Well, I promised you photos and these were the only ones I remembered to bring with me.

This one is from teachers' day.  The one in the front spends far too little time singing and dancing.

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

I would love to see this photo with a Superman costume photoshopped in.

This one too.

I love how in volleyball photos it looks like players are using a hover spell on the ball.

Screw volleyball, it's interpretive dance time!

I never knew how graceful and dignified volleyball was. (Disclaimer: this student loved this photo)

Or that doing 'I'm a little teapot' was integral to the game.

They found another use for the ribbons!

I don't know what they're laughing at but I like that they look happy in a photo.

I just like this photo.

Some of my students from last year!  I went to their school on the pretense of watching a football game but just wanted to catch up with them.

I have no clue what I was trying to take with this picture but I love the disembodied leg attacking someone.

So as you can see, I desperately need my mommy to come and teach me how to take successful photos.  Not really writing anything today as I'm in the middle of marking and have about 10000 to go.  I will just say that one of my students did 20 marks better than he did last year!  Of course, I'm taking all the credit.  Now back to marking!
Hugs to All and I miss T'eo.

I guess it's been a while

Greetings!  Now I have the huge problem of trying to fit everything that has happened in the last 6 weeks into one blog.  Fortunately for you I won't really try to.  I did start a post just over a month ago and have been adding bits to it every so often but I forgot to save it onto a usb so it's stuck on my laptop at home.  I'll do my best to just remember the interesting bits.
A very belated and happy Saint Porkin's Day to you all!  Normal people call it Star Wars Day and even normal-er people call it May the fourth.  (If you can't work out why that's Star Wars Day I'm not going to tell you.)  I celebrated the day by watching one of the most dreaded movies in the world, The Star Wars Holiday Special.  I wasn't brave enough to watch the original version but instead watched the Rifftrack of it.  It did make the day special because, to quote the Rifftrax boys, it's not everyday you get to see the stupidest thing you've ever seen.
Other fun things include the boys' and girls' house volleyball competition where the Ravens came fourth and second respectively.  Sadly, I forgot my camera for the girls' games but managed to get a few shots of the boys' games.  Which I've just found out you won't be seeing today as I seem to have deleted off my usb when I copied them to another teacher's computer.  Whoops.  Well here's one from the football match.

Oh no, a football! Hold me!  Only if you hold me!

  I realise that what they're doing is probably a well-used strategy but it still looks funny.  I could also have shown you photos from the match between the Jibjokha and Tashidenkha teachers, no I didn't actually play, but you'll have to wait for those too.  (I have just sent a message to the teacher asking him to not delete any of the photos until I can copy them back so you can relax. I'm sure you were very worried)  Sadly, we lost the match 2-1 but it was still fun as I got to go to Tashidenkha and see a bunch of my students from last year who were worried that I had forgotten them.  As if I could ever forget students who wrote such funny answers in their exams!  I did get chastised by one of the teachers because while I was catching up with my old students, I missed him kicking Jibjokha's only goal.  How dare I talk to students!  I was so ashamed of myself.

We also had the very first spelling bee ever at Jibjokha.  And it is purely coincidental that I organised it and my house won. (It really was. I was nervous about giving the Ravens too much help so I helped all the houses).  Words like 'thylacine' and 'rehabilitation' were spelled beautifully.  Sadly, words like 'feast' and 'friend' proved too difficult for some contestants but on the whole I was very proud of my spellers.

My choir also had their very first performance!  It was National Forestry Day last Monday (June 2nd) and since it's also the anniversary of the 4th King's coronation all schools had a celebration and planted trees.  I wasn't told about this until the last minute so we didn't have much time to rehearse but the kids really wanted to perform.  So we did 'Yellow Submarine.'  They looked lovely, all dressed in yellow and all the girl's had yellow ribbons in their hair which I managed to find in Thimphu. (The ribbons, not their hair)  I offered ribbons to the boys as well but they declined.  They performed with enormous smiles and great enthusiasm.  The only thing which could have made it better would have been if they had actually got one of the notes right but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so I don't think it matters and I managed to keep a straight face.  I was trying to think of other songs with 'Yellow' in the title so we could use the ribbons again but the only two I could think of were 'Isty-Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' which always gives me flashbacks to what so easily could have been an international incident back in Pakistan (not me, a girl called Karen Binger should have worn more on stage in an Islamic country) and 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree' which wouldn't be terribly appropriate either.  Any other suggestions, please let me know.
Wish my kids luck as exams start on the 20th!  Some of them will have to answer questions on the stories of Nintendo games so hopefully they'll have some fun.  Not too many exams ask questions on space pirates and aliens.
Hugs to all and I miss T'eo!    

Football and Kookaburras

Happy T’eo’s birthday for yesterday!  I celebrated the day by doing a listening activity with my year 7s on a My Little Pony episode which had Spike as the main character which they thoroughly enjoyed.  Or, at least, almost thoroughly because they still had to answer questions on it.  My year 6s sang Happy Birthday as loudly as they could to try and make sure that he heard them.  I’m sure the classes around us greatly appreciated that.  Since I had to cancel my p.e. lesson with them on Friday, I taught them two games which were both called ‘cat and mouse’ but I re-named to be ‘dragon and pony’ and ‘dragontrap’ making it very clear that the dragons were doing the trapping, not being trapped.  The first game was the one where most of the kids hold hands in a circle and let the mouse or pony through but try and stop the cat or dragon.  T’eo should be pleased to hear that the dragon got the pony every time.  The other was another tag game which the kids didn’t quite understand or play properly but they still had fun running round and making up rules as they went along.  Perhaps I could start a Calvinball tournament.

