BHUTAN - THIMPHU
Since I arrived in Bhutan one month ago and started my semester abroad, I have already had many new experiences, made new friends and discovered everyday life at the campus. I was able to discover many cultural differences, especially through living at the campus, being close to the students and sharing a room with a Bhutanese student. Being together all the time is one of the main differences for me. The collectivist culture creates a different social environment in Bhutan. In the morning you go to breakfast, spend time studying, and then do sports in the afternoon together. In the afternoon it is likely that we go to town in Thimphu. However, I have rarely seen students here on their own. I find this particularly nice in terms of being able to create a sense of community.
Another noticeable difference is the increased connectedness of families, seen through the way they take care of each other. Often parents even bring their children to work, in order to spend more time with each other as well because of the economic situation.
The connectedness extended to me as well. I got the impression that they try to make you feel equally welcomed in Bhutan. Especially in my introduction week I noticed that by the time and effort, the RTC Team put into showing and explaining everything in detail to us. That includes as well the religion of Buddhism, as we were introduced by the President with a Mindfulness workshop, which was a great start to dig deeper into the spirituality Bhutan has, seen by the many temples. Later on we already got the chance to talk to a monk at an Bhuddist Institute, which gave an interesting insight into the perspective of his life.
Another crucial thing I got to notice is that time is valued differently. For me, life seems to be quite peaceful, which is something that the people also radiate in Bhutan. That is something I still try to adapt, as I am sometimes quite an inpatient person when it comes to time management. I noticed this throughout some of my courses, which are quite different in the teaching style. I observed that as well in the paste of walking. I tend to walk way faster than fellow Bhutanese students. While they enjoy and are not in a stress I seem to rush from place to place.
Keeping the time out of your mind, makes you notice way more details and aspects in their full way, as you become more aware to the nature, which I noticed on different hikes, for example the Tiger’s Nest, which I can only recommend to visit. What made me adapt faster to the pace but as well made me feel part of them is the traditional clothes, which is mandatory for Bhutanese students to wear at campus as well at events outside of university. It consist of an Kira, which is a skirt to ankle length, a Tego the top of the clothes and under the Tego, is worn a Wonchu. The men traditionally wear a Gho.
But even though I have stayed here for one month now, this is a very short time to get adapted to some habits. As I got to mention that I noticed the different value of time, I was still surprised waiting for my fellow students forty-five minutes in order to do an group assignment. This is something I have to get used to as I am sure that it will definitely happen again.
Another thing that struck me very quickly is the sharing culture that exists here, even if this seems a little natural to me since I've been here. In contrast to many other cultures where everyone is responsible for oneself, people make sure that everyone is doing well. For example, if someone opens a bag of potato chips, there is no question of it being shared! Otherwise it would probably be seen as unfriendly.
As I have the feeling to already know a lot more in that short period of time that I have spent in this interesting country, I am sure there is way more for me to discover and learn from the people and the spirit of the culture. I am looking forward to new periods of learning more in the future!