It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. I know that I told you it would be, but at the time I really didn’t think it’d be this long. I know of at least a couple mothers and one grandmother out there that has been wondering what I’ve been up to. So, I hope you enjoy. I’ve been up to all kinds of crazy things in the last few months. Let me tell you of some of the most exciting.

I found some Mt. Dew at the store next to my buddy’s place in the city. I bought 10 of them and they lasted me several weeks as I savoured every last sip. It’s a really nice grocery store compared to most, and surprisingly, the prices are pretty cheap. I usually get cheese for my pizzas there. Since it is literally next door to my buddy’s place, we always go there for what we want. I swear I’ve been in there five times in one day. You’d think it’d be smarter and more efficient to go there just once, but for some reason or another, it never works out that way. I’ve gotten to know the guy that sits at the door and watches the cameras. He’s a nice guy and is always smiling. As is congenial in Mongolian culture, I greet him with a “Hello big brother, how are you?” while giving him a handshake. He always gets a kick out of me and takes care of me if I need anything. For example, beer, after they’re not supposed to be selling it anymore for the day.

For my own mama: I went to the dentist recently. It was a quick trip, in and out. No cavities. One of my friends had seven cavities when she went, and she brushes all the time. I just knew that I was going to have at least one, given all the candy that I eat. I was glad that I didn’t.

At the beginning of August, I went to see the trainees’ swearing-in ceremony. It was in a town right outside of UB and is the only place in Mongolia that I’ve seen that actually resembles American suburbs. I mean, there is even one house with a white picket fence and some of the nicest grass you could find. When I was walking by it, I had to stop to feel of it, cause it’s been so long since I’ve seen grass like that. Anyway. The trainees were all excited to finally be done with their training. I remember being like that myself last year. Ah, how much a person changes in one year. I got to visit with them a little bit that evening, but they were either tired or not quite as rowdy as some of the people in my group.

In the few months since then, though, I’ve gotten to know a few of them pretty good, and they seem alright. One of them is my new site-mate, named Josh. He’s 28, from the DC area, and is an English teacher. He’s alright. He comes over about once a week or so and we talk, have a few drinks, play Settlers (where I give him a good spankin’), and watch movies. Like everyone, he’s integrating and getting frustrated and learning how things work around here. I think he’ll be fine.

James left in September. There is no telling when I’ll see him again, so I went into the city and hung out with him for a few days. He’ll went back to New York and will take a few months to acculturate back into the life of an American, then start school next semester. I’ve talked to him a few times on email since he’s been back. He’s doing exactly what I’d expect him to do: being lazy, eating good food, drinking good beer, and hanging out with friends. I’ll miss him.

In late August, my group went to Terelj National Park for Peace Corps’ Mid-Service Training (MST). This time, it was only Volunteers, and the schedule was kind of relaxed. We spent time talking about projects that we’re working on so others could take notes for things they might like to do, and we took Mongolian language lessons. These days, the biggest thing I’m interested in is learning more Mongolian, so that was my favourite part. For every meal, we had really good food from the hotel’s restaurant. They serve a few courses for each meal, also, so I never walked away from the table hungry or wanting more. During breaks and after our day finished, we went outside. There is one of the few forests I’ve seen in Mongolia there, with a river running next to the hotel. All weekend, there were half-naked Volunteers jumping off the foot-bridge and into the freezing cold water. I knew I wanted to do it, but didn’t have the time until about midnight one night. A group of us went outside, screwed up our courage, and then jumped in. I barely hit the water before I was trying to get out. Luckily, only the water was cold and I was smart enough to bring a towel.

We also had a Settlers of Catan tournament one night. It’s become quite a cult favourite among PC/Mongolia Volunteers. If there’s a group of us and someone has the game, you can bet that someone will be playing it. One of the girls started about a month ahead of time and organised a tournament for everyone interested. After talking a few last minute players into joining us, we had a 16-person, single-elimination bracket. We started one night after dinner, two four-man games going at once. Each game takes 30 minutes to an hour. I made it to the second round and was then put out. I hung around til the end, around 1:00a.m., and had the pleasure of seeing Brandon win the whole thing. In true Mongolian style, he was awarded a certificate in front of everyone the following day. Some of the other people made fun of us when we first started talking about playing, but many of them were in and out to watch us, then cheered heartily when Brandon got his certificate. They appreciated the fact that, even though they weren’t interested, we were all able to get together to do something we enjoy.

My friend Mendee had a baby girl. I hadn’t seen him for a long time when I ran into him in the city. At the time, he had changed jobs and was working for the Scouts, but he’s told me that he’s changed jobs again, since then. As with any parent who has just had their second baby, when the first one is still a young toddler, he was as busy as could be. Coincidentally, after having talked to him for a bit, I met random Scouts in the street that were selling bars of soap. They showed me the small cube and told me in English that the price was $1. I looked at him, then I asked in Mongolian and he told me it was 500tg. That’s a big difference at about a 1/3 of a dollar. I got one and still haven’t used the whole thing yet. It’s just an awkward shape for my hands, and it doesn’t suds up well. I’m glad I got it, but I won’t get another one.

I went through a period where my water pressure was literally a drip. Some might say that at least I have water that comes into my apartment, but my rebuttal is that even though they have to go out for water, at least they get more at a time than I did. I might have gotten only 7 gallons of water a day, if I let the faucet run 24/7. Not to say that isn’t a lot of water, but at least if I was hauling it myself, I would be able to get more if I wanted it and be able to do everything I wanted all at once, instead of waiting for more to drip out. I know some volunteers who have 30+ gallon water containers in their gers.

After complaining however many times, some guys finally came to my apartment to check it out. As is their wont, the first thing they did was to get a hammer and bang on the pipes, hoping that would make it work right again. At first they were just using the small multi-tool hammer that I have. When that didn’t work, they got a bigger hammer. I never thought I would see the saying truly put to practice. “If it doesn’t go in, get a bigger hammer.” It would’ve been funny if they hadn’t messed up my multi-tool in the process by bending the piece of metal that keeps it closed. In the end, they got a pipe-wrench and took out the screen filter that was in one of the joints. Instead of just cleaning it good and putting it back, they threw the entire lot away. Now I can get 10 gallons of water in just a few minutes, but I have to be careful about small pieces of rust.

Then, right before I went to UB a few weeks ago, the faucet in the kitchen messed up. It’s always been tricky to get it to turn off. It finally gave up the good fight. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the faucet to close. All it needs is a little pressure to keep the handle down, but I didn’t know what. Finally, the idea struck: use a water bottle full of water. So, now I have a 1.5 litre bottle of water carefully balanced on the faucet handle to keep the water from running freely. There’s still a drip, though. I’ve already told people that need to know, but they just laughed. I’ll let the water drip for a while, then complain about it again. I’ll keep you posted on when it finally gets fixed properly.

Did I tell you about the cactus that I got last fall? I was with some people in the city when they stopped at a flower store and I thought I’d get something, too. I saw a neat little yellow cactus that was cheap, so I picked it up. Well, back in the spring, a new plant started sprouting out of the same pot. I don’t know where it came from, because all of the dirt that I have in that pot was gotten from the flower shop. The only thing I could imagine was that maybe one of the 14 million flies had brought it in somehow. As an experiment, I decided to make sure it had plenty of water and sun so I could see what it was. It grew, then after a week or so, another just like it sprouted. A few days later, I transplanted both of them into their own pot and continued the water and sun regimen. It grew, and more sprouts emerged and eventually it took over the whole pot. Before the cold weather hit and it died, it had started growing along my window ledge. As far as I could tell, it was just a wild flower like I might find outside when I’m walking out on the steppe. It was small, with little yellow flowers that bloomed for a few days at a time. I’m hoping it’ll come back next year.

Back in August, I walked into my buddy’s place in the city and met Stephen. He’s an American CouchSurfer who has been living in Russia for a few months and had to leave for a while because of his visa. He was our age and fit right in with our group, quickly catching on to our jokes and picking on us as much as we picked on him. He came with Evan to my town for a few days and we had a good time. Later, I walked into my buddy’s place in the city and met Dimitry. He’s Russian, and as it turns out, he is Stephen’s friend from the town he used to live in. What a crazy, coincidental world we live in. Dimitry was cool, though definitely Russian when he got a few drinks in him. He also came to my town for a couple days and stayed with me. We sat around watching movies and cooking lots of food and playing a Russian card game that translates as “fool.” He taught me how to make a really easy stew, also. That’ll be good, now that’s it’s f-ing cold outside.

Here are a couple of links to stories about Mongolia. I found out about them from another Volunteer. Hope you enjoy them.

Msnbc http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32736713#32736713

NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112466787

Back at the end of August, I went with six other Volunteers to Hovd and Bayan Olgii, way way way way way out in the far west of the country. Did I say it is way out there? OMG!!!

I went out there to visit with some friends and see the Eagle Festival that is held every year. That side of the country is only a short distance from Kazakhstan, so most of the people there are Kazakh. They are the only ones in the world that are legally permitted to possess eagles and train them for hunting, or so I’ve been told/read somewhere. Later, after however many years, they release them back into the wild with no worries that they will be able to fend for themselves.

There are two ways to get over there: bus and small plane. The plane is quite expensive not only for Volunteers, but for all foreigners with something like a 50% tax. The bus is a little less than half the size of a Greyhound bus (no bathroom), and designed for off-road. Just a few hours outside the capital, all roads become the bumpiest, most pot-hole filled dirt roads you could imagine. The bus is first crammed full of everyone's stuff, including people that only pay to have their stuff sent; then the 26-seat bus is filled with 35-40 people. It's one of the most uncomfortable things you could imagine. The first leg was 38 hours. I’d say I probably got a total of about 8 hours sleep, if that. We stayed in Hovd with a few friends for a couple days, then got on a small Russian van and went another 8 hours to the Kazakh town of Bayan Olgii, where the Eagle Festival is held.

The people there weren't very nice. They demanded $30US from every foreigner that tried to go in. Since most of them were just tourists, it was only a problem for me and my friends. Some sneaked in with a car of Mongolians, a few paid, and me and a buddy climbed a mountain to avoid the money guy. The mountain was a little steep going up, but it was terribly so on the down side. The first 20 minutes was really scary, but after that, we were able to kind of surf down the scree and made good timing.

The Eagle fest itself was kind of cool. People there speak Kazakh if given the choice, so I didn't understand most of what was going on, but they do speak Mongolian, so when I asked someone, they would explain it to me. They had games where men on horses would play tug of war with a goat carcass; women would ride a horse and chase men on horses, the whole time, beating them with sticks; eagles would fly from mountain crags to land on the arm of their master that is riding a horse; and there were foxes and wolves that were sacrificed to the eagles for the enjoyment of the crowd. And all around everywhere, there were men with eagles on their arms, enjoying all the attention they were getting. Whenever I get around to it, there are lots of pics. That stuff was pretty neat.

On the way back, the Russian van that we rode in from Hovd had three flat tires. There was a spare for the first, so that was a 10 minute stop. When the second tire went flat, the driver got out, ran off into the countryside, then came back 20 minutes later rolling a new tire. He put it on long enough to go to the house that he got it from. I have no idea how he knew exactly where it was. At the house, we all went inside to get warm. It was snowing, and there was no heat in the van. For some reason, the tires had inner-tubes, so we sat there for about an hour or so while it was repaired. An hour after getting back on the road, there was a third flat, and no nearby houses. We all stayed huddled together in the van as the driver got out to fix that inner-tube, taking about an hour and a half. The ride to Hovd was about 10 hours.

The next day, we got back on the bus to go back to the capital. It was packed full of more stuff and people than the ride in had been. We had three flat tires and ran out of gas three times. Luckily, there were plenty of spares, and we were never too far from a gas station. Once, the driver got out, grabbed a can, and took off running down the road for gas. Once, we were literally 100 feet from the pump. They surprisingly had enough spares for all the flats, so those only took about 10 minutes each and allowed us time to stretch our legs. Inside the bus, there was a passed-out drunk guy leaning back on my feet for most of the ride, and a guy that just didn’t care at all about me leaning on my legs. That ride took 45.5 hours. So, in the space of 9 days, I was on a bus for 5.5 of those days. The first things I did when I got back to the city were take a nap, eat good food, and get a massage. I felt much better after that.

Now that I'm back at my home, I don't plan on ever doing any kind of traveling like that again while I'm in this country. In the 101.5 hours that it took me to go from the middle of the country to the west, and back, I could've gone from NY to LA 2.3 times. Man, I wish this country had good roads.

Since the last time I’ve written, I’ve gotten about three boxes from my mom and sister. As always, that’s kept me in extra crunchy peanut butter. I haven’t gotten any Ranch packets in a while, so I’m down to two now. Yikes!!! I don’t know what I’ll do with out Ranch dressing.

Several months ago, H1N1 hit the world unawares and has caused people in the Asian world to bring out their ever-so-ready masks. When I first moved to my town last year, only one guy here wore a mask, and it was a black one that was worn to accentuate his rock-style image. A few months ago, the Mongolian government suggested people wear masks and the number has increased to at least half of the population here. In the city, it’s the same way. People everywhere are wearing masks. In true “screw you, I’m going to make money somehow” fashion, all the drug stores raised the price of their masks from about 100tg to about 700tg.

So, all of this was going on, and I was in the city discussing why we’d only HEARD of two foreigners to wear the mask (and one only because she thought it was cool), when I became quarantined in UB. “Pig sick” is how it directly translates from Mongolian, and it brought this country to a stand-still for a while. The reported number of “pig sick” cases had been rising dramatically, so the government shut down all schools for about four weeks, not even allowing the teachers to go; banned all public transportation in and out of the city; forced all restaurants, pubs, clubs, and bars to close at 9pm; and banned all alcohol sales after 9pm. As a result, Peace Corps Mongolia issued a “Stand fast” order, meaning that we were to go to our closest consolidation point and not leave until given further notice.

I was in the city for that whole time. Lucky me, so were three of my best friends here. We enjoyed the week and a half of lounging around with nothing to do but sleep late, enjoy each others company and conversation, eat good food, and not doing anything we didn’t want to. I spent that time meeting a lot of the Mongolian friends that I have in the city, also. The travel ban has finally been lifted, and high schools are back in session now, but kindergartens and some clubs are still canceled. I went last week and got my seasonal flu shot and also the H1N1 vaccine. Let’s hope they work.

I’m still studying the language as much as possible. I continue to take four classes each month, where I learn grammar and ask questions, and then I go out into the city and try to improve my vocabulary. At this point, my vocabulary is the only thing that ever trips me up in a conversation. I have gotten good enough to where something can be explained to me in Mongolian and I’ll understand it completely. That helps a lot. I always carry a pen and paper with me so I can write down new words and phrases. I’ve been getting a lot of my younger guy friends in UB to teach me a lot of slang. They are complete city boys, having been born and raised there, so they speak a lot of slang. Their English is almost perfect, so they can explain a lot, and I try to talk to them in Mongolian as much as possible. One day, one of the guys laughed and said, “It’s funny, you speak Mongolian, but it’s not Mongolian,” meaning that I speak Mongolian like the old woman that teaches me, not like the guys that are my same age. I thought it was pretty funny.

As always, I took my notes in for my teacher to check. When she was looking over the page that I’d learned from my buddies…oh man, you should’ve seen the look on her face. One of the phrases pertained to when you’re really hungry, sitting in front of some good food. Imagine a young fella talking to his buddy and saying, “Let’s F this food up!” Haha. My teacher, not truly understanding the word, looked at me and said in English, “Why would you do this to food?” I laughed then explained the slang to her. She told me that I should never say these things, because people might think less of me. I had quite a time assuring her that I only say those things to my young, guy friends. Then she proceeded to correct the spelling, cause someone has wrote it wrong. Good times.

Alright, that’s it for me, for now. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I would venture to say that it might just be my favourite American holiday. In case you’re wondering, it’s because I get to eat so much food. I’ll miss being with my cousin, Chad. On Saturday, a lot of the Volunteers will meet in the city and have a potluck dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving. We’ll meet the new ambassador. After that, it’ll just be a few more weeks of pseudo-working, then the New Year planning will begin. Yep, that means there won’t be much work going on at all for a few months. So, I’ll be spending a lot of time trying to keep warm. It has become very cold here, and if I’m not careful, my apartment becomes an icebox. I do seem to be able to handle it better when I’m outside, though. I guess since I know what to expect, it doesn’t seem quite as bad.

Think warm thoughts for me and write when you can. Talk to you later.

Around the end of July, first of August, 2009

It’s right at the beginning of the 14th month of me being in Mongolia with the United States Peace Corps. If there weren’t PC Trainee’s in town with me, giving me something to compare my experiences to, the time that I’ve passed here might not be quite as noticeable lately. One way or another, I’ve seen the majority of them at least once a week since they’ve been here. It’s brought a few things to my attention that I might not have noticed otherwise.

Once, after a weekend in the city, I got off the mikre (micro bus) in their part of town. I met with a group of the Trainees and went to one of their host family’s home. I had expected the entire experience to be quite a different affair than what happened. At the first home, I repeated “Trip” enough times for the most inexperienced person with the English language to get it under their tongue, so I was sure everyone had it down.

I was wrong. No problem. Back since I went to the Khentii pig roast, I’ve had a Mongolian name. I can only begin to tell you how handy it has been for me. I don’t think I mentioned it before, so I will now. It’s what I cite when a particular Mongolian seems to have trouble with “Trip.” When I was at the pig roast, I talked to several Mongolians that continued asking me, in English, what my Mongolian name is. Their American had a Mongolian name and they couldn’t figure out why I didn’t have one. I told them no one had ever given me a Mongolian name, so they proceeded to think of one for me. After a random 15 to 20 minutes, someone decided on Sanchir, meaning “Saturday,” or “the planet Saturn.”

After I tell Mongolians my Mongolian name, followed by “Od shig” (like the star), they all seem to feel much more comfortable with me. I’ve noticed such a big difference with people since I’ve been able to give them a name they can pronounce with little cognizance. Just this evening, I hung out with a guy that just couldn’t get the “TR” to work for him. OH, wait! First, I have a funny story to tell about this person.

I had been helping the jijuur (building worker) today, so after we’d worked on several radiators, I followed him outside and sat down across from a guy that is 21 years older than me. The older fella asked my buddy “what kind of person is the guy with you?” not thinking about the possibility that I might understand Mongolian. My buddy mumbled something incoherent in reply, but I took control of the situation. I said, “Did you ask what kind of person I am? I’m a regular, plain ol’ person.” Counting him, there were five of us there; and all five of us laughed heartily. After that, we got along famously.

This old fella turned out to be a childhood friend of my buddy. We’d all done a bit of labour throughout the day, so we pooled our money from Lilliputia and bought some vodka. Seven of us were able to afford 1 ¼ litres of vodka. In case you were wondering, that works out to plenty of shots each. I was glad that the host kept offering a big pot of flour soup and plenty of water. I got my fill of each. They were sending someone after another bottle when I took my leave.

I told you a few weeks ago about the Trainees coming to my place for fajitas. They had such a good time that we scheduled a rendezvous for a later date. After I’d been to the city to pick up some cheese that was much cheaper than I’d expected, they came over one evening for beer and pizza. I don’t know if they’d ever had home-made, American-style pizza, but they professed “goodness” after every bite. That was enough to make them want to book a future date at the Sanchir Mansion. They even told me my pizza was better than what they had at the restaurant in UB. Sweet!!!

For their latest visit, they came over expecting desserts. I saw a couple of the girls the other day and they told me that when they all left last week, I had promised them that I would buy stuff to make brownies this evening. Since I’d (supposedly) said that very early in the morning, I had no recollection of those words coming out of my mouth. I wasn’t sure that I believed the girls, but I still felt bad, since I had nothing to do with brownies in my immediate possession.

As it turned out, my mother saved the day – once again. I’d found a few random, free postcards recently and I’d had them ready to send to a few select loved ones. I’d been asking the postal worker if a package has come for me for the last several weeks. Every time, she would smile and say, “Not here.” I wasn’t expecting anything when I took my three postcards in to get some stamps. As soon as I walked into the small room, my eye was drawn to the conspicuous white USPS box on the counter next to the wall. Without getting my hopes up, I went to pay for my postcards, not expecting anything else. Before she knew what I was doing, she was shoving the box in my arms and pointing at the line requiring my signature. I signed for the box, paid too much for my three postcards (going back later for the change), then smilingly carried my package all the way home.

Inside I found such things as tooth brushes, Ramen noodles (my lunch), pinto beans, garlic, peanuts, peanut butter, jelly beans, steak marinade, country ham, marshmallow treats (my lunchtime dessert), extra special cheese cake, shaving soap, magazines, a Bible, and a computer cord. I have to admit, the most notable thing I feel like I got was the computer cord. I’ve been without a computer for over five weeks now. I’ve been able to handle the times, but it took some getting used to. Thanks, mom.

One of my self-entertainment methods has been a lot of reading. As I said I would before, I’ve begun reading Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. Along with that, I’ve been reading the Japanese classic Musashi. I first heard about a samurai named Musashi when, as a kiddo, I played a video game by the same name. After getting here, I found the almost 1000-page book in the Peace Corps library. I wasn’t sure how interested I’d be when I first picked it up, but since I’ve opened the book, I haven’t been able to put it down. It was written somewhere around the 1970’s, and is said to be the Gone With The Wind of Japan. I couldn’t tell you how many times my grandmother has read and endorsed Gone With The Wind, but I have to say, if Musashi is any indication of how good it might be, it is on my list of future reads.

Also, I’ve devoted a little more time to my Mongolian language studies. I’m not sure if I mentioned it in my last post, but I have made a concrete step forward in my studies. There is a series of three books for learners of the Mongolian language and I have recently moved on to the third book. It was unexpected and it made me feel proud when my teacher announced my next lesson would be in the third book. I’ve been working on it for a few weeks now and I seem to be doing alright. My grammar and vocabulary is escalating with each successive lesson. I’m getting much closer to being able to sit down and write anything I want to say.

That means, with a little stumbling, I can usually get my point across with the smallest amount of confusion. Then, of course, just when I think I’m doing well, I’ll have a conversation with someone where I don’t understand one word the other person is saying. They’ll know that I understand fairly well, and then just go off speaking their normal 100km/h. After they get the idea that my soupcon of Mongolian is not going to be enough to survive the current conversation, they slow down to about 35km/h and I’ll finally get the point. I feel like a tar-tar at first, but I get over it.

The show is still going; slowly but surely, I suppose. We were originally told that filming would be finished before Naadam (the second weekend of July), and the show would air for the first time on July 20th. For some unexplained reason, things just dropped off for several weeks, with no word from the studio about what was going on. We finally received a call last week and were told to meet the next day at M Entertainment Club. It’s kind of like a posh, young professional hang-out, ran by the people that own the telecommunications company Mobicom. If you have the Mobicom contract where you pay at the end of each month, depending on the amount of calls and messages, then you can do things for free, or a greatly reduced price. They have a Play Station 3 game room, where you get your own flat screen, PS3, a comfortable chair, and your pick of dozens of games; a bar/restaurant area, where the food was wonderful; private, surround sound home studio rooms, where you can watch your choice of several movies; private karaoke rooms, where we sang several songs, terribly; a night club; and a small bowling lanes.

There were only six lanes, but the entire place was much nicer than any bowling alley I’ve ever been to in the US. All of their stuff was Brunswick, and it was well maintained. The shoes were practically brand-new, but the closest size for me was at least two sizes too small; and they didn’t slide, so they had powder to rub on the bottoms. The first thing we did was to throw a few practice balls, then bowl a game. We had all talked about whether we had played before and I mentioned how my grandmother used to be a manager at a bowling place, so I got to bowl a lot as a kiddo. With the camera on me, I threw my first ball and got a strike. Sweet! Unfortunately, my game didn’t proceed as it had started. For the first eight frames, the Japanese guy and the other American guy were winning. Then, on the tenth frame, I threw a strike and spared, giving me the win by three pins. Whoo-hoo! Haha. It was good fun. I’m glad it was free, cause when I looked at the prices, it seemed a bit pricey. A little more than $10 for one game, including shoe rental.

It had been bruited about amongst the Trainees that some of my buddies were coming to my place on the last weekend of July. Evan, Ridge, and Ben were dropped off out by the road, so I walked out and met them, taking the excursion through the middle of the military base. We weren’t awake too long Saturday morning before Trainees started showing up. We guys ate biscuits, gravy, and eggs while sharing stories and anecdotes with the Trainees. We played a few games of Settlers and drank a few beers.

It was a good time.

On the news channel that I have, they always show the current stock markets. I’m glad to see the Dow’s going up. Not to say that it won’t drop again tomorrow, but I’ve watched it go up over 3,000 in the last three or four months. That seems to be a portent of good things happening. I hope so. I had a bit of money in the stock markets when I came to Mongolia. That’s when the Dow was above 14,000. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when it dipped down below 6,000. I have faith in my broker that things always go up in the long run, so I’ve tried to not worry about it too much. Olly, I hope you know what you’re talking about, buddy.

Since I’ve moved here, I’ve wanted to just take off walking and see what I could see in yonder rolling hills. I finally got to do that this last weekend. The guys woke up and left for UB Sunday morning, leaving me alone to sleep a little more. After getting up and doing a bit of cleaning, I got music and books and took off walking in a direction that I hadn’t been yet. I walked to the top of the tallest hill, looked for the next tallest one, and then took off for it. I made it to the top of the third one after an hour and a half and found it to be the ideal place to stop. There was an outcropping of rocks at the very top, making a natural seat in one place; and there was nothing but rolling hills, gers, herds of mixed and various animals in the distance, and bright blue sky and far as I could see.

I took my shirt off, sat down, and opened a book to wile away the next couple of hours. It was so nice that I was distracted from my reading by looking and listening at everything around me. After less than 10 minutes, some old herder saw me and pointed his horse in my direction. At least, I assume he came there because he saw me. He might’ve known about the outcropping long before I ever even thought about walking in its direction. He got off his horse right next to me. I shook his hand and asked how he was doing, telling him where I’m from and where I live now. I offered him my water and we said about three more sentences each. After that, we both let our own minds wander and didn’t say anything else for the next hour or so. I went on reading my book while he napped a bit. I hardly looked up at all until the old fella got up, we both said “Be happy,” and he got on his horse and rode away.

It’s been nice having my computer back. I didn’t have internet at first, because I didn’t pay for it during the month of July. There is no contract, so if you don’t have the bill paid before the first of the month, they cut it off until you pay, at which time it will immediately work again. It’s kind of nice like that. I’ve been able to read and reply to all my emails, catch up with some friends on IM, and update my blog (as you see).

Oh yeah, before I forget. I got drunk-dialed the other day. My BFFE Matt had called me a couple weeks ago. He and my good buddy Chris were out together the other night and happened to think of calling me. Chris called me and we had a good two or three minutes’ talk before the battery on my phone died. Drat!! Oh well. It was better than nothing, and I appreciated the thought very much. And, just in case any of you were wondering, the cheapest way that I’ve heard about to call me is to get one of those international calling cards from Wal-Mart. I was told that they are a really good deal, and you can put more money on them if you want. (For those of you who boycott Wal-Mart, for whatever your reason might be: I don’t know where to tell you to go, but I know they have those cards in other places.) Don’t ever worry about what time it is: I’ll always appreciate the call.

Well, I think I’ve caught you up on most everything I’ve been up to since the last time I wrote. Now that I’ve gotten into the habit of writing less frequently, I think it will continue this way; at least for a while. I was getting to that point where I was doing so many of the same things all the time that it wasn’t really worth writing those things over and over. I’m sure you understand. I hope you are good. Write, send postcards from your own travels, call, or send packages, whenever you feel like it. I’ll appreciate all. Talk to you later.

July 14, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Have any of you missed reading about my adventures and misadventures? There are a few reasons why it’s been so long. I’ll tell my story and you see if you can’t pick them out.

The power cord/adapter/converter for my computer messed up a few weeks ago, so I don’t even know what the last thing I wrote about was. Last month, after we’d been to the lower Gobi, James came to my home with me and stayed for a week. I went to work for a few hours in the morning and then spent the rest of the day hanging out. That week was the poorest that either of us has been since we’ve been in Mongolia. All we did was cook food, play Settlers (which I started winning more), and hang out with some of my friends. We had a good time, for the most part. One night, though, wasn’t such a good time. Moogie is one of the LCF’s (Language and Culture Facilitator) for the new Trainees that are here. She had just gotten back one day and she came to my place to hang out with James and me. We talked her into cooking tsuivan for us and we ate it all. Some of her teacher friends figured that she had money, so they kept calling her to go and hang out with them so she would buy the alcohol for them. After the fourth time they called, she turned her phone off. They just weren’t trying to hear that she didn’t have any money. After a while, four of them showed up at my apartment, already buzzed. Somewhere, somehow, they got enough money between all of them and went to the store for vodka. They were alright for a while, until one of them started touching my computer. It was my first time ever being around her, so apparently she didn’t know me very well. She knows me better now. I saw what she was doing the first time and told her not to, but she did it anyway. I cussed and left the room for a minute to calm down. An hour later, she did something else to my computer that I saw she was about to do and told her not to. I cussed again, in English, and she got pissed at me. We argued back and forth for a few minutes before she finally got the point to not touch my computer anymore, and just because I’m in Mongolia does not mean I’m Mongolian. I was quite upset. Things finally settled down, then the women got to singing and laughing. It wasn’t long before there was a knock on the door. It was a policeman, saying the neighbours had called them. Great. That’s all I need. The aftermath of that was that Moogie’s boss and mine told her that she can’t hang out at my place anymore. I don’t know why they think they can tell someone not to hang out with someone else, but they did.

During the same week that James was here, the new Trainees came. There are 10 of them, training to be TEFLers (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). I wasn’t in UB when they all first got to the country, so I didn’t go to the airport and meet them all like a lot of other Volunteers. They are actually in the other part of town, so James and I decided to walk over and meet them when they got here. I knew it was mostly to cure our curiosity, though, since they were busy meeting host families and such. A couple days later, James and I were bored, so we walked over to see if we could find some of them. After asking where the new Americans were, a little girl led us to a house and told us one of them was there. We got lucky and arrived right at dinner time, and they were having “boats”!! They were the best Mongolian-made boats that I’ve ever had, too. They put cabbage and green onions in them. I stuffed myself. The girl that was there was happy we came. She had been having a bit of anxiety about being away from her family.

A few weeks previous, I had randomly ran into one of my friends while walking down the street in UB. She told me that her sister is a model at a studio and they were looking for foreigners that speak Mongolian to be in a TV show. When she asked if I was interested, I told her I was. She gave them my phone number and they called me that evening. The Saturday that James and I went back to UB, I was picked up by a guy and was taken to a recording studio. The first thing we did was sing a song – which I’d never even heard before – while we were filmed. There are two Americans, a girl from Vietnam, a guy from Laos, a guy from Japan, and a guy from Pakistan. My singing was terrible, so I was glad to see the final product had been edited in such a way that my voice wasn’t very loud. I spent two weeks in the city doing a few hours of filming each day. We sang songs, recited poems, went to museums and natural parks, ate food, and met famous people. Filming was supposed to finish before Naadam, but for some reason, it didn’t. We didn’t go to the nice restaurant and night club that was planned. Also, there was supposed to be a trip to the countryside, and possibly to the famous lake that is out West. We were originally told it would be on TV and the internet on July 20, but I’m not sure about that now. I’ll let you know when it will be and you can watch me on the internet, speaking terrible Mongolian.

Have I mentioned how almost everyone in Mongolia knows someone that is famous? Especially in the city. If you know who you’re looking at, you could see someone famous all the time. After a day of filming, I had a sudden and unexpected encounter with a famous guy. One of the guys from the studio was giving a few of us a ride and after dropping everyone else off, I was the last one left. Traffic was heavy and he needed to turn left all on a sudden. When he tried to, a guy in a Land Rover dramatically slammed on his brakes. We had accidentally cut him off, but not as bad as he was making it out to be. He pulled along side us and started cussing, then angled his vehicle in front of ours until we were forced to the side of the road and stopped. The other driver got out, opened the driver’s door, and demanded to see his driver’s license. My driver apologised profusely, but the other guy wasn’t trying to hear it. He took the license, got back in his car, and drove away, heading to the police station. We followed him for a little while, thinking that he would stop soon, but the guy went clear across town and never stopped before my driver got tired of following him and took me to where I was going. Come to find out, the other driver was some famous dancer back in the day. Now, he’s old and everyone says he’s going crazy. Sheesh!

I’d spent 10 days in the guest house, at 6,000tg per night. That was a big chunk of my monthly allowance blown. I was lucky when I found out one of the Volunteers that is about to end his service just got a new apartment in the city, and he wants people to stay with him. I stayed with him a few nights and spent July 4th there with some buddies. They had a thing at the embassy for Americans to go to, but I decided not to. It costed 7,000tg to get in, and they had hotdogs and hamburgers. Last year, I would’ve been excited, but I knew better this year. I never like the hotdogs they have in this country. It might be different if they had chilli and all the fixin’s, but they never do. James and I went to the Mongolian barbeque buffet place and stuffed ourselves instead. By the way, it’s nothing like the stuff that you get at the Chinese buffet in America. Still, it was good.

I had more Mongolian lessons while I was in the city. I am progressing little by little every time. There is a set of three books that my teacher has been using. I was good enough when I first started with her to skip the first one. The other day, I finally finished the second one. Now I’ve started the third. This one has a lot more to do with working on sentences and reading and understanding entire passages. I’ve only done the first lesson so far, but I feel pretty good about it. I’ll let you know how it continues.

July 11-13 is Mongolia’s national holiday. It’s the one called Naadam, where they have the three manly games of Archery, Horse Racing, and Wrestling. Do you remember me writing about wrestling last year? I’d thought about going to the huge one in the city, but it’s really big and costs money to get into. Like last year, my town will have their Naadam in August. So, everyone went to the town that is down the road to enjoy their Naadam. I got there around 11 o’ clock Friday morning and was drinking airag and vodka by 11:30. Airag is the fermented mare’s milk that I wrote about before. I’ve gotten used to it and kind of like it now. I had some other stuff called neelmel that is Mongolian vodka made from milk somehow or another. It’s pretty good. When I asked, I was told the alcohol content is about the same as wine. A big part of Naadam is also eating hoshor. That is the fried pizza pocket like thing, though there is only meat inside. They are pretty good, but quite greasy. It rained most of the day, but I was lucky to have friends that own a meeker. I sat inside it most of the time while different people got in and out to socialise. One of the new Trainees wrestled, but like me last year, he didn’t last long. It didn’t help that he’d never wrestled before. When we heard that the horses were close to finishing their race, we hopped in the meeker and went about a kilometre out. When they got along side of us, we raced along side of them, hoopin’ and hollerin’. The driver was flying on the open steppe and wasn’t very careful of the ruts and holes. We were bounced and jounced all around the inside, giggling the whole time. Good fun.

I’d invited the Trainees to my place this last weekend. I knew they would enjoy getting away from all things Mongolian. It must be that time of year, cause it’s been raining a lot lately. They said they hadn’t been walking five minutes when it started to pour. They got to my place dripping wet. When they got semi-dried, we went shopping for stuff for fajitas. I’d cooked the beans earlier, so we just needed to cook the meat, veggies, and tortillas. Since there were so many to make, and they can only be done one at a time, the tortillas took the longest. They were all excited and we stuffed ourselves, and still had leftovers for me later. Yum! They were really excited about the Ranch. I’d been to someone’s ger for one day of Naadam. While I was there, I ate plenty of food and was given a big bag of candy and a big bottle of expensive vodka as a present. I decided to drink that with the Trainees. They were appreciative. As I’d expected, they asked me a million questions about the Peace Corps and Mongolia before we moved on to more general topics of conversation. They all seem to be a pretty good group of people that are excited to be here. Because of the economy, there have been budget cuts that have affected their training, but I think they’ll be alright. We’ll see.

Since I haven’t been on the internet as much as usual, I’ve been doing more reading. I’ve read Hard Times by Charles Dickens, and I’ve almost finished The World According to Garp by John Irving. They are both pretty good books. I’ve already got my next book lined up. In the one I’m reading now, it mentions Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I just so happen to have that book – and passed it up for the one I’m reading now – so it’s waiting for me.

I know this doesn’t do justice to almost a month’s worth of doings, but I hope it’ll satisfy you for a while. The package with the new power cord for my computer will be at least another week in getting here. Let’s hope that’s all it is. I still haven’t gotten that one package from my sister. It had a lot of stuff like Tylenol and Alka Seltzer and other over the counter meds. That sucks, cause I know that stuff, including shipping, isn’t cheap. Maybe it’ll come one day, but I’ve pretty much given up hope. I’ll write more when I can. My boss is trying to get the fast internet that is now in her office ran into my office, but they IT guy is clowning. What’s new, right? Oh well. Hope you are good. Talk to you later.

June 17, 2009

Well, it’s been another while since I’ve written last. Since it has been, this particular post will be of a different format than usual; and much shorter than it might otherwise be.

I’ve finally returned to my home after a month and a half of traveling. As always, it’s so fun to travel and visit friends and see new places. But it’s almost just as nice to be back home and just relax in a comfortable place where you don’t have to worry about anything. That’s what I’ve been doing since I got here Saturday.

In the last month and a half, I’ve been to four different aimags (states). First was when I went down to Dondgovi (the upper Gobi) for a few weeks to help James with his health project. Next, I went to Khentii for the pig roast, immediately followed by a trip to Selenge to hang out with my host-family.