I couldn’t quite manage a cake so instead I had a woolworth’s Christmas pudding given to me by Mark LaPrarie.  It wasn’t exactly Delia Smith but wasn’t too bad and I didn’t even burn myself getting it out of the container after boiling it.  I refrained from lighting it with methylated spirits though.  I hope Bill doesn’t mind (See The Big Six). 

One of my students even gave me a gift which I’m sorry to say, I couldn’t quite keep.  One of my year 8s came and told me, ‘There’s one like a kookaburra in the class!’  I assumed a bird had flown into the classroom and was probably surrounded by shrieking students.  However, this was not the case.  One of my students had caught a bird the day before and thought I might like it as a pet.  I would like to take this opportunity to say that the bird in question was not injured in any way.  It was a very beautiful bird, which really didn't look like a kookaburra, and I thanked my student very much but explained that wild animals would be unhappy as pets and it would be nicer to let the little guy go.  Fortunately, he seemed to understand and did not appear unhappy or insulted.  I carried the little guy back to Samdinkha in its improvised carry case (a cardboard Druk lager box) so I could let it go near where it was found.  I’m not sure was species it is but it stuck out a very long tongue and kept pecking at the box so my wild guess is some sort of relative of the woodpecker.  For now I’m calling it a geleytenzini in honour of its finder.

Awwwww! I would like to stress that I washed my hands very carefully after the little one flew away.

The final thing I have to report is that the boys' football is over.  Sadly, Raven House lost the crown (which is a bit of a pun if you know about the Bhutanese kings) and came fourth but still played very well.  Cypress House was victorious and I continued my tradition of taking photos of people’s backs and ones that would be fine if they just weren’t so blurry.  Perhaps Pete and Dick could give me lessons (The Big Six once again).

"Help, the nasty football's attacking us! Hold me!"  "Only if you hold me!"

I'm not sure what game is going on in the foreground but they seem to be having fun.

He totally meant to do that

Hugs to All and curses to the wind gods for not being nicer to the James Craig on the recent Newcastle trip!

Sticky Geckos

The Ravens won their first game!  I shouted really helpful things like ‘Go Phub Dem!’ and ‘No, get the ball to go the other way!’ which I’m sure helped get them to a nil-all draw and then 4-0 win on the penalty shoot outs (I hope I’m using correct football, as in soccer, terms.  I don’t think any off side rules came into play but then I wouldn’t have noticed if they had).  Sadly, they lost their second game which was 1-0 to Takin House and, even more sadly, I wasn’t there to see it as I got a wonderful strain of the flu which kept me at home for a few days.  I’m sure they would have won if I had been there to shout more really helpful things.  I did manage to get a few pictures of the first match and a couple of them were hardly blurry at all.  I need mom to come and teach me how to properly use a camera.

The Ravens are naturally in white and the Blue Poppies in red because that's logical.  I'm not sure which team the dog was playing for.

The Ravens during half time.

A Raven poised to attack.  To be fair, this was probably taken when the ball rolled down the hill and had to be rescused which happen about every 2 and a half minutes.

Damcho did not push Sangay out of the way.  It just really looks like she did.

Along with trying to act like I knew something about football and being irritatingly ill, I had a stressful adventure after my desire to have a moth-free pantry went slightly wrong.  I brought with me some moth and silverfish traps which are a little cardboard tent-y thing with really sticky stuff on the inside (Apologies to any insect lovers out there but they drive me nuts.  Are silverfish insects?  I’ve never counted their legs.  Well, apologies to any arthropod lovers anyways).  Until last week I had totally forgotten that I had them but set one as soon as I remembered.  I got home from school and checked to see if the trap had been successful.  And while it had been successful in catching something it was about as far from something I wanted caught as possible.  A juvenile gecko was stuck fast to the pad and was obviously displeased with the state of affairs.  It had already dropped its tail which was also stuck fast but that hadn’t really helped.  I tried to unstick it with a spoon but the poor thing really was stuck fast and I was terrified of hurting it.  So I did the only thing I could think of.  I called my mommy.  She first suggested sprinkling flour (which I didn’t have but for reasons I can’t remember I did have icing sugar) on the sticky stuff which did help in stopping my hand getting stuck but had limited success on the gecko.  I managed to get its front half off the stuff but could not get its back half off and it was understandably not cooperative.  By now I was utterly in tears because I had a very distressed gecko and I really didn’t know if it was going to be ok.  Fortunately, my incredibly tolerant and patient mother asked the all-knowing Oracle of Google what the best course of action would be and it immediately answered ‘Olive Oil.’  This was generously poured over numerous things in the kitchen including the moth trap.  I’m happy to say that it worked almost instantaneously.  I had to give the little guy a quick bath before setting it free.  It did need a bit of persuasion to get off my hand but eventually ran off to a hopefully less sticky destination.  I hope it accepted my apology which I gave numerous times.  And I love my mommy very much and I hope the gecko does too.

We also had our school rimdro last Friday which did not include any fire dancers unlike last time.  Though they are fun to watch I was quite happy that nobody was there to throw a handful of kerosene soaked bark powder on me.  Of course, since I wore my kira many students insisted on having a photo with me but it is Bhutanese custom to not smile in photos which, since I did smile, led to some interesting photos.

Ecstatic

I swear they asked for the photo!

And since you are meant to wear a badge, I came prepared this year and wore this on my tego (blouse).  I didn't really try to explain it.

It's now a secret to everyone.

 And finally, last year I saw some young monks gaming in an internet cafe but was unable to give you a photo because the only one I took was a bit blurry.  Yesterday a couple of slightly older monks came into the same cafe and were happy to pose.

Ah, meditation

Hugs to all and have a strawberry on the 19th for T'eo's Birthday!  That really should be an International Holiday.  T'eo!

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!