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Saturday was a day to buy presents because Steffen is going back to Denmark early Monday morning. We took a trip downtown, first to the bank and post office …. and found the most amazing thing: at the post office you can hand in your own photo on an USB and get stamps with your own picture on them! It wasn't very expensive either. I am definitely going to try that one day!
We visited a gift shop and walked around in it for an hour - they had just about everything so it was difficult to choose :-) I bought a CD with mantras on it - for meditation. Looking forward to trying it.
We had lunch at the Ambient and shopped a little more afterwards. Then we went home to rest before going to Jumolhari for dinner.
Late afternoon miss Kinley from the ministry texted me and asked if I would like to have lunch with her on Sunday - at her cousin's wedding! Of course I did - and I hurried downtown again to buy a wedding present - a very beautiful glass bowl. Miss Kinley wrote that she would pick me up on Sunday.
I didn't know what time she would be here, but expected it to be around noon. I had my shower and was sitting writing at my computer when I got this feeling that I ought to check my cell phone. Oh my - at 11.05 miss Kinley had written to me that she would pick me up in 20 minutes. I looked at the clock - 11.15. Suddenly I was in a hurry getting dressed and getting ready! But I managed …. and waited outside for 20 minutes more - Bhutanese time ;-)
Miss Kinley came together with her sister (also Kinley) and we drove for 15 minutes to the other side of Thimphu, where the lunch was held.
The very first thing we did was walk into a small house where the bride and groom were standing receiving congratulations and gifts. And white scarves! Every single guest gave them a white scarf which means good luck :-) At the end they must have got 200 - 300 white scarves! Earlier in the day they had gone through some ceremonies at home - performed by Buddhist monks. So this was the celebration with families and friends and neighbors.
Outside there were 3 big tents with tables and chairs for all the guests and we were offered red wine, white wine and the local wine, ara, which is very strong as well chocolates, bethel nuts to chew and nuts and other snacks. There was a dance group entertaining us, dancing, playing music and singing. They were very good! All the guests enjoyed talking to each other - I think it was like a family reunion for them. Probably they don't see each other that often.
After a couple of hours there was a buffet with different kinds of food - warm food - Bhutanese people always eat warm food: in the morning, at lunch and in the evening. It was very good - and some of it was extremely hot and spicy with lots of chilies. I have learnt to recognize the very spicy food so I took something else ;-) There was also a wedding cake that looked very much like a Danish wedding cake. I asked miss Kinley about it and she said that the cake was a very new tradition in Bhutan - an imported tradition. After lunch people started breaking up and going home and so did we. It was quite an experience to be there.
In the evening I had dinner with Steffen again - it was his last night in Thimphu - a little sad. But Carsten is leaving on Friday and I am off on Saturday so we will all see Denmark and each other again very soon :-)
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