I made these!

I have a bit more free-time here than I typically do in the States, which has enabled me to be a bit more crafty than normal. Yesterday, my friend Goenpo and his family came over and we constructed the bookshelf you see below for my desk. See, I like big desks, and the one I have is simply too small. A big desk is important, especially since I need to have big thoughts, huge thoughts, potentially earth-shattering thoughts for my dissertation and need room for them to sit for months at a time before being again encountered. That is how a dissertation is written btw.
The shelves were simple and rough, but I really enjoyed making them, carpentry is a nice break if you don't have to do it all the time. Anyways here is the thought-machine:


I also have recently begun to learn knitting, inspired by one of my friends in Portland, he showed me that knitting isn't just for the ladies, and is in fact one of the sexiest things a dude can do (ladies, can I get an amen?). My first project was a hat I made for Rachel's birthday, it finished a couple months late (I started about a month late...) and isn't exactly "well-made" but she humors me from time to time by wearing it. My second project were these fingerless mittens, which I'm actually fairly proud of:


The glasses are connected because they were the only thing I had for a stitch holder. I've been using patterns from the internet, which is a bit difficult because I have only found 1 size of circular needles out here, and its quite small. So everything is a bit makeshift, just the way I like it.

King's Birthday roadtrip

Last Monday was the King's 31st birthday (yes he is younger than me, which makes me feel like I could have accomplished more with my life thus far, like become king of a small country...). Thankfully, it takes a full three days to celebrate a monarch's birthday, making it a five day weekend! And, since school is about to start on tuesday, Rachel and I decided to do a bit of exploring.

Saturday: Drove out to Phobjika, a beautiful high-altitude valley where the majority of the world's remaining Black-necked cranes come to over-winter. There is a wetlands in the valley floor, and the cranes spend much of their time there during the day, eating dirt or whatever it is that cranes eat. They're huge, beautiful birds (standing over 4' 6") and about 250 of them overwinter in this tiny village. We also got to see yaks in the valley, which was a first for Rachel. Luckily they didn't charge the car. Unfortunately there was no electricity and so it was a pretty cold night, especially since I was a gentleman and gave my sleeping bag to Rachel and somehow lost my top blanket in the middle of the night. I had no idea until the morning.





Sunday & Monday: The next day we drove from Phobjika to Trongsa, which is in the middle of the country. We found a fantastic resort just outside of town that had super comfortable beds, a bathtub (YES!!!), a couple ponds, and was just generally comfortable. AND we got a good rate, so we decided to stay for two nights. Trongsa was super relaxed, got to see the school children putting on a big performance for the king's birthday which mostly consisted of coordinated dances in a big soccer field. Unfortunately the new museum there was closed for the holidays, but I did manage to talk our way into the Dzong w/o a permit (mostly because of my nepali language skills) which was really beautiful and is where the first two Kings of Bhutan ruled from. This photo is of a massive cedar tree in front of the Dzong.


Tuesday: We got up a bit late b/c the electricity had gone out all night, and began the journey back to Thimphu. We drove to Punaka, which is only a couple of hours from Thimphu (note, while the whole journey was only like 100 miles of driving, the roads are all mountain roads, and maximum speed is around 25mph and usually closer to 15). We again stayed at a fairly nice resort, only to discover that our bed there was merely a box springs (I'm sure the delux rooms got the mattress), so it was a bit of a rough night. We got to see the Punaka Dzong as well, which featured an incredible prayer room with huge golden Buddha statues. Can't take photos inside the Dzong's but here is one of the outside of it:



Wednesday: Got up early, and headed back to Thimphu. I've got a couple more stories from the trip, including a more detailed explanation of Dzongs, and Bhutanese phallic wall art, but I don't want to overwhelm the reader. So, more to follow!

Health

Now, for those readers who were with me back when I was in Nepal, you likely remember that much of the year was spent with some sort of stomach issue. I had dysentery (both amoebic and bacterial), giardia, worms, typhoid fever, you name it, I had it at one point or another. It sort of became just a fact of life out there, and I was prepared to go through another year of that, if need be. (Of course, I didn't really dwell on that when explaining life out here to Rachel)

Thankfully, we thus far have been quite healthy, the occasional loose stool, but that's nothing big. But last Friday, I got my first Bhutanese illness, a cold. Actually I'm happy to have it just be a cold, it wasn't terrible, mostly coughing and headachy for a couple of days, and it was a nice excuse to relax for a bit, but it reminded me how our lives here have been much healthier compared to time spent in India and Nepal. Its really been quite nice actually. And to be honest, Rachel has just started a course of antibiotics for stomach issues, but it wasn't nearly so bad as what both she and I have had in the past, so I don't mean to scare anyone off.

Yeah, its really nice to be healthy, something to definitely be grateful for.

Happy New Year!

Thursday was Losar, the New Year celebration for China, Tibet, Bhutan and other parts of Asia. Actually, Bhutan has at least five New Years (that's a lot of partying!) depending on who and where you are in the country. Losar is the official one, and the one largely celebrated in Thimphu. Most folks got thursday and friday off for the holiday, and headed to the hills for picnics and kuru (dart) throwing competitions.

I went on a really nice hike with a couple of bhutanese friends, a nice flat one, which is rare in this part of the world. Its on a hillside overseeing Thimphu, right by the Bhutan Broadcasting Service tower, and for some reason, the place is literally littered with prayer flags. There's a whole lot of auspiciousness going on over there.