After coming home for just a few days, I returned to UB and met up with James again. He, Byron, and I tried to buy a bus ticket on the day before we’d originally planned to go on our trip, but all the seats were full. As always, there is a story involved. There are two different places that buses leave from UB. If you want to go East and South, you usually catch a bus on the east side of town. If you want to go West, you usually catch a bus on the west side of town. Since we were going south, we naturally assumed that we needed to go to the east side of town. When we got there, the lady told us that the tickets were all sold out. When we asked her if we could buy tickets for the following day, she asked another lady, then was told that the bus didn’t even leave from there, but from the other side of town. Dang it! The taxi driver said he didn’t know, and felt bad for us, but it was good for his business. Haha. After we got to the right place, they were sold out, too, so we had to leave and go back the next day, since they only sell tickets one day in advance.

The bus ride was a bumpy, uncomfortable, and long 13 ½ hours. That’s the longest trip I’ve ever been on in Mongolia, and I think it’s the longest trip I’ve ever taken. We stopped for an hour lunch break and several pee breaks, getting to Omnogovi (lower Gobi) around 10 o’ clock. We had been very fortunate by getting a recommendation for a guesthouse and went to bed soon after getting there. The ride was so bumpy that we were tensed up the entire ride, trying to hang on and not get bounced out of our seat, so we didn’t getting any kind of rest. We were exhausted by the time it stopped. The next day, all we did was find a driver to take us where we wanted to go the following day, then relaxed, watching several movies throughout the day.

When the driver got there at 8 the next morning, we were ready to go. Even though we were in the hottest part of Mongolia, the weather had turned a bit chilly, with cloud cover because of rain the previous night. I’d accidentally forgotten my jacket at the guesthouse in UB, so I wasn’t as comfortable as I’d liked to have been. The ride was about an hour long and took us to the mountains that we could see in the distance. There is a national park there that has several sights, but we were only going to see one. At the entrance, there was a small museum that was kind of neat. There were all kinds of fossils and stuff. Did you know that the Gobi desert is where a very large portion of dinosaur fossils have been found? Outside the museum and souvenir shops, there were all kinds of fossilised dinosaur eggs lying around. My mom, being a rock collector, would have loved to have one. If they weren’t several hundred pounds each, I might’ve thought about getting one for her. After paying the 3,000tg entrance fee, our driver drove us the remaining 10km.

We went to a place called Yoliin Am. It literally means “Mouth of Yol,” but in this case, it means “Valley of Yol.” When we stopped, the driver stayed with his jeep and we got out and set off walking. Up in the mountains, it was windy and colder than it was at the foot. I missed my jacket even more. After walking a few kilometres and taking many pictures, we came upon the small river. The river goes through a deep but narrow valley in the mountains. By some kind of natural wonder, it’s so cold there that there is ice almost year round. The ice was over five feet deep at most places. It was so deep that it was blue. How cool!! It was slippery, and very cold, but we walked for a while, just because we thought it was so neat. We stopped when we got to a crack in the ice. Byron jumped over it first, giving James and I pause. James jumped over, thinking that would be all the peer pressure I’d need to follow. It wasn’t. Nor was the expectant name calling. I didn’t care. The crack was only a couple feet across, but it was very deep, and the ice on both sides was slippery. I was scared. They finally gave up trying to talk me into jumping and we went back and found the least coldest place to have lunch. It was very neat to say that we ate lunch on five-plus feet of ice, in the Gobi desert, in the middle of June. The next day put us on the bus back to UB. Somehow, it wasn’t quite as bad as the one down there; and it was an hour quicker, too.

This last Friday, some other Volunteers and I met with the ambassador to get some ideas about the life of a Foreign Services Officer (FSO). They are the people that work in embassies around the world and could possibly go on to become ambassadors. There is an FSO exam that I want to take and he gave us a few pointers on how to study. Basically, I need to familiarise myself with the Constitution, Amendments, at least the top 20 landmark Supreme Court cases, and random things about American culture. The test is multiple choice, so I don’t think it will be as hard as I’d originally thought it would be. I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.

This past Saturday night, the new group of Americans came. Their class is M-20, meaning they are the 20th group of Volunteers to come to Mongolia since Peace Corps started their programme here. Most of us current Volunteers are excited to meet them and planned to go to meet them at the airport. James and I, however, were exhausted by our travels and decided to come to my home. Since getting here, we’ve done nothing but relax, eat a lot, watch movies, and play Settlers. By the way, I’m happy to report that I’ve actually started winning some games. We’ve hung out with some of my friends. We had a good time messing with some of them, making them think that James didn’t know any Mongolian. His is much better than mine, so there were a few times I would act like I was translating and he would tell me what was said, then I would say something in Mongolian. It was pretty funny. Tomorrow, the Trainees that will be in my town will come. Actually, they will be in the other part of town, but that’s still close. We will walk over and meet them when they come. I’m kind of excited that there will be Americans here this summer. And I’ve been told that a Volunteer will be placed here after they swear in. That will be awesome. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll let you know how everything turns out.

Alright, I hope you haven’t been waiting too expectantly on this. As always, the biggest reason is my laziness. I still haven’t gotten that second box that my sister sent over two months ago. I’ve been to the P.O. several times this week, but it’s always closed. There are some snacks in it that I really want. Hm, I think I’ll go and check on it now. Hope you’re good. Talk to you later.

May 18, 2009

The presidential campaign is in the last few days, so both candidates have been touring all the places they haven’t been yet. Yesterday, the Democratic Party’s candidate, Elbegdorj, was in the other part of town. Today, the People’s Party’s candidate, President Enkhbayar, came to my part of town. From somewhere, a huge truck with a side that opened up for a stage was pulled to the front of the government building, and there were chairs set up for a couple hundred people. I got there a few minutes before 9 and stood in the back with a few guys I know. After a while, a parade of police cars and SUVs came flying up and the president hopped out with a look on his face like he’d rather be somewhere else. I kept waiting for him to smile and finally saw a brief flash of it after he was well in the midst of the crowd of people offering their hand to him. When he and all the people he was with got to the stage, some other random guy got up and talked for about 10 minutes. When he finished, the president got up and talked for about 5 minutes. Everyone sat down on the stage, and then random people made their way to the microphone that was set up for the crowd. I was sure that it was so they could ask the president questions, but that never happened. Person after person got up and talked for a while, randomly eliciting applause from the crowd, then sat down. I asked Moogie why no one was asking questions and she said it was just so people could tell the president whatever it was they were telling him. When I found that out, after already having noticed that the president was talking to the people next to him and not paying the least bit of attention to the people that were talking, I decided to leave. To say that I was unimpressed would be an understatement.

There were several different news channels there. I had talked to my friend that works at TV5 and she told me that her cameraman would be there and that she’d told him about me. I didn’t think that much about it until I found out that I was on the news tonight. During the story, the camera scanned the crowd, and then stopped on me for several seconds. It’s neat to say that I was on TV, but I really hope that they don’t use my image in any kind of way to promote someone’s political interests.

“I have a chicken.” That’s what one of my friends said to me today. Her birthday is tomorrow, and as I’ve written before, Mongolians don’t like Tuesdays for some reasons. I was trying to ask her what it is about Tuesdays, but I never got an answer. She said that she wouldn’t go out with her friends because it was Tuesday, then told me that she had a chicken. I was being silly and asked her if she wanted me to cook it for her. As it turned out, she’d meant to say that she IS a chicken, and that’s why she wouldn’t go out tomorrow. That led to several minutes of non-stop laughter.

I knew that my sister had sent a couple of boxes to me several weeks ago, so I went to check the post office today. Sure enough, there was something for me, but only one of the two boxes. Before I could leave, though, I helped the postal workers with some English they were working on. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I stayed there for a few minutes. When I got home, the box from Ann had bacon, Circus Peanuts, salad and potato toppings, bacon bits, pinto beans, canned diced and whole tomatoes, strawberry jam, strawberry muffin mix, corn bread mix, hot sauce, 2% boxed milk, and fudge brownie mix. Thanks, sis. I really appreciate it.

Saturday night, I shared a cup with Julia and James. I got Julia’s cold. Dang it!!

May 19, 2009

I washed clothes today. After being gone for two weeks, it was sure time. While that was going, I finished The Count of Monte Cristo. I’ve seen the movie before, but it was nothing like that. You know how the movie focuses a good deal of time on his exploits in prison? There’s not that much focus in the book. And you know how there are several sword fights in the movie between the main character and others? The main character didn’t fight once in the book. The book was really good. I played Settlers with Ambaa and Tsegii this evening. I’m not sure if they didn’t understand or didn’t like the game, but they didn’t seem that into it. I won, but it was too easy to count as part of my record. For my dinner, I didn’t have quite enough flour to make the tortillas that I was trying to make. I used some biscuit mix and the tortillas turned out like flat biscuits. They were pretty good, though.

My camera works! While I was away, Yellow James plugged my camera’s memory card into his computer and made it where I could access all the pictures. This morning, I moved 420 pictures to my computer and uploaded them to the internet. To look at them, click on the link at the top right of my blog. Enjoy!

May 20, 2009

My cold has worsened. My head feels like it’s ready to implode. I finally looked through the med-kit that PC gave us and found some Sudafed. It worked wonders to help me breath better. Other than lie in the bed and watch movies, about all I’ve done today was pack for my trip to the pig roast and to see my host family.

May 21, 2009

I met Jason and a random American tourist named Kyle when I got to UB. We found a place that had nice tables and played billiards for a while, then met other Volunteers at Ikh Mongol and had a few drinks. Everyone is excited about the pig roast this weekend.

May 22, 2009

Woke up early and had breakfast at Amsterdam Cafe. I’ve never had a full English breakfast before, but the person I was with told me it wasn’t the real thing. Oh well, it was still pretty good. Around noon, I went to the market and secured a meeker for our trip. The guy was excited when I told him there were 10 of us. There ended up being 11 of us, and we were packed in. On the way, we saw a huge Chinggis statue made out of metal. It’s just out there in the middle of nowhere, next to the road. It’ll be in my next batch of pictures for you.

When we got to Khentii, we went to the wholesale store and bought lots of alcohol, since we won’t be able to for the next 5 days. Because of the election on Sunday, they are restricting sales. After the riots that burned down the People’s Party headquarters and saw five people shot by the police last year, they aren’t trying to take any chances this year. There are about 15 of us here now, having a good time, enjoying each other’s company.

May 23, 2009

When we got the invitation to go to the pig roast, we were told to bring some kind of side dish of our own. I brought Ranch dressing, pinto beans, Jell-O, macaroni and cheese, and Circus Peanuts. I spent the first part of the morning cooking, and then a group of us walked out and met the others that were already by the river. They’d found a nice spot amongst the small trees and made a camp. They already had an old bed frame converted to a barbecue pit going when I got there. We put our beers in the river to keep cold, stripped down to our bathing suit/underwear, and sat in the frigid water for a while. The water was so cold but the sun was bright and shiny. It wasn’t long before I could feel the sunburn on my back. That’ll be with me for a few days, I’m sure.

After a while, everyone else showed up. There ended up being about 20 or so Americans and about 10 Mongolians. There was all kinds of food and I tried some of every bit of it, dipping most of it in Ranch dressing. I was stuffed! We had lots of leftovers, but as always, there were lots of little kids there begging for some of it. A couple people gave some to the kids, then they told them to leave. The kids paid us no attention and just invaded our camp and took anything they could get away with. I was pretty upset about that. I hate living in a place where you try to be nice and give something to someone, then they continue to take more than they were offered. I know it’s a cultural thing, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.

We played I don’t know how many games of Settlers. It seems it doesn’t matter who I play with, other than Mongolians, cause I just don’t win. If I didn’t like the game so much, I would give up; but it’s addicting. I don’t mind. It’s fun.

May 24, 2009

We didn’t do much but sit around playing games today and cooking and eating more food. There are a couple women here that are very good at baking and we guys sure enjoyed that. Ha, especially when they brought it to us and we didn’t have to get up. That’s always nice. Though everyone is having one last hurrah before we leave in the morning, I’m in the bed early tonight.

May 25, 2009

We were up and met the meeker driver by 9 this morning. It was the same one who brought us, so he was expecting 11 of us again. He seemed a little disappointed when there were only seven of us. About half-way back to UB, we told him we wanted to stop and eat. He pulled in at a little place and we all got out wanting “boats.” They didn’t have them and we started to go somewhere else, but the driver told us no other place had them, either. We ordered something that is similar to boats, then went to the store to buy some drinks. We had to walk a long way to find a store that was open. On the way, we passed by several restaurants that were solely for boats. Drat!! I knew that driver had to be lying. I don’t know what his reason for that was.

When I got to UB, I hung out for a few hours, then got on the night train to visit my host family. I’ll get there early tomorrow morning.

We found out that Mongolia elected a new president. Considering all the crazy last minutes rule changes that have happened in the last couple of weeks, we’re all quite surprised. When we got to the city, we saw all kinds of people decked out in the Democratic Party’s gear. Of course, the knuckleheads were still out and about. We were crowded in the taxi, so one of the guys got out a few blocks early, by himself. As he was walking, a guy flicked his lit cigarette at his face. When he asked the guy what his problem was, the guy’s buddies came walking up. My friend said he had a hard time swallowing his pride and walking away, but he knew it was in his best interest to do so. Always a jackass to mess up something good.

May 26, 2009

I got to the station in Sukhbaatar at 6 this morning, then to my host-family’s house at 6:30. They were all up and expecting me. The sleeper on the train is way too short for me, so I didn’t sleep well. After a small breakfast, I went to bed for a couple hours. After I got up, I just sat around and visited for the rest of the day. I went to the store once and got caught in a dust storm. Those things suck. Not only does the dust get in my eyes, but also in and on absolutely everything else that is exposed. There’s no taking a bath til I get back to UB, so I’ll just be dirty til then.

This evening, after a good dinner of hoshor, one of the family friends came over with a small bottle of vodka. He said they weren’t selling alcohol today, and he didn’t know I was coming, so that’s all he had. The seven of us that were there made quick work of that, then my host-dad pulled out the litre bottle that I’d given to him as a gift. That took a while longer to finish.

May 27, 2009

The combination of greasy hoshor and vodka had my stomach upset all through the night. This morning, when I went to go to the outhouse, no one was around and the dogs were still off their chain. You remember those stupid dogs that I wrote about last summer, right? I thought I would chance going by the dog that was lying next to the front porch, but it raised its head and started growling as soon as I stepped out the door. I stepped back inside and grabbed the broom, thinking that would help. It didn’t. My host-mom came running from the outhouse, hollering. When I looked at her, the dog lunged toward me, stopping right before it got me. Man, I hate dogs. That thing scared me. I had a hard time waiting for her to get them tied up. I’ve had diarrhoea ever since then. I ate six Pepto tablets and decided to leave early today. I took a car to Darkhan, then another to UB. It snowed the whole time. Luckily, I was in and out of a tired stupor, so I didn’t have to worry about crazy driving. I got into the city right at 4. That’s much better than tomorrow morning. I’m sure glad I had taken those Peptos. This evening, I’m at the guesthouse and going to bed early.

May 28, 2009

I woke up and got ready to go to the meeker about the same time they were to get into UB. I dropped my bags off in the meeker, knowing the driver would watch them closely, then went to the market to do some shopping. I’ve been in there twice before, but this was my first time alone and with the intention of actually taking my time and buying some things. I wasn’t there 10 minutes when I found a booth selling Mongolian DVDs. I’ve written before how Mongolian movies are hard to come buy. As I was asking about different movies and such, the vendor walked away. Before I could finish the thought, “I could walk away with any of these and get away with it,” a guy came from my right, swiped a movie, and kept walking. Before he could get past the stand on my left, that vendor demanded the movie back, then punched the guy in the face for his efforts. I really and truly had no intentions of taking anything, but that made me sure of it. I took my time walking around and saw all kinds of things that I’d like. I knew that would be the case, so I made sure I only had a small amount of money when I went there. I bought a 10-movie DVD, a shot glass, metal chopsticks, a whet-stone, a large mixing bowl, some house slippers, and a broom with a handle on it; and I checked on the prices of bicycles and tents that I plan on buying when it gets warm enough to be outside overnight.

May 30, 2009

I’ve not done much more than watch movies and try to get rid of this diarrhoea for the last few days. As far as I’m concerned I don’t think it’s related, but I’ve heard that nine of us that were at the pig roast have gotten sick. While we were there, we all exchanged movies and TV shows, so that’s been my entertainment for these last few days. I used the last of my cheese and made pizza tonight. That was good stuff. I’ll have to get some more soon.

May 31, 2009

Moogie has been chosen to be one of the language teachers for the PC Trainees that will be here this summer. As a result, she will be in UB for the next couple of weeks to train, then live in the other part of town once they get here. Since we probably won’t hang out for a while because of that, she came over tonight and ate pizza and watched a movie with me. She was pretty good friends with the guy that was here before me, so she’s starting to understand some of the stupid and crude American humour. We watched a movie called College that was as bad as you might guess it to be. She kept asking if certain things were true and I was a bit embarrassed to say that most of it was.

June 1, 2009

Today is Child’s Day in Mongolia. It’s a day where the children are celebrated and spoiled even more than they already are by giving them gifts and candies and letting them do whatever they want. Drivers turn on the lights of their vehicles. That’s good, since the other 364 days they let it rain, snow, or be dark and don’t worry about lights, as long as they can see what they’re doing. My friend asked me when Child’s Day is in America and I told her they don’t have that day. She said, “Oh, it must just be every day in the U.S.” I laughed and said, “Uh, yeah.”

I tried to get on the internet this morning and found out that I’d forgotten to pay my bill. Drat! They don’t give any leeway when it comes to that. And, of course, Skytel is closed today, so there’s no way to pay before tomorrow.

June 2, 2009

Today, I have been in Mongolia for one year. Can you believe it? It doesn’t really feel like it’s been that long when I think back on it. Check out some of the other blogs I have links to and see what they’ve written about their last year.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to post this for you. I’m about to go back to the city and then meet a friend and go to the lower Gobi this next week, then go and meet the new Americans when they come; so it might be a while before I post again. Know that I’m thinking about you and I’ll write something as soon as I get a chance. I hope you are good. Talk to you later.

P.S. Ann, that second box still hasn’t come yet. I don’t know what the problem is. That’s just Mongolia’s postal system, I guess. Maybe it’ll come eventually.

May 9, 2009

We woke up at a decent hour and went to the school to do our project today. James – yellow and brown – and I printed out our materials and started cutting stuff out and figuring out the order we would teach. About half-way through cutting, we found a printer that actually had toner in it, so we reprinted the things and redid our cutting. The first thing we did was teach 8th graders about the hazards of smoking and drinking and ways they can avoid peer-pressure. It seemed to go alright. We were originally supposed to have a one hour break after that, but since the Mongolians that were using the class before us went way over their time, we went straight from one thing to the next. The next group was 9th graders, and we taught them about nutrition and hand foot and mouth disease. There was an outbreak of hand foot and mouth disease in Mongolia this time last year, and since all of these kids live in the countryside and have regular dealings with livestock, we thought it would be good for them to be aware of it.

When we finished, we decided that we would make pizzas. The dough had been sitting for about 20 minutes when we got a call saying that we would have a ride to the aimag centre in about two hours. Since that coincided with when the pizza dough was supposed to be finished, we sped things up by not letting the dough set so long. I didn’t think it would work, but James assured me it would. It did. We made the first pizza and scarfed it; made the second one and gave it to his hashaa family; made a third for his director; then made a fourth for us again. His director only ate a few pieces, so we ate the rest.

We were packed and ready to go by the time we were told the porogon was going to leave, but we seemed to be the only ones. Our ride was two hours late picking us up. When we got in, our first stop was at the only tree right at the edge of the soum, where we all got out to leave sacrifices and pray. When we loaded back in, we went to James’ manager’s ger and all the teachers and we got out and ate a quick bowl of food. After that, we stopped a little bit outside the soum and someone brought out a bottle of vodka. The first shot was given to God, then the teachers made short work of the rest. The last sip was finally taken and all 24 of us slowly crept toward the aimage centre. The ride was very cramped and uncomfortable. The three of us sat on a wooden bench facing the rear, right in front of another seat full of people. The other two were actually sitting on the metal that covers the engine, so they had a very hot butt by the time we got to where we were going. They squirmed a lot. Everyone’s knees were crammed together and it wasn’t long before we were all squirming.

At the centre, about two hours later, we dropped the kids off, dropped our clothes off, then met the teachers at the school where they were staying. The jijuur (building worker) was drunk and demanded to see our passports as soon as we went in, even though he’d previously seen us and knew who we were and what we were doing. We made a conscience effort to be nice and play along with his show of authority. In the room with the teachers, they were just finishing some really good noodle soup, so we forced a bowl down. Does anyone wonder why my stomach was hurting, after all the eating I’ve done today? Since we split two big bottles of vodka between us, it wasn’t really a bad thing that I ate as much as I did. The older women told me several times that I had a pretty smile. I’m not sure if I agree, but I thanked them anyway. As much as I was laughing, they had plenty of chances to see it. Surprisingly, we weren’t too late getting in the bed.

May 10, 2009

Happy Mother’s Day! If you are a mother, I hope you were treated in some kind of special way.

Yellow James and I woke up around 11:30 and went to the shower house this morning. The only thing I’ve washed since last Monday was my hair, so I was quite ready to bathe. It only cost 800tg for a shower, but the amount of time we had to wait raised the price really high. The building has about 8 different shower rooms in it, and each person gets a number when they pay. The good thing is that families tended to go in together. I’m sure that saved a little time. I had to wait almost two hours before it was my turn. Actually, I got lucky because a couple of girls told me it was my turn, though I knew it was theirs. I asked them if they were sure before I went in. There was a small room where you first walk in, then a bigger room where the shower is. The first thing I did was shave my week-old beard. Without my clippers, it took about 4 times as long as normal. In the shower, I washed everything twice, just to make sure it was good and clean. The way things keep getting delayed, there’s no telling when I’ll get to UB and be able to bathe again.

Feeling so fresh and so clean, we all went to a guanz (diner) where I got the last 10 “boats.” Turns out that my eyes were bigger than my belly, cause I could only eat eight. They were big! For the rest of the day, we just sat around, reading and hanging out. Yellow James has a board game called The Settlers of Catan that is very fun and addicting, so we played several games of that. It’s easy to learn, but hard to win. I didn’t win once. They have at least a year’s worth of experience on me, so I wasn’t too upset about it.

May 11, 2009

Yellow James went to work today, so the other James and I went in search of a bank or ATM that actually worked, striking out four times before we finally found one. For our lunch, we went to a guanz and ate soup. The bantan I got is my favourite that I’ve written about before, that tastes kind of like chicken and dumplings. I need to learn how to cook that. We checked out the market when we finished, then went back and played Settlers some more. I still haven’t won.

Unexpectedly, we found that we would have a ride to Katie’s soum and that they would be ready at 2:30. As usual, it was around 4:30 before the jeep showed up with 14 people in it already. That ride was about as uncomfortable as the one that took us to the aimag centre. I don’t know how many times we stopped for kids to get out and throw up, people to take pee breaks, or the driver to look under the hood and get back in. It took about two and a half hours to get to Katie’s ger. The first thing we did was to go and meet her hashaa family and eat a bowl of rice and meat. After that, we came back to her ger and make some tsuivan. It was pretty good, even if it was Americans that made it. It was more Settlers after that. I really like the game, but I still haven’t won, yet. Katie made the cake that James had brought, and the icing we put on it was really good. Yum!

May 12, 2009

I was awakened at 10 after 6 this morning by a call from my BFFE, Matt. He’d tried to call me a few days ago, but I didn’t hear the phone ring. It was good to hear from him. We exchange emails, but it different to actually hear his voice. I miss his big head. He told me that he’s trying to work it out where he can come and visit me in July, after he finishes his work in S. Korea. Pray for us that things will work out.

I stayed awake after that and did some writing, reading, and playing video games. When the others finally got up, we went to Katie’s school and talked to the manager about when we would do our project there. We decided on tomorrow. Since Skytel doesn’t work here, my internet doesn’t either, so I tried to use the school’s internet. After 5 minutes of waiting for one page to load, James and I came back to Katie’s ger and played more Settlers. Still no wins for me.

Katie had beans, so we put those on while we watched 30 Rock. That show is pretty funny. Her hashaa mom brought us all some soup that we devoured, then, when the beans finished, I mashed them for refried beans and made all the stuff for fajitas. We stuffed ourselves and enjoyed every bite. Since then, everyone has just been laying around, doing their own thing.

I have to tell you about something that I wasn’t expecting when I came down here. People in this part of the country have an accent that is noticeably different from where I live. At first, I thought that both Jameses were saying some of their words wrong, but then I noticed that the people they were talking to pronounced them the same way. Even worse, they don’t understand half of what I say. The few times that I’ve tried to say something significant, James had to translate for me. The Mongolians laughed at me when I teased them about talking weird down here.

May 13, 2009

We woke up this morning ready to finish the project that we are here to do, but wouldn’t you know it, there was no power. Why does this keep happening? I talked to a few different Volunteers in different parts of the country and they said they had been out of power, too. One difference, though, is that when the power goes out here, so does all cell-phone service. The other Volunteers had heard different reasons for their power outages. One had heard that they were preparing for winter. I don’t understand that, since it’s only spring. Another had heard that a certain city needed to borrow electricity, so it was shut down everywhere else. I’m not sure if I believe either of those reasons.

We went to the school and told them we would teach tomorrow, since we needed power, then went back to Katie’s ger and did very little. We read books, played handheld video games, and played Settlers. I finally won!! James had been teasing me about how good it felt to win and I found out that he was right. Especially since I beat him by a very big margin. When it was time for dinner, Katie’s hashaa mom brought a big pot of noodle soup. It was made with dried meat and was quite salty, but it was good. We have a little bit left over for tomorrow.

May 14, 2009

How coincidental. Last week, the day after the power was out and we did our lesson, it snowed. The rain that came last night turned to snow by the morning. There is a saying in Mongolia that “spring weather is like a moody person.” I can definitely see why they say that.

Katie had told us about some people that live near her that have camels that she has rode before, so we went there yesterday to see if we could ride them ourselves. We were told to go around 6, so we left her place and headed that way around 6:30. The guy was just coming from the field when we got there, but there were no camels. He told us to come today, at exactly 10 o’ clock. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard a Mongolian say that something was to be done at an exact time, so we were sure to be there a few minutes early. When we arrived, he had the two camels ready to go and we were excited. We were expecting to ride for at least an hour. In case you don’t know, Mongolian camels have two humps, instead of the one that you see on Middle Eastern camels. A saddle is lashed between the two humps and a piece of bone with a long strip of leather is pierced through the nose that is used to guide the camel. To get on, you have to make the camel lay down. I was the first to hop on. I’ve rode horses before so I expected some kind of similarity. Being on the back of an animal was the only similarity I found. When the camel gets up, it raises up its front legs, then its hind legs. I wasn’t ready for the see-saw motion and felt a slight tinge of nervousness about falling off. James snapped a few pictures of me, the guy walked the camel in a circle, and then I got off. I was ready for the see-saw motion again, but it was still weird. When the camel goes down, its front legs go down first, then its hind legs. After yellow and brown James had their pictures taken, the guy basically said, “Okay, I’m busy. Leave.” We might have been there 20 minutes. It was cool, though, so I don’t have anything to complain about.

We played Settlers again today. I was distracted by text messages at the same time I had enough points to win, so I didn’t claim victory. When James took his turn, he got enough points and quickly took the victory from me. I had 17 points and he had 15. He won by a technicality. Rats!!!

The only ride for yellow James to get back to his place for the next week left today at 1. We went to a guanz (diner) where I had some really good “boats,” and then he had to run the porogon down because he almost missed it. We didn’t realise until he was gone that between his computer and mine, his was the one that could read Cyrillic. We had planned to go to the school at 3, but that moved our plans up about an hour. We met with Katie’s manager and I was very surprised to learn that she is quite competent with computers. I’ve found that to be rare amongst Mongolians. She showed me a thing or two. First, she gave me the setup so my computer can read Cyrillic, then she helped me figure out how to make the projector work when I attached it to my computer. It was very easy to do, but I didn’t know. We spent about 30 minutes getting one of the school computers to recognise a printer they had, then we went to the cafeteria to set up for the kids. By the way, that is the first cafeteria that I’ve seen in a Mongolian school. In many (most?), the cook takes the food and dishes to the kids’ classrooms. There were about 35 8th and 9th graders that came for our lessons, and they seemed to absorb it pretty well.

Katie’s co-worker had helped us, so when we left, we asked her if she wanted to hang out and have a few drinks with us. She accepted, but told us that we should go to her home first and she would cook dinner for us. Never one to turn down free food, we accepted. She told us to be there at 7, so we left Katie’s at 7:30. She cooked some good vegetable soup and we ate some goat yoghurt that we put sugar in. We went back to Katie’s place and had some drinks and played Uno. Katie had bragged about always winning, so we ganged up on her to make sure she ate her words. It was pretty funny. Our ride leaves to UB in the morning, so we’ve not stayed awake too late.

May 15, 2009

Happy Birthday, baby sis! I hope you get all kinds of wonderful things today.

The porogon was to leave at 7 this morning. We sent Katie to reserve our seats yesterday, so they were waiting on us when we got there at 7:15. (Can you tell we’re getting accustomed to Mongolian time?) It was another 30 minutes before we left. There were only supposed to be nine people, but the driver crammed in five or six others. I attribute it to greediness and a lack of care about other people’s comfort level. But, we were getting the only ride of the week that goes to UB, so we tried to grin and bear it. James and I were actually glad to be leaving. Katie’s hashaa brother is quite dirty and has some kind of infection all the time, and she’s always getting sick. I was glad that I was on penicillin the whole time. Then, Katie found two ticks on her yesterday. The ride was a very long and uncomfortable six and a half hours.

The first thing I did when we got to the guesthouse was to shave my face. It felt nice. After that, I went to see the PC Medical Officer and he checked out my throat and told me it was all better. I’m glad of that. But, of course, being in UB has given me that all too familiar harrumph in my throat again. I hope it doesn’t stick around and give me an infection again. Cross your fingers for me.

When I met James, we decided that we had earned ourselves a massage, so we went to our favourite place. Ah, it was wonderful. I could stand to have one of those every day. When we left there, we went for Korean food. Man, that stuff is so good. Julia had just got into town today and was staying at our guesthouse, so we hung out with her tonight. She braided James’ hair and we talked about all kinds of random stupid things. Good times.

To Julia’s mom: Hi! There is a link on the upper-right of my blog that is for my pictures. I haven’t uploaded any new ones in quite a while, but you can see what I look like there. Yellow James put my camera’s memory card into his computer and tried to fix it so I can see the pictures when I connect it to my computer. I’ll check to see if it actually works when I get back to my home. I’m doing a lot of traveling this month, though, so it still might be a while before I upload more.

May 16, 2009

James and Julia left early this morning and I was the only one in the guesthouse. I checked emails and did a little bit of studying before I finally took a shower and went in search for food. I didn’t have anything in particular in mind, so when I saw a Vietnam place, I went to see what they had. I’m not sure why it’s called a Vietnam restaurant, cause when I looked at the menu, it had all the Mongolian usuals. I ordered tsuivan and had to wait about 30 minutes before it came out. I was starting to wonder what the cook was doing back there when it was finally brought to my table. When I got it, it turned out to be the best tsuivan that I think I’ve had. Fresh peppers, onions and garlic were used, then there was a strange black spice on the top called black pepper. What in the world is that doing on a dish made and served by Mongolians? It was really good.

At my Mongolian lesson, I did pretty well when talking about all the things that I’ve done in the last two weeks. There were a few suffixes that I messed up, but there wasn’t much more than that. When we got into the lesson, she started talking about something that she’d told me I’d already learned. I had no idea what she was saying. As it turns out, there is a different way to say the same thing that I learned last time, and of course, it’s the colloquial. There is a difference on what exactly is said when you are talking about 1st person or 3rd person, though. At this point, I wouldn’t expect anything different.

There is a German couple that is staying in the guesthouse. They said this is their first time in this part of the world. They had gone out today and when they stopped somewhere, the man set his bag down and walked away. He said he wasn’t 10 metres away when it was stolen. When he was telling me the story, he quickly flipped through his German-English dictionary and said that it was because he was “arrogant.” Yep, that’ll do it. He told me he’d paid for a lesson that he won’t soon forget.

May 17, 2009

Happy Birthday, Ann. I hope your day is good.

I woke up around 9:30 this morning and did some writing before it was time to start getting ready to leave. For only a very few minutes, I got to see a couple of friends that just got into town. They are on their way east to hang out with other friends. My lesson today was one of the hardest so far. It was about combining two different sentences that have different subjects. Also, it depends on a few different things on what kind of suffix is to be used. I got a few of them right after a while, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the others. I’ll have to do a lot of studying to get that.

As soon as I finished, I hopped in a cab and made my way to the meeker. I was determined to not be late today. When I got there, there were about four seats left. I found the one that looked the most comfortable and settled in. At first, someone told me to go to the back, but I told them my legs were long and stayed where I was. Two or three different times people gave me a look saying they wanted me to move to the back so they could have my seat, but I didn’t budge other than to stand up and let them go by me. After the last two weeks of cramped rides, and being tired of being treated like a child and told where to sit, I wasn’t about to give in. For so long now, I’ve allowed myself to be put into uncomfortable situations so as to not make a fuss and be a nuisance to Mongolians. I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I’m spoiled, or whatever else they might think. I’m starting to stand up for myself now and assert myself more. If they get mad, they’ll just have to get over it, like they would with any other person. I won’t intentionally make anyone mad, but I’m not going to just let myself be uncomfortable because someone else wants what I have. Oh, and this was the third ride in the last couple of weeks that at least one kid got car sick and threw up. I don’t know what’s going on with that.

When I got home this evening, I took the pizza dough that I’d made a few weeks ago and was waiting for it to reach room temperature. It wasn’t out 20 minutes when Moogie told me she was cooking “boats” and invited me over. She told me to bring a dessert, so I got the last boxed cheesecake and made it over there. Nomin was there, too. We ate one batch of boats and Moogie asked if I wanted more. I really did, but I knew that I would be the only one eating; and if I did, I would eat way too much. I told her not to cook more. They really enjoyed the cheesecake. We sat around joking with each other for a little while, and then I came home and watch The Princess Bride. I haven’t seen that movie since I was a kiddo. It was as good as I remember.

I hope you’re good. I’m going to be going to Khentii aimag at the end of this coming week. The Volunteers that live there will be hosting their annual pig-roast and lots of us will be there. I’m looking forward to the good times that I know will be had. When I leave there, I will go to Sukhbaatar and see my host family. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen them since I left their last August. I’ll tell you all about it later. Take care. Talk to you later.

May 1, 2009

I posted last week how Shuree and some of her students were going to come to my place for pizza. They showed up with a bottle of vodka, beer, and a cake that someone had made just for me. It had green icing like the kind you might buy to put on a cake in the U.S., and it was the best cake that I’ve had since being in Mongolia. The girls loved the pizza, saying that it was better than the pizza place in UB. That made me smile. They left after about two hours, leaving me with a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Maybe I’ll get them cleaned up when I get back on Sunday.

May 2, 2009

As usual, I went to UB for my Mongolian lessons. Today, I learned how to say that one think is like another. As always, there is more than one word to use, and depending on which two things you are comparing, there is a different way to say it. It was fairly easy, though.

This evening, I went to a birthday celebration for a girl that is a friend of a friend. She’s Mongolian, but she was raised in Germany. It’s kind of funny that Mongolian is her third language. While there, I met two American guys. They have been in the country for about four years working, and neither of them seemed to have anything nice to say about Mongolia, Mongolians, or the Peace Corps. One of them was just an idiot. When he started talking about how no one really cared about Mongolia, I wasn’t the only one who was offended. Instead of spending the rest of the night with them, I went to the guesthouse when they went to dance. That’s put me in the bed at a decent hour.

May 3, 2009

Today’s lesson consisted of the two ways to say “because” and the two ways to say “so.” That was pretty easy, so we moved on to different ways to say that I want something. I already knew one way, but the other is a stronger way to say it. I’m glad to learn it. It will be helpful. Right at the end of the lesson, I filled up my notebook. Since I can’t count the notebook that I’d had during training – that one was stolen from me, if you remember – this is the first one that I’ve filled up. That was a neat feeling of accomplishment.

On my way to catch the meeker, I met a cabbie that wanted to just sit and talk to me. He knew a little bit of English and wanted to practice with me. I told him I didn’t have time and left. It didn’t matter too much, though, cause I didn’t make it to meeker on time. Just like last week, it had already left. I don’t know what’s up with that lately. I was lucky enough that there were a couple of guys from my town with cars, so I got some tsuivan and got in one of them. I seemed to have picked the wrong one, though, since the driver crammed 5 people in the back seat and charged more than the meeker. I was really upset about being crammed in there. My legs were hurting and falling asleep until I finally put them across another guy’s lap. Since that was the only way for me to get home, all I could do was sit there and steam silently. I will not ride with that guy again, that’s for sure.

May 4, 2009

I went back to UB today. My friend James asked me last week if I wanted to help him with a health project, and since I’d only been waiting for an excuse to visit him, I figured this was a perfect opportunity. He lives in the Gobi desert, which is south of my town, but I had to go north to the city in order to get a ride. As you might imagine, you can find travel to anywhere in Mongolia, but it’s not always the most efficient. You often have to go to, or through, UB to get somewhere.

