsin ...



God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him,
resting on the seventh day. He inquired, "Where have you been?"

God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look,
Michael. Look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it
Earth and it's going to be a place to test Balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, "I'm still confused."

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth. "For example, "This place
will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

"This place will be full of mountains and hills, while this one will be very
flat."

The Archangel , impressed by God's work, then pointed to one land area and said,
"What's that one?"

"That's Wisconsin, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful rivers
and streams, lakes, forests, and hills. The people from Wisconsin are going to
be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the
world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of
peace, and producers of good things. Champions shall come from here!"

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, "But what about
balance, God? You said there would be balance."

God smiled, "To the west, I will create Minnesota, wait till you see the clowns I put there. For entertainment, they will have a football team with a quarterback so old
that he's a grandfather. They will wear purple and play in a domed stadium."

Michael inquisitively asked, "Why a domed stadium?"

God chuckled and said, "You see Michael . . . even I don't want to watch them
play football."

Driving

Rachel and I are likely going to get a car sometime soon. Actually, we mentioned it in passing to the college's administrative manager and a couple hours later she called and said that she had found us a car. Apparently the seller is going to bring it to the campus on monday, so we'll see.

The other day the dean was kind enough to loan us his car to get into town. Let me start by saying that Indian cars are not made for tall men. We are convinced these are the cars that clowns use. Anyways, I only messed up three times driving on the wrong side of the road. Or should I say messed up with three cars. Luckily you can't drive very fast here (the roads are way to twisty), and people are used to unexpected obstacles, so it wasn't a major problem. We got lost, of course, but eventually managed to find downtown Thimphu and got to see more of Bhutan in the process.

Good times. Oh, and some of you already know this, but Bhutan has no traffic lights. They once installed one, but it confused drivers, so they removed it and major intersections are staffed by traffic policemen. If you look closely you can see that he is chatting on his cell phone as he directs traffic (it's illegal to talk on cell phones and drive here).

The view from the house

That's the view from campus, inspirational to say the least. The statue is a 169 foot tall bronze Buddha, the largest statue of Buddha ever built. I don't know the name of the mountains behind, but supposedly just ten years ago they used to be covered with snow this time of year.

Arrival

Well, after numerous bureaucratic delays, and occasional academic ninja-ing, Rachel and I finally landed in Bhutan. After getting a ride from Paro, home to Bhutan's only international airport, we arrived at Royal Thimphu College, just outside of the capital. Rachel and I had often wondered what our living arrangements would be like here, and having seen the living quarters at other colleges, had not expected much. However, RTC is brand new, and we could not be happier with the living arrangements. Little things like a hot water heater, multiple rooms, cookware, a western toilet, wood floors, a bed with a mattress, TWO porches, are all more than we were expecting. We actually have a bona fide guest bedroom (visitors welcome!).

Perhaps the biggest change thus far is the temperature. While we're pretty far south, we are also up around 9,000 feet, so the temperature varies significantly. During the daytime the temperature peaks around 60 which is quite nice, but at night it gets down to around 30, which doesn't sound that cold, but houses here don't have central heat, or any heat for the most part. Luckily we have a space heater, so our bedroom stays warm to about 55 or so. I'm huddled under the blankets wearing a winter cap as I write this.

Campus is on winter break, which is actually about two months long, and the majority of the faculty have left, so campus is really quiet. However, we have pulled together the first of my teaching exercises with some of the 2nd year students, which starts on Monday, I'm quite excited to see where we can go with that. And we already have a potential line on borrowing a car for a couple of months until we might purchase our own.

I'll take a couple of photos of the view from our place, it is truly beautiful. But I don't want to stretch this post too long. There is lots of time for more entries.

Maps in schools shoutout

Ok, I definitely think there are a lot of other things that schools need to be changing, but since I'm officially a geographist I figured I should throw this on the blog.

How to spot a Wisconsinite in Portland