Although it was quite awkward, it was also helpful, to say the least, because there were so many teachers who I knew personally. I felt that talking to them was very artificial and out of their usual natural behavior. It was fun talking to the peers as there were many weird topics which we did not take much seriousness but rather humor to discuss the topics.

For me, some of the main takeaways were the main importance of using body language. It serves quite an important part of an asset in conveying one’s message in a conversation. I managed to squeeze in one conversation with only one of the adult. He was the one who was acting out the role of Sodexo staff. So, in the beginning, I thanked the person and ask them to keep up the fabulous job. Then as one thing leads to another talking about missing home food, I discovered the person had visited Bhutan before. He had enjoyed his stay in Bhutan and asked me about generally how my time here has been so far. It was a networking conversation that turned into a reflective conversation almost like someone from home.

So although most of the time, I had been able to engage with only one person, it was great getting feedback from the person. He did say that my way of bringing that personal element to connect to the person was good but if the stakes had been higher for say like a job interview, I would have to lay out my arguments better. In essence, the event was very helpful and found it absolutely worthy to carry out again in the future.