The land of the "first"

Because this blog post has the potential to consume all of my remaining time and energy, I'm going to resort to something I generally despise, the bullet point. See, despite the fact that I consider myself to be fairly well-traveled, Bhutan has turned out to be a land of firsts for me. And, we've only been here for three days! In those three days, I've lost track of all of the times I've said, "Well, I never imagined I'd see that." So, without further ado, the promised list of firsts (I can't figure out how to do bullets on this app, so I hope you'll tolerate dashes):

-Saw my first Takin, the national animal of Bhutan (see photo).
-Stood on a stage in front of 1000 Bhutanese kids while they sang their national anthem with the Himalayas serving as the backdrop.
-Couldn't play basketball in the gym we wanted to use because the king was worried that it was unsafe.
-Watched two princesses (twins) play basketball.
-Was told that I would have to order something else because the restaurant had run out of yak.
-Sang for a finalist on "Bhutan's Idol" so that I could convince her to sing for me.
-Listened to a principal's morning announcements that included, "...and we ask that all of the children stop swimming in the river or you will die."
-Watched a artist make an amazing wood carving with his feet.
-Saw several examples around town of how the Bhutanese ward off evil spirits (Since this is a family blog, I won't attach a picture; you may not want to google it either. We'll tell you when we get home.)

These are just the first things that popped into my mind. I'm probably missing some, and I'm sure there will be many more firsts to come. And, when they do, I'll be ready with more bullets...er...dashes.

Good night from the land of firsts!