Paying Dues...

My phone is most of the times silent. By 'Silent' I mean, idle. Apart from the occasional calls from my parents, I hardly get any phone calls and the calls that I made is at a bare minimum. Only genuine ones I guess. And for some awkward reasons, I don't entertain to strange callers-meaning the calls I get from an unknown number. So, my NOKIA C5 phone which I have in my possession for last 3 years has quite often assumed the role of a clock. There were times when I forget to take it with me, which leaves  my parents and roommate worried about my whereabouts. Basically, I don't see any need for a 'smart' phone, after all no matter what kind of phone I possess, it would ultimately be sleeping soundly in my pocket.

Talking of sleeping, of late I have become so sensitive and easily distracted by the surroundings. No matter how mild a sound/noise, it destroys my night. I wasn't like that at all until very very recently. I used to sleep like a python without any worries of external disturbances. In other words, once into sleep, I was like a dead person. I am no more like that now. The possible reasons could be being in the heart of the town; I have been staying with my elder brother in a building in middle of the border town of Phuntsholing. From a bare dawn to  late night, the town will be in full live-sounds of people talking, yelling, crying, fighting, singing and cars honking and trucks trying hard to pick up. And by the way, the room is just opposite to the Mig Hall, the only cinema hall in the town, that plays loud musics to attract the movie lovers. The town doesn't go quiet until the very late night and this might have contributed to my erratic sleeps. I get totally tired fighting the loosing battle to sleep and after a long fight, I would be wide awake when the whole room is filled with snores. During some lucky nights, though, to my great relief, I get early sleep.

But my otherwise dead phone would make noise, then. Some random callers would give ire missed-calls and that is enough to wake me up for the rest of the night. I get totally tired rolling here and there on the bed trying to catch that mysterious sleep. I want nothing but a sleep and I would get just the opposite. Countless thoughts run into my mind worsening the situation even more. I have to put with headache and dizziness most of the days due to insomnia. As if like paying dues, I would try to sleep during day time in hope of getting back to my normal routine. However, the same problem continues would night after night.

After all I knew sleep isn't a due to be paid or compensated, its just something different and I have yet to fix this. I hope to fix this by requesting callers to refrain calling or miss-calling me at night or else I would go ahead switching off the phone, at least at night. :)

Happy New Year 2014!

Like rest of the world, the 'New Year' fever has caught the border town of Phuntsholing and at 11: 50 PM the musics are only roaring louder from every part of the town. Checking out from the Gol-Building, I can see people of all age levels rushing to the party halls and some simply roaming around the town, mostly in pair- couple I mean. Bhutanese, Nepali, Hindi and English pop and rock songs fill the night in roaring fashion.

Unlike them who took this New Year Celebration to the street, I chose to remain inside, simply because I am too tired to go out and mark the end of the year 2013 partying and dancing. But being in the Gol-Building in the heart of the town isn't really away from partying and merry making. I feel like I am already in the clubs and party hall with all those deafening sounds buzzing around. The only difference is I am alone in the room, in front of the TV-with the Chelsea-Liverpool epic premiere league match rebroadcast, and side by side penning this thoughts down.

Looking back in the year 2013, I have almost equal proportion of goods and bad. I have successfully taught two semesters without any problems which I feel is the greatest achievement as far as my job is concerned. I will strive to better myself in teaching in the years to come. But I know I can't stick with and be happy with the same qualification-so to go to the grad school was in my hope-list. But I am still without a scholarship and that I feel is a bad part. Nevertheless, I have tried a couple and of which one couldn't even go through the application process and one got rejected. So, I have made the effort and will do better in the new year 2014.

Oh, talking of the year 2014, its already 2014. I have missed the count-down having lost in my thoughts.

Anyway, I wish each and everyone a Happy New Year 2014.

Wishing good health.

Cheers!!!

A Flashback

I'm two semesters old in my teaching career, and it has been a wonderful experience living the life of a teacher. The journey wasn't that easy with occasional bumpy rides on the way. But thanks to the blessings of the loving parents, wisdom of the caring seniors and the prayers of the trusting well wishers, things turned out quite good so far.

