OTHER SIDE OF ME: Travelling?

I was a lazy person when I was in CST and in some way I still am. All I ever wanted was to keep myself within the four walls of my room and believe me it was not boring. The assignment, term test, presentation and a lot more was there to keep us fully engaged and I do miss this things. I don’t remember of going out much except the frequent visit to the goenpa below our college. Whenever I go to goenpa my friends would make fun of me and say “are you going for your leejong(exercise) ?“ well I once told them that I was going for leejong and since then they didn’t leave me alone for using the proper dzongkha word. Actually I really thought of taking a walk to goenpa daily because one of my friends told me that I look weak and fragile and need to do some exercise. But then I could not stick to the schedule and yes I am still weak and fragile. May be one fine day I will seriously carry out my physical exercise. Even when there are holidays for two to three days, I will prefer to stay in college and watch some movie or do something rather than going home because I vomit like twice or thrice before I reach home. So I guess this lame excuses stopped me from travelling and I thought I was not a travelling kind of person. I even remember telling some of my friends and my roommate from CST who is now in Abertay Dundee was like “I thought you didn’t like travelling” When we talked few days back.

But then I came to Riga, beautiful and calm city meant for person like me. I don’t like noisy and overcrowded places and Riga does not have any of those things. God did listen to me this time. I did see my seniors travelling when they came for exchange but I never thought I will also travel. I thought of travelling to few places and specially Prague. Ever since I watched the bollywood movie rock star in 2^nd year, Prague was stuck in my head and I didn’t know how and when but unknowingly I did wish to visit this place. I am very bad in geography and all those time I thought Prague was in Germany. Well sometime I can be so ignorant. So when one of my classmates in RTU told me that he is from Czech Republic, I was like where is this place. I had a very good laugh later on when I knew that Prague was the capital of Czech Republic.

So if you have the Schengen visa and very good monthly stipend (for exchange stipend is very good), you just cannot stop travelling. Even if you have thought initially to save some money, the idea evaporates when you know that may be travelling to the other places and countries in Europe may be once in a life time opportunity and the travelling list goes on. The roads are straight so I don’t vomit even if I travel in bus or train, another plus point for me. And I really started to appreciate those engineers who have constructed roads in Bhutan which is filled with mountains. It must have been so challenging. Only two and half months left and another trips on its way and then I will be back home. I know that one day when I look back and think of my days in Europe, it will always bring a smile on my face and may be will feel bit nostalgic. May be for a short period of time, my dream to study outside, learn about their education system was fulfilled. Somehow I feel that it is not that we Bhutanese are not capable, it is just that we do not have those facility at our disposal to do things we wanted to do. But then rather than complaining we have to make use of what we have. For this wonderful opportunity I will always be thankful to both the home and Host University and the project in particular.

p.s few pictures from places I visited during easter holiday.