Spooky Bhutan!

The night of the play performance happened to be Halloween which, oddly, is somewhat celebrated here. Granted, it's not celebrated very widely, but there are masks and costumes available in some of the shops. It's somewhat strange for Bhutan to even marginally celebrate Halloween given that I think that it's somewhat strange for even the United States to celebrate Halloween. I mean, think about it: either the holiday has its origins in the Celtic holiday of Samhain where the Celts believed the door to the otherworld was opened and fairies entered the earthly world and dead souls departed, OR it's a Christian holiday where you pray for the souls of the recently departed. Either way, it's a far cry from kids dressing up as Superman and begging for Kit Kats door-to-door, teenagers throwing eggs at houses and smashing pumpkins, and adults using it as an excuse for drunken debauchery in hyper-sexualized attire. Then again, maybe it's not...

Anyway, Cathy threw a Halloween party and we all went and had a good time. Here are the pictures:

Our costumes: Emily is a nurse and I'm a Western tourist in Bhutan.

Arun goes with the classic Halloween costume: homeless guy. 

Chris and Liz as Jack & Jill O'Lantern. 

Samir as a Hawaiian tourist, Suraj as Death, Kimi as a witch, and Arun. 

Doug is most definitely NOT David. 

Creepiest costume prize goes to Jeff. 

Janet as a sunflower, Deb as Antipholus of Epehsus (his play character),
Liz, and Doug (not David). 

Arun knows how to party all by himself. 

Someone came as an Atsara. Notice the penis for a nose. 

Chris provides the jam. 

The two witches consult: Sue and Kimi. 

Emily checks Death for signs of life. 

Dancing and signing. 

Crouching nurse, hidden Jack O'Lantern. 

Emily's mantra (actually, it's Arun's sign). 

Samir's all partied out. 

the play's the thing

Last week, I performed in the faculty production of William Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors.

Those of you that know me, know that I have been involved in theater for a long time. It actually has been quite some time since I've "walked the boards," as my passion for theater has faded somewhat as I have grown older and become involved in other projects. Back in September, Cathy (the RTC librarian,  and director/producer/writer/actor/creator of the RTC faculty theater company) was talking about the autumn production of A Comedy of Errors. Fortunately – or unfortunately – I let it slip that I had done a lot of theater back-in-the-day. Cathy, being very persuasive and not taking 'no' for an answer, talked me into being Antipholus of Syracuse – which is one of the main roles. I was hesitant, since not only was I at the very beginning of the school year and still trying to get back in the groove of teaching full-time again, but I was also teaching in higher education for the first time, in a new environment, and I was trying to get my research started at the same time.

While I cannot honestly say that I enjoyed the time commitment necessary to rehearse and memorize a Shakespearean comedy (and I don't even like Shakespearean comedies – I much prefer the tragedies and histories), in the end I was glad that I did the play. It gave me an opportunity to get to know several faculty members that I now consider good friends here, and provided a creative outlet to the more mundane and cerebral activities of being a researcher and professor.

There will be another faculty play in the Spring, which I may be much more hesitant about joining. We'll just have to see. Famous last words ...

"Go to the Centaur, where we host."
Me (Antipholus of Syracuse) and Kimi (Dromio of Syracuse).

"There's none but witches do inhabit here."

"Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not."
Ambalika (Adriana), myself, and Kimi. 

"But here's a villain that would face me down."
Deb (Antipholus of Ephesus, my twin separated at birth --
can't you see the resemblance?!), Liz (Angelo, the Goldsmith),
and Cathy (Dromio of Ephesus).

"A man is not so vain as to refuse so fair an offer'd chain."

"There's not a man I meet that doth salute me as if I were
their well-acquainted friend!"

"Fie on thee, wretch! 'tis pity that thou livest

To walk where any honest man resort."

"Thou art a villain to impeach me thus!"

"Run, master, run!"

"I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me!"

The cast: Madhav (Duke of Solinus), Ambalika (Adriana),
Kimi (Dromio of Syracuse), Cathy (Dromio of Ephesus),
Deb (Antipholus of Ephesus), Me (Antipholus of Syracuse),
Liz (Angelo, the Goldsmith), & Jaya (narrator)

Bhutanese Birthday

Last week was my birthday. It just so happened that the last day of the Nepali holiday Dasain (in India, it's called Durga) fell on my actual birthday (October 24th) and we had that day off. To celebrate, Emily and I threw a party on the night of the 23rd that featured "American food" like Oreos, Pringles, chips & salsa, "rice krispie treats" (made without marshmallows and with the puffed rice from the market), and hot dogs in BBQ sauce. Samir brought over his excellent homemade pizza, and others contributed with lemon pudding, samosas, more chips, alcohol, juice, soda, tempura chilies, bread, and lentils to form quite an excellent feast! We also had cakes from Ambient Cafe that they customized for me (because by now they are getting to know us quite well since we go there many times per week).