As soon as the meeker stopped in the city, I bought and ate some “boats” while sitting there. When I got to the PC office, I went looking in search of my favourite PC Medical Officer. He’s a really good guy and I always make a point to stop and say what’s up when I’m in town during the week. It was his lunch time, so I went with him to a Chinese restaurant. It’s the first time I’ve eaten Chinese since being here. Just like the last time we ate lunch together, he paid, saying that he knows he makes many times what I do. I was very appreciative. After that, I had him look at my throat. I’ve been having symptoms consistent with enlarged, swollen adenoids: mouth breathing, not resting well at night, constant build up of phlegm, etc. When he looked, he told me that I have an infection on one side of my tonsils and gave me a 10-day supply of penicillin VK. Let’s hope it helps.

At 3 o’ clock, I met James’ hashaa brother. Hashaa basically means fence/yard. Each Volunteer that lives in a wooden house or a ger lives in a hashaa with a Mongolian family that makes sure the Volunteer is taken care of. I was quite lucky that he was in town, so I didn’t have to pay the 11,000tg to ride the bus to the aimag (state) centre that is 70km away, then however much more to get to James’ place. His brother’s name is Shonkh and he has a paragon. It’s my first time riding in one. A porogon kind of looks like a Russian version of a Volkswagen van. It’s really basic, but tough cause it has a high clearance, off-road tires, and 4-wheel drive. When I opened the door to put my bags in, it was lined with all kinds of beer. Holey Smokes! His family owns a store, so that’s what it was for. Before we left the city, we made three or four more stops to get various things. On the way out, he was going kind of slow, but I figured he knew what he was doing, so I didn’t say anything. As we went through the gate going out, we stopped to wait on his friend that was to ride with us. We sat there for about 20 minutes then Shonkh suddenly remembered that he’d forgotten something. Dang! So, we turned around and went back into the city to get a bunch of oil.

When we picked his friend up on the way out, we started our five to six hour trip. For the first 30km, the road was paved, but we were only going between 30-40km/h (24-31mph). Again, I didn’t know why he was going slow, but I figured he had his reasons. After that first 30km, the road changed to dirt; and there wasn’t just one road, but three or four parallel roads, mostly going in the same direction. Occasionally, one of them would split off and run in perpendicular course. Shonkh never hesitated in his choice of which one we took, and his speed had suddenly increased to around 70km/h (43mph). Considering the poor condition of the road, it seemed like we were flying. It made me think of what my mom would say if she’d been in there with us: “You’re scaring the mommy!” It was obvious that he’d made the trip hundreds of times before, so I trusted him and enjoyed the ride. I saw my first ever eagle fly out of our path, innumerable mice scurry from the road to their holes, rabbits, and random birds. Other than the random birds, I haven’t seen any of those animals since I’ve been in Mongolia. It was cool.

About an hour before dark, Shonkh suddenly turned off the road and drove into the vast nothingness. Once we got over the hill there was a random ger. They were herders living there and they’d combed their goats for that most wonderful item we call cashmere. Shonkh would get out alone, go in and visit with the family for a few minutes, then come back and get us and his scales. We would drink a little tea, eat a traditional Mongolian pastry or harden milk curd, load up the cashmere, then get back in the porogon. We zig-zagged through the countryside, stopping at two or three more gers, repeating the above. When we got back on the road, it was dark, but Shonkh’s speed didn’t decrease at all. He seemed to have an internal GPS; his decisions seemed to be as infallible as if the sun was directly overhead. After a while, he suddenly turned off the road again, heading into the distance. Did I mention that there are absolutely no landmarks? I mean, nothing that my uneducated eye could discern anyway. But he never missed his mark. We went straight to a ger that would never be found if you didn’t know exactly where it is. When we left there, we headed out again, full speed. Our five to six hours had long been surpassed, so when he started looking around, I thought maybe he was looking for the soum (small village) that he lives in. He turned off his lights for a second and I was sure that’s what he was doing. Off to our right, we saw a signal light, and Shonkh immediately made for it. It was another random ger. Were they expecting us? How did they know we were there? There is absolutely no cell phone signal, so the rendezvous had to have been set up in advance. Shonkh traded some of his gas, which a couple of guys siphoned from the paragon, for a bag of meat.

It was another 2 hours before we finally got to James’ soum. I’d previously given up looking out for lights that would mean the distant sign of life and had let my heavy eye lids close their selves. My grip on the OH-CRAP! handle never loosened, though. Around 11:30, we pulled into their hashaa. James was waiting on me. We stayed up til almost 2, talking in his ger.

May 5, 2009

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

It’s really hot today. I guess that’s to be expected, since I am in the Gobi desert. Even worse, I had started making water during the day. I’d forgotten how quickly that will make a small, enclosed area heat up. James and I were sweating all day, wearing nothing but shorts. Speaking of, James had a pair of shorts that were way too big for him that he gave to me. They are a little big for me, but a belt takes care of that. I’d gotten some tequila in UB to celebrate today, so we drank that as we cooked fajitas for James’ hashaa family. I used to really dislike tequila in the U.S., but it doesn’t seem that bad now. After a year of drinking crappy vodka, almost anything is welcome. We invited his manager over, also. I don’t think they liked the fajitas as much as we did. No matter: I got my fill. I’m stuffed tonight.

May 6, 2009

Not long after I woke up today, the other James came. He lives in the aimag centre (capital) and has come to help us with the project that we will teach. Here’s a funny story about him. The James that lives here is Korean. The James that came here from the centre is white. The Mongolians were talking to us and said “Yellow James” to distinguish between the two. Going on how Americans often say that Asians are yellow, I figured that they were talking about the Korean James. Come to find out, they were calling the white James yellow. I thought that was pretty funny how white people call Asians yellow and Mongolians call white people yellow. We didn’t do much but hang out today. We had lots of leftovers from yesterday, so we ate fajitas again. Luckily, we didn’t have but a bit of flour, so I wasn’t able to stuff myself again.

May 7, 2009

We woke up to no power today. It seems like they don’t tell James about when the power will be out anymore than my town tells me. We found out it will be out tomorrow, also. We had originally planned on doing our project today, but Mongolian-itis kicked in and it was moved to tomorrow. Since there will be no power tomorrow, we’ve moved it to Saturday. Since we have no power, and there was nothing to do, we just hung out. Three guys sitting in a one room tent, about 12 feet in diameter has the potential of being kind of boring. Luckily, we all get along pretty well. Ha, that reminds me of the best knock-knock joke ever! I got Yellow James good.

Person 1: Knock knock.

Person 2: Who’s there?

Person 1: KGB.

Person 2: KGB…

Person 1 (Suddenly slapping Person 1 in the face and adopting a Russian accent): We ask the questions here!

Ah, good stuff. I hope my buddies back home use this one on each other and credit me. Somebody be sure to get Chubbo before he reads this!

When James talked to his manager today, she found out that we just ate some snacks for our lunch, since the power was off and we weren’t able to cook. She felt bad for us and invited us to her home for dinner. We got there at 6:30, and 10 minutes later, tsuivan was plated up. James had told her that tsuivan was my second favourite Mongolian food, so she piled my plate so high that it was spilling over the edge. For once, I had the sense to not eat it all, though I could’ve crammed it in. I knew that she would give me more if I finished, and I didn’t want to waste any more than the little I didn’t eat, so that was another reason to not eat it all. When we got home, we lounged around and watched movies. I’ve gotten lots of new music and movies from these guys since being here. You know I always enjoy that.

May 8, 2009

After that first day that was so hot, it turned cloudy and really windy. It was not very cold, so it was okay. That changed last night. I woke up around 6:30 this morning to use the outhouse and felt some moisture on the wind. When I got out of the bed a few hours later, the rain had come in earnest, and it was cold. By the time we went to the school, the rain had turned to sleet. Not long after getting there, there were big flakes of snow coming down. I was amazed at how much it was snowing in the middle of May, in the Gobi desert.

We had gone to the school to print out stuff for our project. I guess the rain had deterred whoever was going to turn off today’s power, so we decided to take advantage of it. The only thing was, James’ director had the printer we needed locked up in her office. We sat there for a couple of hours, waiting on her to return from the political meeting she was at. She never did. It was still good that we went, though, cause we were able to work out the bugs with the projector. So, if the power is on tomorrow, and we’re able to get to the printer, we’ll hopefully be able to do what we’ve come here to do. I’ll let you know.

Since things have been moved back a couple of days, I think that will put me back at my site sometime next week. Not a big deal, though, since I’m here to help, and I’m having a good time visiting while I’m at it.

I hope you are doing good. Write when you can. Talk to you later. See ya.

April 25, 2009

We talked about how to make plurals at my lesson today. I was confused again. Making something plural is something that I’ve wondered about for a long time, so I was glad to learn it, but boy, it is confusing. There are about five different endings that you could possibly use, depending on what kind of word you are pluralising. Then, like almost everything else in Mongolian, you can sometimes use two or three different endings for the same word. Surprisingly, one of the endings is the simple “s,” like we use in English. Not surprising is that using the simple “s” ending is kind of rare.

This evening, I’d made plans to cook for Taivan and his family. Not long after my lesson, I met him at the Democratic Party’s main office. Among his many jobs, one of them is with the DP. I had been invited to hear the DP presidential candidate speak today, but it was at the same time as my lesson, so I couldn’t. I would have liked it, I think. I’m interested in politics in general. When we left, our first stop was at the grocery store where we bought lots of food. He was paying for everything, and wanted the real deal, so I got everything I could find that would be good in fajitas. After buying everything, the only thing we didn’t have was the Ranch dressing that I’d forgotten to bring with me. At his home, I immediately went to the kitchen, acquainted myself with where things were, then got to cooking. It was very helpful that he helped me cut things up. I’ve written before how my knife skills are kind of slow. He saw that quickly and offered to help. I was glad, since that made things go quicker. We were all slathering for fajitas. Unexpectedly, for a guy that brings in a good deal of money, his apartment is newer than mine, but about the same size and setup. We spread a table clothe on the floor and ate in the living/bedroom. As always, it was fun to be reaching across each other and waiting to get at whatever someone else was currently adding to their tortilla. I told them I’d cook pizza for them next time. They’re excited about that, since they’ve both been to America before and really like pizza.

When I left Taivan’s, I met some friends and went to a Korean restaurant. One of the guys is planning on quitting the Peace Corps on Monday, so it’s likely that I won’t ever see him again. (He said he was only planning to stay here as long as it benefited him, and it no longer benefits him.) We decided to have a little get together with him, one last time. Even though I’d just finished a full meal, I still ate a little bit. I really like Korean food. When we left there, we went to karaoke. It’s the same place that we went to before, where we had our own private room. The Mongolians that were with us were punching buttons and singing before we could even get settled. They aren’t the least bit self-conscious about bad singing, like a lot of Americans. As always, I didn’t sing the first note, but I enjoyed watching and hearing everyone else.

April 26, 2009

During today’s lesson, I learned how throwing a single letter in the middle of a sentence can replace an entire word that would go in a different place in the sentence. For example, instead of saying “my only sister,” you can say “sister L.” Or, to say something like “nothing,” “never,” “no one,” or some other negative, you can add “ch” after “thing,” “time,” or “one.” That was good to learn, cause those things are used in writing all the time.

On the way to my lesson yesterday, I saw a jeans store. I stopped in to check out the price and the quality and decided that I was going to buy a pair. It’s a Wrangler store that also sells Lee’s. I went back with money today and found a pair that I kind of liked for a price that I was willing to pay. Just like in the U.S., some of them costed close to $100. I found a pair of Lee’s for 58,500tg, that are almost too cool for me. They are the kind that look like they’ve already been wore and worn out, with holes in a couple places. I was sure to make sure that it only looked like holes and that there were sturdy patches on the backside. My waist is a size 34, but I always bought 36’s in the U.S., just cause I liked the way they fit. In the U.S., though, I had a lot more selection and usually bought my jeans from American Eagle or GAP. The 36 Lee’s I tried on didn’t fit like I wanted around my thighs, so I ended up buying 38’s. Oh, and they have a button-up fly. I really don’t care for that; but like I said, they costed the price that I was willing to pay.

When I got to the market, I found that I’d barely missed the meeker. Dang it! I was standing there with a couple other people from my town, trying to figure if I was going to have to stay in UB another day when another guy from our town came along, smiling. When asked, he told us that he had a car. How lucky! I was ready to go home, to my own apartment. Another good thing is that, unlike most people who have private cars, he didn’t charge us more than the meeker price. Usually, people with their own cars will charge at least 500tg more. Before I got in the car, I was sure to get some “boats” for the ride.

Yesterday, on my way to meet Taivan, I walked by a book vendor that I always see. I always walk by slowly to see if there is anything that catches my eye. He lays his books out along the corner of a building, and on the wall he had a humongous map of Mongolia. He’d had it marked down to 5,000tg, from 8,000tg and wasn’t willing to do any kind of haggling. At about 3ft x 6ft, that was a good deal, so I bought one. I taped it to the wall in my living/bedroom when I got home. Man, that thing is big! It’s an old map, from 1992, but it’s still cool.

My cable was finally fixed Friday, after being off for about a month. When I talked to the cable guy a few weeks ago, he told me that someone had cut the cable in my building, and he was going to fix it that day. True to Mongolian style, it wasn’t fixed that day. Tonight was the first time I’ve watched TV in almost a month. I had all the channels memorised before, but now they are all different. Since he determines all that stuff in his office, at the main reception box, I don’t know what that has to do with the cable that was cut in my building. While watching the news, I learned about the current Pig Flu Scare that is going on in the world. According to the articles that I’ve read, a flu pandemic can hardly ever be successfully predicted, but I hope you take care of yourself. Take all the precautions you can.

April 27, 2009

“I’m Khalkh! I’m a real Mongolian!” That what I heard one of my friends say this last weekend. She was just being silly while talking to another Mongolian girl, but when I heard her say that, I stopped and looked at her. When I asked her to clarify, she repeated the same thing. I told her that, yes, she was a real Mongolian, but so were the other ethnic Mongolians that aren’t Khalkh. Just cause there aren’t as many of them doesn’t mean they aren’t real Mongolians. When she tried to argue with me, I said, “That’s the same as me telling my friend that has Korean parents that he’s not a real American, because he isn’t white. Or, even worse, it’s like telling one of my black friends that they aren’t a real American, because they aren’t white.” She said, “That’s different, cause American people came from a different place before living in America.” I said, “Okay, well, in that case, you’re not a real Mongolian, because no matter how long ago it was, Mongolians came from somewhere else before settling in Mongolia.” She didn’t have anything to say to that. I really dislike racism; even the subtle kind. I’m sure it’s because I’m from the outside looking in, but I notice it here in Mongolia more than I ever have before. Whenever I see or hear it, I try to do my best to say something, with the hopes that every little bit helps. It’s a tough job, though.

The following story is copied from a friend’s blog.

A Mongolian Children's Folk Tale

Once upon a time there were four animal friends walking in the forest. A wolf, a fox, a hedgehog, and a rabbit. Suddenly, they found a bottle of vodka in the middle of the road! However, they thought that the bottle was too small to share amongst the four of them, so they decided that whoever got drunk the quickest would be allowed to drink the entire bottle their self.

"I get drunk after just one taste of vodka," said the wolf.

"I get drunk after just one smell of vodka," said the fox.

"I get drunk after just one look at vodka," said the hedgehog.

"I get drunk after just hearing about vodka," slurred the rabbit.

So the rabbit won and got to drink the entire bottle of vodka by himself. THE END.

This evening, just as I was finishing my dinner, washing clothes, and watching a movie, Tsegii knocked on my door. Cool, I thought, I always enjoy her company. That is, until one of the high school students followed her in. I knew there had to be some kind of reason that I wasn’t going to really care for. Sure enough, I was right. It’s getting to be the end of the school year, so they are all preparing for upcoming tests. He had a notebook full of English questions and he wanted me to help him with it. He told me that his test is tomorrow. Dang it! The first thing I said was, “What’s up, man?” In Mongolian, he said, “Huh?” In English, I said, “What is your name?” In Mongolian, he said, “Huh?” I saw where this was going, and I wanted no part of it. In Mongolian, I asked him what he wanted and he told me that he wanted the answers. I sat down next to him with the notebook and started on number 1. He didn’t understand a single word. The sentence said something about a photographer and that “reminded” him that he was supposed to have his picture taken at school – at that exact moment. He left and didn’t take his notebook. Tsegii and I started going through it, and I used it as a lesson for her. The boy was supposed to come right back but didn’t. After 30 minutes, I asked his teacher if he had a test tomorrow and why he was asking me for help. She said that he did not have a test and that he was not in class this morning when she gave them the answers. I immediately took the notebook from Tsegii and told her that we were not going to do it for him, since he should be asking his friends for the answers; especially since he wasn’t even here to learn anything. To make it even worse, some of the sentences were grammatically incorrect; and some of them didn’t have the right answer. That really made me mad. It’s almost 11 now, and he still hasn’t shown up. Grr!

April 28, 2009

Yay!! Today, we got an email talking about the results of the Living Allowance Survey that we filled out a couple months ago concerning Peace Corps/Mongolia. In order for anything to be taken into account by Washington, D.C. (the people who set our salary), at least 75% of PCVs had to fill it out and turn it in. Over 90% of us did so, which is almost unheard of in the Peace Corps. As a result, two things will change, as of May 1, 2009. The base pay will increase to 196,400tg, and all PCVs will be paid the same, no matter where they are in the country! Before, people living in UB were paid the most, due to highest prices; people in so-called “special aimag centres” were paid more, due to high prices; and people in the countryside were paid the least, due to the lowest prices. Even though people in the countryside had often complained about having to pay as much as people in UB, in some cases, due to the distance from everything else, it didn’t matter until these surveys were filled out and Washington, D.C. could see it officially. That will be awesome for them, since that will be about 40,000tg more for them, per month. It means 21,000tg more for me, per month. I can definitely use it.

Last night, I was talking to a buddy and he told me about the awesome French fries that he’d made. That reminded me that I hadn’t eaten any good fries in a long time. Since I’d never made any before, I thought I’d give it a try tonight. I looked up a recipe for a simple batter, then got to cutting up potatoes and onions. It didn’t take long to make and fry them all. While I was in the fridge, I saw my bacon and was reminded of an article I read a while back talking about some place in the U.S. that batters and deep-fries strips of bacon and thought I’d try it. I mixed together a lot of catsup and mayo, got some Ranch, then sat down to my dinner. It was yummy, greasy goodness. I’m sure I’ll regret all the grease tomorrow, but until then, it was totally worth it.

April 29, 2009

Those of you that know me well know that I have worn a hemp necklace almost every day for the last 10+ years. I wear it partly just because I think it’s cool, but a big reason is because I am a strong supporter for the legalisation of hemp in the U.S. Because of my interest in this subject, I have just finished reading a book called The Emperor Wears No Clothes, by Jack Herer. This is a very informative book that details all the uses of hemp (e.g., clothe, fuel, food, medicine, reversing the greenhouse effect, etc., etc.) and the “conspiracy” of the government to maintain its illegality. If this piques your interest, go to your nearest library and pick up a copy. It’s a very enlightening look about the history of the U.S. and its politics concerning hemp.

May 1, 2009

This evening, Shuree and four of her students came from UB to my home. I’ve been telling them for quite some time about all the good food that I cook and they’ve always get excited just hearing about it. I’ve always told them that they are more than welcome to visit me and I’ll cook for them. They finally decided that they would come today. Originally, they were to leave UB at 5. Since they are Mongolian, it was 6:45 before they left, which put them here around 8:30. When they arrived, the five women came in and got settled in right at the same time I put the first pizza in the oven. As soon as the first one came out, I put the second one in. After cooling, that first pizza was quickly eaten. Only because they are girls (I think) and they don’t eat as much as the same number of guys, two pizzas were all they needed. I’d prepared enough dough for four pizzas but didn’t need it all. You know what that means: I will get to eat pizza at least two days in the coming week! I’m looking forward to that.

They didn’t stay very long before they left, but I’ve been up late tonight, doing random things. I hope you are good. Write when you can/want. I always like hearing from you. Take care.

P.S. Mom was nice (brave?) enough to point out a spelling/grammar mistake that I’d made last week. I was sure to fix it immediately. If you happen to see anything like that in any of my postings, please let me know. I really dislike those kinds of things.

April 18, 2009

I came to UB yesterday to hang out with friends. I knew that it was time for James and Evan to get back from Cambodia, so I wanted to be here to hang out with them. For lunch, I’d already eaten some good Korean food, but I went with some friends that were in town to Nayra’s café. It’s an “American” style place, so lots of PCVs like to go there. There pizzas don’t have tomato sauce, and their burritos don’t have beans, so I consider it to be fake American. I just hung out and chatted, then when they left, I stayed with another friend that came later. I didn’t really have anything to do until time for my lesson, so I enjoyed the company of people that I don’t get to see that much.

We talked about verb tenses during my Mongolian lesson. When she first said what we were going to be talking about, I thought, “Oh, I know that stuff.” As it turns out, I only know about half of it. There is a past tense, past negative, unknown past, unknown past negative, known past, two known past question tenses, known past negative, present continuous, and present continuous negative. I struggled to say the least. I was glad to learn them, though, cause I see them in writing all the time and never understood them. Of course, writing and speaking are usually very different. Also, there is a “proper” and colloquial way to pronounce almost every word, too. There are even a few letters that can be pronounced a couple different ways. Crazy!

I hung out with Eegii for a while after that, just sitting outside. She’s a nice girl, but shy to talk. Her reading and writing are really good, but her listening and speaking are lacking. When she left, I met another friend and we went to a rock concert. We got there right on time, but we ended up sitting in the bar for over an hour, wasting time, cause they weren’t ready to let people in yet. We had free 10,000tg tickets from her rock-star boyfriend, though, so we weren’t complaining. I don’t really care for rock music, so I was glad that we actually had nice seats to sit in. The headline band actually had a lot of English songs that weren’t too bad. I might have even liked them if it wasn’t way too freaking loud, like any typical Mongolian performance where speakers are involved. We decided to leave early and went to the nicest restaurant I’ve been to in Mongolia. It was down some back alley that I never would have gone down myself. It was a little pricey, but it was worth it. I had had plenty to eat that day, so I just got an appetiser that was advertised as being hot. When I asked the server, he told me it was okay. I told him that I wanted it very very very hot and he just smiled at me. I guess that was the smile that means, “Yeah, sure buddy, I’ll tell you what you want to hear, then bring you what I want to bring you.” The food was really good, but I would’ve preferred it to have been about ten times hotter.

James and Evan got back from Cambodia around midnight. I’m staying in a guesthouse with some other PCVs and we were kinda-sorta celebrating one of the girl’s birthdays. Things were starting to wind down and I was starting to think about going to bed when James called me. Of course, they revived the party, and everyone ended up going to bed around 5:30. James had a bottle of Muscle Wine that he brought back with him. On the box, it actually said that it would help you get into shape and build muscle. We laughed and talked about how you will never see that on alcohol sold in the U.S. Have you ever had Mad Dog 20/20? The stuff kind of tasted like that. I’m sure it was that cheap, too.

That reminds me: I’ve been taking pictures for you, but I haven’t been able to put the pictures onto my computer. You see, that crazy virus that I had before got onto my camera. I don’t know if it’s just that memory card, or if it’s the camera, but when I connected it to my computer, my anti-virus thingy took care of it. Now I can’t upload the pictures. I’m trying to figure it out. I’ll let you know when I do. My memory card is almost full, so I hope I figure it out soon.

April 19, 2009

I practiced reading newspaper ads and reports at my lesson today. It built on what I did yesterday. Mostly, I learned a lot of new vocabulary. That’s always the hardest part for me. It seems like right when I get one word down, my teacher or someone else will use a different word that means the exact same thing. That confuses the heck out of me and they look at me like a fool.

I met the guys at Cola and Kabob for lunch. Since it’s getting warmer, the street kids are a lot more visible these days. One came in and started going to everyone’s table and asking for food. One guy gave him the rest of his kabob and he ran out. Another kid came in and stood around the counter until no one was watching him, then grabbed a cup of coffee and ran. Another came in and started trying to sell newspapers until one of the workers went to run him off. His first instinct was to cover his head with the newspapers to avoid the wallop that he knew was coming. Luckily, he only got some harsh words.

I decided to stay and hang out with James and Evan for another night. Of course, Donny is always in UB, so he was there, too. He’s a good guy. I like him a lot. We got some alcohol and went back to the guesthouse and didn’t leave until the next morning. It might have been better if we had left, though. We watched hilarious comedy shows and played cards, being our crazy guy selves until late into the night.

April 20, 2009

It rained last night and that turned to snow before morning. In the city, it didn’t take long for everything to melt and just make a wet mess. In the countryside, though, the snow cover was still there and it was nice looking. I’d gotten so used to what Mongolia looks like with a nice blanket of snow on everything. It’s taking me a bit to get used to the ugliness of bad roads, mud holes, and dead animal carcasses.

I feel terrible after three nights of little sleep. When I got on the meeker, all I wanted to do was not worry about anything on my way home. Two drunk guys that decided to get on the meeker changed those plans. I don’t know what they were doing, cause I’ve never seen either of them before; and no one on the meeker seemed to know them, either. It was like they were just rambling through the parking lot and decided to get in with us. They were talking loud and cussing and the women were trying to get them to shut up and go to sleep. (I’ve recently learned all the Mongolian bad words for a project that I’m working on, so I understood the ones that they kept shouting at each other.) At the place where we have to stop to give the cops our passport info, the drunk guys got out and bought another bottle of vodka. At first, the women told them to not drink it. After they saw they were having no effect, they seemed to adopt an “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude. The women that I was sitting next to pulled beers out of their bags and started passing them around. I just smiled, then refused all alcohol that came my way. My stomach was in no mood for that kind of stuff.

After making tortillas and eating the last of my fajita leftovers, I’m to bed before 8 tonight.

April 21, 2009

I think I’m officially getting old. My head was still feeling out of it at work today. The little girls that always come and ask me for candy, then put on a show like they’re crying, got on my nerves quicker than usual today. It really makes me mad when they come into my office and start going through all my things, begging me for candy, then tell me I’m bad when I don’t let them do absolutely whatever they want. I keep hearing that Mongolians still follow the idea that “It takes a village to raise a child,” but I’m yet to see that evidenced anywhere. I think I’ve written before how I will never think of an American kid as being spoiled again.

This afternoon, when I was on the way back to my office from lunch, I ran into Densmaa. She told me to go with her, then we went the school. There, she talked to kids and parents about colleges and vocational schools and gave them contact information. From there, we went to the other part of town and did the same thing. While there, we met people from Nalaikh, who were here to check out our school system. When we came back to my part of town, we went to the kindergarten. After the usual tour through all the classes, we were served dinner in the director’s office. I was glad when they brought in lots of “boats.” About the time we finished eating, two bottles of vodka were pulled out simultaneously. One person got each bottle and started dispensing shots. You’d be surprised how many times two litres of vodka will go around for about 10 people. I thought we were finished when the last was poured, but I was wrong. Densmaa said, “Now we will go to the natural bar.” There are no bars in my town, so I didn’t know what she was talking about. The two people that had been pouring the shots were the drivers, so it was good that they hadn’t drank anything. We piled into our respective vehicles and left town. We went down the road a little ways toward Nalaikh, then pulled over on the side of the road. We then all crammed into the meeker where they pulled out boxes of meat, bread, and fruit; then started passing around two more litres worth of vodka. I was sure to eat as much as I could. They got a kick out of me reaching for the fat when I was given a shot. That’s a Mongolian thing, and they know that most foreigners don’t usually like to eat hunks of fat at all, let alone chase their vodka with it. Anything to get the vodka taste out of my mouth.

April 22, 2009

Something to think about:

I used to have an African friend in the U.S. that was raised in Africa. She told me that she was a Christian, but she insisted on the reality of voodoo. She told me that if someone were to put a curse on a person, that person could literally die as a result. Here, I have a Mongolian friend who has told me of the reality of shamanistic curses. She’s Buddhist, but she claims that very bad things can happen to people because of curses put on them. Neither claim to follow these beliefs, but both are scared to death of them. I think it’s all in what you believe. I mean, if you believed it enough and someone put a death curse on you, I can see how that would put you in such a state of stress that you would die because of it. My friend here told me that her mom – who proclaims to be Buddhist – went to a “wise woman” to ask about my friend’s business and who she will marry. The wise woman told the mother that my friend already has someone that she plans to marry. When her mom saw her, she demanded to know who it was and got very angry when my friend insisted that she wasn’t even dating anyone, let alone planning to marry anyone. But, before you start to think about how crazy all of this sounds to your Western way of thinking, stop to think about how your ways of dealing with the unknown sounds to someone here. Just something to think about.

April 23, 2009

Today, I woke up and cooked biscuits, gravy, country ham, and eggs; then put a bunch of strawberry jam on top of all of it. I think that might be my favourite breakfast. I’m sure I’ve lamented about not having good ol’ American whole fat milk here before. I’ve totally gotten used to the powdered milk that I have (which is much better than Mongolian milk), but I still miss the whole fat stuff. I had leftovers, so that was my lunch, too. Yum!

Today, I worked on a joint consulting firm proposal for my friend Taivan. He asked for help, and I never mind, but I had a hard time, since I don’t know exactly what the guy wants. He told me to edit it and add some things, but since this is the first that I’ve heard about the whole thing, there was nothing I could add. I told him that would have to wait until this weekend so I can meet with him and ask lots of questions.

April 24, 2009

This evening, I’m cooking pizza for some of the teachers. Remember a couple weeks ago, when I said that the Peace Corps came here to check on stuff for PST? Well, the day before, I asked one of the teachers if she was ready. I don’t know how, but she misunderstood and thought that I was saying I was going to make pizza for them. It’s the same group that I cooked fajitas for before and they’d been wanting me to cook pizza for them. Instead of clarifying what I was talking about, she told the group that I was going to cook for them. They were disappointed when I went to UB instead. I told them it wasn’t my fault, but that didn’t matter. Now, I hope that their sore breasts will be aleved. (I could’ve sworn “aleve” was a word. I guess the popular pain reliever has made its way into our vernacular as a verb.)

“What?!” you say. Well, in the world of sociology, it’s a well-known fact that different cultures manifest bodily pains in different places for different reasons. In the U.S., a person might get a sore neck due to stress. In China, a person might get a sore back due to stress. In the U.S., a person might simply have feelings of frustration due to being disappointed – or whatever happens. In Mongolia, women’s breasts get sore. I get a giggle out of it every time, but I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate me laughing at them. Let’s hope the pizza helps.

Remember the pants that I told you I ripped on the barbed-wire fence a while back? I finally got them sewed up where you couldn’t really tell. Well, it seems like I’ve had them long enough for them to naturally get a hole from wear and tear and washing. When I went to put them on this evening, my big toe caught the new whole and ripped them right nicely. Dang it! I’ve been asking where I can buy some good quality jeans in the city. I guess I’m going to have to step up my search. I hope they don’t cost too much.

Alright, I’m going to go and get those pizzas to cooking. I hope that you are good. Write me when you can.

April 9, 2009

I had another first this morning. When I was brushing my teeth, my toothbrush broke. WTF?! I didn’t think that I was putting that much pressure on it, but I guess I was wrong. It snapped right in two. That’s what I get for using cheap products, huh? Good thing I have a backup.

April 10, 2009

Today, people from the Peace Corps were in my town to get ready for Pre-Service Training (PST). They were at the school all day, looking at resumes and interviewing potential Mongolian teachers. When they left this afternoon, I got a free ride to UB. It was probably the most comfortable ride I’ve had since being in Mongolia. It was a nice Landcruiser and, counting the driver, there were only four of us. During the ride, I explained what Easter is all about, and what an Easter egg hunt is like.

I’m staying with Mendee this weekend. His wife is gone to Japan until next week, so we’ve stay up late and had lots of guy talk. As always, I can tell that he misses it as much as I do.

April 11, 2009

Surprisingly, I woke up early this morning. I hung out with Mendee for a while, and then went to eat Korean with Shuree. Have I mentioned that I’d never had Korean – other than kimchi – before I came to Mongolia? It’s so good. The place we went to today was quite cheap. The two of us got stuffed for 7,000tg. After that, I had my Mongolian lesson. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have a teacher. I’ve learned more in the short time I have with her than I have in the last several months. And the best part is that I’ve already been putting it to use.

This evening, I met Eegii. She is a journalist at TV5 that I met through another friend. After sitting and chatting at a café, we went to watch “My Evil Neighbour” at the theatre. It’s a new Mongolian movie, and though I didn’t understand everything, it was very funny. One of the guys is always saying the equivalent of “Right?” and it’s an instant catchphrase. It’s something that most Mongolians don’t say that much, so it definitely gets attention. Mongolians looked at me funny when I said it to them this evening, until I explained it was from the movie.

Tonight, I went to Ivory Club. As always, I walked there and it ended up being much further than I’d expected. Even worse, it was in a part of town that I’ve never been to. The place is a really nice Japanese restaurant/club. A PCV named Kevin played his guitar and sang and Brian DJ’d old American rock songs. There were a lot of Westerners there, but there were still more Mongolians. They seemed to enjoy the music as much as we did.

After walking everyone to their respective guesthouses, I went to Mendee’s. He knew I was going to be out late, so I wasn’t too worried about it as I knocked on the door. Then I knocked again. Then again and again. I started getting worried. After about 10 minutes, I figured that no one was going to wake up, so I went to the Peace Corps office. I finally got to sleep around 4.

April 12, 2009

After only four hours of sleep, I woke up early and went to Mendee’s. He felt bad about not answering the door last night, but I told him to not worry about it. When I left for my Mongolian lesson, I stopped at the store to buy more cheese for pizzas. That stuff is expensive at 5,000 for a small block. I did pretty good at my lesson, though I was tired. At the end, my head was fuzzy and I was starting to make a few silly mistakes. She knew I was tired, so she was patient. I ate “boats” at the meeker stand. I never have any catsup, or any other condiment, but they are good. And cheap, too. I forgot to write that I ate boats yesterday. The only place I could find that had them sold them for 400 each. Usually, they are only 250 each. At the meeker stand, I got 10 for 2,500; and they come with a bit of slaw. They are always enough to fill me up for the rest of the day.

One of my friends was supposed to go to Thailand for vacation in a few days. Well, the riots there spoiled that for her. That stinks. I wish Thailand could get their act together, for their own sake. With 18 or so coups in the last few decades, life has got to be crazy there. I hope they figure it out soon.

April 13, 2009

Today, I was standing outside the government building, waiting for something to start, when one of the guys grabbed me and told me to come with him. As usual, I had no idea what he had in mind, but I followed. We went into a hall where we had a meal for everyone from the family of a guy that died last week. I still haven’t figured out what that’s all about, but I sure appreciate it. We sat down at a table full of food and candy and were immediately served milk-tea. Next, we were given big bowls of soup. When we left, we were given a gift bag. In mine, there was hand soap, tea, incense, and matches. As I’d learned before, I took out one of the matches, struck it, and let it burn til it went out. This time, it didn’t take long for it to go out. When I struck the match, the head broke off and fell into the palm of my hand. Youch!!!!

When I left there, I went back outside to where I was in the first place. There was some kind of education celebration going on. The governor, my boss, and someone else got up to give a speech that no one seemed interested in; then groups of kids danced, sang, and recited poetry. The wind was blowing very hard and was whipping up all kinds of dirt. Right at the very end, when I was getting ready to go inside, a piece of dirt that felt the size of a small car blew into my eye. It took me forever to get it out.

Since the wind was way too strong to do any footbagging, I ran to the military base and back for today’s exercise. I really miss being able to run on a regular basis. On the way there, the wind was at my back, pushing me to go faster and faster. On the way back, it was all I could do to maintain a jog, partly cause I’m out of shape and partly cause the wind was so strong. You should’ve seen some of the looks I got when I ran back into town. Mongolians don’t run for fun, so they think it’s weird that anyone else might. When I got home, my face was muddy from dirt mixed with sweat. I guess that was the impetus for a few of the funny looks. Haha.

It was more pizza for dinner! Yum! I’m so glad that it is so easy to make.

April 14, 2009

This morning, I was awakened by some crazy noise. At first, I thought it was a rain storm and was glad: I don’t have any way to get to work without being soaked, so I’d planned to stay in the bed. After a while, I realised it wasn’t rain. When I went into the kitchen to see what it was, I found out it was my fridge. It was making noises like it was about to blow up any second. I figured there was nothing I could do about it, so I just got ready and went to work. It had quit making noise by the time I got home.

This afternoon, the university students that are here for their internship did a thing for the kids called You Are the Future. As always, I hardly understood anything. It lasted about two hours and I just sat there, looking like a tar-tar. At the end, Densmaa wanted me to say something, but I told her I had no idea what was going on, so I wasn’t going to. I’m getting to where I kind of dislike being on display, just cause I’m the American. It might be different if they actually asked my opinion every once in a while.

This evening, Ambaa didn’t show up. That was okay with me. Instead, Tsegmid and Manibazar came. They are the building worker and military commander, respectively. They are pretty cool guys. I was just finishing some lima beans, so we ate those with the beer they brought. Afterwards, we watched a movie. This time, Tsegmid stayed awake through the whole thing.

April 15, 2009

I finally finished the letter to the kids that I write to in the U.S. Several of them had mentioned how long my previous letters were, and that I should write a book, so I kept this one short. I hope they enjoy it just as much.

I invited the university students to my place for dinner this evening. They showed up right on time with a bottle of Coke. That was good, because I never have anything to drink but water. They came right as I was finishing cooking and one of them enjoyed helping me roll the tortillas. Mongolians are always surprised at the dough, since it is much softer than normal Mongolian dough. Also, they are taken aback when I don’t put oil into the skillet. They all enjoyed the fajitas. I really like the social aspect of it, with everyone reaching across each other to get something else to put into their tortillas, then fighting to keep it from breaking apart as they eat, giggling the whole time, watching everyone else to make sure you or they are doing it right. When I asked them which movie they wanted to see, one of the girls was adamant about watching Harry Potter. I think she’s in love with him or something. We were sure to tease her about it. We laughed a lot and joked about the movie I watched last weekend. They’ve seen also, but it still took them a minute to realise that I was messing with them. Since their Mongolian is a million times better than mine, they soon turned the tables on me. I didn’t mind. It was pretty funny.

