There are over a million people that live in this city. Most of them live in gers. Which means that most of them burn coal in order to keep from freezing. Although I rest soundly in a Soviet built apartment with centralized heating in the center of the city, the smoke from all of the gers covers the entire city. When I get up in the morning the air is so thick that I cannot even see buildings less than 100 yards away. Throughout the day the air lightens up so that I can see a bit further across the street, but by nightfall I am again swimming in a sea of smog. I am often envious of other Peace Corps Volunteers who do not live in the city, who do not deal with the smog, and do not have to life in the middle of such madness. My life is often made simpler because I've got "home comforts" but I would gladly trade each and every one of them in to be able to walk outside and see the stars at night.

Josh:

I DO NOT REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OR THE UNITED STATES PEACE CORPS.

Questions?

Sorry for the Confusion.

P.S. I can't believe people actually read my blog.

Please...whatever you do...don't forget that I do not represent the U.S. Government or The United States Peace Corps. Any questions? Ok.

Since my last post...only two days ago, I have learned a bit more about my life for the next two years. It turns out that I am going to be teaching at a four year University in the Capital city for the next two years. This should make all the members of the cave happy since it now turns out that I'll be able to fully use my professor shoes.

I'm a little concerned about teaching students that I am only maybe one year older than...but my supervisor does not seemed too worried about it since apparently the kids will love me for playing basketball with them. I guess its time to start playing basketball again.

Besides teaching I'm also going to be working on community development projects. I'm going to build an English Language Resource room and I may get to help develop a "City Tour Club". I'll have to get to know the city before I do that one, however.

I'm looking forward to moving there. I'm also looking forward to eating some spices in my food. I'm also excited about teaching at the University level. I feel like I've gotten a promotion or something.

Alright...thats about all I've got for now. To answer your question Jay: I don't know if people read this thing or not. But I'm pleased to see that you do. Tell people how incredibly amazing and well written it is.

Hope all are well!

Kyle

Hello!

Well, it turns out that I am not all that great at updating a blog.  But its not exactly like I’m sitting around with wireless internet these days.  But before I go any further, I would just like to say that anything read on this blog represents only my views.  It does not express the views of the United States Government or the United States Peace Corps.  If you’ve got any questions on this...please respond in true blogging format in the blog section of this blog.  Or you could as the United States Government personally how they feel about things...then you could get their side of the story too.  But seriously, nothing I say has anything to do with them.

Anyways, in case you haven’t caught on yet I’m now in Mongolia.  I’ve been here since about the first of June...and will be here (according to my calculations) until August of 2010.  I hear that its a long time, but don’t worry, the Peace Corps is going to give me something to do all that time.

For the time being I am living in a small town north of the capital, Ulaanbataar.  I’m living with a host family for a little while since I’m in the process of learning the language and figuring out which of my habits actually mean that “I will put a curse on your entire family” (something that I’ve done at least a dozen times since I’ve been here...always by accident...and only once since I learned what I was doing) and which of my habits are completely harmless.  As for the language...I can now successfully give directions, ask for directions (though not understand the answer I get) describe my family, and say that my stomach hurts.  As it turns out...English and Mongolian are not the same thing.  Why didn’t someone tell me this?

Despite my lack of communication...I am having a great time here in Mongolia.  There a few other Americans around during this training period and its always good to have someone to bounce your perspective off of.  For instance, this past weekend all of our host families took us out the country side (affectionately known as the hudoo) to give us an “authentic” mongolian style outing.  An experience that includes a lot of sitting around...culminating in killing/cooking of a goat and ceremonially throwing vodka into the air as a sacrifice to the earth.  Its actually a pretty cool experience.  Did I mention there was a lot of sitting around?

I would write a few Mongolian words to prove that I’ve actually learned something but Mongolian uses an entirely different alphabet (one of the things that makes this language as difficult as it is)...but its not as if anyone would know what I was saying anyways so I suppose that its just as well that my keyboard doesn’t translate into Cyrillic.

Anyways, I hope this entry finds anyone who reads it well.  In case you are curious, I have drank the infamous “aireg” believed by some to be fermented yaks urine...or called “yak juice” in some circles  It is actually fermented mare’s milk.  And its actually really good.  But the damage that dairy and alcohol will do to one’s digestive system is something that can only be experienced.  Writing about it would only make you wish you  had never stumbled upon my blog. Talk to you later!

Until Then, Kyle

P.S.  If you think that in your life you’ve ever seen an open space...you haven’t until you’ve been to Mongolia.  The amount of open space in the country is almost frightening and makes you feel incredibly insignificant to the earth.  Not that the earth has ever paid me much attention.

Alright...since all you guys ask such great questions, I'll let you know what Mongolians eat for breakfast:

Noodles and Fat.

Sometimes it rice and fat. But mostly noodles and fat.

Lunch time is different:

Noodles, Meat, and Fat.

Also sometimes rice. But mostly noodles.

Dinner time is my favorite:

Rice and Milk.

One time we had bread and strawberry Jam. But unfortunately...not last night.

The food here is actually good...a lot of the same ingredients meal after meal. The other night I had chicken for the first time since I was in San Francisco. Delicious!

I have a longer post that I will publish...but its saved on a different computer...give me a few minutes and it'll be there. But I can't remember if I talked about meal time or not...

This is going to be the place where I am going to let people follow along with what I am doing in Mongolia. When I get to Mongolia I do not know how much access I am going to have to the internet, but seeing as I should have at least some, I'll do my best to update this site as much as possible.

In less than one month I'll be in Mongolia. I'm not quite sure yet what I've gotten myself into. I suppose I'll find out soon.

Until later,

Kyle