Despite the frequent emotional break downs, the show went on and now it's already in the final days of the Fall Semester 2013. The university college is a pool of people with differing dreams, differing ideas, differing ways of approach and above all differing personalities. The way in which you cater to this huge pool of diverse people shows the kind of person you are. Instead of playing the sole role of a knowledge transmitter, the teachers got to spend enough time knowing each student and catering to their needs. This is easier said than done, but it is worth trying. I am not saying or hinting in any way that I have succeeded in doing so, but this is what I have thought of and tried on a few occasions. Being year-guide to the same batch of students for two consecutive semesters was a good testing ground. Over the course of time I knew them well personally and academically, and I was able to probe them when they showed signs of deviating from the expected norms. As a result they were brought to the right track and semester progressed without any disciplinary issues that could otherwise distract their academic pursuit. I remember taking pride in  reporting about the good conduct of my students and good attendance report during the department meetings. And every time I got bogged down by the work loads and nature of job, I would take out a bundle of papers containing the feedback that I received from my students last semesters. It boosted me and gave me enough courage to go on with the teaching. It doesn't mean that I have a greatest of feedback, that is too much to ask for and not possible for a beginner like me, but it does help me to capitalize on the positive aspects of my teaching while working on to improving on the negative aspects.

Now that teaching has been completed, all I look forward to is the paper checking. Hope result would turn out to be encouraging.

A Friendship Day?

If I remember correctly, the wishes for the friendship day have started coming in since July 31st. A bit curious, as always, I looked up in the Google! A prominent person on the Twitter presumably clueless about the day twitted:

 

Yiwang Pindarica ‏@yiwangpindarica1 Aug

Is today friendship, day?? Ive been getting a lot of messages from my friends :)

which only heightened my curiosity. Of thousands of related posts (info) that Google displayed, I looked two and both said that the International Friendship Day in fact for the year 2013 is on 4th of August 2013, that is today. 

I quickly twitted her back. And she replied: "thank u :) #whatwouldwedowithoutgoogle haha".

Being the fervent believer of the Google and having 'confirmed' of the date, I didn't reply or wish anyone until today. But with usual Sunday chores, I had nearly forgotten about the day. If it wasn't for a friend who teaches in Lhuntse that sent me the message, I would have forgotten totally. After replying to her message, I composed a message and sms-ed to the friends whom I have a great opportunity to share precious time at one point of my life.

"Close ur eyes 4 a sec & stand still n think of ur precious gift yet in ur life. I hope that gift is ur luvly frens. How lucky 2 have them, right? Happy Friendship Day!"

This was my short message for my friends on this special day, today. So, the same message goes out to my dear readers and fellow wonderful bloggers from whom I draw inspiration and motivation. Our virtual friendship shall shine forever.

HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY to you all.

Getting to know Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

About a dozen or so teaching members of the college came voluntarily for Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) training resourced by a senior Computer Science faculty Mr. Sangay Thinley. Although VLE has been made available to all the colleges under Royal University of Bhutan for quite a sometime  now, it remains fairly unknown to most of the faculty. One thing is because not many are trained to make use it and also due to heavy academic workload that keeps them away from using it. I have come to know about it and even used it at Samtse College of Education. But that was as a student. Now as a teacher, I have to know how to create a course, post assignments, manage attendance and many more which VLE handily provides. In an attempt to popularize it, Sir Sangay has taken personal initiative to forgo his weekends and teach those who are new and genuinely interested to use.

It was a hands-on training and we were trained on using various features that VLE has, which if made to a full use can be so handy. We assumed a course creator's role and created a new course each on which we added the features such as class time table, work plan, and posted some assignments and quizzes. It was during the time of creating quizzes that we resorted to "GOOGLE" (Yes, who doesn't right? Haha) for suitable questions to be added to the question bank. I don't know what prompted my colleague to search me typing my name on the google search engine, but what he showed me had me taken back to my university life. Its been more than two years since my graduation and had almost forgotten about the photo-shoot that I did once for the University brochure.

If anyone is interested to study at Florida Institute of Technology, Florida, then follow this link: http://www.educations.com/Florida_Institute_of_Technology__b17174.html

Following is the interview excerpt:

Florida Tech

Name: Pema Wangdi

Email: pwangdi2007@my.fit.edu

Country: Bhutan

Major: Applied Mathematics

Tell us about your first visit to Florida Tech.

Florida Tech is a small campus that is beautiful and welcoming. I quickly learned how diverse the student population is and how many fun things there are to do within the campus and around it.

Tell us about your experience with campus life and student activities.

There are many organizations to get involved in at Florida Tech which gives me many different types of activities to choose from. The university itself is such a close community with so many great people. I feel like I am cared for and part of a big family!

Tell us about your major.

I am currently majoring in applied mathematics here at Florida Tech. Initially I was going to major in mathematical sciences, but I am now very happy in my applied mathematics major. The faculty and staff guided me through the major changing process to make it as easy as possible.