April 16, 2009

Since I don’t get to take care of my chores on the weekends now, I spent time today doing them. After washing all of last night’s dishes, I did some laundry. I still haven’t taken the winterisation stuff from my windows and balcony doors, so my clothes are spread throughout my living room to dry. I think I’ll be able to open them soon, so that’ll be nice. It will dry my clothes faster, too. I’ll just have to watch for any dust storms that might happen. It would suck to wash them and then submit them to that.

I hope you are good. Write when you can.

March 31, 2009

I must retract a statement that I posted back in October of last year. In it, I said that Carl likes fatties. Truthfully, I have never seen him with a fatty, nor have I ever heard him express any wishes to be with one. So, let it be known that the Crizzle Crazzle does not like fatties. Now, uglies are a different story. Hahaha.

This morning, I helped Moogie with her CV and cover letter. My town has been chosen to be one of the training sites for the next group of Trainees, and the Peace Corps is going to hire a couple of Mongolian teachers at each site. Everyone in town that knows about it is excited about the Trainees coming here. It will bring a little bit of money to the town and get their name out there. While she was working on that, I fixed all the computers in her lab. The students keep downloading games and other things, and getting viruses on the computers, and keep doing it, no matter how they are threatened. I made it to where they couldn’t download anything without administrative privileges. Maybe that will keep some viruses out of town and away from my computer, too. Let’s hope so.

This afternoon, I went up next to the school to play footbag. The kids are on the second week of a two week vacation, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone interrupting me. I had a good workout and got 180 kicks. Not bad. I’m going to see what I can do about beating my record of 1,040. I’ll keep you posted.

This evening, I returned home one minute before Ambaa showed up. After washing our hands, I took him into the kitchen where we washed dishes and made pizza. He had never eaten pizza before, so it was cool that I could introduce him to it. When we were putting the toppings on, I gave him a piece of bell pepper and told him to dip it in Ranch and eat it. He raised his eyebrows and exclaimed, “No!” I laughed and told him it was okay before dipping a piece and eating it myself. He hesitatingly dipped his and ate it but didn’t like it at all. Mongolians do not eat raw vegetables like Americans often do. He barely swallowed that bite and wouldn’t eat anymore. He kept going on about how it was raw. I just laughed and told him that it was good. He said he liked the pizza.

April 1, 2009

A while back, I was talking to some Volunteers from the group before mine. They told how they had discussed with the medical team what would be the smallest injury to earn a trip to Thailand. Mongolia doesn’t have all of the medical services that are available in today’s world, so if something really bad happens to us, we are sent to a place that has what we need. The closest place is Thailand. From their discussions, they deduced that the smallest injury they could “accidentally” inflict upon themselves to earn a free trip to Thailand was to chop off a thumb. Today, I found out how true that is. As I was cooking my dinner, I was trying really hard to cut through a frozen chunk of meat. I was listening to music and not paying attention to much else when there was a loud bang on the door. My attention was diverted and was quickly followed by the knife. As a result, I no longer have a thumb on my left hand. It was cut off right below the joint by the palm of my hand. As I type this now, I’m sitting in the airport, waiting for the flight to Thailand. It’s hard to type, and it hurts, but the pain medicine I was given is working wonders. Have you ever tried to type when your brain is totally relaxed? It makes for lots of mistakes and backspacing. They said there might be a chance that it can be sewn back on. Cross your fingers for me.

Just kidding. April fools!!!

Today has been eventful, but not quite that much. As I was walking through my building, a couple of the guys were doing something, so I decided to help them. I carried a projector to the car outside, and then rode to other part of town with them, just because. We just dropped the stuff off and came right back. When I went for my lunch break, a guy that I see around town told me to follow him. I had no idea what he wanted, but I followed. He took me to his place and told me that I’d be eating lunch with him. Sweet! I met his niece, Bormaa, and in so doing, found a fourth person here that speaks good English. She cooked tsuivan for us and I enjoyed it. When we left, I was invited to dinner and I promptly accepted.

I went for more footbag today. I got a good workout, getting 307 kicks. At this rate, I’m right on track to set a new record this summer.

Back at the place I had lunch, it wasn’t long after I got there before the “boats” were ready. Unfortunately, some of them were made with innards and they kept finding their way onto my plate. I reached for the regular ones when I could, but I usually didn’t get a chance before the others were put in front of me. Densmaa came right as we finished eating, then they pulled out the alcohol. First was a bottle of 10% cocktail mix that was quite sweet. Beer was introduced later, around about the same time as the vodka. I was glad that I had a full belly of food. The women wouldn’t drink but a sip of the vodka, so that left me and the only other man there to drink the bottle ourselves. Luckily, it was a small one.

April 2, 2009

I woke up with a cold and have sneezed a lot today. I don’t know where it came from, but I think my immune system took a beating yesterday, with the exercise and subsequent drinking. I persevered with my footbag, though, and got outside. It was way too windy to do much more than jump around, flailing arms and legs, looking like a fool. That’s all I need for a good exercise session, so I wasn’t too worried about it. I played with two different groups of kids that came along. The first was a group of girls that have probably never done anything like that before. The second group was some teenaged boys who have obviously played the Mongolian version. A couple of them were quite good.

April 3, 2009

I guess I was out of it when I went to bed last night, cause I forgot to make some water. And, of course, I only had a small bottle left. After I took an expectorant, the lack of water really did a number on my head. It felt extra fuzzy all day and I was out of it. I left work early.

When I left, I went to pray and meditate at the OBOO. The wind is just a little bit chilly, but the weather is getting to be really nice. I was there for a while before I was interrupted by some rude kids. I heard them coming way before they got there, but chose to ignore them. When they got there, I could hear them whispering about what I was doing. After a few minutes, one of them yelled, “SAN OH!” HELLO! I thought my persistence would deter them and they’d leave me alone, but I was wrong. After the second, “SAN OH!” I opened my eyes and told them they were being rude and asked what they wanted. They just gave me the thumbs up and told me what I was doing was good. I nodded and went back to it. Just a minute later, another boy yelled curses at someone in the distance. I opened my eyes again and chided them for using foul language. It wasn’t long before they wandered off into the distance. I could hear them singing as they walked shoulder to shoulder, to a different OBOO. I finished a while later and they came running toward me when they saw me stand up. They just wanted to talk to me. I didn’t have any hard feelings, so I joked with them a bit before coming home.

This evening, I’m totally worn out and feel like crap. I hope going to bed early will help my cold.

April 4, 2009

My cold was practically gone when I woke up this morning. I was glad of that as I got on the meeker to come to UB. I slowly made my way into the centre of town and saw an advertisement for a freestyle wrestling tournament. I walked right in the building and sat in the stands and got to watch for a while. The wrestling was a little sloppy, but I was glad to see it. I really wanted to jump down on the mat and see how I’d fare.

My reason for coming into the city was for Mongolian lessons. I can’t find anyone where I live that is willing to teach me, no matter how much I offer to pay. When I asked the PC Language Coordinator to recommend someone in UB, she told me about Tsetsgee. She runs classes for English, mostly, out of the Stuppa Café. In the two hours that I spent with her today, I felt like I learned more than I have in the last several months. She charges 5,000tg/hour, which is a bit steep, but I think it’ll be worth it in the long run. Let’s hope so. I don’t really need to know more Mongolian than I do now, but it’d be really nice to make myself understood.

Since I had a cold and didn’t want to pass it on to Mendee or his family, I decided to stay at a guesthouse. As another Volunteer said, “You won’t give it to someone you know, but strangers are okay.” Haha. I didn’t think of it like that at first. I stayed at the Golden Gobi. I think that is my favourite guesthouse. It’s quite large and really nice. This was the first time I’ve ever seen that many people there. It’s getting warm, which means it’s tourism time in Mongolia. I met several cool people. As you know, I really enjoy that. I met Raphael, from Canada. This is his second trip to Mongolia. He was here about 15 years ago and learned how to make gers. This time, he came back to visit the same people who taught him before, and to perfect his skills a bit. When I asked, he told me that he can’t sell a ger for less than $15,000. Holey smokes! They don’t cost any where near that here. I also met Anna, Claire, and Amanda; two Americans and a Swiss girl. They were here for a school break, from their studies in Russia. Since I had nothing better to do, I offered to go with them to take care of some errands. Their first stop was at a pharmacy, where they bought anti-diarrhoea medicine. They had been on some excursions into the countryside, and apparently the food didn’t agree with them. One of the girls was in bad shape. After we went to a café for their dinner, I took them to the train station. They had told me how they’d had terrible experiences with cabbies (no surprise there), so I made sure they got to where they were going without incident. They even paid for my cab ride back. That was cool, cause I’d planned to walk.

April 5, 2009

I slept horribly in a room full of strangers. I think I was the only American. None of them seemed particularly concerned with being quite when they went to bed. This morning, I woke up and studied before going to my lesson. Here’s another example of how hard Mongolian can sometimes be. In two different questions, the only difference is one letter. One question asks what time I went to sleep and the other asks how long I slept. It’s crazy the difference that one letter makes.

I hadn’t had much to eat by the time I made my way to the market to go home, so I waved down the first vendor that walked by and bought some “boats” to eat at the meeker station. I’m glad I ate, cause I waited an hour and a half before we left; then we made another stop for about 30 minutes before we left the city. Right before the turn to my town, I got off and got in another meeker with Bormaa. Her aunt and uncle – the people who gave me lunch and dinner last week – were there, visiting with someone else. They had both just pulled to the side of the road and were hanging out. When I got in with them, I was promptly given two 1/3 cup shots of vodka and a shot of 10% cocktail mix. Needless to say, I had a bit of a buzz when I got home. I was sure to drink lots of water.

I found this story online. I’m not sure where. I thought you might like to read it.

http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2446&Itemid=42

“While the swastika, as numerous historians and authors note, has its origins in a Buddhist tradition and was bastardised by Germany’s National Socialists in the early twentieth century…”

I have one thing to say about the above quote. It says that the swastika came from Buddhist tradition. While most people in Mongolia will tell you that is so – and it kind of is – the swastika actually pre-dates Buddhism by a millennium or two. Buddhism branched off from Hinduism, from which the symbol was borrowed. Hinduism, however, inherited the symbol from the Aryans, before Hinduism became what it did. The Aryans had invaded and took over their culture a really really really long time ago. The Aryans used the swastika as a symbol to represent the sun they worshiped.

April 7, 2009

I was quite busy today with the social workers, visiting poor families. Three university students from the city are here for a three week internship, studying to be social workers. We walked around to the two different ger districts on this side of town and asked the poor families all kinds of questions. In a few of the gers, I saw the dirtiest homes I’ve ever seen here. Mongolians, for the most part, keep very clean homes. In one of the gers, everyone had a layer of crusty dirt on their bodies and clothes; not to mention the furniture and floor. There was more dirt in the air inside the ger than there was outside. We went to five or six different ger families, and after lunch, we went to several families living in apartments. You’d be surprised how small of a space an entire family can crowd into. The six of us made it that much more crowded.

My footbagging earned me 898 kicks this evening. I thought I was going to be able to get more, but as always, one slightly miscalculated kick sent that awry. Oh well. There’s always tomorrow.

After Ambaa left this evening, Tsegmid brought a couple of beers. We drank those while I cooked dinner, then we started watching a movie. It wasn’t long til he started nodding off and decided to leave.

Oh yeah. I found out that I will not be a trainer this year. Maybe next year. All’s good. That just gives me lots of free time this summer. I see some short-distance traveling in my future.

April 8, 2009

It’s Wednesday morning. I’m finally posting this for you. I hope you are well.

If you know Matt Rhodes, tell him I said he has a big head and he should keep his helmet on. Something that big is bound to get knocked around, and that can’t be good.

March 23, 2009

I got two things in the mail today. The first was letters from the kids that I write to in the U.S. I always smile when I get those. They repeat a lot of questions that I’ve already answered, though. The second thing that I got was a package with two CDs and card from a really good friend in the city. I’m always looking for Mongolian music that I might like, but never know what is what or if I’ll like it. She sent me some music that she thought I might like. It’s not bad.

Walking around today, it was a little bit warm. There was a strong wind, but it wasn’t too bad. Or so I’d thought. I went down the road a little way and played footbag in the street. Some of the people in the cars looked at me crazy when they drove by. I gave them a wide-berth when I saw them coming then started playing again when they went by me. The wind turned out to be a little colder than I’d anticipated. Next time I’ll take a pair of gloves with me. It took a lot of jumping and kicking to get my blood pumping to all my extremities and get warmed up. Considering the wind, and how long it’s been since I’ve been able to seriously practice, I didn’t do too badly.

March 24, 2009

I came to UB to hang out with James and Evan today. They were still in the bed when I got there and they laid there talking to me for a long time before they got up. When they finally did, we went to eat Korean. I really like that stuff. Before the end of the day, other friends came to the guesthouse and we took it over with PCVs. Out of eight single beds and a double-person room, we filled all but one bed. That evening, we all went to Ikh Mongol and watched a really cool band. That is, everyone except James. His excuse was that he was going to play a video game so he could “beat the dragon.” As you might imagine, we all teased him real good about that. The band is a really popular one here. They play traditional instruments and have throat singing, but they’ve electrified the instruments and added drums. They sound really good. Whenever I can remember their name, I’ll find them on YouTube and send you the link.

March 25, 2009

For lunch, I met with a friend at Coffee Empire. I was surprised how much it looked just like any coffee shop you might find in the U.S. When I left there, I went walking around town to check out Skymall and Mercury Mart. Both of those tend to have lots of stuff that is hard to find at other places. I’m still on a search for my pizza ingredients and those are the places that I’ve been told have them. Later, a couple of us guys went to a cheap guanz (diner) for my tsuivan fix. It seems like I never have that anymore until I order it at a place in UB. It was good.

Tonight, I’ve hung out with lots of people at the guesthouse, having a good time enjoying American guy humour. Somehow or another, we got to playing rummy today. Evan and I were the only ones there who knew how to play, so we taught everyone else. They picked it up pretty quickly and went with it. At first, it was just me and James playing. Then, more and more people joined in. At some point, someone introduced alcohol into the mix and, after every new person that joined, we changed the rules appropriately. Ah, leave it to some ex-fraternity boys to make it interesting in some way. At the end, there were just four of us guys and I think that it one of the absolute funnest times I’ve had since being in Mongolia. We sat around and made fun of and laughed at each other for a couple hours, never getting to take more than a few breaths before something else funny was said or done. (By the way, MS Word is telling me that “funnest” is not a word. Anyone know what I should use in its place? Maybe it’s just a brain-fart, but I can’t think of anything.)

March 26, 2009

I hung out for a while before slowly walking toward the meeker. I always get shin splints when I go to the city. I think the biggest reason is that I walk several kilometres throughout my day when in the city, whereas I walk nowhere near that distance at my site. I tried to stretch my shins out well but they’re still sore tonight. I was lucky at the market and caught the early meeker, right before it left. I was glad that I didn’t have to wait very long. That’s unusual for me.

When I got home, my power was off and meat blood had thawed and dripped out of the fridge, into the floor of my kitchen. Dang it!!! When I checked, someone had turned off the breaker to my apartment. That really makes me mad. I really need to see about getting some kind of lock on that thing.

March 27, 2009

When I was walking around town today, I saw an advertisement on the side of the Culture Centre. There was to be a movie tonight, and it only costed 2,000tg to watch. I had forgotten about it when I started watching a movie at home, and then remembered right before the second showing was to start. I quickly got dressed and went. There were about six people there when they started the movie only 15 minutes late. I counted 20 people by the time everyone got there, 30 minutes into the movie. It was definitely not a good movie experience. The movie itself was a little bit less than good and almost every person in there talked to their self, their friend sitting next to them, their friend across the room, or to someone on their phone. I have problems paying attention anyway, so that exacerbated things immensely. I was quite perturbed, to say the least.

Tonight, I found part of my blog quoted online. This is from a site that has all kinds of stuff about the Peace Corps, but it’s not the Peace Corps, so keep that in mind. Here’s the link to my blog quote:

http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/3213958.html

March 28, 2009

I just want to say hi to Alex’s mom. What do I do at work, you ask? Let’s just say that I can make it looks really good on paper. Thanks for reading. Haha.

I came back to UB today. My first stop was at a shop that is near the black market. I got a new spring/fall jacket. I’d stopped by that store a couple of times, and the last time, I found a cool Adidas jacket that is perfect. I had thought that I was going to buy a jacket at another store for 80,000tg. I prefer the Adidas brand, and the price was only 45,000tg. I talked the lady down to 42,500.

From there, I went and hung out with Mendee. I had planned to go with him to his work for the day and maybe help him out. When I asked him what time we’d leave, he told me the sports competition that they were supposed to have had been canceled. The sports complex had caught fire that morning and it was way too smoky to have it. So, he took me to a place close to his place and I got a hair cut. I was lucky this time because the guy that was sitting in the chair before me had his hair cut just like I wanted mine. I told the lady and she gave me the best haircut that I’ve had since being in Mongolia. All the Mongolians kept telling me that my hair looked good long, but I just couldn’t stand it. After that, he showed me a nice market where I’ll do most of my grocery shopping tomorrow. At the front of the store, there was a little movie selling counter. When I asked for real Mongolian movies, the guy showed me a DVD with about eight or nine movies. I bought it for 4,000tg. That’s a much better deal than the two VCDs I bought before, for 5,000tg.

This evening, I met some Mongolian friends and went to see Othello the opera. It was my first opera ever so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was alright. The only thing that I saw that might not be equal to something on Broadway (or whatever famous place in America that has operas) is that Othello kept watching the maestro for his cue. No matter where he was standing, or which way he was facing, he would position himself in such a way to be able to see the maestro. It was a little bit funny. The singing, though, was awesome. I’ve already talked about how much Mongolians love singing. It was easy to tell tonight. Afterwards, I met some friends at the Chinggis Brewery. There were 11 of us there. Some had been there for a couple hours before I got there. After a certain point, they made us pay our tab before they would serve us more. They didn’t think we’d be able to pay for what we had, so they wanted to be safe. I thought that was kind of funny.

March 29, 2009

This morning, I woke up early and went shopping at the store Mendee showed me yesterday. I only had to get three other things at another store. I got yeast, veggies, cheese, and tomato sauce for future pizzas. The yeast was much easier to find than I thought it was going to be. For my lunch, I met Shuree for lunch at Broadway Pizza. I hadn’t seen her in a long time, and she wanted pizza. I think that place is supposed to be the best place in the city to get pizza, but some of the okay pizza in the U.S. is better than it is there. They don’t put tomato sauce on their pizzas!!! It just doesn’t taste right to me.

I hung out at the Peace Corps office with a couple of PCVs for a while and then made my way to the market where I waited an hour and a half for the meeker to leave. I barely missed the one that left right as I got there. At home, I washed dishes and watched one of the Mongolian movies called “Stain.” It was pretty good.

March 30, 2009

10 Facts about Mongolia, from the VSO website:

http://www.vso.org.uk/about/cprofiles/10_facts_mongolia.asp

Today, during my lunch break, I made pizza dough. It was cool to play with the yeast. I’ve never made pizza dough from scratch before. The recipe was really easy, only needing water, oil, sugar, salt, yeast, and flour. After mixing and kneading, I let it set for about 45 minutes, then kneaded it some more. I let it set until I got off work, then kneaded it and let it set a bit more. I cut it in half and put half in the fridge for later, then rolled the rest out into a small, shallow pan that I have. I added lots of tomato sauce, cheese, tomatoes, peppers, pepperonis, and a little kimchi on one piece. The pizza took less than 20 minutes to make. It was hard to wait long enough for it to cool down, but I persevered. When I finally took that first bite, it was nothing but yum-yum in my tum-tum. I ate every bit of it. Oh, and of course, I had a beer with it. The two yeasts just go so well together that it’s hard to separate them.

I hope none of you have been holding your breath for this. If so, you can let it out now. I hope you’re good. Tell everyone that you know that I know that I say hi. Write when you can. Talk to you later. See ya.

March 16, 2009

Not long after I woke up this morning, I received a text message. “Cool,” I thought, “someone is thinking of me.” When I checked it, it was from the Peace Corps. It was a warning for bad weather for the next two days. Since that time that I walked 6.5 km from the other part of town, in -32 degree Celsius, I’ve paid attention to the weather messages we get. When I went outside, there wasn’t much going on. All day, I watched out my window, waiting for something to happen. Other than looking like trouble was brewing way out there, nothing happened.

I read a National Geographic magazine the other day and saw a neat article about why we need the dark. In the back, there was a snippet about the article and a website for the International Dark-Sky Association (darksky.org). When I checked the website out, I saw that they are doing a study right now and they want everyone’s help. All you have to do is go outside and find one of three different constellations, count the approximate number of stars that you see, and then enter some data into their website. They are trying to determine how much of the world is affected by light pollution. I went out tonight to see what I could see. The square in front of my building is pretty lit up, so I decided to walk out into the field behind the building. I got all the way out there and looked up to count stars…and could hardly see a few of the brightest ones. Cloud cover had moved in. Drat! I guess I’ll be back out there tomorrow. There is a place on the website where you can look at current results. Wouldn’t it be cool if I were the first person to post for Mongolia! Whoo-hoo!

March 17, 2009

Is today St. Patty’s Day? I had almost forgotten all about it. That is one of my favourite hanging out days with the guys. I really like the green beer. Once, we had a keg party at a friend’s house and I was sure to supply the green food colouring. It was lots of fun. I especially like it when Chauncy is there so I can either order a green beer for him when he goes to the bathroom, or put green food colouring in his beer when he’s not looking. He hates the green beer. I don’t know why. It’s fun, and easy, to get him riled up sometimes. He’s a pretty good sport about it, mostly. Mostly. Too bad I don’t have any green food colouring to show the Mongolians what St. Patty’s Day is all about.

I got a call today telling me about the imminent bad weather that is supposed to happen this evening and last for the next 5 days. I wasn’t told what kind of bad weather, just that it was supposed to start after 8 o’ clock, and I shouldn’t do any traveling until after the 23rd. As far as I can tell, nothing is going on yet. I’ll keep you posted with the latest.

I got a box from my sister today. My co-worker, Javkhaa, came to my office and said that it came yesterday. It was from my sister, filled with goodies. Bacon, pepperoni (I see pizza in my future), bacon bits, peanuts, garlic, beef jerky, cough drops, pinto beans, cornbread mix, country gravy, pistachios, hot chocolate, pudding mix, hot sauce, cheesecake mix, biscuit mix, milk in a box, star crunch, Rice Krispies Treats, and Ranch. I have to say, the boxed milk was particularly gutsy. I’m very surprised that thing didn’t bust like the biscuit mix did and get all over everything. I didn’t even know they sell milk like that in the U.S. I’d never seen milk in a box until I came here. It will be nice to be reminded of what American milk tastes like. Other than the powder stuff that I’ve been drinking for the last several moths, that is. Did I tell you Mongolian milk tastes weird? It does. I don’t know how to describe it, but I don’t really care for it. I’ve been told that American and Mongolian flour tastes different, too, but I’ve never paid that much attention to the taste of flour. Oh, the first thing that I ate from this box was a handful of peanuts. Yum!

March 18, 2009

Today was Soldier’s/Men’s Day. Starting around 10 o’ clock, policemen, firemen, and military men and women gathered outside the government building and about half the town turned out to watch them. In groups, they took off on a 10k run around the district, involving hills, shooting guns, manoeuvring past obstacles, and throwing fake grenades. They had asked me if I wanted to join in, but I told them I wasn’t in any kind of shape to be running 7 miles. By the way the slowest of the groups was running, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up. Maybe next year.

After lunch, there was a concert in the Culture Centre. All the same people (men and women) that were in the run sang in the concert. After that was an hour and a half time-span of nothing, where everyone in the government building got ready for what was to happen next. At 4 o’ clock (read: 5 o’ clock) we all met in the meeting hall. All the men sat at the table while all the women gave us candy and kept our shot glasses full of vodka and peer pressured us to drink. I was very surprised to see some of the guys that usually like to drink a lot not drinking that much at all. We also got a gift bag of shampoo, conditioner, and deodourant. What good timing I’ve had lately. I have about one more use of shampoo left in the bottle I have. The stuff we got is the nice, expensive stuff. I’m glad I got it because I was planning on trying it out. Now I get to do so for free.

Oh, I remembered something that I wanted to write about before. Sometimes I’ll ask Densmaa why Mongolians do something random that they do. She’ll start explaining, awkwardly, and I’ll sometimes ask if it is from shamanistic times. I’ve asked that two or three times. The other day, she said, “Why do you always ask that? Mongolia is Buddhist. We were never shamanistic.” When she said that, I knew she didn’t understand what I was saying, so I looked up the word and translated for her. She finally understood what I was asking, but she wasn’t much help. She doesn’t know much about shamanistic practices in Mongolia. She seemed genuinely surprised when I told her Mongolia used to practice Shamanism before Buddhism was introduced. So, I still haven’t found out what’s up with Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll keep investigating.

Still no bad weather.

March 19, 2009

Today was a slow day. The biggest thing that I accomplished was doing some laundry. Even though it still requires some work, I’m always thankful that I don’t have to wash my clothes by hand. Man, that would suck.

After a break last week, Ambaa has been coming this week for his tutoring. For some reason, Khishge told me that she wouldn’t be able to come here anymore. I don’t mind. She’s really nice, and probably the best English speaking student in town, but she’s kind of hard to teach. She dismisses a lot what I say with, “Yes, I know.” Then, come to find out, she doesn’t really know. Then, of course, I don’t know how to properly explain some point of grammar. Ambaa surprised me with gifts this evening. There was a nice thing of chocolates that are quite expensive and a big beer. He just said, “For you.” If his brother didn’t own the store that I’m sure they came from, I might’ve felt bad about taking the gifts. As it is, I accepted them gratefully. I’ve already broke into the chocolates. The beer will wait until this weekend.

No bad weather, yet.

March 20, 2009

Have you ever heard those dirty rumours about government workers in the U.S. being lazy and overpaid? I don’t know why America’s government workers get such a bad rap. The people spreading this filth has obviously never been to Mongolia and worked with their government’s workers. Now, it’s true that every culture has its own definition of what is and is not lazy. I’m not saying that Mongolia’s government workers are lazy. I’m just saying that, when looked at through an American’s viewing lens, Mongolians seem to have less concern for their work than American government workers.

Having said that, I went to work this morning and everyone seemed to be out and about the halls, visiting each other. That’s really not any different than usual, but it had just a little bit of a different feel to it. Moogie told me that several of the teachers were asking if I’d cook American food for them tonight. I didn’t have any plans for tonight, so I told them I would. I spent my lunch break getting some beans going and tidying my living room. This apartment reinforces my earlier belief that I would not like to live in a studio apartment. I hate not having my own private bedroom that no one goes into unless they are specifically invited. It kind of makes me feel exposed. That’s the best way I can describe it.

I had originally told the teachers that I’d be ready at 7:30, but they said that was too late. After getting my stuff from the office, and doing some shopping, I slowly got to cooking. I used the tomatoes and peppers that I’d frozen, mixing them with meat, potatoes, onions, and spices. The teachers were either really hungry or really excited to eat what I was going to cook. They kept telling me to hurry and six of them finally came over about and hour and a half before I finished cooking. I had some leftover cheesecake that I let them have. They made short work of that. I cooked fajitas for six teachers and myself and we all sat around the table in my living/bedroom and ate all the tortillas worth of fajitas. I had given them the beer I got last night and, after dinner, one of the teachers pulled out a small bottle of vodka. I’m glad it was a small bottle and there were seven of us. We sat around talking and picking at food for about another hour, and then they all got up to leave. I was surprised when I had the kitchen cleaned up by 9.

Oh, I went to the store once, tonight. It was quite warm today and I was on the verge of sweating. While I was cooking, I had on shorts and a t-shirt, then had to run to the store. It was a little chilly outside, but not too awfully bad. (That bad weather still hasn’t come.) Whenever I passed anyone, they would stare at me. One group of girls got into a giggling fit amongst themselves when they talked about how cold I must be. I just ignored everyone and went about what I was doing. I did have the realisation that they must be thinking, “Stupid American.” It was hard not to laugh when I thought that.

March 21, 2009

Click this link to see the speech I gave at our swearing-in ceremony: http://www.youtube.com/user/asb353

March 22, 2009

It’s been another nice weekend for me. I’ve cleaned my apartment, ate fajitas, did some reading, watches some movies, and watched the heck out of South Park. South Park is funny as heck and keeps me cracking up. It seriously has me sucking air sometimes because I’m laughing so hard. But, please, don’t watch it. The humour is so stupid and crass sometimes that I can’t recommend it to anyone with a clean conscience.

I think I’ve turned my heater off for a while. My boss will have a little bit less to worry about me now. She shows me my electric bill every month and it seems to be higher and higher. She always wants to know what it is that I’m doing to use so much electricity. The only think I can think of is the heater that I would have running all the time. It’s still a little chilly in here, but not as bad as it was. I’m glad it’s warming up.

I hope you are good. I think I’m going to make a couple trips to the city this next week. I’ll meet some friends that are going to Cambodia first, then go back to do some shopping. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Talk to you then. See ya.

March 9, 2009

There are a few things that I forgot to write about in my last blog. That’s what happens when I don’t write regularly. I’ll spend a few minutes talking about those things now.

A big part of Mongolian culture is singing, or anything like it. It seems like there is a song for everything. I can understand that, I guess. That is, if it was not for absolutely everything. Is the president making a special holiday speech? Sure, have a song. Is the new kindergarten in town having a special opening ceremony? Sure, have a song. Is it a special holiday and you’re sharing company with a good friend? Sure, have a song. Are you hanging out with your buddies, late at night, doing a little drinking and talking about girls? Sure, by all means, please, have a song. I can’t tell you how many times I would be visiting with someone during Tsagaan Sar – or anytime, really – and someone will just start singing. Everyone stops whatever conversation they were having and joins in. Sometimes, depending on the amount of alcohol that has already been consumed, Mongolians go right into another song – as soon as they finish the first and have another shot.

Springing from this love of all things song, Mongolians sometimes like to go to karaoke. While I was in UB last week, one of my Mongolian friends decided that she really really wanted to go to karaoke. It was never that big of a deal to me in the U.S., but, along with some other friends, I went. I told them that I would not be singing anything, no matter how much of a hard time they gave me. I was expecting something like I’d always seen back home: a bar with some tables and booths, people passing around the song book and selecting their song, then being called up to sing in front of the whole bar. Nope, nothing like that. When we got there, we were directed to a private room downstairs. It was almost creepy down there, but once we were in the room, with the door shut, it was alright. There was a big wrap-around couch along the back wall, with a big coffee table sitting in front of it. In the front of the room was a big entertainment centre with a big-screen TV and all the karaoke, microphone, and speaker equipment. We told the guy we wanted 2 hours, so he punched the appropriate buttons on the machine, took our drink order, then left the room. We were left with drinks, two microphones, a song book, and a huge remote to select our song. The lady who really wanted to go there didn’t even get settled before she flipped through the book, found the first of many of her most favourite song, punched the number into the pad, then got up to sing. It was good practice for me to read the words as I heard them sung. I usually have no idea what songs here are talking about. I could at least figure out the cipher for some of the songs I read. I did end up participating in a couple songs, but as you might imagine, they were American hip-hop. The other American that was with us likes hip-hop almost as much as I do. We got a good laugh out of one song. We’d heard it over a hundred times each, I’m sure. We didn’t know all the words, and we were not ready for the words that actually appeared on the screen. They were the right words, but we weren’t expecting them. That clarified a few points in the song, and had us both laughing so hard that we lost where we were. Oh, and at the end of the song, you get a grade. The very first song that was sung got a 100. After that, the highest score I saw was a 99. Just another cultural award for having sang, no matter how bad of a job you did. Too bad I don’t know any songs.

Last Thursday, Peace Corps PST people came to my town to check it out for a possible training site for the next group that will come in the summer. The training manager, the language director, and the safety and security officer walked into my office around 11 o’ clock. I first took them to talk to a guy that is pretty high up on the governmental totem pole. He was excited about the opportunity and gave them brochures about the town and district, and ensured them that this would be a good place for a training group. The next two people we talked to was the school principle (?) in the other part of town, and the school training manager for both schools. They were as equally excited about the possibility and assured the PC women that this is a good place to fulfill their needs and requirements. We’ll see how it turns out. I think that would be kind of cool to have a group of trainee’s in my town.

While in the other part of town, I got the driver to stop at the store where I buy kimchi. I haven’t been able to go over there and get it in a while, so I was glad to be able to. I asked for one kilogram and decided to take the .34 kilograms that was left. The training manager had went into the store and asked if there was anything I wanted her to buy for me. I wasn’t sure I understood, so I asked her to buy some juice for us to drink. She said she was intending to buy me something just for me, since I was helping them out with meeting and talking to the right people. Guess what I picked. Give up? Tomatoes. They actually had some real tomatoes. I would’ve taken all of them, but the others were bad. The first thing I made with them was the chickpea salad that I wrote about last weekend. It was quite tasty, and colourful. I put the other tomatoes in the freezer, for later.

The night before, I had put on a pound of pinto beans. I knew the PC people were coming, and there wouldn’t be anywhere for them to eat lunch. Before, when PC people came here, they just bought some noodles that I fixed for them. This time, I just felt like cooking and being nice. I cooked some pinto beans, fried some ham pieces that my mom had sent to me to put in there with them, and then put all the spices that I thought I might like to taste. (I wasn’t sure if they’d like it at all, so I figured I should be prepared to eat a whole pound of beans by myself. Haha.) I made some American rice that I put the beans on top of, and then showed them the Ranch and hot sauce. Surprisingly, they all reached for both. Some of them, after stirring around what they had and tasting it, decided that they wanted more Ranch. Yes! One by one, Mongolians are falling under the spell that is Ranch sauce. I’ve found new stores to shop at in UB, but I’ve found Ranch at none of them, so far. I’ll let you know when I’ve finally done my part of Ranch’s international expansion efforts.

Here’s something that I found out while in Sainshand, but forgot until now. The vitamins that we are given is making my nails grow faster. “Why?” you ask? It’s because we are all given pre-natal vitamins for pregnant women, as of several months ago. When I got the first bottle, I asked if it was really okay for a grown man to be taking pre-natal vitamins. I was assured that I should have absolutely no problems. Well, my nails’ growing faster is a problem for me. Haha. I don’t know why, but it’s just one of those grooming things that I don’t like to do. You can guarantee that I do it; I just don’t like doing it. Now, it seems like I have to cut my nails a lot more often than I used to. Every time, I just laugh about the idea of taking pre-natal vitamins.

That’s all of the stories that I can remember, for now. Check back later for updates. Now for one that happened today.

Do you remember me writing about the electrical wiring in the kitchen that is really touchy? The one that is a fire-hazard. It still hasn’t been fixed yet. This last weekend, I saw that they’d left the new, two-spaced outlet. I decided that since I knew just how to change an electrical outlet, I would switch out the two-spaced one with the one-spaced one in the living room. (My dad used to be an electrician and would take me to some of his jobs with him, in the summers.) I got all my tools together (1 Swiss Army knife and 1 multi-tool hammer), then went outside and turned the breaker off to my apartment. I took the face plate off the outlet in the living room, and as I was reaching to pull the outlet from the wall, I had one of those thoughts that goes through your head when it subconsciously knows that this situation presents danger. My particular thought was, “Now, boy, this is where you want to be careful.” I did everything I could to keep from making a connection between the two wires as I separated them from the outlet and replaced them in the new one. I might have even been holding my breath. I am now, writing this. Haha. I had to hammer some of the brick wall away so I could get the bigger two-spaced outlet to fit flush with the wall. I know I could fix the wiring in the walls, too, if I could easily get to it. But I can’t. I would have to tear the whole wall down. As it is, the wires are short and spliced in more than one place. I’ll let you know when things are up to fire code in here.

It was time for some grocery shopping when I left work. By some crazy alignment of the stars, I bought all but two things in one store. I could hardly believe my luck; and the lady seemed to hardly believe hers, too. One thing I finally found was some beef. It was only a couple of hundred tugriks more than mutton, so I asked for two kilograms of beef with no bones in it. She pulled bag after bag after bag out of the freezer and threw them onto the digital scales. I still haven’t gotten those things quite figured out yet, so I just trusted that that was 2 kilograms. If anything, it was a little more, and I had to pay for it, but I didn’t mind that. There were seven bags that filled up my freezer, all for something like $11. In another store, I found some bell peppers, found out the name for them, and bought everyone of them that wasn’t bad. I bought a dozen eggs, too. When I buy eggs, they put however many eggs I want into a bag, loose. As you might imagine, I’m as careful as I can be when I get them. I got all the way to the kitchen before I had a problem. I sat them on something where I thought they were safe, but I was wrong. One fell out and busted onto the kitchen floor. Drat!!

