Scholarship Winners: Tsewang Bhuti Lama

Tashi Delek!!!

I am quite excited to be writing this e-mail but it’s hard to figure where to begin… I will start with my winter break. Ashton Douglass and her family invited me to their place in D.C. and I felt right at home there. It was great getting the chance to know Ashton at a personal level and exploring D.C. a bit too. It was bizarre being so close to the capital of USA: seeing the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and the War Memorials and of course the beautiful museums they have there. It would have been better if I had gotten to have a cup of tea with Mr. Bush and share some of my thoughts with him. Another highlight of my D.C experience was getting the opportunity to volunteer at International Campaign for Tibet, whose chairman of the Board is Richard Gere (go Shirley!!!). It broadened my knowledge on the Tibet-China issue a little more and I got to work with some wonderful people. Then, I went to New York City for a week to visit the Chenders, who are just fun to be with and there is no doubt that they would have been a great host family if I had gone to The Masters School.

St. Lawrence University is an amazing school. There are unlimited opportunities and it is just a matter of being able to manage my time well so that I can do everything that I want. My social life here mostly involves my friends from my dormitory, some international students and of course my schoolmates from Norway. St. Lawrence is famous for being one of the most popular party schools so, a fair amount of partying goes on. I used to go out quite often in the beginning but now that I have jobs and am more settled, I go out once in a while. I like to perform thus, I take part in most of the international shows. At the moment we are practicing Chyangba hoi Chyangba (the original version) for a show called Kaleidoscope. I am a member of the SLU Buddies program here. I go to the local school to spend time with a third grader every Friday. It always makes me so happy to be with kids. Soon I am going to volunteer at a local church with their freewill dinner on Wednesdays.  I work at the café and the library. All these activities keep me in shape otherwise; I would be gaining weight like crazy because I eat a lot. Like any typical student, I would say that school is tough but hard work always pays off…

Our spring break is starting in two weeks, which means that exams and assignment deadlines are nearing too. The next few weeks will be fairly busy and stressful. I am going to visit the Chenders again and I am looking forward to that. While I am in NYC, I will probably meet up with the Tibetans and Nepalis that live there. It’s always fun to be in a familiar environment.

Patrick and his friend Alex Braff visited me on Tuesday. It was great seeing Patrick again and showing him around…

I think about home often and now that I speak to my mom often on the phone, I miss home more… I am looking forward to seeing everyone in the summer. I will be there only for a month, which is pretty short, it will nevertheless be worth it.

Happy Losar and thank you for the present life I have…. I feel blessed to be a member of the SMD family.