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!