Since I had gotten some tortillas in a previous box from my sister, I started thinking about what I would do with those bell peppers and I could see fajitas in my immediate future. I came home, put some pintos on quick cook (3 hours), and asked Moogie if she wanted to share. I’d often teased her about cooking fajitas before. I would tell her while eating them, or after I’d eaten them. She’s used to me teasing her about anything I can, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect her. I always laugh at her either way. She came over after her work and watched me cook the last little bit. Included in my poor man’s kitchen set was not a lid for my medium-sized pot. As recourse, I’m forced to use a bowl for a lid. When the rice was almost done, Moogie told me how excited she was to finally be eating this. That made me that much more ready to eat, so in an attempt to pull the lid (read: bowl) off the rice, I got a nice little steam burn on the tops of three fingers. Yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi! I’m okay, though. It is easily aggravated, but I laughed about it mostly. When we were almost finished eating, Moogie told me that her and a group of teachers had been wondering if I would cook “American” food for them. I laughed and told her that I’d have to tease them about it for a while first.

I let her try my chickpea salad while she was here. Because I’m an idiot, I like to call them garbonzo beans. When I told her they were garbonzo beans, she stopped to look at me and ask what I’d said. She laughed. She had heard me say “garbonzil.” And that’s how I learned the word for masturbation.

I think I wrote this up there, but I got a box from my sister, Ann. There were all kinds of goodies in there. I have to say, percentage-wise, bags of Circus Peanuts were high numbers at 6. Other things were hot chocolate, sardines, Jello, pudding, country gravy, peanuts, cough drops, pepperoni, Rice Krispies Treats, Rolaids, rice, beans, bacon, strawberry jam, and Ranch. The first thing I treated myself to was a Rice Krispies Treat. I love those things. When I was a kiddo, it used to be so fun to make those things. I could probably eat a whole pan by myself. Thanks, Ann. I appreciate it.

March 10, 2009

Last week, one of the guys that I see out and about town came into my office with his 7 year old daughter. He said something that I didn’t understand, and then asked me where Densmaa was. He left my office and came back a few minutes later saying, “Back-way.” Not there. He told me he would come back when Densmaa was there. That turned out to be today. He sat in my office with his daughter for about 30 minutes while we waited for Densmaa to finish a meeting. When she came, she translated that the man wanted me to tutor *gasp* not his daughter…but his niece! To hear his story, the little girl’s real dad got a green card and lives in America now, driving a truck between San Francisco and Sacramento. In a few years, the little girl is supposed to go and live with him, and the uncle wants her to get a head start on learning English. The story sounds a little fishy, but whatever. It’s only for 30 minutes, so it shouldn’t be that bad. And she knows absolutely no English (not even “HI”), so I can basically teach how I want and not worry about if it’s correct grammar. You know, like colloquial English. We’ll see if she falls by the wayside like all of my other students.

March 11, 2009

I woke up to a cloudy day this morning. I’ve written before how Mongolia is purported to have 280 days of sun per year. I didn’t realise how used to it I’d gotten. Everything seemed eerily odd out. Before the morning was over, it began snowing. A lot. This must’ve been what yesterday’s wind was presaging. The wind is crazy here. Good thing I like it, for the most part. I’ve been told that springs here are full of dust storms, though. That is something that I’m not looking forward to at all. Oh, and I’ve also been told that the wind is not a factor in Mongolian weather forecasts or recordings. So, even though the temperature might say -7 Celsius, that doesn’t count the 50+ k/h winds that are blowing through.

I am always on YouTube, finding something to watch and waste my time with. Recently, I found a recipe involving Circus Peanuts. I think I might try it out. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVXBKv-sVrg&feature=related

Tonight, my Mongolian lesson consisted of watching one of the Mongolian movies that I bought. Before I could do that, though, I had to download software to play VCDs. Luckily, it was a simple, small programme that I got from download.com. You can find all kinds of stuff there, and you can be reasonably assured that there are no viruses. The movie was good. The name of it translates to something like “Bondsman’s House.” It’s about a couple of guys who get caught up in the mafia and suffer the consequences. I didn’t really understand most of the words, but I heard many words that I’ve heard before. That’s always good. Also, I heard the word for brotherhood, or fraternity. Everyone always asks me what the brand on my arm is for and when I tell them it’s from my fraternity, they look at me funny. Apparently, that word isn’t very widely used in Mongolia. So it was really cool to understand a word that a lot of Mongolians don’t understand. [Ed. Note: it was later learned that the writer of this blog found out that Windows Media Player plays VCDs. He’s not as bright as he looks.]

March 12, 2009

I remembered a story from way back around Christmas time that I wanted to tell you about. There is a rapper/singer/hip-hop artist from the U.K. called M.I.A that has a song called “Jimmy.” During all the Christmas (read: New Year) plays that were performed, they would have this song and the kids would dance to it. At first, I couldn’t figure out how they even knew that song, let alone why in the world they were using it in their play. When it got to the chorus, I realised what was going on. You see, in their play, they were saying good bye to the old year and hello to the new one. In the song, she says something like “Jimmy, ha-cha!” A Mongolian would hear this and think that she was asking Jimmy where he is going, which would be appropriate when saying good bye to someone, I guess. “Ha-cha” is one of the most contracted phrases in Mongolian. The full question is about five or six words, and they have contracted it down into two syllables. Now, that’s why colloquial Mongolian is so hard to learn.

I uploaded a video to my YouTube account today. It’s from during my PST. It’s the day that we went to the ger camp and had our host family appreciation day. Check it out here, if you like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDtzfpr_cUM

Well, today was the first dust storm. The window from my office looks toward the school, so I always see the kids coming and going. Today, I could see their little bodies bent in the wind, trying not to be blown away. At the same time, there were little eddies of dust forming across the ground. By the time I came home, the dust storm was in full effect. I had to pat and wipe myself off when I got into my building. I took a picture, looking across the square at my office building and I could barely discern what it was. Crazy!

It was brought to my attention that your time has changed again and you are now 13 hours behind me, if you live in the Central Time Zone. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about changing my clock. That is something that I never liked doing, and I never understood it. I’ve read plenty of articles online that talk about how it isn’t necessary anymore, but the U.S. (in most places) continue to do it anyway. Can anyone show me a good article that talks about how this practice is still relevant to the people of 2009?

I watched the other Mongolian movie that I got. It, like the other, is on two different discs. No matter which one I put in, it seemed to start right in the middle of things. After trying them both, twice, I put one in and watched both sides. When I put the other disc in, I saw that whoever burned the disc did something wrong. The disc that I watched second was really the first disc. The two sides were switched. I ended up watching the movie like this: last half, second quarter, first quarter. The movie was alright, but I bet it would be even better if I watched it in the correct order. I’ll have to try that again.

March 13, 2009

It’s Friday the 13th!! Cool. Have I told you that 13 is my favourite number? I think it’s because so many people think that it’s unlucky. Yeah, I’m weird like that. I really think Friday the 13th’s are cool. Just something silly to share. Unlucky days for Mongolians are Tuesdays and Saturdays. I haven’t figured out why, yet. People don’t like to travel or do much of anything on those days. The big market in the city is closed on Tuesday. People won’t invite you to their homes on those days. Hm, I really want to find out why, now. I’ll get back to you and let you know.

Ah, here’s another silly story to share with you. Do you remember me telling you about the life-changing find that there is a secret compartment full of blankets and sheets in my couch? Ever since then, I’ve been using one of the blankets to lie on while covering myself with one of my sleeping bags. It’s taking some getting used to, but I prefer folding a blanket in the morning to zipping, rolling, and cramming the other sleeping bag that I used to lie on. But, to even out the hassle, the blanket has caused some unexpected extra work of its own. I don’t know what the blanket is made of, but there are always little red hairballs that fall off of it. Those, in turned, get trekked throughout my apartment. That causes me to have to go through and pick up each hairball individually. I try to get a little exercise out of it, though, by staying in a low wrestler’s stance. There are usually enough little red hairballs strewn throughout my apartment to have my legs burning really nice by the time I get them all. I do the same when I have to sweep. I’d really like to have a vacuum, but I don’t see myself being able to justify the cost anytime soon. Until then, I’ll keep working on my stance.

I had been tempted to go to UB this weekend when some friends called and invited me to a birthday celebration. I decided that I would stay home and do absolutely nothing, instead. When I was trying to figure out what I wanted for dinner, I decided that I wanted hoshor, but without as much hassle. After looking through my kitchen, I had a craving for potato with meat and veggies hoshor. I put the potatoes to boiling while I chopped onions, mushrooms, cabbage, and beef. When the potatoes were as soft as I wanted them, I drained most of the water, added some of the garlic butter that I’d made, and mashed the potatoes. After I mixed in all the stuff I’d chopped, I made the dough. It’s a very simple dough, consisting of 2 ½ cups flour and 1 cup water. After rolling the dough into an elongated shape, I cut it into several sections, which I then rolled out into small circles. From there, I spooned a glob of my concoction into the centre of the circle, and then pinched it closed and smashed it flat. To cook, I just deep-fried it. I put hot sauce and Ranch on them, and boy, oh boy, were they good! I have leftovers for tomorrow, and still more potato mush that only needs more dough.

While I was cutting the meat, I remembered a story about when I was in Amsterdam. It was a couple nights before I was to go back to the U.S., and I wanted to buy and cook a nice dinner for Austin for letting me live at his place for two weeks. I hopped on my bike and rode to the store that is just a few blocks away. Unlike Mongolian, an English speaker can half-way read Dutch and kind of sort of make out what is being said. I bought what I thought was some nice meet, some good veggies, and decent beer. I got back to Austin’s and immediately started cooking, telling him that I’d take care of everything. He came in a few times, just to watch. Once, he saw the meet and asked what kind it was. I told him it was venison. He looked at the package and told me that he thinks I got food-for-animals meat. I told him that it was right in the middle of every other piece of meat in the store, and I thought it would be okay. He immediately started trying to text one of his Dutch speaking friends to find out exactly what I had gotten us into. I forgot about him (though that’s hard to do), finished the meal, and gave him a bowl of my creation. He took the first bite and said it was pretty good, though the meat was a little tough. Halfway through his second bite, he received a text saying that the meat I’d bought was deer hearts and organs, and people do sometimes buy that just for their animals. I laughed and told him I didn’t care, it tasted good all the same. He carefully picked every piece of meat out of his bowl and gave it to me. He got a kick out of telling people that I cooked and ate “dog food.” He would be hard pressed if he ever found himself in Mongolia, with some of the food decisions I make on a regular basis.

Here’s another story. The week that I celebrated Tsagaan Sar here, I had the equivalent of Mongolian milk wine. I had seen one of the women drinking it from a juice jug, but I thought it was just water. Somehow, the jug got around to her husband. When he started pouring it into shot glasses, I knew it was more than just water. I was given a big shot and was basically told “it’ll sneak up on ya.” Whenever I hear something like that, I’m always careful, so I smelled it and sipped it, then took the whole shot. It tasted like water that had come from some obscure source, giving it a slightly un-watery taste. That’s the only way I can describe it that makes any sense. In fact, every shot that I had of it, I was even less sure that it wasn’t water from some obscure source. If the Mongolians were joking with me about it being really strong Mongolian wine, they never let the façade slip. The hosts even gave another bottle to someone as a gift.

March 15, 2009

My weekend has been just as lazy as I was hoping for. I watched a lot of South Park, did a little reading, cooked some good food, and got plenty of sleep. I haven’t been outside once. It’s been kind of nice to stay half-way warm. I finally made that cheesecake that my sister had sent to me. Man, that thing is good. I made some more hoshor, and I still have some filling left. Good thing the dough is so easy to make. Now, I have to worry about what I’m going to do with the oil I used to cook them in.

I hope you are good. As always, write when you can. I hear awesome stories from some of you, sometimes, and I can’t get enough of it. Keep ‘em coming.

Well, here I am, after several weeks, finally sitting down to write something for you. I’ve already been politely nudged by one regular reader, so I can only imagine that there are at least a few others of you that might be wondering what in the heck I’ve been doing. I was reading an article from MSN the other day about the link between madness and creative genius (there isn’t one; only a correlation). Not that I think I’m mad, or a creative genius, but I do think a quote was relevant to me. "If the writer doesn't sit at the computer every day… [t]he muse is not going to visit." So, I’ll tell you some of my doings of the last couple of weeks, and do my best to make it interesting for you.

I woke up on Saturday, February 21, and got on the meeker to UB. I’d planned on going there for the Tsagaan Sar celebration, but I was ready to get out of here and distract my mind from small town life. That day, I met with a guy whose name translates to Peace, whom I had met a few weeks before. He works at an NGO in UB and wanted some help writing a grant proposal. Since I’m putting out feelers for a new job, and his NGO works with kids, I was happy to help him. Also, he was a fairly nice guy. In fact, I had finished the majority of the proposal earlier in the week and emailed it to him already. When we met, we mostly just cleared up a few misunderstandings that I’d had, and then we polished it nicely. Again, writing part of it reminded me of writing stuff in school. Sometimes I amaze myself with how smart I think I sound. I just hope that the people reading it think the same thing. The grant proposal was asking for about $6,675, which would be spent on fixing up a kindergarten in the ger district, which is where the poorest kids of the city live.

We’d finished right around dinner time, so Peace took me to a Korean restaurant that he frequents. He says his wife knows the owner, so that’s the main reason he goes to that one. I guess that’s a Mongolian thing, because after the one visit, I wouldn’t go there again. Have I ever written to you about the level of service that you get in a Mongolian restaurant? I used to be a server in two different restaurants – a country club and Red Lobster – for a total of about six years. I like to think that I have a pretty good idea of what good service is. You can throw all that out the window when you come to Mongolia. I think the biggest thing is that servers here get paid a set wage and don’t receive tips. I don’t think their daily wages are very high when compared to what an American server could take home in one 2 ½ hour lunch rush.

One of the first things you’ll notice at many of the restaurants here is that someone might show you to a seat, or you could just walk in and find your own. It doesn’t seem to matter to them, either way you prefer. That adds a little bit of chaos right off the bat, with people walking around the different dining rooms to see which arrangement they like the best. Next, when you get menus, you’re likely to not get enough for everyone at the table; so some people want a menu book, some people are sharing and fighting about which page to look at, and some are ready to order straightaway. When everyone is finally ready, it would be totally useless to sit there and wait for your server to show up and take your order. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen here. Instead, there is a nifty little button on the table that, when pushed, sounds a small alarm somewhere, with your table number flashed on a screen. In whatever part of the building the servers are hiding in, one will eventually amble out and look at you confusedly while you make your order. And you’d better tell them absolutely everything you want the first time, cause it will be hard to get anything later. In the Korean restaurants, food doesn’t actually take too long, so that is a plus, but other places never seem to care how your stomach is trying to digest your spinal cord.

The Korean places bring out your food and a whole lot of little side dishes that come with the meal each order. A person could get full on the side dishes! There are usually things like a couple different kinds of kimchis, eggs cooked whichever way the chef felt like that day, tofu, some sardines, and random other things. I had pickled celery a few times. (Hm, I wonder: if you pickle celery, does it add calories and make celery not a negative-calorie food anymore?) I’ve been with up to four other people before and we ordered two main dishes. Those, along with the sides that can be refilled for free, are plenty of food. Oh, and if you want a side refilled, you have to push the button and wait on the server again. And if you haven’t completely finished one of the sides that you want refilled, you’d better be quick and adept with a pair of Korean chopsticks and get it before the server grabs the dish. If there is anything left in there, it will be wasted. I hate the idea of wasting food. (By the way, Korean chopsticks are flat and made of metal, whereas Chinese chopsticks are the wooden kind you can find in almost any Chinese buffet in the U.S. I’ve seen some from Thailand that are thick at the top and drastically taper off in the middle, before going down to a very skinny rod. I didn’t use them, but they looked like they would take some getting used do.) At the end of the meal, you have the option to sit there as long as you like: they aren’t going to make you feel compelled to leave by bringing your bill before the end of your meal; or any other time, until you summon them and ask for it. They are making money by the hour, so the less work they will eventually have to do for you, the longer you sit there, must seem a better allure than doing all that again for someone new as soon as you leave.

My buddies back home used to get a giggle out of my frustration at restaurants with poor service in the U.S. They’d never had the experience of having worked in one before and learning what good service is supposed to be; nor did they realise how easy a server could make it on themselves if they just kept in mind the golden rule: efficiency! If you are efficient, you make things better for everyone you affect. Well, I guess they are getting the ultimate giggle, now. I’m sure my expectations for service won’t be quite as high when I get back to the U.S.

After hanging out a few days, meeting friends, formally and informally having meetings with people in the Peace Corps office, and eating lots of Korean food, I went with a friend whose name translates to Coral. From what I’m told, this is a strange name for a Mongolian. There is no coral in Mongolia, since it is the second biggest landlocked country in the world, so why is there even a word for it? (If I had to guess, I’d say that it is due to the trade that used to pass through Mongolia, on its way to a stop further into the west.) We went to Coral’s parent’s home, to a small community right outside UB. The scenery is awesome there. The community is tightly hugged by mountains on every side that are covered with snow. It’s perfect for the touristy community that it is. There are three or four nice hotels there that are only open in the summer, I think. That’s too bad, cause to see the beauty of a mountain covered in snow is different than too see that same mountain’s beauty in the blazing heat of summer. Every time I’m close to the mountains, it makes me miss having one right at my front door step, like when I used to live in East TN. Even Huntsville had a big hill that is officially a mountain. (A mountain is usually defined as having a peak that is between 1,000 to 2,500 metres higher than the surrounding area, depending on the angle of incline.) Where I live, there are only rolling hills. While attractive to the eye, they don’t appeal to me the same way mountains do. I’m kind of disappointed, since about 40% of Mongolia is mountainous. I can see some mountains, way off in the distance, but they will take a long time to get to. I plan to visit them in the summer, but I won’t be able to that often.

Anyway, we got to Coral’s parent’s house right at 5 o’ clock. They were expecting me, and knew that it was my first White Month, so they were ready to show me all about it. I was immediately served a big bowl full of meat that was poured full with milk tea. The meat I was served was already hot, but oftimes, I’ve seen Mongolians cut cold meat into a bowl and heat it by pouring milk tea in there with it. That stuff is scalding hot, so it doesn’t take long for it to get warm. Actually, what takes a while is letting it cool to a temperature where you can stand to put it in your American mouth. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked over and seen a Mongolian slurp down the last sip of a scalding drink from their bowl, while I’m nursing the last half of mine, trying my best not to blister the inside of my mouth. I didn’t do too well that first night, the eve of White Month: I went to bed with a scalded tongue.

About 20 minutes after I’d finished the meat (the cook-time for boats), I was practically assaulted with a large platter of boats and told, “Id, id, id, id.” That’s Mongolian for “Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat!” It really sounds just like “eat,” so there is no mistaking the command for something else. In Mongolia, you don’t ask people if they want to drink anything, nor do you ask them if they want to eat anything. You just pour it and plate it up, then force it into their hands, all the while, alternately telling them to, “Eat, drink; eat, drink; eat, drink; ad nauseum.” When you finish, you will be told to eat and drink more, and that even more is on the way. And, indeed, if you did eat and drink as much as you were told to eat and drink, then you probably would have a good case of nausea. At the least, you will make yourself sick.

That’s what happened to me. To be perfectly honest, it wasn’t the Mongolians’ fault. The traditional food for White Month is boats. After these many months, I don’t think I have to expound on how boats are my favourite food. Well, come to find out, there is another guy who likes them even more than I do. Last year, he ate 170 boats in one day, beating the previous record of 100 in a day. “The big boats, not the small-sized bansh-like ones,” he told me. I told him that I really liked boats, too, and I often ate more than every one else around me, and I could still eat more when I finish. I told him that I was going to make a run on his record. He smiled his big smile and said, “Good luck, brother.” Those are the words that came to mind as I reached for that platter of boats. I didn’t have the whole platter to myself, so I didn’t eat as many as I could have that first night. I still went to bed with a distended stomach. We determined that one of two time limits could apply, depending on which you prefer. A person could have a time limit that goes from the first plate served until the last plate served, in one day; or they could have a 24 hour time limit. I went to bed thinking that I might be better suited to try the 24 hour time limit. I went to bed having put down 22 boats.

After the sun went down, on the eve of White Month, a flurry of action began. You have to wait until then before you can start making and decorating the area where everyone will be welcomed with the Lunar New Year greeting. (By the way, on the night of White Month, there is no moon to be seen. Because of that, Mongolians pray for a white moon. The word for month and moon is the same.) There is a Mongolian pastry whose name sounds like “bove.” With as many of those that we had, we made a tower that kind of looked like a stuppa when you’re finished. Then, we took candies, sugar cubes, and a hardened milk curd thingy and decorated the bove tower. Oh, and we absolutely had to be sure that the tower was straight. We had to take it down and put it up again because of some crookedness to it that emay (grandmother) saw. When that was completed, we took a half of a sheep that had already been cooked and frozen and put it on the table. It would thaw overnight – most of the way. If not overnight, then during the three plus days that it will be sitting there. Many bowls of candy and various kinds of solidified milk products were placed on the table, a bottle of the best Mongolian vodka, a bottle of good Inner Mongolian vodka, a bottle each of red and white wine, and a bottle of some kind of expensive wine-like drink. The floor of the room had been lined with plastic, and we were sure to do the same to the tables. I could tell that they were expecting a mess by the time the dust cleared. I pondered that as I took care of shining the silver bowls that would be used.

The next morning, when the first batch of milk tea was finished, the first serving was taken outside and, with a spoon, thrown in the four directions. Prayers are said at the same time as this God-honouring tradition. This is done on regular days, as well as special days, as well as for each meal, for the most devout believers. We then got dressed in our White Month clothes. The name of the robe-like contraption sounds like “dale.” I’m not really sure if my description will suffice, but I’ll try to describe the man’s. They can be almost any colour. Mine was brown. It is usually what an American might think is about four sizes too big. There are buttons at the throat, the right shoulder, under the right arm, and on the right side. If you’re lucky enough to have a wife or mother that has made yours, the buttons will fasten with a traditional Mongolian knot. She would probably make sure that you’re properly wrapped, buttoned, and belted, too. Mine was left to me by the previous Volunteer, and was probably bought; and I was left on my own to get dressed. It fastened with big beads. When you’ve finally got your fat fingers to operate the vexing buttons, you take a length of cloth that is about 37 2/3 feet long and wrap it around your middle and tuck in the end. It’s not as easy as it sounds. You have to make sure that you leave plenty of bulge in the top portion of your dale. I didn’t know that and went for a more slimming look. One of the other guys in the room came over and jerked me around for a few seconds to get me looking right, then said something about having plenty of motion for your arms. It was easier to move like that, but I looked like I’d put on about 75 pounds. Another reason for the bulge is to make a pocket. It’s nowhere near as uncomfortable as I’d thought it might be. I kept my phone, camera, keys, and random other things in there, all at the same time, and I was never once bothered by it. Some men have big, almost gaudy cowboy-like belts. They made them look good, though. The women’s version of the dale is slightly different. It’s more feminine, but is basically the same thing. Many women use a regular belt more often than the cloth wrap around one. Often, they will wear a special kind of vest that is made to match. Women can regularly be heard bragging to others about a specific piece of jewelry that used to belong to some ancestor. Men usually have things like snuff-bottles or smoking pipes and accessories, and can similarly be heard telling anyone who will listen. For men and women, they usually wear a matching, traditional hat.

When we were all dressed, the family met in the meeting room right after the sun came up. Starting with the oldest person in the room, both people make sure they have their hats on. The younger person will hold out their hands, palm up, to support the elbows of their elder. They both say what translates roughly as, “Peace be with you. Have a good year.” Mostly, I was the youngest, but the kids would always come to me and support my elbows and exchange the greeting with me. Most of the times, kids would only do it after their parents had told them. I don’t think they were afraid of me. I think they are just young (between 0 and 10 years) and still trying to feel comfortable in a traditional setting while they are all the time bombarded with media portraying the modern world. Of course, for the babies, they were too little to know what to do, this having been their first or second celebration. Many times, a gift of money is given to the host, so as to help offset the cost of hosting. The gift could range from 1,000tg to 20,000+tg. It kind of depends on your relationship to the host. After everyone has exchanged this greeting, people will figure out who sits where, based on importance. The head of the household usually sits at the head of the table. If the head of the table is a couch seat, then oldest and most respected people will set with the man. Otherwise, the men will start their seating arrangement beginning on the right of the man. To the left will sit his wife, then important and older women. Of course, as with anything, there are always exceptions and the actual seating arrangement turns out nothing like traditional lessons might tell you. Add an American and that changes things even more. Sometimes I sat the furthest from the head of the table, but more than often, I sat at the head or only two seats away from it. I noticed that I got a different level of respect when I sat at the different places. People tended to ignore more the further I sat away. When I sat close to the head, people would often say something to me, or comment about me in some way. Ha, one woman said that I had pretty hair, like a baby. I just laughed and said thanks.

After the family had greeted each other, we sat down and shared another traditional greeting. Those who have a snuff bottle will offer it to others while asking if the person is having a nice new year. Men and women own and pass snuff bottles. A person that receives a snuff bottle has two options. First, you can politely refuse by sniffing the top of the bottle, with each nostril, then returning it to the owner and asking if they are having a nice new year. The second option is to actually get a snuff of the snuff. If that is the option you choose, you will hold the bottle in your left hand while pulling the cap with your right. Attached to it is a small spoon that fits down into the bottle. You spoon three spoons worth of snuff onto your left pointer finger, then put it to your nose and snuff. I saw very few people actually snuffing. After that, everyone sits and drinks a bowl of milk tea. The important people, starting with men – or everyone, if you have enough money – are served milk tea in a silver bowl. This has something to do with a chemical reaction between silver and poison. Is it true that silver reacts with poison? I don’t know. I’ve been told that Chengiss Khan’s son wore a silver ring so he could tell if his drink was poisoned. Poisoning is the means by which Chengiss was believed to have died.

One of the sociological things that goes on during White Month is that of making and renewing family and social ties. If a person doesn’t live with an elder sibling, they are expected to go and visit them in their home. If you have a younger sibling, or relative, they are expected to visit your home. People travel across the country to see their family and friends. If one is not able to see someone, for whatever reason, then a phone call with all the greetings and a bit of conversation will suffice. Sometimes, people won’t have seen each other for many years. When they finally do, that makes for a special occasion, since they will sometimes have a wife and children, or elder brother, or friend. Really, it doesn’t matter who it is. And I kind of get the feeling that it’s better to just show up, instead of calling and asking if it’s okay. You know the saying: “The more the merrier.” By the time the visitor leaves, they will have strengthened or formed a good relationship with an entire family. This, again, is one of those traditional pieces of culture that is Mongolia. It’s a big country, sparsely populated by herders. No matter where a Mongolian might find their self in the country, they probably have a friend that will host them. I’m sure you can imagine how that could lead to business and bartering, and all those other and similar things that result from two people having a strong relationship.

While everyone was sitting around drinking milk tea and hacking chunks of meat off the half-sheep, the women folk of the household began a flurry of table setting performances. A big plate of potato salad was brought out at the same time as a plate of sausage slices. Some people serve various kinds of slaws, salads, fruits, veggies, and pickles. Before I could even make a reach for the food, we were all directed to “Id, id, id, id….” I held off, only having a few pieces of candy, and waited for the boats that I knew were coming. I needed to save as much room as possible. As soon as they arrived, I ducked my head, poured some chili catsup on my plate, and then started chowing down, paying most attention to what number I was on. After a while, I saw that the boats just weren’t coming fast enough for what I was trying to do, so I couldn’t set any kind of pace. The eldest son and his family came and a couple of cousins that first day. A new batch of boats was served for each new set of visitors, but they just weren’t fast enough for me. About six hours before the end of my 24-hour time limit, I called it quits. I’d eaten 62. I waited a couple hours, just to be sure, but I couldn’t eat any more. I messaged that other guy and told him that he totally has Daddy Rights until next year. (For those of you who don’t know, Daddy Rights go as follows. If two guys want to have a light-hearted competition and put something on the line, but they are not willing to bet money, that will bet for Daddy Rights. Who ever wins the bet will have Daddy Rights for a specified set of time. During that time, any time that the person with Daddy Rights asks the loser, “Who is your daddy?” the loser must answer, “You are my daddy.” It doesn’t matter when or where the question is asked: the loser must always answer.)

Later, I got the worst case of gastro-intestinal distress that you could imagine. I mostly sat on the couch and had terrible intestinal pain. They were rebelling at all the fatty boats that I had stuffed down my gullet. I think the milk tea was the biggest factor in my soured-stomach burps. Yuck! It was all that evening, and night at 2 and 4 in the morning, that I got my lesson in what it’s like to need to run to the outhouse when it’s about -25 degrees Celsius outside. I first had to get dressed. When I got out there, it was so dark that I couldn’t see anything. Luckily, I have a flash light on my phone. I think I’ve told you that I am considering trying to move to a ger next year. That outhouse experience is, by far, the biggest con on my list.

When I talked to the guy I lost to and asked how he felt when he ate 170, he said that he felt just fine. He regularly eats a whole bag of frozen boats himself, and he’s done competitive eating before. Nice. Maybe I should’ve asked a few more questions, or did a lot more preparing, before I let myself get into that one. Emay was sure to congenially tell me that I was dumb for even trying to eat that many boats. And further more, she thinks that the other guy is a liar and didn’t really eat that many boats. She said she would make that many boats for him if he would come there and prove it to her. He got a good laugh out of that and said, “Time and place. Time and place.” I hope it happens and I’m there to share in the fun.

The second day, I was allowed to sleep fairly late. I woke up around 10, right before the first set of visitors got there. Immediately, I was steered to the table, given a silver bowl of milk tea, and asked about how my stomach was doing. After I assured them that I was okay, the story was shared amongst all visitors for the rest of the day. They first awed at how many boats I’d eaten, then laughed at me having made myself sick. Then I was told to “Id, id, id, id.” For the first half of the day, I just ate a little of a few different kinds of slaws and salads. Later, I ate a few pieces of meat, without the fat. I didn’t eat any boats until late into the night. I only had three, and even though they still tasted just as good as the first one I’d put in my mouth two nights before, I held back on eating more.

Also, the second day was one where the family I was with did nothing but host the entire day. Usually, a visitor is expected to eat at least three boats and take three shots of vodka whenever they go to a person’s home. That first day, so many people were driving that we only had two shots the entire day. The second day took a different course. Emay declared it her drinking day and kept the men’s shot glasses filled with vodka, then filled shot glasses of wine for the women. There is no special meaning as to who got which drink. I think that was just a different way to honour the men and women. Whenever someone heard about my upset stomach, they would encourage me to drink vodka. Vodka is, I’m told, very good for an upset stomach. Is that true? I can’t imagine that it truly is. I did try it out, though. I wasn’t going anywhere that day, and I had nothing better to do, so I matched emay all day. By the end of the day, all of the people that had been there had finished all the bottles of vodka and wine that were on the table, and the reserves had been broken into and had a good chunk taken out of it. Admittedly, my stomach was feeling alright by the time I got in the bed.

On the third day, I got to sleep even later, and there were still several visitors. Slightly odd to me was one set of visitors. Three or four of them used to be the students of grandfather, when he was a high school math teacher 20 years ago. They hadn’t seen him in a while and they all had wives or husbands and kids. Some of the wives teased their husbands by asking grandfather what their husband’s nickname was in high school. They all had a good ol’ time catching up on what everyone had been doing since they had last met. I told them how most Americans aren’t that kind of friends with their high school teachers. Maybe with some of their university instructors, but usually not high school teachers.

Whenever someone was ready to leave, the host would rush to another room and bring back a parting gift. These gifts could be absolutely anything, depending on who you are to the host. I saw some people get new clothes, new purses, gifts of money, dishes, lotions, perfumes, colognes, phone units, toys, candy, alcohol, and money. From all the people I visited, I got alcohol, two different colognes, spray deodourant, phone units, a small keychain that I immediately gave away, phone units that I couldn’t use that I immediately gave away, candy, and money. I have to say, the candy was the best thing. Once, when there was an agglomeration of several different kinds of candies, I got one of each and sat to try each of them in turn. I wanted to figure out which ones I liked the most. I went through six pieces of different flavoured jelly-filled chocolates. My friend said, “Trip, I didn’t realise you like candy so much.” I told them, like I’ll tell you: I love candy. I have a sweet tooth bigger than any two kids combined. But I try to not eat sweets that often. I try to have a little bit of control. That’s partly why my candy tends to last so long, usually. I got a lot of really good candy as parting gifts.

Late Friday night, I finally got back to UB proper. Another friend had told me that a bunch of people were meeting at Face club for someone’s birthday, so I went to join them. We got there just a little earlier than the crowd and we were able to find some nice couches to sit in and just doing nothing but sit and hang out and watch people, or whatever else we felt like doing. I mostly sat and hung out with some of the guys. Other than to shake someone’s hand, I only got up a couple of times. I was tired, and worn out, but glad to see my friends. We were up late that night.

That weekend, I just hung out with a few friends, walked around the city, paid some bills, and did a bit of shopping. Earlier in the week, I’d ran across a grocery store that has all kinds of different stuff for cheap prices. I found some different kinds of hot sauces that were really cheap and a whole gallon of mushrooms that cost only slightly more than the quart size I used to get at the State Dept. store. I finally found a decent market for electronics and bought some new ear buds for my mp3 player. My last pair crapped out last summer. Luckily, I’d brought another pair of headphones, but they are big and clunky, and not made for exercising with. There was one place in there that sold made in Mongolia Mongolian movies. Believe it or not, all-the-way Mongolian movies are hard to find. I think I’ve told you before about the American, Russian, and S. Korean movies that are terribly dubbed over. There is even a movie store right below my apartment that doesn’t have any Mongolian movies. What a shame. I got two movies for 5,000tg and was told by several people that they are very good movies. I got a couple more kids’ books, too. One is the story about a picture that I see absolutely everywhere. No one has been able to explain it to me, so I’ll try to read the book and figure it out for myself. The other book is about a Mongolian legend about how the camel lost its horns and tail. The deer got the horns and the horse got the tail. I’m not sure why, so I’ll try to figure that out, too.

I got back to my site on Sunday evening. I told my boss that I would visit her at her place as soon as I got back. Since we live so close to the city, most people went there for the Tsagaan Sar holiday. While there, they didn’t get to see some of their friends from here. This is where an extra week long of partying began. The Peace Corps had told me that the holiday was officially three days long, but people in the countryside tend to celebrate it until they finish, however long that may be. I wasn’t ready for what I was getting myself into. Luckily, I was only a block from my home, no matter which direction I walked in. Literally, that’s how small my town is.

When I got home, I put on my dale and went to my boss’s place. Her daughter ushered me in and told me that Densmaa was at work. On a Sunday? Yeah, well, come to find out, things got changed around at the last minute. The previous Friday was supposed to be a work day, but the government decided to keep the holiday going and moved the work day to Sunday. What? Glad I didn’t know that. So, her daughter played the perfect host and told me to sit on the couch. She immediately served me a big bowl of milk tea, and then started bringing out the usual Mongolian appetisers: potato salad, sliced sausage with pickles, and candy. As soon as she knew that I had enough to hold my attention for a few minutes, she went to put some boats to cooking. She would randomly walk back into the room to refill my bowl o’ milk tea and tell me, “Id, id, id.” She was younger than me, so she only told me three times, instead of four or more. It seems like the older a Mongolian gets, the more they tell you to eat. When the boats came, she pushed the appetisers to the side and put the whole plate right in front of me, with more commands to eat. She walked through every so often, just to make sure there was nothing I needed, then, right before I was finished, she poured me a shot of vodka and a shot of scotch. I drank the vodka straightaway, then sipped on the scotch for a while, waiting on Densmaa. She never came before I got tired of waiting.

After a several days of this Tsagaan Sar thing, I’d finally learned a trick. Eat til you’re not quite full, and then chill. If you’re the only one in the room, just take a bite when they come in so they will see you eating. If you’re in the room with several other people, watch for the times when the host is looking at you. Always have a little something on your plate, and when they look toward you, reach for something else to put on there, and then eat a bite. I’m not saying this will get you out of all of it, but it is definitely a trick to keep your stomach from exploding. Remember the previous paragraph about how things went from the time I walked in the door to the time I left, cause that is exactly the same way that things happened in every house I went to.

When I left Densmaa’s, I saw some guys in the street and walked over to talk to them. We stood there talking for a little while, just watching people, until my boss finally walked up. I’d told her that I had recently left her house. She said, “Okay, please come with me now.” We went to the home of one of the ladies that works in the gvt. building and did the whole routine of greeting, sharing snuff bottles, eating appetisers, meat, and boats, and taking shots of vodka. We were there for about 45 minutes, and then went to the home of someone who lives on the floor above me. I had no idea that the guy I met so long ago while wrestling lived there with his wife and son. His and her parents were both there, and they were really nice people. Ha, this is where the lady told me I had pretty hair, like a baby. From there, the majority of the party went back to Densmaa’s house, where everything but the greetings happened again. We were up really late.

Densmaa told me I didn’t have to work on Monday, so I didn’t even try. She woke me up and I went to her place for lunch. My co-workers were there, so we did the usual visiting thing again. They fed me til I was stuffed, gave me a few shots of vodka, then told me to go back home and rest, cause we were invited to a hair-cutting ceremony that evening. Cool. I’ve heard about those before and have wanted to see what it’s all about. Densmaa told me she would call me at 5 and we would go there together. I went home and slept for a while. She finally called at 6:30 and told me someone was going to pick me up and take me to the ceremony, in the other part of town. The celebration was over by the time I got there, with the little bald girl running around playing with a few other kids.