For most of the party, people just stood around and chatted and ate and drank. There was probably a total of 20 people altogether. Late into the party, as the number dwindled down to 8, we played a fun (and multicultural globalized version) of charades.

Preparing our "American Food" for the party. 

Everything is all setup, now just waiting for the guests! 

Chris and I. 

Gathering around the food ... always a party classic anywhere in the world.
(From left to right: Deb, Liz, Chris, Doug, Julia, Janet)

My good Bhutan friends: Deb, Kimi, Suraj, Me, Arun, Chris.

Emily brings in the cake as everyone sings "Happy Birthday."

Emily and I. 

Liz and Chris. 

Nancy and Julia. 

Suraj and Kimi. 

Talking with Janet and Samir. 

"Action shot" : Kimi, Runa, Arun, Cathy, and Liz. 

Suraj at charades. 

Emily struggles to act out "Born in the USA" while Arun just dances by himself. 

The next morning (my real birthday), our bookshelf still decorated. 

My birthday present to myself: a Buddha carved into yak bone. 

On Wednesday – the day of my birthday – Emily and I went with Chris and Liz to a tshechu at Dechenphu Lhakhang. Dechenphu is a temple that is home to the protector-deity of Thimphu valley. Locally, it is much-visited because people go to make offerings and pray whenever they are going to do something like travel or take a test or begin a new endeavor. Unfortunately, our timing was a little late and we missed the tshechu completely! Most often, tshechus are all day affairs with a break for lunch. At this tshechu, they stopped at noon ... just as we arrived. It was still a great place to visit and we had a very nice picnic on the hill in front of the lhakhang.

Dechenphu Lhakhang. 

The Prime Minister of Bhutan and his entourage descend
from the lhakhang after the tshechu. 

Atsaras precede the Prime Minister, dancing before him. 

The Prime Minister, Lyonchen Jigme Y. Thinley. 

After the atsaras escorted the PM down to his car, they then helped load audio
equipment into a truck. It was a funny juxtaposition. 

Bhutanese children that came over to have a picnic with us. 

Entering the temple grounds. 

A typical sight in Bhutan: a phallic fountain.
This one was dispensing holy water. 

Butter lamps. 

A courtyard behind the temple. 

The entrance to the temple building.
Only visitors in formal Bhutanese dress are allowed inside. 

Some boys that were following us around. They didn't really want
anything, they were just curious about us. 

Me, Emily, Chris, and Liz. 

When we got back from Dechenphu, Chris and Liz dropped us off in Thimphu and Emily and I spent most of the afternoon walking around Thimphu and hanging out at Ambient Cafe. Since it was a special occasion, we had drinks and dinner at the Taj Tashi Hotel – a five-star resort and a landmark of Thimphu. It was fun, although we definitely won't be going there too often. First of all, it is incredibly expensive by Bhutanese standards and since I get paid in Ngultrum, I know what prices should and shouldn't be in the local currency. For example, our meal was Nu4600 ($85) at the Taj, while just last night we had an excellent Indian meal with our table overflowing with food for Nu400 ($7.50). Second, the Taj is full of wealthy Western tourists and I neither fit in with them, nor do I particularly want to be associated with them. To give you an idea, a basic room at the Taj starts at about $415/night.

The entrance to the Taj. 

The view from the Taj. 

The entryway. 

We had a drink at the "Ara Bar" in the lobby of the Taj. 

Emily with her lychee martini. 

I went with the whiskey concoction. 

Cheers! 

The main restaurant, The Thongsel, overlooks a giant prayer wheel outside. 

We ate at the Bhutanese restaurant at the Taj, Chig-ja-gye.
It was definitely the highest quality Bhutanese food we've had here.
This was our appetizer: pork momos, hoetneys (see previous blog entry),
and local mushrooms.  

Our main course.

There was so much food we couldn't even finish half of it.
The restaurant wouldn't let us take any of it home, so sadly it went to waste.
The menu is a fixed-price four courses, but next time we will only order one!

The dessert was just a standard brownie with ice cream on top, but it
being an extreme rarity here, it was absolutely delicious! They even
wrote "happy birthday" just for me. 

It was a very good birthday all-in-all. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great week overall because there are some things going on at work that haven't been very positive. I won't go into all of the details here, but let me just say that Bhutan is not a great place to be for a personality like mine that puts a high value on communication, punctuality, efficiency, and respect for other people's time. As frustrating as it has been at times, I am still enjoying being here and am still in awe that I get to have an experience like this in my life.