By: Eva Coleman

Bhutan
Posted: November 29, 2022
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Student Post

New Appreciation for Rice

Bhutan

With the wind, the water would ripple, and so would the rice stalks… I will never forget the image of the green waves making their way across the valley.


Photo of Paro on our way back to the SFS Center. Shows the view of the rice fields with the mountainous background.

I didn’t know what to expect when I first arrived in Bhutan. In all my research, I never read anything that explained to me how I would feel entering Bhutan. Flying into Bhutan, you felt like the wings of the plane would touch the mountain peaks. Instantly I noticed the kindness in each person, the boldness of the animals, and the wildness of the mountain forests. The SFS center, which the students this summer called ‘the Palace’, sits on a hill overlooking the town of Paro. Some elements of Paro felt very familiar to me; children getting out of school, store clerks sweeping their steps, teenagers with their Nikes, ice cream scoops on hot days. Yet, all of this was mixed with things I had never seen before. Cows and horses walking down the ma