I’ll tell you what I have been taught about the ceremony. The ages are slightly different for boys and girls. Girls are usually 3-6 years, I think, while boys are 2-5. I think that’s right. Anyway, until the hair-cutting ceremony, the baby’s hair isn’t cut at all. That makes it hard to distinguish boys and girls in Mongolia, especially when either of them could be dressed in pink everything, and even boys wear headbands to hold back their hair. The reason for the ceremony is that all the baby hair is cut away so the child can grow into the man or woman they are supposed to be. Some words are said, maybe prayers, and then starting with the oldest/most respected person, everyone takes a turn cutting a piece of the child’s hair and gives the child a small gift of money. If there is any particular person that should’ve been there, but could not make it until a later time, then one sprig of hair will be left on the child’s head, until that person is able to see the child and cut it off. I’m not sure how long they wait for the person to come. Because of this, it’s not unusual to see a little bald kid running around with, at worst, a sprig of hair sprouting out the side of their head, right behind an ear; at best, an awesome rat tail will hang down the child’s back. I just greeted the child and gave her 1,000tg.

The child is the granddaughter of Densmaa’s best friend. Her and her husband’s family were for the holiday, so we did all of that stuff, too. At one point, they just got ridiculous with the shots of vodka, and I had to slow things down. At first, they all made me take a shot with them. Then, the host would pour a shot for me and a shot for someone else that we immediately took. A few minutes after that, I and another person were given a shot. That’s when I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up that kind of pace, so I started taking only partial shots. That helped a lot. After the third person took a shot with me, we all took a shot again, and then I took a few shots with a couple of old ladies. Of course, don’t forget that there is all kinds of food being ate at the same time. I think that helped me, too. I tried to eat the fatty stuff, so it would take longer for the alcohol to soak through. After thinking about it, that’s been one of my tricks this whole time. Because of that, and just eating so much lately, I have gained some weight. I’ve got to do something about this.

I was determined to go to work on Tuesday, so I was lucky when there was nothing going on. Also, Tuesdays and Saturdays are bad luck days for visiting, or something like that. That gave me a night off of visiting, eating, and drinking. I just relaxed that evening, hoping against hope that Ambaa and Khishge wouldn’t come for tutoring at 6:30. By 6:45, I knew they weren’t coming and totally relaxed. I had a small dinner and zonked out early that night.

Wednesday evening, I went to the house of one of the jijuurs (building worker). I get on alright with all of those guys, and he’d been asking me to his place forever. In the morning, I reminded him that he’d asked me to come that evening. He asked me what time I’d be there, and when I told him 7, he shook his head no and said, “Six o’ clock.” I laughed and said okay, having no intentions of going straight there from work. I got to his place around 6:30 and his wife and several teenage kids took care of me. He finally showed up about 30 minutes later. The first thing he reached for was the bottle of vodka. Three quick shots each and we finished the half-bottle that was sitting on the table. I thought that was good until he gave his son some money and sent him to the store for more. Dang it! I can’t do this again. Luckily, it wasn’t long before two other jijuurs came with their wives. That saved me from drinking a litre bottle with only one other person. As much as they were drinking, I once again cut myself back to only partial shots. When we left there, I thought I was going to be able to go home. It wasn’t too late yet, and I could get plenty of sleep. Wrong. I was pulled to another house. Basically, we just moved the party to get away from all the kids. More food and vodka were served. At that place, I just did the touch it to your lips thing.

Friday, the governor’s office had a day set up for the women. March 8 is Women’s Day this year. After work, we were to all meet at the school at 2, and we would play a volleyball tournament between all the different departments. At a few minutes after, I was told that no one was there. I decided to walk and check out some buildings I haven’t seen yet. I don’t know what one of them used to be, but I think it must’ve been a gym or something. On the outside were the numbers 1980, along with the Olympic rings. I know it has something to do with the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, but I haven’t the faintest about why that is on that building, here in countryside Mongolia.

When I got to the gym, I was there for a good 45 minutes with a couple of high school kids. That was a good chance for me to get some extra play time in, and get warmed up. I had a good sweat going by the time everyone got there. As it turned out, my team was in the first game. With some awesome, barely over the net with heat serves, yours truly contributed to the win of that game. The only other guy on my team doesn’t play any volleyball, that I can tell, and the women were all over 40, with a couple of them over 50. I think we won that game cause the other team sucked worse than ours. The next game was about an hour later, and my muscles had cooled down. The gym is so small that spectator toes are literally on the line, so there was no place for me to get warmed up ahead of time. We lost to a team that had two guys on their team who’d played more than a little bit of volleyball. They basically took over and hit all the balls that came on their side of the net, sometimes pushing other players out of the way. That’s probably the one thing I don’t like about volleyball here. People will run and jump in front of you to hit a ball that only sometimes does what they want it too. Then, when a ball will be coming between you and the other person, but closer to them, they will stand and watch you, thinking you were going to get it. There were four teams altogether. One of the teams in the finals had two women that play volleyball a lot and a couple of other decent guys. The other team was all guys who play a lot. The guys won, but they had to fight hard for it.

That evening, there was a big celebration in our conference room. It was supposed to start at 7, but as usual, people didn’t start showing up til 7:30. Then everyone started decorating and fixing food and arranging tables. There were three tables of seven, then a head table that had about 15 people. We had all the standard appetisers and were served boats for our main meal. There were several pauses in everything, where someone would make a speech, give an award, say a poem, or sing a song, and take a shot every time. Of course, each table had their own pace set for the amount of shots they were doing. Oh, and don’t forget the beer. I tried to drink beer and stay awake from the vodka. It didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. It was the first time that I’ve ever seen Densmaa take a whole shot, let alone ask for more. The women, obviously, were celebrating their day. After a while, we started playing games. Each table had to have a game for people. The first game called a woman from each table, without telling them what they had to do. They were then told they had to race to eat a huge piece of cake. The bulge in their eyes was comical. We all got lots of laughs and cheered them on while they were chomping away. Toward the end, one lady was about to win and her table was cheering loudly. Densmaa saw what the commotion was all about and turned it up a gear. No one was even looking at her when she stood erect and announced that she’d finished first. Haha. Scene stealer! Awesome. She immediately came back to the table for another shot. There was a game where people had to go out, then come back in and make a fool of their selves by acting like they were a train. At least, that’s what I got out of it. Even when you think you know exactly what’s going on, if you don’t have an interpreter, it’s hard to tell. My table played the human knot game. Six people stand in a circle. Each person reaches with their right hand and takes the right hand of another person. Next, each person reaches with their left hand and takes the left hand of a different person. Not letting go, everyone then tries to untangle the knot that they are in. It’s quite fun and funny to see some people squeeze through some of the holes they do. Right at the end, with only one person to fix, someone got confused and turned the wrong way, then let go, turned right, and grabbed hands again. I wasn’t the only person who saw it. Oh well. I was surprised we’d lasted that long.

I got home about 4 o’ clock that night. There is a Mongolian word that roughly translates to “tough.” I first heard it one night we were drinking and my boss asked me if I was that. She had to explain to me that she was asking if I was tough enough to drink as much as I was and still be able to be at work in the morning. Of course, I grinned big and told her that I was, but inside…inside, I knew better. Haha. I’ve found out that even though I might be tough, I ain’t Mongolian tough. This weekend, I haven’t even left my apartment. I’ve been lazy, ate decent food, read, and watched movies.

That reminds me: I got two boxes this last Monday. I knew they were on the way, so that morning when I finished the last two spoonfuls of peanut butter, I didn’t worry too much. Little did I know that all I’d have to do was walk outside. I saw the post office worker and he motioned to let me know there was something for me. There were two boxes. The one from my mom had a cake pan that is too big for my oven (thanks for trying mom), extra-special Circus Peanuts, unforgettable bag of Bisquick that had busted in the box, magazines worth more than one read, envelopes, crunchy peanut butter with honey mixed in, almonds, hot sauce, peanut brittle, heart-shaped box of candy, Ranch, a movie, and white board markers. The other box was from my sister, Ann. In it was incense; cough drops; packets of jam, sweet relish, American catsup, mayo, and hot sauce; boxes of rice, with one busted; crunchy peanut butter; bouillon cubes; vinegar; hot sauce; spray cheese; mac and cheese; syrup; Jello; bacon; beans; candy; Ranch; and two movies. I don’t know what I’ll do when/if I ever get a package that doesn’t have something busted in it. Haha. I really appreciate everything in them, though. They make my life much easier.

The weather here has been getting warmer. Ask any Mongolian and they will tell you that spring starts after Tsagaan Sar. True or not, I can see why they say so. The nights are still cold as can be, but the days are warming up to a balmy -7 degrees Celsius. I’ve even cut back on wearing so many layers. I woke up one morning and it had snowed a white blanket on everything. I was expecting it to be colder when I went out, so I put all my usual layers on. I was hot for the rest of the day. There has been more daylight, too. Even now, on Sunday evening, there’s an implicit promise of another hour of daylight. A few weeks ago, it would’ve been starting to get dark about 45 minutes ago. I’m looking forward to the longer days. That will help me get outside so I can get some exercise and try to get rid of my holiday weight. I’ve already been scoping out places where I can play footbag and not be mobbed by too many kids. There are a few places I have in mind. One of them is just out in the middle of the road, away from the centre of town a little bit. I’ll keep you posted on what I figure out.

So, I’ve finally gotten to the end of my tale. This is Sunday, and I’ve done little more than make a good chickpea salad, wash laundry, and wash a movie. After three or four days of pecking away, I’ve finished about 13 pages of update for you. Now, you know everything about why it’s taken me so long to post this. In future, know that I’m here, thinking of you, but just remember something that I read in a recent email from one of my buddies here: It will take tsag. Mongol tsag. (Tsag means time.)

Hope you’re good. Special shout out to my fraternity brothers. March 1 was our International Founders’ Day. For my university, it was the 30th anniversary of our presence on campus. I miss that I wasn’t there to celebrate with them. Write whenever you like. Miss you.

P.S. I forgot to include one part of the Tsagaan Sar preparations. People start making boats weeks ahead of time. When they are cooked, they will cover them and put them outside, to freeze, until it’s time for them. Some people make more than a thousand. So, really, since cook and recook is the same amount of time, that’s really like cooking two thousand. Goodness, that’s a lot of boats.

Oh, and something else. I had to format my computer again. Did I put that in my last post? I don’t think so. When I got it all set up again, I downloaded the trial version of AVG and scanned both my hard drives. On the one with all my music, all my pictures, all my movies, all my important documents, everything, the virus had apparently attached itself to all those files. They were immediately deleted. Arggh!!!! Luckily, I do have the majority of those files backed up on my work computer, and the other hard drive that I have. I emailed Amazon.com and told them my tale and asked them to reset it so I can download all the music that I’d bought from them since being here. I got an email this morning saying that they had fixed it so I could. Sweet! That makes me happy. I should be able to download the pictures I've taken since being here from my own site. Glad I have it. I should have new pictures up for you in the next little while.

Alright, so this might be a bit convoluted, since I haven’t written anything at all in over a week, but I’ll try my best to catch you up on what I’ve been doing. Here goes.

I got a ride to the train station last week with plenty of time to buy my ticket by 6:30, like the people at the station said. As you might guess, the cashier wasn’t there at that time, though. The train was supposed to leave at 6:50. I think she got there at 6:45. I heard the train rumbling in around 6:55 and had to take off running to get on it. For some reason, it doesn’t stop at the station, but way down the tracks. I don’t understand the reason. It makes it hard to get on, since the first step is about as high as my thigh. I feel sorry for the little old ladies who ride the train. Carrying a big bag and a full backpack, I was huffing and puffing by the time I got on and started my search for a seat. The first compartment looked liked there was room enough for me, but it was mostly guys, so I kept going. As a rule, I try to stay away from groups of guys here. If you’ve ever heard about the machismo of Latino/Hispanic men, try meeting a Mongolian man. It’s about the same, if not worse. The next compartment was full of middle-aged ladies, with what looked like one seat available, so I asked to sit with them. After their okay, I got settled, and then was promptly invited to play a game of cards with them. I’ve only played the game with one other person before, so playing with five others totally changed the strategy. I didn’t get it at all. When they saw that I didn’t know what I was doing, they allowed me to hold my cards until it was my turn, then one of my two partners would take my cards, ask the other partner all the pertinent questions, then play appropriately. About one out of ten times I guessed the correct cards. The rest of the time, I was totally baffled by their decisions. We played for over an hour, then they all decided to lie down. The trip to Sainshand was seven hours, and they were going further than that, so they wanted to get some rest. There were three sets of three levels of bunks, and I was relegated to the highest, most uncomfortable one. A few hours later, another guy got on and was on the top bunk across from me. We talked for a while, then I took an almost-nap for the last 30 minutes of the ride. As promised, James stayed awake to greet me when I got there. We stayed awake for a few hours, drinking and talking, trying to be quiet for the girls. They had been asleep for hours. He’d told me he’d had a hard time lying in the dark, keeping his word to stay awake for me.

For the next two days, we walked around town, pretty much doing or own thing. Being that Sainshand is right in the middle of the Gobi desert, it’s very sandy. If you remember from my days of training, I really abhor the sand. It just gets everywhere, and along with the wind, it doesn’t take long to get dirty. And both of the PCVs that live there live in gers, so taking a shower was out of the question. Since I had on several layers of clothes, I satisfied myself with just washing my hands, face, and hair. That went a long way. By the time I got back home, though, all my clothes were filthy.

We met up with the girls often – girls are always fun company – and did things with them, but we mostly did our own thing since we were basically the only two guys there not playing basketball. The whole reason for everyone being there was that one of the PCVs that lives there had put together a big basketball tournament and there was an American team of PCVs involved. All the players stayed together in a hotel, and we left them alone for the most part, so they could sufficiently psych themselves up. They seemed to have done a pretty good job of it. Their first game was a shortened pig-tail bracket game that started around 11:45 pm, Friday night, to get rid of the lesser qualified teams, and they won by a resounding 20 points. There were seven American spectators in a gym packed full of Mongolians, but we made the most noise of all. All the Mongolians would cheer when “their” team scored, but we kept a constant raucous going that seemed to frustrate the other players. I really think we got in their heads a few times. The rest of the games pretty much went the same way: we beat the other teams by no less than 20 points. That is, until the final. The other team just seemed to be on top of their game. In the end, we lost by three points. It was an awesome game, though, and no one was upset about the outcome, even though the referees made questionable calls on the part of both teams.

While there, we had the opportunity to stay in the same small, one room apartment with the girls, but we decided not to. That was a hard decision. The girls were pretty, and what guy doesn’t want to wake up to pretty girls running around in their panties, getting ready in the morning. But, ultimately, James and I decided that it would be better for us if we stayed elsewhere. We didn’t need to temptation, or the headache of dealing with women who just had to have it their way. Also, there was a ger that wasn’t being used that I wanted to stay in. Have I told you that I’m contemplating moving into a ger next year? Before I came to Mongolia, I had this idyllic setting in my head of living in a ger on the Mongolian steppe. After getting here and realising just how hard of a life that would be, I chickened out. I mean, who wants to walk however far to fetch their own water, or go outside in negative temperatures to squat and use the bathroom? Those were the two biggest things that scared me away when I was asked my preference. But after being in my apartment this winter, and being cold most of the time for no fault of my own, I think I may have changed my mind. I’m still trying to figure it out. At least, if I’m in a ger, and I get cold, it’s my own fault. So, James and I stayed in the ger. We used paper and wood kindling to get the fire started, then used pieces of coal to keep the fire at a hotter temperature for longer. Ha, the only time we had a hard time starting the fire was the night we had been drinking and James was struggling to get things working right. I curled up in my sleeping bag and passed out while he passed out on the stool in front of the fire. Good stuff. The girls all live in gers and kept asking me what I thought of it. I told them my only complaints were the ones I had when I first made my decision to live in an apartment.

Oh, and there is something else that I absolutely must tell you. It’s gross, but hilarious. Ever since coming here, I’ve heard people joke about the poop-sicles in the outhouses. I thought it was a joke and just giggled any time it was mentioned. Well, I’ve found out that it’s no joke. When I walked into the outhouse, there was literally a six foot stalagmite of frozen poop, rising from the depths. OMG! I couldn’t help but take a picture. So, that will be one that you will at first think, “What the heck is that?” Then you will remember this story and laugh as you retch. Quite humorous.

While there, I got a big ol’ hankering for boats. As I’ve said numerous times, I just can’t get enough of those things. We’d been to two nice, overly priced restaurants, but they both had the usual offerings of things I could make much better on my own. I wanted some plain ol’ boats, so James and I sat off, wondering around town looking for a guanz (diner) that might have them. For some reason, they aren’t as easy to find as you might think, since they are one of Mongolia’s most traditional foods. We went to four or five places, then decided to check out a really nice place, knowing that the price would be more than we wanted to pay but decided that at that point, it was worth it. They pointed us back across the street to the place we’d just come from. When we’d just left that place, the lights weren’t even on. On the way back, we saw that they were. We knocked, and when the lady answered and told us she didn’t have any boats, we began to walk away. We didn’t make it 10 steps before she called us back and told us that if we’d wait 15 minutes, she’d make some for us. James was a bit impatient, but I told him we were going to have to wait no matter where we went; and what else did we have to do. We decided to wait and James pulled out the big bottle of vodka he had in his bag. He and one of the girls had played some gambling game and that was one of the things he’d won. The lady was so nice that we drank the whole bottle with her as I ate all the boats I’d ordered, then ordered ten more to go. We went back the next day for more, sans alcohol, and got some to go, again. They were really good the next day.

The last game of the tournament ended with only two hours before everyone’s train was to leave. There was a big celebration at a nearby restaurant that everyone got to as soon as we got packed and ready. As soon as we walked in, we were sat down, given food, and shots upon shots of vodka and beer. Everyone sang songs, gave toasts, and awarded medals. It was a good time and augured a nice train ride back for us. The augury was partially right. About 15 of us got on the train and basically took over an entire section. We’d all had plenty to drink, so we were quite rowdy, mingling in with the already present Mongolians. It wasn’t long before the swaying of the train made us drowsy. I just laid my head down where I was sitting, a couple of people laid down on the benches together, and a few daringly crawled to the upper bunks. Those upper bunks are a bad place to be sober, let alone drunk, with all the jarring, jerking, and sudden stops. James actually fell off and bruised his ribs and woke up in the floor wondering what in the world had just happened. I woke up at one point to ask where we were and was told we’d passed my stop. I just laid my head back down, thinking that I’d really wanted to go to UB anyway, and didn’t worry about it. When I got there, someone told me that they’d mistakenly told me we’d passed my stop, even though we hadn’t. Oh well.

That gave me two extra days away from my site to calm down and get away from everything. The first day was basically spent in bed, recovering. Drunken sleep, in a sitting position, on a rocky train doesn’t make for good rest; especially when you haven’t slept that much the previous two or three days. I woke up long enough to have two big meals and chug a bunch of water before going back to bed. The next day, I woke up and wondered around the city, taking care of a few errands, then got my stuff ready to find a meeker to take me home. When I started making the usual calls to make sure the drivers were still there, I was referred to one, and then another, and they were all gone. Aw, shucks: looks like I get to spend another day in the city. Haha. I didn’t mind one bit. I would’ve stayed longer if I could; but my boss was calling, wondering, “Where is our Trip?” It might’ve been endearing if all the previous bull crap that I’ve written about hadn’t happened, with her starting rumours and all. From my understanding, it’s yet to be resolved.

When I got back, the light in my living room went out. It’s one of those long neon lights, but like most everything else in Mongolia, it was all jerry-rigged beyond the way it was supposed to be. I had a replacement bulb, but it was way too long for the fixture. When I told my boss about it – and the electrical outlet in my kitchen that still hadn’t been fixed – she sent someone out the next day. Two guys came, muddy boots and all, and proceeded to change the light. After blowing the new one, totally, they just put in a plain bulb, hanging by wires that are duct taped together. It works, but there’s not as much light in there now. In the kitchen, they changed the electrical outlet for a nice, shiny new one, recessing it into the wall instead of having it poke out like the old one. It worked fine until they left. I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up the mess they’d made in the living room and kitchen. They came back today, muddy boots and all, and put the old outlet back on, and told me that they would have to buy something in UB to make it work right. If I jiggle it just right, it works. Hopefully, none of the wires will go crazy and start a fire before I no longer live there.

Last Friday, the social workers got together for another set of life-skills lessons. When I did mine, I made sure they had a copy in Mongolian. They weren’t so kind to me. Again, instead of having 10th and 11th grade students, there were a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds there. Then, it wasn’t the least bit interactive, like it’s supposed to be. I just sat in the back, oblivious to what was going on, and watched with impatience.

This last weekend, I didn’t do anything at all but sleep. I don’t know if I’ve told you this before, but one of my ways of dealing with stress is to sleep. Sunday, the only reason I got out of the bed was to change laundry and cook food. Tsegii came over on Saturday, I think. We made dinner and talked about how upset the both of us were that my boss had started rumours about us. It sucks that none of my friends want to hang out because of that. Moogie was even going to cook for me the other day, but she wouldn’t do it at my place. My boss had told her boss to tell her not to hang out with me outside of working hours. The Peace Corps called me again to say that they would say something to her, but I’m not sure what good that will do.

Well, for not having written in over a week, I think I got most of the main points down. I’ll post this now. I just finished talking to my baby sister. If you pray, please do so for her. I love her dearly, and she’s going through some tough times. Please pray for her to make good decisions about what she has going on.

Write when you can.

P.S. I can't really get this thing to do what I want, but I want you to see a funny link that a couple of my friends have come up with.

http://sites.google.com/site/travishellstrom/peacecorps/RMLD

Cut and paste if you have to. It's just some silly texts they send back and forth about random things in Mongolia.

January 31, 2009

I forgot to write about something last week. I had a little bit of vengeance about my “may” and “might” pet peeve. During tutoring with Ambaa and Khishge, I corrected their usage and made sure they understood that one expressed permission and the other expressed possibility. Also, I taught them English directions. They seemed to be as mind-boggled as I was when I learned Mongolian directions. I tried to tell them the story of me learning Mongolian directions, but they didn’t understand.

I woke up and came to UB today. I needed a break from the small town that I now call home. My first stop was to buy electrical strips. Last week, I plugged something into the one I had and it blew. Dang it, man. I never understand why they will work just fine for a few months, then just blow like that. That makes the third one that has blown since I’ve been here. This time, I bought two so I’d be sure to have a backup the next time it happens.

Teachers’ Day was yesterday, but teachers everywhere were still celebrating today. I met with Shuree and several of her friends and we all went to a club called Amrita. It was quite posh, and really cool. There were four big, slightly abstract statues of naked women, surrounded by big half-circle booths with white leather seats. I was the only guy with nine women. I got several looks as other guys walked in later. We all sat around having a few drinks, and then did a bit of dancing when the music started. There was a DJ and a band. Later in the night, there were performances. The first consisted of some people doing acrobatics and the like. The second was a guy spitting fire and swallowing swords, having bricks broken on his head, and breaking and lying down on glass. It was fairly entertaining. I didn’t even notice how late it was until I got in the bed and saw that it was 4 in the morning.

February 1, 2009

I woke up at a decent time to hang out with a friend that had just got into town. He was staying at a guesthouse, so I went there. The ladies there know me, so we teased them a little bit, teaching them a few new English phrases. My friend and I had planned to go for lunch, but he had given them his pants to wash, and it was taking forever them to dry. I waited with him for a couple of hours, but when I saw the pants were a long way from drying, I told him I’d see him later: I was hungry, and I had to get ready to go home. I went to Cola & Kebab and slammed a shish kabob. When I got to the market, to get on the meeker, I saw friend that has a car. I decided to ride with him. It costed just a little bit more, but the comfort was worth it.

February 3, 2009

First thing at work this morning, I got a call from Moogie. She told me that we were both wanted at the police station at 10 o’ clock. We met right before walking in and neither of us knew what was going on. We got there and had to wait a few minutes for the guy that had told us to come there. When we went into his office, he pulled out a file from his desk, asked me if I spoke Mongolian, and then told us that he’s the so-called secret police. As soon as I heard this, I was reminded of a couple of friends in another part of the country who had a run in with the secret police. In their experience, they came into their apartment and demanded to see all kinds of documents. I’m not sure what they wanted, but nothing bad came of it.

After he’d introduced himself, he jumped right into why we were there. He told me that he had a secret file on me that says I have been hanging out and drinking with underage students; I’m always drunk; I always have people over to my place to drink and party; I always have women over to my place and have sex with them; and I meet people on the internet and get them to come and visit me. I asked him where he got his information from and he said that he had done a secret investigation himself. I asked him if I could see the file and what’s in it and he told me no, it’s a secret file. I denied all the things that he was accusing me of and he kept calling me a liar and telling me that he knew I was a drunkard and that I always have people over and stay up late partying; and he was going to write a letter to the Peace Corps to tell them to kick me out and send me back to America. He told me that I had broke the law, but when I asked him which law, he told me that I could look it up on the internet. I told him that it was in Mongolian, and I can’t understand it. His response? “Maybe it’s in English.” I just laughed. He kept saying that I always drink and I always have people over to my place to drink with me. I asked him if he had talked to any of the people that have supposedly been over to my place to drink with me and he ignored the question. I asked him if he had talked to any of the store owners to see how often I buy alcohol from them. Again, he ignored the question. I asked once more if I could look at the file. He said no, it’s secret. He told me that he monitors all of my internet activity, here and in UB, and he knows everything that I do on there. I laughed and told Moogie that I knew better; that he didn’t have the capabilities to do that. (I think I’m literally the only person in town that has internet, so there’s no way he can monitor my internet if he doesn’t have internet himself.) He asked what I said and Moogie made up something. I told him that I’ve only had people over to my place a few times to drink, and we were only loud once. I told him that any other time that I drink at my place, I do it alone. I told him that the only time anyone underage has been to my place was on Halloween, and every Tuesday and Thursday when Khishge comes and leaves with Ambaa for English. I told him that my friends come over to hang out with me sometimes, but we never drink. He kept calling me a liar, then told me that he would see if I was telling the truth. If I told him all the people that come to my place, and it matched the names in his file, then he would believe me. I told him everyone’s name, and exactly how many times they come over, and he continued to call me a liar and said that he was trying to protect me. I just laughed at him and told him I appreciate his protection, but whoever has told him all this is lying. He told me again that it was from his own private investigation. I left him to his own suppositions about me thinking that he was the liar.

He finally told me to go and get my passport from my home and bring it back to him. I had absolutely no intentions of giving him my passport, but I left his office with a big smile and assured him that I would be right back. As soon as I walked outside, I called the Peace Corps. They had never heard of the secret police before my friends had a run-in with them, and this seemed even fishier than their story, so the first person I talked to told me not to go back. Next, I talked to our Safety and Security officer. She got the guys phone number and told me to not go back until she called me back. After that, I talked to the Peace Corps country director. He told me that it sounded like someone had it out for me and to only give him copies of my passport and visa, not the real thing. (My Peace Corps passport is the property of the U.S. government.) He told me that unless the officer had some kind of evidence about all the things he’s accusing me of, the letter that he threatened to write to PC wouldn’t do anything to get me kicked out. The country director told me that if something does happen, and the guy has some kind of connections high up in the government – which he doubted – he might be able to get my visa revoked, which would make me have to leave the country. I was assured that if that happens, I will most likely be able to go to another country to be a Volunteer.

Before I got a call back from the Safety and Security officer, Moogie told me that the officer said to bring my passport tomorrow, cause he had stuff to do. When I met her, she told me that he kept calling her a liar when I left and told her that he knew she had been drinking with students, also. The Safety and Security officer finally called me back. She told me how she had tried to call the officer from the PC landline several times and the he kept denying her call. Finally, she called on her cellphone and he answered. Whenever she asked him questions, he told her that it was all secret. She got the chief’s number and called him. I’m not sure if the chief was in the loop or not, but she basically told him that I’m an adult and they’d better quit paying attention to the moves that I make everyday. She told him that he’d better tell the so-called secret police to leave me alone. I knew the Peace Corps would get up in that ---. They don’t play no games when it comes to people messing with Volunteers.

Still, that totally pissed me off. It’s bad enough that everyday people gossip and spread rumours as much as they do, but when some kind of police that thinks they have special authority starts believing them and messing with me…. The whole time he was accusing me of everything he was, I kept thinking, “Man, I wish I knew how to tell you that I studied police interrogation tactics in university, and there ain’t nothing you can do to make me say something that isn’t true, or do something that I shouldn’t or don’t want to do.” I think I was a little bit lucky that Moogie’s English isn’t any better than it is. There were several things that I wanted to say to him, several cross-examination questions that I wanted to ask him, but I knew she wouldn’t understand. She was visibly upset. I felt bad for her. I tried my best to exude an outward calm by taking my coat off, getting comfortable in my chair, looking him in the eyes, smiling as much as possible, and keeping open body language. Her lip was trembling from trying to hold back her anger. The guy told me that he was a criminologist, and I couldn’t help but think he’s a bad one. Grr. That ruined the next several hours for me.

Around 4:30, though, I saw something to raise my spirits and set off to pursue it. Looking out my office window, I saw a bunch of kids playing in a place that is usually just an empty space. I had seen them there earlier in the day and didn’t think much of it. I really paid attention this time and saw that there must be something going on. The place where they were is the floor area of a building that is no longer there. All that’s left is two parallel walls. When I got there, I saw that someone had put enough water there to make it one big smooth sheet of ice. I found out later that it was the Water Company that had done it. All the kids were having a good ol’ time, running and seeing how far they could slide, and playing some kind of ice soccer. I got a big smile on my face as I joined them. As always, I was swarmed by kids wanting to play with me. The sliding was really fun. I went the furthest several times. A lot of the kids wanted me to pull them across the ice, but I couldn’t get good footing. From that, we somehow got to playing another game they liked: trying to sweep each others feet and making the other person fall. I fended off about seven of them for a long time, sweeping several of them right onto their butts or back, but they finally got me. I wore myself out playing with them, and I’m a bit sore tonight; but I was very glad to have the fun.

February 4, 2009

Today, I spent the first hour of work making a written report about my yesterday and all the events leading up to it, and then emailed it to the Peace Corps. A few hours later, I talked to the Safety and Security officer again. She told me that she talked to the police chief again and grilled him some more. She told me that the so-called “secret” police officer was only a regular officer; there is no secret file about me; no one has made any complaints about me at all; and I will not be bothered again. She said all of that was just done to scare me, and warn me. I still don’t know what kind of warning it was supposed to be. I think I would respond much better to a different kind of warning. With my personality, that is the kind of warning that makes me want to rebel.

This afternoon, I was trying to work on the StopSign antivirus programme that I have. I paid for it about two months ago, and it has only worked for two weeks. I sent them an email today, requesting that I get a full refund. My recommendation to you is to not buy or use StopSign. Not only does it not work like they say it should, but their support is slow and not good. I kept telling them that what they were telling me to do was not working, but they kept telling me to do the exact same thing. Uh, duh, if it didn’t work the first 10 times, what makes you think it’s going to work the 90th time?

While I was fooling with all this, I started hearing a Windows error sound every couple of seconds. I rebooted my computer, thinking that might help. When it came back on, I had that stupid virus that I wrote about a few months ago; the one where the box with a wand floats around my screen saying, “This computer is being attacked.” Not only does that happen, but I can’t access the Control Panel, and I can’t open several of the better known antivirus websites like Kaspersky, McAfee, and Norton. This means that, once again, I will have to format my computer. Argh! That is so frustrating. Does anyone know of a good antivirus programme that will block and get rid of viruses? I’m thinking about buying AVG. If you have any suggestions on which one you think is the best, please tell me and give me some reasons why you think so. I’d really appreciate it.

I went out to play with the kids on the ice again today. I’ve told you before how tough kids’ games are here, and when they’re on the ice, nothing changes. Everyone was sliding around, having a good ol’ time, and then some mean-spirited boy would skate up behind someone and kick their feet out from under them, giggle, and scurry away before they could face any repercussions. Girls were not excepted from this treatment. It seemed that every few minutes, I would look over and see another kid lying on the ice, crying and screaming at the offender. One boy was constantly doing this to the girls, but he was always quick enough to get away from them. I finally got a couple of them to gang up and give him some pay back. Once, I even held him until they could get their hands on him. He didn’t seem to appreciate that too much. It was kind of funny.

February 5, 2009

When I got up this morning and did my usual email check, I saw that I had an email from StopSign. It said that my refund was approved and I should see the full amount reimbursed to my account within four to five days. Wow, that was the fastest they’ve ever responded to me and I’m quite surprised. I’d imagine that dealing with them, and having them deal with me, was ending up costing more than the price of my subscription. So, have any of you got any ideas on another virus protection and removal software programme for me yet? I’ll be buying it after the weekend, when I format my computer.

At work, my boss had asked if we could use my computer for the Child Labour seminar that we were hosting. I told her sure, but there was a virus that she might not want to deal with. She didn’t. There was another computer brought in and I hooked it up to the projector and tried to make it work. Something was wrong with that computer, so I brought the one from my office and got everything working. When my boss put her flash drive in and tried to access a PowerPoint presentation that she’d prepared, it wouldn’t work. She said that my computer had too new of a version. Does it really work like that? Next, they went and got a neat looking Sony laptop and brought it in from somewhere. I got it hooked up, but no matter where we looked, or which button we pushed, we couldn’t figure out how to turn the thing on. How weird. We ended up just using the computer from my office and skipping her presentation. The seminar was about two and a half hours long, but it wasn’t too bad. We had coffee and snacks in the middle. Toward the end, I was handed 5,000tg. When I asked what it was for, I was told that it was for “helping to put on the seminar.” Ha, I told my boss that we should have more seminars. When we finished, we went to her office and ate the boats that had been made for us. Yum!

I appreciate the 5,000tg. That will pay for my train ticket this evening. I am going to the Gobi desert! Some PCVs down there are hosting a big basketball tournament this weekend, and I will go to watch, hang out, and see the desert. It will be the first time I’ve ever seen a desert. I’m excited about it. The train is to leave around 7 o’ clock and will arrive in Sainshand around 2 o’ clock in the morning. I will leave work early and finish packing.

I’m going to post this today, so I won’t have to worry about taking my computer with me this weekend. I’d thought about taking it, but I don’t want to have to keep up with it. I hope you are good. Talk to you later. See ya.

January 26, 2009

My work day started out alright. I got to work and finished the surveys for my life-skills lessons. I had Moogie translate the questions this weekend, so it wasn’t a problem for Oko to type them up this morning. After we printed everything out that we’d need for our lesson, Oko and I went over everything to be sure that we were on the same page. The jijuurs (building workers) came to put together the white board that was bought specially cause I’m here. It’s a big, six foot by 3 ½ foot board. No instructions came with the frame, so it took the guys putting it together a few tries to get it right. When I went to lunch, I felt alright about everything.

The lesson, for students and social workers, was supposed to start at 2 o’ clock. This coincides with the same time that I’m to return from my lunch break, but I knew it wouldn’t be a problem if I got back to my office at the time things were to start. As I suspected, no one was there when I got back. Around 2:30, people were there and we got started. Shuree had translated everything for me, and I had an English and Mongolian version of everything. I had high hopes of what we were about to do.

Right off the bat, I was upset because the age range I’d asked for wasn’t there. I’d asked for only 10th and 11th grade students to be there, but there were several 8th and 9th grade students. This had me upset from the jump. Slowly, we got started, and I thought everything was going to be fine. Since I was the only person in the room that spoke English, I let Oko do all the speaking, and made sure that she followed my outline. It was fine for a while. And then she skipped a part. I asked her what she was doing and she said, “Oh, it’s okay. That’s not important.” Since I had no way to tell her otherwise, all I could do was think, ‘Yes, it is important; why the heck do you not think so?’ No matter what I said to her, she continued as she pleased. After that, there were several parts that she just completely skipped, thinking that they weren’t important. I can’t put into words how much this bothered me. The only thing I kept thinking was, “I have to learn Mongolian so I can do this on my own.”

Man, that put me in such a bad mood. I left work at 4:45, went to the bank, then did the grocery shopping that I’ve been needing to do. I’ve been going to a few new places lately, so that meant that I only had to go to three different stores for all the things that were on my list. That was kind of nice. Surprisingly, I even found some real tomatoes and bell peppers. They were in a freezer, frozen, but better than nothing. Beer was one of the things on my list, too. When I got home, I ate some kimchi and cooked a really nice meal involving beer in the recipe, and have done nothing but listen to music, watch TV, and try to relax, since. It’s been an alright plan to relieve some stress.

January 27, 2009

The first part of my day consisted of more editing. I thought that’s what I would do when I returned from lunch, but Densmaa called me after 30 minutes and asked me to meet her in her office. She wanted me to go to the kindergarten to do some kind of training. I thought she had set up some kind of English class for me and was dreading it, but when I got there, I found out that it was a session on how to be a good teacher. Um, okay, I know about that kind of stuff. I thought that I might give some actual input on the subject, but all I did was set up the projector and screen, tell her the first computer we had was bad, then sit and be bored as she gave a presentation. It wasn’t a very good one, either. If I were to have given a presentation like that in school, I had one instructor in particular who would’ve gone berserker. Densmaa had a PowerPoint prepared – either by herself or someone else, I don’t know. First, there were spelling and grammatical mistakes. It was in Mongolian, and I could even see that. Next, she had each slide just full of info; and she read every bit of it. To risk sounding like a snob, let me tell you: that’s not how you’re supposed to use PowerPoint. You’re supposed to put your key points up there, then talk about each of them. If all you’re going to do is read to people, you’d might as well just print it out and give it to them. Let them read it by their self, instead of wasting their and your time. Oh well. I’m a Youth Volunteer, not a Business Volunteer, and I don’t know how to explain all that to her anyway, without having a whole month long class about it. You know what; maybe I’ll do it anyway. Afterwards, some people from UB came to check on all the work that our district did last year. She wanted me to be there for that, too. After about 10 minutes, she told me to help Oko and Javkhaa do whatever it was that they were doing. I stood watching for a few minutes, and then they told me to go to my office and wait. Fine with me. Later, I went to a summary meeting. The coolest thing was a model of what they want our district to look like in however many years in the future. They have big dreams if they think it’s going to look like that. It would be really cool, though. We’ll see in a couple years how much they’ve progressed toward that vision.

