haircuts

Apologies for the long delay in posting, the internet here is now quite spotty, mostly because of the fact that the entire campus is rigged up to one wireless connection, so the best time of the day to go online is early morning, and those of you who know me, know that I am not a morning person… So, for a while at least, blog entries are likely to be scarce.

One thing that I’ve been meaning to write about, though, is haircuts. I love getting haircuts in foreign countries, because they are so cultural, and it is the type of thing that is so commonplace that most folks don’t think of it that way. Perhaps my most favorite was one that I got in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, the barber maybe said three words to me in total, did not seem to care about my interest in style, and gave me an awesome haircut that matched my equally ridiculous moustache. It was a good day.

In South Asia, haircuts are fairly cheap, in Nepal I was able to get them for about .25c, and here in Bhutan they usually around .75c. Which is good, because I hate spending money (side note, I rarely pay to get a haircut in the US, since its stupidly expensive for someone who just gets a buzz cut, many thanks goes to my Mom who has cut my hair since I was a little kid).

I used to get shaves in Nepal, which were done with a straightedge and were a very nice luxury, but the combination of a lot of beard hair and sensitive skin made me bleed quite a bit, so I haven’t gotten that done out in Bhutan yet. But they do shave the line of your hair with a straightedge, which produces a sensation not unlike a catscratch and which I oddly like.

But my favorite thing is the end, barbers out here always give you at least a short head massage. It’s a bit tricky because if they go too long, some will claim it as an extra service and try to charge extra for it, but you usually get the first minute or so free. The massage, by the way, doesn’t really feel “good” the barber basically gives your head a rub-down, which feels nice on muscles, but there aren’t many muscles on your scalp. They also basically form fists and hit you softly with the bottom of their fist. Why or how this tradition spread is of great interest to me.

Of course, it’s a rare time when a chilip gets a haircut out here, so often I get an audience, which is always mildly embarrassing and kind of funny. These pics are ones Rachel took on our trips when I got haircuts. The second shot was of when the crowd got so big she couldn't even take a photo of me anymore!

Wall art (Parental Guidance is suggested)

One of the cool things about Bhutan is the architecture. The government has made it a rule that all buildings must follow traditional architectural styles, in an attempt to avoid the cement-box style of buildings that plague the rest of South Asia. The result is that all buildings have at least some flair, and most have quite a bit of art worked into them.

Bhutan also has a unique style of wall art that I immediately shared a sense of camaraderie with. Namely, it’s penis art. Yes, penis art. Bhutanese people draw these on the outside of their homes for a number of reasons, some say it’s a sign of fertility (duh!) and others say it harkens to a somewhat crazy monk whose main lesson was for people not to take life too seriously (one of his more famous methods was to go around hitting people on the head with a wooden phallus, another tradition that continues at some festivals to this day).

This one is from Phobjika valley, and was on a hotel. Still not sure why it is on a cup.

This second one was from Trongsa, and features some truly fuzzy balls.

Something tells me this bar might not be the safest place to go by oneself...

This last one is my favorite, its here in Thimphu, and is probably the most commonly photographed wall art in the country. I mean, who doesn't want a penis fighting a dragon on the side of their house.

I’m sure I’ll be posting more of these as I travel (there aren’t too many in Thimphu, which is too modern, but you see more when you’re in rural Bhutan) so stay tuned!

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.

something different

I had pig's head for lunch today.

Phuntsholing

Last weekend Rachel and I went to Southern Bhutan, which more or less means lower elevation Bhutan. It was a nice change to not need a room heater at night and to be able to cruise around in a t-shirt in the afternoon. Phuntsholing is only about a 100 mile drive from Thimphu, but it takes about 5 hours, as the road gets continually worse as you get further from either town. Mostly its due to the fact that the roads have to be build on 80+ degree slopes and mudslides happen during the monsoon season, washing out the road in various places. Its an incredible engineering hurdle, if you think about it. So for a good third of the trip the road is beset with small boulders that have fallen onto the road and is down to one lane of dirt while construction crews try to repair the damage before the next monsoon season. Not the most relaxing drive I've ever done.

But the town itself was super fun. I had thought that Phuntsholing was fairly well visited by western tourists, but Rachel and I were a bit of a spectacle, with many more stares and random shouts of "HELLO!" than we get in Thimphu. At one point when we sat down to play a game of cards during a break at an archery tournament we became the new spectator sport, with a crowd of no less than a dozen kids and half as many adults. My nepali language skills never fail to amuse/astound people, but they remain very rusty.

We also got to see crocodiles, which was a highlight for me. They didn't do much, but they were fairly huge. We saw both Muggar and Gharail crocodiles some of the largest freshwater crocs in the world. The Gharails are the ones with the skinny snouts, which they evolved for quick movement to eat small fish at the expense of strength. The bulb on the tip of the nose is found only in males and is apparently used for mating calls/displays, which is where the old saying comes from "the bigger the wierd nose growth the bigger the ..."


