Yesterday I was invited to a house party to celebrate Indian Independence Day, which marks the day that India gained independence from Britain in 1947. Jaya, an English professor at RTC, invited mostly "chilips" (the Indian slang for 'white people") and said that the Americans and the Indians both have a shared history of shedding British oppression (although we both did it very different ways).
Americans celebrate their independence day by getting drunk, eating lots of junk food, and lighting off fireworks. Indians celebrate their independence day by having a dinner in the evening with friends and family. Seems like we both celebrate in our own cultural ways!
It was fun to spend time with faculty outside of work, especially because we often don't see each other during the day (as we are teaching, working in different departments, working in different locations, etc.). Just to add a little absurdity to the whole thing, Cathy – the librarian – brought a game of Mexican bingo ("lotería") and ... on Indian Independence Day ... in Bhutan ... with a mix of Indians and Americans ... we played Mexican bingo.
Gotta love this global world we live in.
I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few...
Americans celebrate their independence day by getting drunk, eating lots of junk food, and lighting off fireworks. Indians celebrate their independence day by having a dinner in the evening with friends and family. Seems like we both celebrate in our own cultural ways!
It was fun to spend time with faculty outside of work, especially because we often don't see each other during the day (as we are teaching, working in different departments, working in different locations, etc.). Just to add a little absurdity to the whole thing, Cathy – the librarian – brought a game of Mexican bingo ("lotería") and ... on Indian Independence Day ... in Bhutan ... with a mix of Indians and Americans ... we played Mexican bingo.
Gotta love this global world we live in.
I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few...
From left to right: Jaya, Prajna, Ingrid, & Liz
Sourav and his family (who is visiting from India) came over.
Also in the this picture: Kal and Mustaque, who is from Sikkim.
Mustaque, Prajna, Liz, and Ingrid.
Classes have been going pretty well this week and I feel like I'm in the flow of the semester now. I just played a game of soccer tonight and managed to make it for the whole 90 minutes. Maybe I'm acclimatizing after all ... either that or playing soccer at 7800 feet is getting me more fit. Probably both.
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