Ambaa and Khishge came for tutoring and as soon as they left, I finished making the kidney beans I’d started earlier in the day. I added tomato and country ham, and all kinds of spices, as I’m wont to do. I made some good cornbread to go with it, too. While enjoying a bowl, there was a knock on my door. Of course. No matter where you go in the world, someone, somehow, is determined to disturb your evening meal. When I opened the door, I saw that it was one of the cops that has told me several times he wants to learn English. I thought he was there for me to teach him. I quickly saw that he was in his uniform and was on duty, so that couldn’t be the reason. When he came in, he started asking about drinking. After a minute, I realised that he was asking if I’d been drinking with kids. What! What!! What!!! I assured him I hadn’t, then went on to explain that there was an underage girl at my place, but she was there with someone else at the same time, we were only studying English, and the two of them left together. He had me nervous for a minute. I don’t know why he was asking about that, but he dropped it as soon as I told him all that. During most of this, I continued eating. He eventually asked me what I was eating, and when I told him it was American food, he asked if he could try some. He had a bite and liked them, so he asked for a small bowl with some cornbread. He said he liked them. After that, we exchanged phone numbers and he said he’d “protect” me, if I needed. That’s nice to know.

I finished all the editing marks in the language book this evening. Now I just have to make the changes on my computer. That shouldn’t take too much longer.

January 28, 2009

My work day consisted of working on the edits to the language book. I finished the last change right at 5:30 and emailed it to the PC Language Coordinator. I’m really proud to have done this. It was fun, and I feel like I’ve made a little bit of a contribution to the next group of PCVs. There were mistakes on almost every page. Sheesh! It definitely makes up for the crappy day I had on Monday. I really could have finished it sooner, but there were a few evenings at home that I didn’t feel like doing anything but zoning out. It took me another hour to actually get the file attached to an email and send it. It was about 15.7MB. Hm, now I’m going to have to find something else to occupy me. Good thing I have plenty of books to read.

This evening, I came home and there was some random guy outside my building. I said hi to him and kept walking. He started saying something to me and followed me up the steps. As usual when I don’t know what’s going on, I became suspicious of what he was doing. He asked me if I had power, so I stopped at the electrical box outside my door, hoping that would appease him. “No,” he said. “Inside.” I opened the door warily, keeping one eye on him, then reached in and turned on the light, showing him that I did have power. “No,” he said. “In the kitchen.” Dang it. I’d never seen this guy before, and I had no idea what he wanted. He followed me into the kitchen and started talking 160.9 km/h (100 m/h), and I finally figured out that my boss had sent him over. I told her a couple of weeks ago that the outlet was bad and sometimes it would go crazy. The last time I was in UB, it had gone off and my fridge thawed out, getting water all over my floor. He was here to check it. He grabbed his only tool – a screwdriver – unscrewed the cover, and started poking it into the holes. “Be careful!” I told him. He just looked at me. Ok, whatever. If you get the end of your fingers exploded from messing with 200V of electricity, don’t bleed on my floor. After a few minutes of fooling around, he came up with the same deduction that I didn’t have the language to tell him: the outlet is bad and needs to be replaced. He’ll be back tomorrow to do that. So he says.

When he left, I took the bell peppers and tomatoes and sliced them up. They had thoroughly thawed out and were leaking juice out of their bag and into my fridge. I mixed them with some meat and fajita seasoning, warmed up the can of black beans that Myra had sent, made some tortillas, and had some of the best fajitas that I’ve had so far. I just can’t get enough of those things. I love them. Maybe I should start up my own guanz (diner) and cater to the Mongolians on the weekends. Too bad I can’t make a profit. I’m quite sure that they would like them. I’ve had two different people so far tell me that they were really good. Well, they really didn’t have to tell me: I already knew.

January 30, 2009

After getting to work this morning, I went to my boss’s office. I don’t know what she and Oko were doing, but they seemed to be hard at it. I asked if there was anything that I could do to help and she said yes, giggled, and then just looked at me. Um, okay, anything in particular? After asking a few more times, just to make sure she understood what I was asking, she told me to go to the Culture Centre and make sure that everything was ready for this afternoon’s celebration. Today is Teachers’ Day and all across Mongolia, places are having celebrations for their teachers to tell them how much they are appreciated. When I got to the Culture Centre, it was teeming with kids getting ready to practice. Of course, as soon as they saw me, I was swarmed. They were cool kids. As always, they made a circle around me and asked me all kinds of questions. “Are you married?” “Do you have a girlfriend?” “Do you live by yourself?” “Do you know my sister?” “Do you know this person?” “Do you know this person?” “Do you know this person?” ad nauseam. A couple of the kids decided to practice their English with me. Basically, that consisted of them telling me their name and asking mine; telling me how old they are and asking me my age; and maybe one other obscure question. One of the guys had previously asked me if I knew any Russian. People always want to know if I know Russian. Most of the older people here know it and think that since I don’t know Mongolian that well, and I kind of look Russian, maybe they can communicate with me in Russian. There have been several times, after I’ve asserted that I do not know Russian, they’ll start talking to me in Russian anyway. It’s like they thought I was joking or something. Anyway, the one boy started saying something that I couldn’t understand at all. It was in a perfect Russian accent, so I asked him if he was speaking to me in Russian. He said, “No, English.” Huh?! After I got him to repeat it a few times, I was able to figure out what he was saying. He said some memorised phrase about how he is in the sixth grade and is learning English. I guess I can see how Mongolians don’t understand me when I try to talk to them sometimes.

I went to the thing for Teachers’ Day this afternoon. It was quite boring. At first, a bunch of different people got up and gave presentations similar to the one I wrote about earlier in the week. All but two literally stood at the podium with their head down and read everything, word for word. After every person was finished, the MC asked if anyone in the crowd had questions. Out of the all the presentations, only one person was brave enough to stand up and ask a question, one time. As shy as most Mongolians are, I was actually surprised that he asked a question at all. But he’s from a different part of Mongolia, where (they say) people are different. Maybe that’s what he had going for him.

It’s the end of another week for me. This one has seemed particularly long for me. I’m glad it’s over. I hope you have had a better week than me. Talk to you later. See ya.

January 17, 2009

I woke up and came to UB today. I didn’t have anything that I especially needed to do other than have a break from countryside life. After living in an affluent place like Huntsville, where I had pretty much anything I wanted at my fingertips, whenever I wanted it, living in the countryside away from most all modern conveniences is a big change. When I got here, the smog was as bad as ever. So bad, in fact, that I couldn’t see the mountains that surround the city; and their really close. I knew the filter in my nose was going to have its work cut out for it. Sure enough, I was blowing snot, dirt, grit, and blood this evening. Yuck! My first stop was at the P.O., since it was closed in my town yesterday. I’d finally written a reply to the kids I write to in the U.S. I’ve heard that they’ve written to me again, too. Maybe the teacher will send them soon. (hint, hint) After that, I went to Big Burger. I was a little bit hungry, and I had to have my fast food fix, so I had a grilled chicken sandwich. That was the first time they’ve actually had that sandwich when I’ve been there, and it was pretty good. I think it took me about five minutes to chow it down and be on my way.

When I left there, I went to the Peace Corps office for a few minutes, saw a few friends, and then went to Shuree’s. She wanted to go to lunch, so we went to Marco Polo’s. It’s a really ritzy Italian restaurant, with matching prices, but I found it to be wanting. The pasta I ordered was supposed to be in a white wine sauce, but it was just a white sauce; and it was extremely bland. Shuree said her pasta with Bolognese sauce wasn’t as good as it usually is, also. It had grren peas in it! When I looked around, I noticed that every table but ours had salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar on them. When we swiped some and added it to our meals, it helped a little bit. If I go there again, I’ll be sure to order something different. There were flyers on the table advertising the club that they have on the second floor. It didn’t say anything about it on the flyer, but I heard from people who’ve been there that it is a strip club. Nice.

Back at Shuree’s training centre, there was a class going on. It was actually for Mongolians who are trying to learn English so they can be tour guides, but I sat in on it anyway. I taught them a few words and learned a few in Mongolian while I was at it. When that finished, I went to Mendee’s place. It was good to see him. He was excited to tell me about his new job, too. He now works for the government, working on Population and Family Development. He said that it’s a new position, so the first little while will be him working on defining exactly what they will be doing. I’m happy for him. He’s been out of a job for a couple months now and it’s been getting to him. I think he enjoyed spending more time with his son, but he somehow felt less of a man because he didn’t have a job so as to be able to add to their family’s income.

This evening, there was a surprise party for Cass, a PCV who just got back from the U.S. Her brother had died, so she went there to be with her family, and was gone for about a month. She told me that she’d gained about 7 pounds during that time. I told her I would probably gain more than that, since I’d have unlimited access to places like Taco Bell and momma’s cooking. The party was basically Cass and I and a bunch of Mongolians sitting around a circle, eating snacks and cake and drinking beer and vodka. We decided to teach them how to play American drinking games. Do you know about “Never Have I Ever” and “Circle of Death?” The first one is where you go around the circle and each person says something that they have never done. If anyone else has done it before, then they have to drink. For example: “Never have I ever crapped on a dog before.” That made Cass have to drink, cause she has done that. If you haven’t already, and would like to read the story, check it out here http://cassandraw.blogspot.com/2008/09/dont-read-this-it-hilairbut-really-dont.html. It’s an extremely funny story. If you have read it before, it’s worth a reread. After we finished everything and cleaned our fingers with our tongues, we decided to go to Oasis. As always, it was a cool place and I met some crazy international people. I met a deaf guy from America that I conversed with via pen and paper. He seemed pretty cool. I met a lot of random people, too, and was being my usual social butterfly-self by talking to them all and enjoying it. I really like meeting new people.

January 18, 2009

I didn’t want to be, but I was up really early for water this morning. Being that I don’t take my water distiller to UB with me, that means that I actually had to get dressed and walk down the street to the kiosk and buy water. I still can’t figure out why those kiosks sell water for 500tg when the stores in the town I was in for training sold them for almost 3000tg. I think they were just enjoying ripping off the Americans. After I’d been up for a while, I went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. I didn’t eat dinner last night and was still hungry when I finished my lunch, so I ordered another meal. I ate more than half of it before I decided that I’d better stop before I just made myself miserable. I brought the rest home for my dinner.

While I was sitting in the meeker, waiting for it to fill up so we could leave, a couple of drunk guys walked by, opened the door, and tried to do something. Luckily, the driver was Johnny on the Spot and didn’t let them in. The door was open while he was talking to them and I was watching the conversation. The drunkest of the two decided that he didn’t like me and spat at me. That came really close to making me mad, but I just looked at him as he sneered and gave me the Mongolian equivalent of the middle finger. They stick their thumb between their pointer and middle finger. You’d better be ready to fight if you do that to a Mongolian. Needless to say, Mongolians don’t play the “I got your nose” game with their babies. The driver shut the door, but the drunk guy kept cussing at me and trying to get in. I smiled really big at him as I held the door shut and the lady next to me fussed at him. You can always count on an older lady that you’ve made friends with to help you out when drunk people are involved. He was finally pulled away by his buddy.

When I got home this evening, I was really tired. I tried to go to bed earlier, but my new clock is one of those that only has a twelve-hour alarm. Since I wanted to wake up at 7:30 a.m., I had to wait til after 7:30 p.m. to go to sleep. I finally got it to work right around 8 o’ clock.

January 19, 2009

Not much was going on at work today, so I did some Mongolian studying. I’ve got to where I’ll think of a word that I want to know how to say, then I’ll look it up and copy all the different phrases in the dictionary using that word. After lunch, I went with Oko and Javkhaa and hung out at the social workers’ office. They got a lot of new things for their Women’s and Children’s place and they wanted me to take pictures for them. I don’t know why, but they seem to think I’m their personal photographer or something. I know all these people have their own employees with cameras, so I don’t know why they always want me to do it.

This morning, I saw the lady from the Post Office and she told me I had some packages. Since I was busy at the time, I told her I would get them later. When I got there, there were two packages from my sister, Ann. I had been told that they’d been sent, but I was still surprised to get them. I haven’t talked to her in years. Like always, I brought them straight home to see what kind of treasure was inside. I found Pop-tarts, hot chocolate, dry milk, kidney beans, mixed beans, ready-to-eat bacon, peanut butter, fudge grahams, fudge rounds, fudge brownies, corn muffin mix, no bake cheesecake, garlic pepper, garlic salt, poultry seasoning, Mrs. Dash, Big Red, strawberry spread, country gravy mix, hot sauce, Vienna sausages, and Beanie Weenies. I always find something that I eat right away and this time was no different. I opened a can of Vienna sausages, poured some hot sauce on them, and chowed down. They are never good, but they were a nice reminder of home. After that, I ate one of the smashed fudge rounds. I was really glad to get the peanut butter and hot sauce, since I was literally on the last couple of spoonfuls of each. I think the cheesecake is my favourite, though. Cheesecake and German chocolate cakes are my favourite desserts. By the way, do you know why a German chocolate cake is named that? See if you can find the answer. It’s just one of those tidbits of random info that I’m full of. Thanks, Ann, for the stuff. I appreciate it.

I had put some beans on earlier in the day, to make refried beans. When Tsegii came over this evening, I walked her through all the steps of how to make the fajitas. The dough for the tortillas is much different than dough that Mongolians usually make for anything. Since Mongolians have all kinds of practice rolling dough into perfect circles, I thought she’d be able to make them rounder and prettier than I can, but she couldn’t. She tended to make them too thin, which would make tears in them when they were put in the skillet. After showing her how to do it, she got the hang of it. Oh, and as usual, she cleaned dishes before, during, and after.

January 20, 2009

Tonight, I stayed up late to watch Obama take is oath of office. The whole thing started around midnight, my time. I’m never a huge fan of any politician (though I really enjoy studying politics), but this was quite an historic moment that I wanted to experience in the only way that I could. I mean, really, did anyone who reads this think there would ever be a black U.S. president? I’ve lived through three or four other presidential election campaigns involving black guys who were all defeated soundly. It says a lot about the changing beliefs of Americans that are of voting age now. I really hope that everyone gets the “change” that they “hope” for. On a lighter note, did you see Chief Justice Roberts flub the oath? I wonder if he was thinking about Obama not voting for him to be approved to his judgeship. That’s what he gets for trying to be cool and do it by memory. Haha. Pretty funny.

January 21, 2009

Surprisingly, I wasn’t tired today. My day at the office was as boring as ever as I worked on editing the language book. Around 4 o’ clock, I made my way down to the military commander’s office. I talked to him last week and found out that his rank is somewhere between a Colonel and a Major. I’m not up on my military rankings, so I couldn’t figure out what his exact rank is, and a search on Wikipedia about Mongolia’s ranking system yielded no results. One of his friends was there and after a while, they asked if I wanted to drink vodka with them. After figuring that I had nothing better to do, I decided I would. I had a few shots with them while the friend talked to me about Mongolian shamanism. It was really quite interesting. Most of you know this about me, but for those of you that don’t, I’m really interested in learning about religions; especially those of the East. He told me a very interesting story about his father having died 28 years earlier when his younger sister had some kind of ritual. During the ritual, his father came down and took over his sister. Her eyes were covered, but “he” was still able to point out things asked for. Also, he told them about where he had hidden some money in the home he’d shared with his wife, when he was still alive. Sure enough, when they checked it out later, they found a lot of money hidden in one of the walls. I also found out that there is no hell in Mongolian shamanism. When I was talking to one of my friends later, I was asked if I believed it. I told them that it sounds a little odd to me, being from the background that I’m from, but I had no personal experience in it, so I would not discount someone’s experiences. On top of all that, I learned a few new Mongolian words. I always enjoy that, no matter what language it’s in.

This evening, Tsegii came over again and we made more fajitas. We were both hungry but didn’t want to put much effort into cooking, so we decided on that. Her cooking language is getting better every time she comes here. I think she likes fajitas about as much as I do; and she adds as much Ranch as I do, too. I think I’ve got her hooked on it. After she left, I went to Moogie’s and met new people. They were all teachers, and since this week is some kind of break from school, they were enjoying it. Odno is the only one’s name that I remember. They had been drinking for several hours, and it was quite evident. Once, they collected money from everyone and went on an alcohol run. Two of them went and when they returned, we noticed that they had the beer but not the vodka. We found out that the one lady had dropped it right outside the building, busting it on the ground. Drat! Coincidentally, she is the one that we had to support to walk home. When we got her there, she just fell into the bed. I bet she’ll feel like crap in the morning.

January 22, 2009

This morning, Densmaa and Oko went to UB, leaving me at the office by myself with absolutely nothing to do. So, I decided to come home. It was early, but I decided to cook a big lunch for myself. I made some good tomato-based pasta sauce and put it over some noodles. It was pretty good, leaving me with some leftovers. During cleanup, I saw some horses in the far distance, grazing. I’ve decided that I want to buy a horse when it warms up, so I thought about going out to talk to the herder. I practiced some language to talk to herders (How many head of horses do you have? What kind of fodder do you feed them? How do you prepare for a hard winter?, etc.); put an extra layer of clothes on top of the two that I already wear; made some hot chocolate and put it in a thermos; and took off walking, looking for the herder. When I got out there, there was nothing but horses to be found. I was determined not to waste my adventure into the cold, so I went to the ger that is on the military base; the one that I visited before. There was a big pond in my path that was frozen solid, but I was afraid to walk across it. I felt sure that I’d be able to, but I didn’t want to risk it. When I got to the barbed-wire fence surrounding the base, I found a place that I should have been able to fit through. I wasn’t careful enough, though. I ripped my best pair of jeans and had a time getting them off of the barb that got me. Now I’m going to have to buy another pair. I’ll try to sew that up, and I have another pair, but I don’t have any that I can wear out to a decent place now. Ah, soog!

At the ger, they served me two bowls of tea that I drank pretty quickly. The lady fussed at me for being out in the cold. Also, the soup she was cooking finished within a few minutes of my arrival, so she gave me some of that. I was really full, but when she offered me seconds, it was so good that I couldn’t refuse. While eating, I noticed that I could see my breath. It was that cold in there, but it felt hot compared to outside. It was the ladies birthday I found out, so the guy gave me a shot of vodka out of a really cool glass container. It looked like a tall round tube with rocks, sand, trees, and a snake in it. The vodka tasted different than regular, making me think it might be homemade. He didn’t expound, and I didn’t ask.

On my way home, I had an experience I never wanted, but I’m glad I had: frozen eyelashes, with ice on the inside and outside of my scarf and hat from my breath. Yesterday and today has been extremely cold, with winds reaching really high speeds. On the way to the ger, it felt like someone was pushing me in the back. On the way back, I had to lean forward in order to proceed. I was worn out from the triple workout of walking, freezing, and walking against the wind, so I took a nap when I got home. As always, it was nice.

January 23, 2009

After a boring day at work, I got a call that I didn’t understand at first. Eventually, I understood “package,” and I knew that it was from the Post Office and what they were calling about. I quickly bundled up and went to get the package from Myra, my mom’s friend. I brought it straight home and tore into it, curious about what kind of bounty this box would produce. When I opened it, I found an array of things that I really appreciate. The first thing I opened was something wrapped in Christmas paper. Cool, a late Christmas present! It was a multi-tool that will definitely come in handy. Other than the Swiss Army knife that I have, I don’t have any tools. The first thing I did was try to turn on the hot water in my bathroom. The faucet turned, but no water came out. Drat! I guess I’ll have to do without a warm shower – or a shower of any kind – for a while longer. Also in the box was a wall calendar, personal calendar, magazines, bacon bits, soul seasoning, packs of meal seasoning, ham flavoured bouillon cubes, Crystal Light, fruit salad, garbanzo beans (a.k.a. chick peas), black beans, beef jerky, and plastics bags. After the multi-tool, the first thing I ripped into was the beef jerky. Thanks Myra. I really appreciate you thinking about and taking care of me. I don’t know why your package got here after the one that I got earlier in the week, since yours was sent first. That’s Mongolia’s mail system for you, though, I guess.

January 24, 2009

I had a lazy day reading Maxim, watching TV, and playing on the internet. Odnoo came over this evening, then Moogie came over later, bearing boats and something like boats, but with fruit in it instead. She wouldn’t tell me the name of the other thing, but it was good. I teased her and asked her why she hadn’t cooked that for me before. We sat around talking and watching TV and had a few drinks.

While sitting there, I noticed that some of the nails that hold my bed together were coming out. I went for my new handy-dandy multi-tool and used the hammer to nail them back to where they belong. While doing that, I noticed something on the inside of my bed. When I said something and started pulling out a blanket, Moogie pulled up the front of the couch and I found blankets, sheets, and pillows under there. Holey guacamole! This is life changing. Moogie laughed at me. I told her I had no idea about that, since American beds aren’t like that. She told me I should have asked her. My reply: how in the heck am to be expected to ask about something that I have absolutely no idea about? She got a big kick out of it. Tonight, I’ll sleep with blankets, instead of sleeping bags.

January 25, 2009

I woke up late today, looking forward to the Sunday ahead that I could waste away being lazy. When I finally went to cook something, I decided that I wanted biscuits and gravy. In the U.S., I always bought those frozen biscuits that you just have to put in the oven. I’d tried to make biscuits a few times, but they just never turned out good. Since I didn’t have anything pre-made, I looked in the cook book we got from PC. I found an easy looking recipe. Since there isn’t any self-rising flour in Mongolia, I had to add some baking powder. Luckily, the guy that was here before me left a lot. Otherwise, I would’ve been out of luck. The recipe made 11 biscuits. I had room for nine in my small oven, so I cooked the other two in the skillet, on the stove. When they were all finished, they were a little heavy, but really good. I ate the two from the stove straight away, putting strawberry jelly on one and Ranch on the other. I used one of the gravy packets I have and warmed up some of the bacon my sister sent, adding a big glass of milk, and had a good meal. Next, I’ll have to learn how to make gravy from scratch. No matter how many times I’ve helped my mom make it before, I just can’t seem to get it right when I try it alone.

Since then, the only productive thing that I’ve done is wash dishes, do laundry, and write this. I hope that you are doing well. I have my first life-skills lesson tomorrow. Shuree is translating it as I write this and will email it to me tonight. Pray for me to do well. I’m a little bit nervous about it. Write when you can.

January 10, 2009

After a few hours of reading, a couch surfer came here. He had messaged me a couple of days ago and said he wanted to experience what it’s like outside the city. I told him he was welcome to come to my place for the weekend. His name is Donnel, and he’s from the San Francisco area. He seems to be a fairly nice guy. It was time for lunch when he got here, so the first thing we did was make a trip to the store. We made a simple meal of pasta with onions and sausage. After that, we walked up to the OBOO. OMG, it was freaking cold! This was the windiest day that I’ve experienced so far. I thought my face was going to freeze off. My nose was numb by the time we got back to my apartment. The scene was really cool out there, though. The wind was blowing the top layer of the snow across the ground, and it made a really neat effect. I took a video of it, but it doesn’t do it justice. It looked like a frozen desert wasteland. Felt like it, too.

When we got back, we just sat around talking and watching music videos. Don taught me how to play Cribbage. Have you ever heard of that game? There are some funky rules and scoring, but I like it. When Moogie finished practicing for some kind of teacher concert they’re having soon, she came to my place. She had already been drinking, so she was feeling pretty good. My plan was to buy some drinks for us, then ask her to cook, but since she’d already been drinking, I just asked her straightaway. She agreed to cook boats for us. Sweet! I didn’t have quite enough meat, though, so I had to go and buy some. At the store, I started digging in the freezer, looking for what I wanted. The owner told me that all they had was innards. Yuck! I sure didn’t want that. As I was about to leave, another customer told me that there was some meat in the next room. I had never even noticed the other door, so I was skeptical. When I opened the door, it was dark in there, and I could see someone on the other side of the room, laying down and smoking a cigarette. I started to leave, but the guy assured me there was someone, and meat, in there. When I went in, the guy stood up and a couple of other guys I’ve never seen followed me in. Immediately, my hackles raised and I was worried about my safety. After some confusion about what kind of meat I wanted, the guy picked up a big burlap sack and took it over to the store. I don’t know why they kept asking what kind of meat I wanted, since the guy only had one kind and I kept telling him that was the kind I wanted. In the store, the guy pulled out an entire leg of mutton and asked me how much I wanted. I got one and a half kilograms for 3,500tg. Not a bad price. When we left, Don bought vodka.

Back at my place, we had a good time sitting around talking and preparing boats while taking intermediate shots. I still don’t like vodka, but the kind he’d gotten was smoother than some others I’ve had. Don made a game of seeing how creative he could get with his boat pinching. Moogie got a good laugh out of them all. Mongolians seem to have this preset idea of what boats – and other foods that are pinched, but basically the same thing – are supposed to look like. I told her that I don’t really care what they look like, as long as they cook right and taste good when they’re finished. We probably made somewhere around 50 boats, and when it got down to the end and everyone else was finished, I polished off the last few. As I’ve said countless times: I can’t get enough of those things.

When we’d finished, one of Moogie’s friends from school came over with another couple small bottles of vodka. Her name is Nomin. I’d seen her a couple times before, but I’d never met her. She was really nice. She doesn’t speak any English at all, but I could understand most of what she was saying and was able to respond in kind. Older PCVs had always told me that alcohol was somewhat of helper when it comes to speaking better Mongolian. True or not, something seemed to be doing the trick. Granted, we didn’t talk about anything too deep, but I was able to do alright.

January 11, 2009

Don and I woke up late today, and after eating breakfast/lunch, we went to the school. Moogie had told us that people would be there playing volleyball and asked if we wanted to play. I told her I would go, but I probably wouldn’t play. She made it sound like there was some kind of big competition going on. But, just in case, I did dress for the occasion. When we got there, it was just a few people, hitting the ball around. Okay, I could handle that. We hadn’t even started a game yet when Don said that his brain couldn’t handle it and he was going to walk around outside. Apparently, he was still feeling pretty bad from last night. Luckily, I had stayed true to my secret hang over cure: I drank lots of water before I went to bed. It works every time. I stayed and played three games and didn’t do too bad. People were still playing when I left a couple hours later.

When Don got back, he said that he wanted to go and watch the sunset and take some pictures. So, we bundled up and took off walking to the hill that’s over there. When we got there, we saw a further hill that the sun was just going behind that might offer a better view. To get there, we had to walk through the ger district. That was my first time over there, so it was kind of neat. A couple of kids had built a snow fort. That was my first time ever seeing anything like that. I was sure to tell them how cool I thought it was. They beamed their smiles at me in return. We had good timing in getting to the other hill. It was only another 10 minutes before the sun went behind the distant mountains. On the walk back, we got to see the full moon rising. It was supposed to have been the biggest one of 2009 last night. We saw it when we were out last night, after it was already normal size, and noticed how bright it was. Tonight, as it was rising over the horizon, the moon looked several times bigger than normal. As always, I got some pictures that you’ll be able to check out eventually.

When we got back to town, we stopped at the ger that I was taken to when the last couch surfers were here. I was expecting to see my friend, but I was told she was in the city. I don’t know who the two women were that were there. The older lady was hard of hearing, but very nice. After telling the younger to give us tea, she said down with her prayer beads and kept herself busy fingering each one while reciting her prayers. When we left there, we went to Densmaa’s place. Our goal was to ask about the train schedule, but she made us sit down and have tea and some snacks. Then, after she found out what we wanted to know, and secured a ride for Don to get to the train station, she made us stay while she cooked dinner for us. That, as always, was cool. After coming home, we’ve decided that we would go to bed early tonight. We are pretty tired (me even more so, from the volleyball) and we have to wake up early. If you know me, you know that I’m not looking forward to that.

January 12, 2009

I read an article on MSN about a couple who got married in a Taco Bell. It seems that someone loves the place more than I do. I could eat there almost everyday of the week, but I don’t think I would want to get married there.

This morning, we woke up and were on the meeker at 6:30. Densmaa had set up a ride for us to get Don to the train station in the other part of town. We got there, I ordered his ticket for him, and then I was brought back, where I promptly went right back to bed for another hour. I was still tired when I woke up and got ready for work. At work, I was in a bit of a daze as I continued to work on a life-skills lesson. Luckily, I’d already made an “action plan” a few weeks ago. But when Oko came to my office to write one up, it took me a few minutes to remember that I’d done it. I had most of the important words translated, too, so that helped a lot. Now I just have to see about finding a translator for the lessons that I’m typing up. If I’m lucky, Shuree will be able to do it for me; but she’s really busy these days. I’ll keep you posted.

Densmaa told me today that I won’t be teaching English to anyone but her, Oko and Javkhaa. As I said before, I don’t mind that. She set a time schedule for 3 o’ clock, everyday. Wouldn’t you know it, though, at 3, Oko was the only one in the office. We went over the words from the other day, and then I went over some other stuff with her. Right now, her English is the worst, but I bet that it will improve quickly. She’s shy when it comes to speaking English, but she’s willing to learn. I think she’ll do alright. I’ve been talking to her in English when I say something, and then saying it in Mongolian. I’ve noticed that she already understands many of the things I say, even though she can’t quite say them herself yet. She’s doing pretty good about helping me with my Mongolian, too. We took turns quizzing each other today. Even if I just learn a few words a day, that’s better than nothing. I even used one of the new words in a conversation this evening. The word was ‘stamp pad.’ I don’t know when I’ll really ever need to know that word, but since Mongolian words have so many different meanings, depending on the context, maybe it will help. We’ll see.

For those of you who check out some of the other blogs that I have links to on my blog, please check out the Advance Humanity blog and click on the posting titled It’s Saturday Night! That’s Travis’s blog and he lives in the same place as Alex. Both of them were with me during training, and they are a couple of extremely cool people who made my summer very memorable. There are a couple of videos of them being goofy that I’m sure will give you a snapshot of what I mean by “memorable.” Enjoy!

January 13, 2009

Not long after getting to work this morning, Oko came into my office. She had a project proposal in hand and told me that when Densmaa had asked for an “action plan,” that is what she wanted. Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place? So, I sat down and started working on that, not being in much of a hurry. Javkhaa came in shortly after and they were both sitting there watching me. Along with them telling me to continue to write when I paused to talk to them, they gave me the feeling that I was expected to have it finished today. I spent the first half of the day working on that and really, oddly, quite enjoyed it. The first part of it reminded me of writing papers for my classes in university. I really liked the creativity part of it. As I said before, I like writing. There’s something about thinking of as many synonyms as I can for a word, then deciding which one I want to use in a particular sentence. I don’t think it really shows in my blog, though. Using the words I did, I knew that they would be hard to translate, but I used them anyway.

After lunch, I quickly finished and took the final product to Oko and Javkhaa. They seemed to be amazed and said, “You are a very fast writer.” I just smiled at them. Densmaa came in and helped translate the easy parts, then left us to take care of the rest. Um, that’s a little backward, don’t you think? Oh well. We sat down and got to work, with me making the pages of the dictionary dance a flurried shimmy in my hands. I was reminded that some of the things we might say in English just don’t translate to Mongolian. And a couple of times, I would show them the translation and they would look at me funny. Turns out, the first translation isn’t always what we would think it should be. I can’t think of the instance from today, but once, I talked about how dull my knife was. Densmaa didn’t know the word “dull,” show I showed her the translation. She looked at me and said that can’t be the word I meant, cause knives can’t be dull. I told her that they most certainly can be, then I showed her the word “sharp” and told her “dull” is the opposite of that. We then flipped back to “dull” and she found a word that was the third or fourth translation. The first one meant “not smart.” Translation is so difficult sometimes!

Last Friday, when I left the bank, one of the ladies from one of the stores I frequent hollered at me, “Bagsh ah, bagsh ah!” (Teacher! Teacher!!) I’ve become used to people thinking I’m a teacher, so I didn’t correct her. When I followed her into her store, she asked me if I would tutor her younger brother. After telling her that I would not tutor him every day and that, because of Peace Corps policy, I couldn’t take payment, we decided that he would come to my place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 6:30, for one hour of tutoring. I wish I’d have made some kind of deal for food. I didn’t think about that until today, when they actually showed up 10 minutes early. I was extremely surprised at that. Her brother’s name is Ambaa. He’s 26 years old, and studied English at university. His English isn’t too bad. He just needs some practice. This evening, we went over basic questions like “What is your name?” “How old are you?” “Where are you from?” “What do you do?” and other trivial questions. Like most people who know the least bit of English, his grammar is what needs the most work. The hour went by fairly quickly and when he left, he asked me if he was to come again tomorrow. When I told him Thursday, his face fell. Oh well. I’m not trying to have someone over here every day, teaching grammar.

January 14, 2009

A few years ago, I learned about how the ancient Jews’ directions were different that today’s. For example, their north was our east. That explains how they “went down into Egypt.” I thought that was weird then, but I just chalked it up to that being so long ago. I didn’t really think about how a people decide what is what when it comes to cardinal directions. And I sure didn’t think that it could be different today. I was surprised to learn that it is different in Mongolia. Everything here is backwards: north is south, and east is west. I learned this during training, but I’d kind of forgotten about it until I was writing something yesterday that required a direction. Once I heard the explanation for why this is so, though, I understood. You see, Mongolians are the reason that the Chinese built the Great Wall. They are the ones who kept raiding the Chinese. In turn, the Chinese often retaliated, and when they became considerably more powerful, the Mongolians really had to keep an eye out for them. As a result, Mongolians always – and still to this day – faced their homes to what we would call the south, so they would be able to see the Chinese coming. After hundreds of years of orienting themselves this way, I guess it just became natural for them to refer to that direction as north. It really makes it hard when asking for directions sometimes. If you are facing what we would call north, looking at the bank, and you want to go to the store that is to the right of it, you would have to tell a Mongolian that it is on the left side, or west. It’s quite confusing. I always have to stop and think things through before I speak. Luckily, there hasn’t been anything important for me to worry about when it comes to getting directions.

This afternoon, I was in my office, working on a bit of Mongolian, when Oko came in. She said, “Trip, come on. Are you ready?” “Ready for what?” I asked. There was a big meeting with our office, the kindergarten, the hospital, the Social Insurance place, the social workers from both parts of town and both schools, and some students from both schools. We started out by going around the table and everyone introducing their self. For the next two hours, I sat there as they all took turns talking about whatever it is they were talking about. I really don’t have any idea. And I had to pee the whole time, so that just made it worse. At the end, Densmaa asked me to introduce the like-skills project that I’ve been working on – very quickly. I had something prepared, but it wasn’t made to be very quick. Expecting her to translate what I said, I started my spiel about what life-skills are, then was stopped after two sentences. I was told that maybe we would go over that later, and then Oko stood up and talked about it in Mongolian. I was a bit peeved, to say the least. Immediately after that meeting, all the social workers and students stayed, and then Densmaa gave a quick overview about the scope of the project. They asked some questions that I had thought Densmaa knew the answer to, though she didn’t, and I thought to myself, ‘if I had a chance to give the spiel that I have prepared, most of these questions would be answered.’ We ended the meeting with setting another meeting for Friday. I sure hope it goes much better. Pray for me, or cross your fingers, or whatever it is that you do to send luck to someone on the other side of the world. I’m sure I’ll need it.

This evening, I was in the middle of reading when I heard a light tap at my door. I had no idea who it might be as I opened the door. It was two of the students from school; two girls. One of them speaks enough English to kind of sort of get her point across, and the other knows just a few words. The one told me she wanted to ask me a question about a lesson she was working on. When she showed me what it was, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. There was a story about what reality shows are, and examples of different ones: American Idol, Survivor, The Bachelor, and another one that I can’t remember. On the surface, the questions had nothing to do with the story. The directions were to answer the questions, and depending on how many A’s, B’s, C’s, or D’s you had, you would be able to tell which reality show you most wanted to be on. You know, kind of like one of those silly Cosmopolitan quizzes that teenage girls take. (Yeah, I know about those. I actually like reading Cosmo, sometimes.) The questions used words that had two or three meanings, and, of course, they weren’t the first translation. She would translate a word, and then I would have to tell her the translation that was meant. It took much longer than I wanted it to. Especially, since they were the kind of giggly girls who talk in their own language and share private jokes. I was ready for them to go before they did. They’re cool, but that’s not the kind of thing I wanted to do this evening.

January 15, 2009

I began my day by working on the letter to the class that I correspond with in the U.S. I received two sets of letter from them at the same time, and all of them but one asked me several questions in each letter. The one girl didn’t ask one question in either. I thought that was a little funny. Still, I was sure to write to her. With a few breaks, it took me all day to finish. Boy, was my hand hurting when I finished. I enjoyed it, though, knowing that they will really like it. In the first letter to them, I wrote the numbers for one through 10, and some of them used them in their letters to me. Today, I wrote all of their names in Cyrillic. It’s a little bit hard, since you have to do it phonetically, and I’m really not that good at pronouncing all the letters correctly. I think I did a good enough job, though. They’ll get a kick out of it.