All in all it was a good trip, definitely beat a day in the office.

Seattle thinking about GNH

Exciting news I came across the other day, it looks like Seattle is interested in converting GNH to their city governance. Check out the newsclip:



exciting times. If you want to take their happiness survey, it can be found here:
http://www.sustainableseattle.org/survey/GNH/en/
I'd be very interested to see your wellbeing score, if you're willing to share.

P.S. I promise my next blog will be something from me, I've just been hunkered down working on grants and publications the last week. But I think we're heading to S. Bhutan tomorrow!

The Prime Minister on Educating for GNH

I stumbled upon this video today. I'm thinking I'll show it to my students on the first day of class. There are some really enlightened people out here

Yeti sighting... almost

Our New Ride

Things are pretty quiet up at the college, we're in the midst of a 2 month break, and so all of the students and most of the faculty have gone to warmer regions. Since much of my research will be in different parts of the country, we decided to buy a car. We we're really in much of a rush, and mentioned it in passing to the administrative manager Tshering (who is quickly becoming our "fixer"), and a couple of hours later she called to let us know that she had found the car, talked down the price, and that they would arrive on Monday so we could check it out. Here it is!



Please note the awesome decals. This is a major selling point.


One thing to note about cars in S. Asia, they are generally smaller, the big cars are mid sized suvs, and only super-important people drive those. As you can see, we have a pretty small car, more like a go-cart than a than anything. If you think I'm joking, then check out this photo of me driving:


Actually, maybe its more like bumpercars. Since you don't really go faster than 25mph here (the roads aren't exactly straight) and every time I've hit someone they just think it's hilarious.

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

We're getting the Blog back together!

It’s been a while, I know, but I’m back on the road, which means it’s a good time for me to pause, reflect, and try to tell a couple funny stories about life around this world of ours.

Many of you know that the summer was a busy one, remodeling a house in Portland, two family weddings, preparing for comprehensive exams, and spending time with people that we love. But perhaps my favorite story thus far this summer has to do with uninvited mammal guests.

See, during the remodel project we at one point had to move everything in the house to the basement to refinish the floors. The kitchen was the last to go, and while items were being moved, a box of old pizza was set outside the back door overnight. The next morning as we were working, Justin happened to walk by and see a patch of grey hair in the corner of the box. “Matt, come check it out, there is a mouse over here!”

So I ran out, and the first words out my mouth were “Dude, that’s no mouse, that’s a bona fide RAT.” This thing, which thought it was hiding by not looking at us, was easily a foot long, with patchy hair and some weird growth on its face. It wasn’t pretty. We called out our friend Alex, who decided the rat was hungry and promptly threw some breadcrumbs at it. Once that happened, the rat knew the gig was up, and decided to bolt. However, in our desires to see the rat, we formed a semi-circle around the box, AND happened to leave the door to the house open. All at once, as if in slow motion we realized our mistake, and unfortunately the rat beat us to the door and proceeded to run into the basement.

Now there are two important things to keep in mind here, 1) the basement was full of a household’s worth of stuff and 2) that’s where we were planning on sleeping the next several nights until the floor finish set. So, Alex and I proceeded to rummage and explore the various boxes, expecting a rat to jump out and chew through our necks at any moment. Eventually, we heard something fall behind the freezer. Using a series of posterboard and broomsticks, we managed to create a barrier that would only allow the rat to proceed back up the steps and out the door. At least, that was the plan.

By the time we actually managed to convince the rat to run again, we realized that it was probably getting mail from AARP. It was moving pretty slow, and had trouble getting up a step, nonetheless the 10 to get to the door. After several attempts, and with a little help from some brooms, it made it. We all thought the ordeal was over, except for Justin, who went after the rat with a dustpan (yes, a dustpan).

Incredibly, Justin managed to pin the geriatric rodent against the outside wall of the garage, and decided that he wanted to get rid of it by grabbing its tail and hurling it over the wall behind the house that leads to the interstate. Alex managed to find two rubber gloves for him to wear, and just as Justin was getting a good hold of the tail, the head of the rat poked out the other side of the dustpan and it hissed, showing four long, yellow teeth searching for something to enact revenge upon. At that moment, Justin’s plan was revised, and, well, the rat is no longer part of this world. We can just leave that part of the story out for now.

Yes, I know the story is pretty epic, but in the end, Justice prevailed over evil.

P.S. More stories to come. Today I travel to India leading a group of students on a service learning excursion to HOINA (see my past blog entries if that doesn’t sound familiar) More blogs to follow!