Tell us about your professors.

The thing that still amazes me is the credentials that all of the professors in our department have. They all have degrees from highly reputed universities and have established their names in the world of mathematics. Some professors have even been to space! On top of that, all of my professors have been so kind and helpful in my studies!

Tell us about your plans for the future.

Even though there are many opportunities for me here, I hope to teach in my country after receiving a degree fromFlorida Tech. I have done undergraduate research on the modeling of cell growth via functional differential equations under the guidance of my professor who helped me build confidence. Florida Tech has challenged me to do my best which I know will help in achieving what I have always dreamed about.

Tell us any advice you have for future Florida Tech students.

Florida Tech is a safe haven for higher learning; you need to be part of it!

Kanglung comes to life

To the residents of Kanglung and in particular the shopkeepers whose livelihood depends majorly on the students and staffs of this premiere institute-Sherubtse, the summer and winter vacations are their worst period of the year for the obvious reason. As the semester gears to an end, they clear their stocks and get ready to close their business. In a way, they also prepare for a forced-vacation.

No sooner than the students depart for various parts of the country for vacation, the shopkeepers lock their business up and leave the town with a deserted look. This poses some inconveniences for the remaining few who chooses to spend their vacation on the campus itself. 

"We can't even get the basic necessities, such as vegetables, as shops remained totally closed," says a lecturer who prefers to remain on campus.

The otherwise lively Kanglung town with tens of hundreds of students and lecturers comes to an abrupt  halt by the end of the semester. With the closing of the college, the brisk business also comes to a halt and everything looks dry. As if to cover up for the poor or no business during the vacations, the prices for the items during the season climb very high! Yet with a fewer alternatives in the offing, the students and the staff have to live with the soaring prices of the basic commodities.

The dormant lives of the shopkeepers come to a full swing with the picking up of the business as the semester once again set to begin. The mood of the entire town changes and within no time the town assumes a business hub, though seasonal. Packed buses and taxis making their way into the town are a welcome scene for them as they indicate the opening of the college for yet another busy semester. They begin to stock up their goods and once again their busy life restart. Apart from the prospect of their business, they get the sense of the re-union of the family members.

The college is very much a part of their life and they always look forward to the reopening of the college. As usual the Fall semester 2013 officially kicked off with the Faculty meeting held on the morning of Saturday, 20th July, 2013. The ER (Essential Repeat) students have come early to prepare for the paper(s) they are required to clear before the commencement of the regular classes scheduled for 25th. As the day breaks from the dawn, number of vehicles make their way into the town ferrying the students from various parts of country. The provosts remain busy allocating the rooms and lecturers keep busy planning for the semester.

Everybody seems so engaged with the regular duty and thus the Fall Semester has officially started in the Sherubtse College.

My Birthday Prediction!

Today is a very special day for me. I’m all so thankful for this day for I was given this wonderful experience to be this world.

I did not have a luxury of celebrating a cake ceremony with candlelight. I did not have a pleasure of hosting a sumptuous dinner and I did not have an honor of receiving a special call or wishes from the loved ones, either.

But I did have a chance to smile real big with my 1^st grader niece. I happen to share about my birthday to my sister over a lunch along a casual conversation. It wasn’t that difficult to recollect my 25^th birthday, (1^st July2012), when I do so, though, it brings me tears and fears. The last thing anybody would want for the birthday is a sickness/illness! I was seriously ill and bedridden with sudden body pain and muscle fatigue. My parents panicked but all for their desperate effort in conducting sudden ritual, I recovered by the next day! That’s how I remembered my 25^th birthday. This year’s birthday, at least I am thankful, I didn’t fall sick. I am here at Deothang for summer vacation. My niece upon hearing me mentioning about my birthday to her mom, asked me how old I was. I plainly said “26”, but my answer surprised her. For some reason, she doesn’t seem to believe me until her mom’s confirmation.

Having confirmed, she took out a paper and a pencil and sat beside me. She asked me a few questions, and I answered based to my abilities. J The next moment she had the findings of her game. She has a prediction for me on my 26^th birthday:

“You will marry with KZ (short form of my girl choice I’ve given to her, and will go to Tibet, will have one kid and be a carpenter later in life!”

I was amazed by my 1^st grader niece’s prediction. Although it is just a game, I liked her findings, I really did. Haha. She made my birthday special with her prediction and I promised that I would see if her prediction indeed turns out to be true.