Introductions

Today was my first day of teaching.  I took a good amount of time introducing myself and what I do back in Seattle. 

We also played a game of “Snowball.”  In this game, the monks and nuns write their names on a piece of paper, fashion a “snowball” and then they throw the snowball toward the front of the room.  When all of the snowballs are at the front of the room, everyone gets up and gets a snowball.   Each monk must introduce himself to the person on the paper.  In this way, people get to know one another.  We did this one more time when the monks wrote one thing that they knew about the brain.

After snowball, we started the history of neuroscience.  I had prepared cards with different milestones in neuroscience including trephining (cutting holes in the head), acupuncture, Aristotle, Galen, Golgi, Cajal, and brain imaging.  The goal of the game was the place each event in the correct chronological order.  The monks and nuns did a good job, but could have done better if the brief description of the event had been in Tibetan.  I’ll leave a set of cards with the translators so they can use these again.