Kaadinchey!

One thing to know about a country with a lot of stray dogs: bring earplugs because there will be a lot of barking and you will without a doubt be woken up before you want to be. 

We started our second day with a talk by Dr. Saamdu, a Lama who gave us a presentation about how Bhutan measures their growth and success. Rather than measuring by gross domestic product, they measure in gross domestic happiness. They believe that if you have a country that has a lot of economic success, but unhappy people, they can not be considered a successful country. After the presentation we went outside to share tea and have Q&A session about how this measurement has been successful for the country. 

During tea, Dash lost a tooth! We learned that the local custom is to find a rat and give the tooth to him to take away. So here is Dash giving his tooth to Ryan's stuffed rat. 

We visited the Bhutan Textile Museum where we watched a short documentary on how traditional Bhutanese textiles are made by hand and viewed some of the textiles that were worn by the Royal Family of the 4th Dragon King. Later on in the day we were able to visit a shop where they make traditional dress, accessories like scarves and purses, and wall hangings out of silk and cotton. 

Our lunch was at a local restaurant and was served family style. Here in Bhutan, chilies and cheese are their signature foods, so most things are very spicy. A lot of us treasure the times plain rice (and dessert!) are served. Despite the heat, all the local food has been incredible, and we're often taking seconds. 

We had a chance to visit the Royal Thimpu College. We started with a presentation by the President of the College and then had a tour of the campus. I'll tell you what, never again will I complain about the hills at Shenandoah because waking up hills at such high altitudes is quite the feat. It was well worth it though, the campus has the most gorgeous views of the mountain range, where you can see the giant statue of Buddha in the distance. They host international students from neighboring countries and fingers crossed they start an exchange program with America soon. 

Side note, every single time we pass a dog Taylor gets distracted and points it out. All the stray dogs on campus have been given shots so he FINALLY got to pet one. You don't know happy until you see Taylor Bloom petting a dog for the first time in days. We also learned that in the cycle of reincarnation, dogs are believed to be the step before becoming a human, so in Bhutan the stray dogs are well fed and respected by the local people. 

Dinner was at another local restaurant and was just as delicious as lunch. There was chicken, fried greens, cauliflower, white rice, a cheese and chili sauce to go with it, and momos- which is a dumpling filled with cheese and cabbage. I am obsessed with these things; I'm pretty sure I've eaten over 40 in the last 12 hours.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel and we all went down to the bar to share some local drinks and good stories. Kaadinchhey! (which means thank you, but is currently the only word we know, so it's being used for cheers!)