One of the breaks I took was kind of forced on me, unwillingly. A lady came into my office with some papers that had a bunch of fill-in-the-blank English sentences. After lots of confusion, and asking Oko, I figured out that she wanted me to answer the questions for her kid, whoever that is. I didn’t want to, but I did it anyway. It was a bunch of questions photocopied from a workbook, and it was soon evident that a native English speaker did not write the original. There were several questions that weren’t technically grammatically correct, and some had misspelled words! Then, there were many sentences that should’ve used the word “might”, but only had “may” as a choice. Now, some liberal writers and speakers might say that it’s okay to interchange the two, and you definitely may do that if you are one of those people; but I’m a style nazi when it comes to writing, and I don’t think it should be encouraged. All of that put together – me not wanting to do it in the first place; grammar and spelling mistakes; and the misuse of “might” versus “may” – made me mad about the whole thing. It’s bad enough that I have to teach English, but by doing something like that, I was teaching improper English. I won’t do it again, without sitting down with the student and making sure they understand what is correct.

This evening, Ambaa came again. Khishge came, also. She’s one of the silly girls that came last night. She’s one of the best English speakers of her class, and she was there with me last week when Ambaa’s older sister asked if he could come. She asked if she could come, also, and I told her yes. I’m finding that the one of the biggest problems for Mongolians are those words like a, an, the, is, am, are, was, were, and the like. Those words don’t exist in Mongolian. Those words are either automatically implied, or you change the ending of a word to get at the meaning. They’re doing alright, but they will need a lot of help with reading comprehension. I wrote a sentence that Khishge said (My favourite subject is English, because it is an international language.), and after reading the sentence several times, Ambaa couldn’t tell me what her favourite subject was, or why. We’ll work on that.

After they left, I finished my letter to the kids and put it in an envelope, then sealed up a very small package for my BFFE, the Rectangle Head. It’s all rednecked up with all kinds of duct tape. I want to make sure that no one tampers with it. After that, I exchanged a few emails with one of my absolute favourite people. You know who you are. Thank you for that. It was very fun. I needed that.

Did you know that, if you have RealPlayer, you can download videos from Youtube? Yep, you can. I’ve downloaded several music videos that I like. Very cool. I thought that you might be interested, too.

January 16, 2009

Today, there wasn’t much going on at all, so I stayed in my office for most of the day, working on some Mongolian. I know all the words for think, want, wish, with, hope, desire, have, fancy, long, feeling, heart, sounds, talk, speak, and spell; but there are a lot of phrases I wanted to know using those words. That’s what I worked on all day, taking a few breaks to go and talk to Oko and Javkhaa. I got four pages of new phrases. That’s a lot. Especially since they are all figurative phrases, which changes the words and meanings.

This evening, I haven’t done much of anything. The meat that I got last weekend was all rib meat, so I cut it all off the bone, then steamed the bones with my dinner, and put some hot barbecue sauce on them. There was just enough meat left on them to give me a good appetiser. While I ate my dinner, I started watching Schindler’s List. Have you seen that movie? Whew, it is long; right at three hours. I took a break half way through to clean my kitchen. I’m going to go to UB tomorrow, and will spend the night, and I don’t want to come home to a dirty kitchen. That’s the worst, isn’t it? I think so.

It’s the end of another week for me. I hope you have had a week as good as mine. Write when you can. I always enjoy hearing from you, even if it’s just to say hi. Talk to you later. See ya.

January 5, 2009

For the first time in a few weeks, I woke up and went to work at the regular time. Most of my day was spent editing the language book for the next group that will come to Mongolia in June. I’ve told you before how I want to write a book, but I think I could really be happy with being an editor. I see mistakes in all kinds of things that I read and it just irks me. Even in the English newspaper that is printed in the city is full of mistakes – and it’s written by a native English speaker! I always see openings in the paper for the editor position, too. I always wonder if I have enough time to do that. Too bad I’m not allowed to hold a regular job while I’m here. In the meantime, I’m getting my editing fix from this book: it’s full of mistakes, too.

This evening, I left work a little early and did some grocery shopping. In the U.S., I’d gotten really used to going to only one place for absolutely everything that I needed. Here, I can’t do that. Have I told you that there are about 13 stores in this tiny place that I live? I went to one store for pasta and toilet paper; another store for bread; and a third store for strawberry jam and ready-made noodles. And no matter where I go, I can’t find vinegar. I was able to find it only one time since I’ve been here. Every couple of weeks, I go to every store and ask if they have it. It seems to me like someone would eventually buy some so I would be able to buy it. They are bound to jack the price up some, to be sure to make a profit. I know I’m not the only person here who wants it.

As I left the final store, I ran into one of the building workers from my building. He was drunk and asked me if I wanted to drink with him. As an excuse not to drink with him, I told him I was trying to find vinegar. He told me he had some at his home and that he would give me some. Since I knew other people would be there, I went with him. After he gave me the vinegar, and I ate and drank the obligatory candy and tea, I got up to leave. Before I could stand fully erect, he and his wife both told me to stay for food. Cool. You know how I like free food. I was given a bowl of meat soup. Basically, it’s just meat in a bowl of its watery juices. I stayed for another couple cups of tea, and then when I saw that the guy was properly passed out in his chair, I left.

Not long after getting home, Tsegii came over. That’s the first time she’s really been here in a couple months. I didn’t realise I’d missed her. She’s pretty cool; and she cooks really well. Her niece was with her, so I played with her a bit while Tsegii cooked tsuivan. Before she could do that, I had to run back to the store for flour. About half-way through the giant bowl that she fixed for me, I remembered that I’d already eaten. I really could’ve eaten the rest, but I knew that I didn’t need it. There are all kinds of leftovers. I should have enough for a few days left. Yum!! On top of that, Tsegii cleaned my dishes for me. Man, what a woman! The only thing she asks for in return: chocolate. I’m more than happy to make that trade. Oh, and you remember that big hunk of meat that I bought however many months ago? The last of it was finally used tonight. That was a pretty good deal.

January 6, 2009

I forgot to tell you another story. Have you every heard the song “Happy New Year” by ABBA? Well, that song, along with every version of “Last Christmas” (“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. The very next day, you gave it away…”) that the pub had was played back to back to back to back to back on New Year’s Eve. Oh my gosh! Literally, I heard both of them at least six times each; sometimes the only difference between songs being that the singer was different than the one in the previous song. Mongolians love those songs. For the rest of the night, and part of the next day, I had those stupid songs stuck in my head. I would be sitting there and bust out into the few words of the songs that I knew, every time wanting to kick myself. Yeesh!

I went to the Water Company today for my usual Tuesday class. I figured they would be back to their normal work schedule and would be ready for class. I waited over 30 minutes for them to finish the meeting that they were in, and they never did. I could hear through the door that they were having a big ol’ argument about something. I decided to leave and just come home. After a short nap, I worked on editing the language book for several hours. I have a slight cold going on, so I didn’t feel like going back to work. Besides, I just read an article on MSN about how it’s good for people to stay home when they’re sick, that way everyone else doesn’t get sick, too. That’s how I justified that decision.

This evening, I found a website that streams movies for free. After trying several different links, I finally got Hancock to work. I don’t know if it’s because I’m so far away from where the stream is coming from, or if it’s because my internet is slow, but it was taking forever for the movie to load. I would let it load about 10 minutes, and then watch it. The third time I stopped it to load, it just quit everything. Dangit! I’ve been wanting to watch that movie for a while. Oh well. I’ll see it eventually.

I added some more of my friends’ blogs to mine, if you’re interested. I figure you might like to get someone else’s perspective on another part of Mongolia. I also uploaded some new pics. Check them out. Leave comments, if you have them, and I’ll try to respond on my blog.

January 7, 2009

When I got ready to go to bed last night, my neighbours were up, being loud. I stayed awake longer than I wanted to, hoping they would shut up, but they never did. I lay down to sleep about 45 minutes later than I normally would. Surprisingly, I went right to sleep; but less than an hour later, I was awakened by their loud singing. I laid in the bed, steaming, for about 45 minutes before I finally decided to say something to them. I got up, put some clothes on, grabbed my clock to emphasise the time, and banged on their door. As loud as I was banging, I know they heard me the first time, but it took three more times to get someone to open the door. The woman gave me a blank look while I drowsily held up my clock and said that I was trying to sleep. She said, “Okay,” and shut the door in my face. I thought that would take care of things, so I went back to bed. I heard peels of laughter, and then the singing started right back. I lay there, seething, for another 30 minutes before I decided to turn my TV on and turn it up as loud as it would go. About 20 minutes later, I heard people leaving their apartment. I left my TV on for another 30 minutes, just to make sure they got the point. I mean, I do absolutely everything I can to be quiet and not disturb them. It seems like they would do the same, when it’s 2:30 in the morning, in the middle of the week. Let’s hope that it doesn’t happen again.

Either coincidentally, or as a result, I felt even sicker when I woke up this morning. I usually only allow myself to hit the snooze button one time before I force myself out of bed. I don’t know how many times I hit it today. After a while, I told my boss that I was sick and the neighbours had kept me up really late, then rolled over and went back to sleep. Around 10 o’ clock, Oko came to check on me. She asked me if I was okay, if I needed a doctor, if I had medicine or vitamins, if I had water. When I told her I just had a cold and I was tired from the neighbours, she asked me if I drank with the neighbours last night. I assured her that I did not. I’m not sure why she asked me if I had water, but it made me worry. Sure enough, when I wanted some a couple hours later, it wasn’t working. I told my boss, like I’m supposed to, and she told me that the people would be by to check on it. I’d forgotten about it by the time they showed up. The guy came in to check if I had water and it worked like nothing was wrong. Of course. Not 30 minutes later, it was off again, so I told my boss again. She told me they would be by in 10 minutes to check on it. I still haven’t seen them. It finally came back a few hours later.

Today, I decided that I wanted to make fajitas. That’s my favourite food, and I really miss Mexican food. I’ve thought about trying to find a Mexican restaurant every time I go to the city, but everyone tells me that they suck. I’d rather have none than crappy. When I was in high school, my dad used to work at a carpet factory with a lot of Mexicans. They would bring fajita makings for their lunch everyday, and he soon learned how to make them himself. Since they were so simple, I picked up the recipe easily. So, this afternoon, I put some pinto beans to boiling and let them do their thing for several hours. When they were finished, I cut up an onion and put it in the frying pan with oil, then put the beans in and proceeded to mash them with a coffee cup. I don’t have a masher, so I used what I had. It took a bit longer than normal, but it worked just fine. When they were thoroughly mashed, and I’d made refried beans, I set them to the side as I cut up the horse meat and cooked it with a can of tomatoes and chilies and some cabbage. I wouldn’t normally put cabbage in there, but I wanted some other kind of vegetable, and that’s all I have available in my town. When that finished, I put that conglomeration to the side and made the dough for tortillas. I’ve always known that you can make tortillas by hand, but I never thought I would. Turns out, they were very easy. You mix ¼ cup oil and ½ cup warm water with flour until the dough isn’t tacky. Add flour if you like. You then roll out tortillas to the size you like and fry them in a dry skillet, turning them when they start to bubble. Very simple. That mixture made five tortillas for me. When I finished, I got some Ranch dressing and hot sauce, then put all the ingredients together and ate five tortillas worth of fajitas. Yum!!! F-ing A awesome! That is the absolute best meal that I’ve eaten since I’ve been in Mongolia. The best part is that I have plenty of beans and meat left over for at least three more meals of the same size. You can believe that I will most likely eat them everyday until they are gone. I invited Tsegii to experience the awesomeness, but she had other things to do. Oh well: more for me!

January 8, 2009

The first couple of hours at work were spent on working on an introduction for my upcoming life-skills lessons. I’m supposed to have a meeting with all the different social workers in town to talk to them about what exactly life-skills are. It wasn’t that hard, since I was mostly copying the information from a set of books that I was given by the Peace Corps. My biggest problem will be that of translation. About the same time I finished that, one of the ladies that works in my building stuck her head in my office and told me there was a meeting. Um, okay. I don’t know why she told me, since I never know what is being said or talked about, but I went. As usual, I had no idea what was going on.

When that was finished, I went to Densmaa’s office and talked to her. Yesterday, when she called to check on me, she kept telling me to go to work today. Today, I found out why. The assistant governor, who is the head of the social department, from UB city was going to be here, along with people from Channel 9 News. She was coming to check on everything here. Densmaa walked around town with her going to all her different stops. Around 11, Oko and I went to meet them at the kindergarten. Basically, they did the same thing as everyone else that goes to the kindergarten: they met with the director, and then went to all the different classrooms for a short performance by each group of kids. After lunch, they went to our office. There, about 11 of us crammed into Densmaa’s office as she talked about what our office does, and what I’m there to do. Just like every other time when I’m talked about, Densmaa broke from her Mongolian, looked at me, and said, “Please, introduce yourself.” I never understand why she does that. The little bit of Mongolian that I know has already told me that she had been talking about me for at least two minutes. What else can I say with my limited language skills? I froze up, as always, and relied on Old Trusty: “My name is Trip. I’m a Peace Corps Community Youth Development Volunteer….” “What else do you want to know?” Yeah, I really said that. I mean, really, what else? That elicited the normal giggle from Densmaa, and then she picked up and told them even more about me and what my plans are. They looked at me, smiling, and then said thanks for being there, when she finished. Yep, no problem. It’s my pleasure.

From there, everyone from the building, and all the visitors, went to the conference room for yet another meeting where I had no idea what was being said. Luckily, it was very short. When they’d left, Densmaa announced that everyone could go home early. Sweet! No arguments from me. I came home and took the nap that I’d missed during my lunch, since my time was cut short, then woke up and made fresh tortillas for more fajitas. They were just as good as yesterday. I’m almost out of hot sauce, though. Maybe Lady Fortune will smile on me soon and my next, unexpected package will have all kinds of hot sauce in it. Have I told you how expensive that stuff is here? They only have Cholula brand hot sauce in UB, that I’ve seen. The same bottle that might cost $4 in the U.S. costs more than $8 here. Sheesh! I’ll wait til I completely run out and really really really want it before I break down and buy it. Hm, I wonder if there is a recipe to make my own hot sauce. I’d bet that would require some hot peppers, though, right? Those are as hard to come by as hot sauce. Maybe I’ll find something to work. I’ll keep you posted.

January 9, 2009

Since it’s Friday, I woke up and went to work an hour later than my normal time. The first thing I did, after dropping off my bag and taking off my coat, was to go to my boss and co-worker’s office. They were watching old videos from 7+ years ago, about old concerts and Naadams from our district. They were having a good time reminiscing and seeing how young everyone looked. We sat there doing that for about an hour and a half, then Densmaa asked if I wanted to go to eat lunch at the guanz (diner) with her. Of course I did. It is the first time that it’s been open since mid-December; and there were new people running it today. I found out that the previous people were “too busy.” The new set up seems to be better: more food, easier to tell what is available, and the price is visible. We ate vegetable soup and boats. Back at the office, Densmaa asked if I would let her borrow my laptop for two weeks. What?! She wanted it so her daughter could take it to UB and work on a school project. I told her I couldn’t do that for two weeks. Then, she asked for one week. I just looked at her, did something on my phone, and she finally left. Does she really expect me to let someone I’ve only met once, for five minutes, take my $1,000 machine for two weeks? Besides, what would I do for internet during that time? Sheesh!

After lunch, I went back to work and found out that I will now be teaching English to my boss and co-workers, everyday, for 40 minutes. I really don’t mind that, though. They had their own list of words that they wanted to go over – words that I’d just happened to have translated for them this morning. It helps a lot that my boss speaks decent English. At 4 o’ clock, I went to the school for my usual Friday conversation with the English students. They don’t seem to be very interested lately, so I only stayed there for an hour. For some reason, Densmaa asked me to be back at the office by 5. When I got there, they were still watching old videos. Ahh, the life of a government worker. You think it’s easy in America? Try it out in Mongolia. We ended up going home a very short while later.

At home, Tsegii and Ariuka came over. Surprisingly, they had finished their work early, too. None of us had eaten, and we were all ready to, so we decided to cook. Tsegii was jealous that she’d missed the fajitas the other night, so I told her I would cook some for them tonight. After a quick trip to the store for some meat (and I finally found vinegar!), I added to my leftovers, then made some fresh tortillas. When I’d made them yesterday and the day before, I didn’t worry about how lopsided they were. Tonight, since I had some Mongolians who are experts at rolling out dough in perfect circles, I enlisted their help. It did take them a second to get used to the dough, though. It wasn’t as hard as they usually make it. It didn’t take long, though. I showed them how to construct and fold the first one, and then I let them make their own after that. They said they liked them a lot. Yay! Peace Corps’ goal number two is being accomplished: teach Mongolians about American culture.

Okay, so it’s Friday night, and I’m just sitting here, typing this and watching music videos on TV. There is actually a decent music video channel, called Music Box, that is most always music videos – unlike stupid stupid stupid MTV. (I hate that channel.) I hope you are doing alright. Write when you can. Talk to you later. See ya.

December 26, 2008

Surprisingly, the play that was supposed to begin at 1 o’ clock started before I got there at 1:30. I could hardly believe it. The little bit that I missed wasn’t a big deal, though. The play was pretty much the same as the past three, but with different people. I didn’t have any qualms about leaving a little early.

This evening, at 7 o’ clock, I went to the Culture Centre for our work party. I’m coming to find that whatever time I’m told something is to start means that that’s when everyone will get there to start setting up. There were about seven tables, for about 10 people each. After about an hour and a half, when everything was set up, there was enough food, snacks, and alcohol for about 20 people at each table. There were all kinds of vodka, beer, champagne, boats, fruits, and candies. I ate before I went, and I ate more when I got there. It’s a good thing, too. It wasn’t long before someone opened the first bottle of vodka and started pouring shots. Man, I really dislike vodka.

At the same time everyone was drinking and socialising, there were random groups of kids that would come in and do some entertaining. During all that, I think I had an epiphany about why all the kids were dressed as random animals. I think the animals are the ones of the lunar calendar. While looking and them, pondering the meaning, I remembered walking through the park in front of my apartment, where there are statues of all the lunar calendar animals. Since Mongolians put only a little bit less emphasis on the lunar years as the Chinese do, it only makes sense.

Santa was there, too, and he called out everyone’s names and we went up to receive a bag of goodies: juice, cookies, cakes, and candies. Later, our names were called and we all took turns drawing numbers for gifts. I drew my favourite number – thirteen – and got a yellow veggie peeler – my favourite colour. People played games, too. For one of them, guys dressed as women and blind-folded women had to guess who it was. It was pretty funny.

December 29, 2008

As predicted, there was hardly anything going on at the office today. The most exciting part of my day was trying to find out who had my bag of goodies, my veggie peeler, and my scarf from the other night. Somehow, I forgot them there. I was really worried about my scarf. I bought that thing in Amsterdam and I really like it. Luckily, after the usual confusion of conveying my message, we figured out where they were. All except the veggie peeler, that is. I think it might be gone. Oh well. I never used the one that I had in the U.S., so it’s really not a big deal that I don’t have one here. I’m so forgetful sometimes. My grandmother used to tell me that I’d lose my head/butt if it wasn’t attached.

This afternoon, I went to pay the bill for my internet at the bank. It was due yesterday, and since yesterday was Sunday, there was no way for me to pay it. When I woke up this morning, I found that my internet is cut off. Drat! When I got to the bank, I took my bill with me and asked the ladies to help me. They looked at me like I was stupid, started saying something as fast as they seemingly could, and then handed the bill back to me. From what I was told at Skytel, I should be able to just transfer money from my account to theirs. So, I went into the bank manager’s office and asked her to help me. She speaks just a little bit of English, but apparently it wasn’t enough to understand what I wanted to do. She had one of the tellers try to call Skytel as I waited outside, then she called me back into her office. She had my boss on the phone, who asked me what I was trying to do. After I told my boss, she asked me to go to my office and wait on her so she could help me. I waited much longer than I felt like waiting before I left.

There was a dress show at the school, for teachers and students, and I was invited. When I got there, the lights were low and a disco ball was shooting rays of light around the room. Everyone but me was dressed in their finest. After just a few minutes, everyone started dancing. That raised my suspicions immediately and I got nervous. Moogie came over and I asked her what was going on and she told me it was a mask show. Finally, I figured out that it is basically their equivalent of a prom. They would vote for a king and queen later. Sure enough, as I’d feared, one of the high school girls came over, grabbed my hand, and tried to pull me onto the dance floor. She was persistent, but I protested, saying that I couldn’t. I was not about to dance with high school girls. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone else, student or teacher, would try to get me to dance. I acted like I had a phone call and dipped out. I’m one of the dumbest people you can imagine when I’m with a group of friends, but I can’t tell you how shy I am when it comes to dancing in public. Yikes!!

Um, never mind about the loss of my veggie peeler: I found it in the sport jacket that I wore the other night. Like I said: I’m forgetful.

This evening, there was a New Year’s celebration for the entire district. It was at the new Sport Centre that isn’t even finished yet. I went there during the day, just to check it out. The floor is all kinds of warped. I’m sure whoever plays basketball, or whatever other sport, will have fun on that. I think the only reason that the celebration was there, instead of the Culture Centre, is because the area was bigger. That’s nothing to say for the seating, though. They had lined the walls with seats, but that was nowhere near enough for the amount of people that were there; or that were to show up. The people who didn’t have seats just stood up and blocked everyone else’s view. I was close to leaving when the people on the row of seats that I was on had the ingenious idea of moving them further from the wall. That made things bearable for a while. It wasn’t long before I realised that the same play I was watching was the exact same one that I’ve already seen four times now. Goodness, you’d think they would change it around just a little bit. Surely they know that some of us have been to absolutely every play that has been put on in the last couple of weeks. It finally did change a little bit. When some of the dancers started asking people from the crowd to dance with them, encouraging everyone to hit the floor, I decided to make my way toward the door. I came home and watched Juno. Have you seen that movie? It’s pretty good. Check it out if you get the chance.

December 30, 2008

I remembered a story about the last time I was in UB. A few of us were at Big Burger, getting our fast food fix, when a couple of homeless kids came in. I don’t know if they’d been to other tables first, but they ended up at our table, begging for food. From what I understand, some places let them in to beg. They started asking us for food and we told them to go away. When one of the employees saw them bugging us, she came over and fussed at them and tried to push them away. They were persistent and wouldn’t leave. One of the kids actually grabbed one of my friend’s fries and slowly starting picking them up. The kid was slow and just watched us. My friend just watched, so I reached across and grabbed them back, delivering a few harsh words all the while. Eventually, the manager came out and sent them scurrying. We talked about that for a while, surprised that they were as brave as they were.

Just cause there was nothing else to do, I came to UB a day early. I figured I would enjoy it here more than I would at home, being bored in front of the TV. I went to my friend Shuree’s place and helped her translate some documents so a guy could get a UK visa. She didn’t need any help translating, but she needed a little help with editing. It took much longer than I thought it would. When we finished, the guy took us to an awesome dinner at a Korean place. There were three of us eating, so he ordered three different meals. On top of that, the first thing they do is bring out all kinds of small dishes of different things like fried bean curds, slaw, anchovies, a couple different kimchis, eggs, and a few other things. I enjoyed the heck out of all of it and stuffed myself. Yum!

When I left there, I went with Shuree’s brother to his parent’s home. Her brother is a monk at one of the monasteries in UB. He’s really cool, and apparently, he’s a little bit important. He hangs out with the Dalai Lama whenever he visits Mongolia and America, and a few other countries. I got to check out his monastery. It just so happens to be the one that I saw right before I went to my site. It’s really neat. His parent’s place is outside UB. His parents were gone to China, and no one was home, so it was very cold at first. We didn’t do much that night but get a fire started. It eventually warmed up.

December 31, 2008

Surprisingly, I got to sleep late. Not long after I woke up, I had a new meal called “jones.” It’s a soup with some noodles you add to it. I told them how that is someone’s name in the U.S. and they got a kick out of it. After we ate, I was hot, so I went outside. What a scene! It’s been snowing lately, so absolutely everything was covered with it. There were mountains around the entire village. It was beautiful. There was a short pagoda-like thing on top of a nearby hill, so I walked up there. From there, I could see the entire valley. It was really cool up there. I took some pictures, so you’ll see them eventually.

When we got back to UB, my first stop was to pick up my dry-cleaning. My suit pants had a stain on them since before I went to my site, and I wanted to wear it tonight. I was worried about the place not being good, but they took care of everything. Since New Year’s is a big family thing in Mongolia, we called around to find out which places would be open for how long. Eventually, we decided to just walk and find one. We found one that was fairly close called Moon Pub. It was really cool and ritzy, belying the run-down look of the outside. They said they would stay open til midnight. Right before then, though, we decided to go to Sukhbaatar square. We weren’t sure what would be going on, but we thought there might be something. We made it there just in time for 12 o’ clock. There were all kinds of people there, drinking champagne and shooting fireworks. You know how, in the U.S., the fire department will oversee the fireworks, just to make sure everything is safe? Well, it’s nothing like that here. Random people had fireworks and were shooting them off. It was really cool, but just a little bit dangerous. A couple of times, some of the fireworks shot through the crowd. Luckily, I didn’t see anyone get hit. It was nuts. We also saw some random PCV friends. They had talked us into going to a club with them, but before we got there, everyone started splitting up, so we just went back and went to bed. It was a fun night.

January 1, 2009

After waking up late, I went to visit Mendee. When I got there, I asked where his wife and son were. He told me they went to her parent’s house. When I asked why he didn’t go with them, he told me it was because I was there. Doh! I felt bad, but he assured me it was okay. His wife had made some kind of chocolate cake that I had some of. It was the best cake that I’ve had since being in Mongolia. Maybe part of it was because it didn’t have any of the usual, crappy icing on it. When I left there, I went to the State Dept. store and bought a few things. One of them was chili. It’s a regular size can that was a bit expensive, but it’s totally worth it. I love chili and I can’t seem to get mine to come out like I like it. Maybe I’m not putting some crucial ingredient in there. Hopefully, I’ll figure it out.

On Thursdays, Shuree has a radio show. Partly, it’s to promote her training centre. There is always a native English speaking guest, and for a whole hour, they speak English. Today, I was that guest. I talked about my name, hip-hop music, what a New Year’s resolution is, and why I decided to come to Mongolia. I was nervous at first, but I soon got used to it. I’d always wanted to be on the radio. Kind of cool that I got to experience that in Mongolia for the first time. We had called earlier in the day to tell them my name. I found out later that they’d ran out of forms they have to fill out for the front desk any time they have visitors. It’s a state-ran radio, so they don’t allow foreigners for some reason. At first, the guard was giving the lady a hard time, so she had to get special permission from the higher-ups, then get them to call the front desk. Kind of funny. When we left there, we had pizza for dinner. Did I tell you that they have Tabasco sauce there? They do, and I always put lots on my pizza. That kind of makes up for the lack of tomato sauce. I don’t know why they don’t put tomato sauce on their pizza.

January 2, 2009

This morning, I went to the Peace Corps office. I think I’ve told you before that all of us Volunteers have a box in the lounge. In my box was two letters from the kids at the school that I correspond with in the U.S. I’d forgotten to tell the teacher to send them directly to my address, not the one that she was given by One World Classrooms. It was good to finally get them. The first one was sent over two months ago. The first thing I did was to sit down and read all of the individual letters that the kids had written. They were cute, to say the least. I’ll write back to them soon.

While I was there, I met James. He’s a PCV that lives next to the Gobi desert. He was in town because he’d just gotten back from the U.S. He’d brought back two cases of Guiness, and he gave me one. I drank it later that evening and it was awesome. When we left there, we went for lunch at Cola & Kabob, where I had a doner kabob. It was pretty much the exact same thing as the shish kabob, but it was in a pita instead of a tortilla, and a lot messier. They are both delicious and messy. I told James about my grandfather always telling me that if it wasn’t messy, it wasn’t good. He got a kick out of that. When we left, we went to the State Dept. store and I bought a new clock. I used to have this sweet little clock that was perfect for traveling, but I somehow lost it the last time I was in UB. I think someone at the guesthouse I was staying in took it. Of course, when I asked the owners and cleaners, they knew nothing about it. The one I got isn’t quite as cool as the old one, but it will do what I need it for.

When we left there, we went to a place called Level and had a few drinks. That’s the first time I’ve had some whiskey since I had what I’d gotten for my host-dad’s birthday, back in the summer. It was good. The billiards was free, so we entertained ourselves with that. There was only one table, so we had to write our name on a board and play the winner of the current game. At first, there were only two other Mongolian guys there. They were pretty nice guys. They told us that this was their ninth day of drinking. It wasn’t long before one of the guys couldn’t do much more than sit on the couch and try to keep his head up. When we started talking about what we would do when we left, James suggested going to get a massage. Only this morning I had contemplated getting a massage, so I eagerly said agreed that that’s what we should do. He took me to a place a few blocks away that I’d not have noticed had he not led me there. When we went in, they gave us a menu and he ordered for us. We paid 30,000tg for an hour and a half of awesomeness. Man, I think I will have to visit that place again.

January 3, 2009

This afternoon, I went to a bookstore and found a calendar and a couple of kid’s books. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to improve my Mongolian, so I figure that kid’s books will be a good way to do that. One of them is like a comic book, so that’s kind of cool. After that, I went to Cola & Kabob, slammed a shish kabob, and then went to find a meeker. I waited for almost an hour for it to leave. Not long after getting home, Moogie brought “boats” that she had made, frozen, and eaten for days. She said she was tired of them. I told her I don’t think I will ever be tired of them. As I ate half of what she brought, we watched Flags of our Fathers. Have you ever seen that movie? It’s pretty good.

January 4, 2009

You know, it’s weird to be writing 2009. It always takes me forever to get used to writing the new year. I haven’t done much at all today. I’ve watched TV, washed dishes, watched Pan’s Labyrinth, and washed clothes. Tomorrow will start about a month of a semi-regular work schedule, so I’m trying to make sure that I don’t have anything else to worry about. At least for a little while. I say it’s for only a month because the big lunar holiday Tsagaan Sar (White Month) will be in February. People pretty much take off the whole month. I hope that you are good and had a good New Year’s. Write whenever you like. I always look forward to hearing from you.

December 19, 2008

I’ve already told you how I didn’t do much at work and how I went to lunch at the guanz (diner). Since it is Friday, I went to the Labour and Social Welfare office to teach English at 3 o’ clock. For whatever reason, none of my regular students were there. Oh well. I was served tea and wrote a few things out about the New Year’s celebration. They were all busy, so I went to the school for my usual Friday conversation with the students. About the same time that I was to begin, my boss called and asked where I was. I told her I was at the school and she asked me to come to her office. When I got there, she said, “We just wondered where our Trip was.” That was a little funny.

While I was there, I learned something that you definitely should not do in Mongolian culture. Many times, when I am with my friends, I will give them a piece of trash while making them think that it is something more. Often, I will give someone an empty candy wrapper or something like that. Today, I gave a piece of trash paper to Javkhaa, my co-worker who is pregnant. As soon as I gave it to her, her face changed, she handed it to Densmaa, my boss, and told her what I did. Densmaa told me how bad that was and that I should never do that to a pregnant woman because it will make her breasts hurt and make her sick. The way to make this egregious act better is to immediately give the pregnant woman a real gift. I was freaking out and had no idea what to do. When I asked Densmaa what to do, she ran into her office, saying she would help me. She gave me a piece of candy that I gave to Javkhaa. That, apparently, took care of things. Later, I found out that you are really supposed to give a fake gift first, endure some crying and cursing, then give a real gift. Either way, I felt like a total fool. I apologised profusely. As I’ve said before, I’m lucky that I make all these cultural mistakes amongst friends.

While I was at their office, I noticed that they had an obnoxious virus on their computer. There was a Christmasy box floating around the screen that said, “This computer is being attacked.” I was just watching and I was getting annoyed. They were working on end of the year reports that will go to the Mongolian government that had many pictures of stuff from our town. I asked if there was any pictures of me and they said no, then asked me for some pictures from IST. I took their flash drive and got some pictures from my computer. Well, I still haven’t gotten the virus protection that I purchased to work right, so this evening, the same stupid box is floating across my screen. Grr! I’m so mad about that. If I don’t get this taken care of in the next couple of days, I’m going to ask for my money back. At this point, I can’t even get some basic websites to open right.

December 20, 2008

This evening, three couch surfers came on the meeker. Do you remember me telling you about CouchSurfing.com? I’d been talking to them independently for a couple of weeks and they finally arrived. Manu and Simon are from France and Chris is from Canada. Simon (pronounced “see-mone”) speaks very little English, so Manu had to translate almost everything that was said to him, or that he said to us. After a little more exploration in Mongolia, the two of them will go to Beijing, China and study kung-fu for several months, or until they run out of money, whichever happens first. Chris graduated from university a few years ago and other than a few breaks of going home to work odd jobs for more money, he has been traveling ever since. On this trip, he started over in Europe and has slowly made his way here, then will continue to Beijing and on to parts of Southeast Asia. Someone on his profile said he was shy, but I didn’t see much of that. Maybe his travels have fixed that. For dinner, we went to store and bought some meat and vegetables, cooked them all together, then put it all on top of some pasta. That’s one of the easiest Mongolian meals that I know how to cook. I don’t have anything to do tomorrow, so we are to bed a bit late.

December 21, 2008

The guys slept much later than I thought they might. Of course, I don’t mind, so I slept as long as they did. When we got up and got ready, we walked to the old military base, freezing the whole way. The wind was blowing something fierce, subtracting precious degrees from the already negative temperatures. Brrr!!! The base was neat. There were old Communist stars and propaganda painted and written on walls. Some of the buildings looked like they had simply been locked and left one day while some of them looked like they had suffered the effects of a bomb explosion. Looking inside all the old hangars, we could tell that someone was using them for barns. In one of them, we found some old Russian passport documents and mechanical drawings. I kept them and will give them to the governor to see if he thinks they might be important. If not, I’ll keep a couple as souvenirs. While on top of one of the hangars, we spotted a couple of gers that must be the home of whoever owns the animals that had left the prints and droppings we came across. Just to show the guys that it was socially acceptable, I poked my head in one, without knocking, and asked if we could come in. Of course, they said we could and found us all stools to sit on and served us tea. Surprisingly, I’d seen the family before. They sat and stared at us and asked the occasional question. I bet the proverbial fly on the wall was getting a kick out of seeing me talk to them in Mongolian and translate to English, then Manu translating to French for Simon. Since Mongolians will never ask a visitor to leave, and I didn’t want to impose on their forced hospitality, we left after that one cup of tea. It helped enormously to warm us a little before we had to make the trek back to my apartment.

When we got back, we bought some bread and sausage for our lunch and chowed down. We weren’t quite finished when Densmaa came and took us to a ger. Friday, I asked her if she would set up a visit for us. I don’t know the lady’s name, but she works at the Social Insurance Dept. I’m always surprised to find out who lives in gers. I always wonder if it's by choice or necessity. As soon as we got there, we were sat down and given tea, then she started pulling out all kinds of food. The main thing was a big pot of meat. Ha, I cut off a piece of something and gave it to the guys with a sly smile on my face. When they asked me what it was, I told them I would tell them after they ate it. It was innards. Somehow, those weren’t as bad as some I’ve had before. The guys made a face at the thought of what they’d just eaten, but they said it tasted alright. It was also their first time eating horse meat. The lady kept telling us to eat all of the food, but we just couldn’t. We didn’t expect to be fed and were regretting eating what we had before we got there. When we left there, we went to Densmaa’s place and she immediately started cooking. We had visions of being in Rome and needing to visit the vomitorium before we continued to gorge ourselves. While there, I totally embarrassed myself. I was reaching for some sugar for my tea and knocked the whole thing on the floor. Doh! Densmaa would not let me clean it, even though I got the broom and dustpan and asserted that it was my fault and I should clean it. People are very nice to their visitors here. Oh, and her apartment was awesome. It’s more than twice the size of mine and has all kinds of nice furnishings and decorations.

December 22, 2008

We were up much later than I wanted to be last night. The French guys found the French station on my TV and since it had English subtitles, we all watched the movie that was on. It wasn't very good. I woke up and went to work late today since I knew there was nothing pressing for me to do. For lunch I got the guys and went to the guanz, but no one was there. That sucked. I was kind of looking forward to it. Since we were kind of close, we walked to the top of yonder hill and I showed the guys the OBOO. That’s how it’s written in Mongolian. It sounds like “ah-wah.” That is the thing that I told you about before that looks like a pile of rocks, bones, and trash and is the place where you go to pray to the local god that watches over the town. There’s always a good view of the surrounding area up there, where ever you might be. The guys were freezing, so we didn’t stay long.

After going to work for a short while, I was told there would be another kindergarten play at the Culture Centre. I knew that most everyone in my building would be there, so got the guys and we all went to the play. They seemed to get as big a kick out of it as I did. I can’t really put into words the seeming lack of organisation there. It’s a frequent sight for a teacher to go on stage to move a kid around to the place where they should be; or to pull one off stage when they’re not supposed to be there; or the sound guy to have to stop the cassette and rewind it because he didn’t record the whole song and the dancers are standing on stage wondering what’s going on.

This evening, Moogie finally came over to cook the boats she said she would two days ago. This was the guys' lesson in Mongolian time. They didn’t quite understand at first. Two days later, they had a better idea. Moogie had to bring her steamer cause mine isn’t as big as hers. She made almost 90 boats!!! We ate every bit of them, too. I was helping cook, so I didn’t get but a couple of the first round. The guys were worried that we wouldn’t get any. I told them to eat as much as they could and we would have plenty. Sure enough, by the time we were finished cooking, they were finished eating. I don’t know how many I ate, but when everyone else was finished, there were still about 10 more. I ate them, too. I love those things. I think you’ll really like them, too. I’ll cook them for you when I see you next. Now, my kitchen is an absolute mess. I’m not going to worry about it tonight. I’ll take care of it tomorrow.

December 23, 2008

I woke up at my normal time and woke the guys up, too. They decided that they would leave this morning and I was kind of glad. They were alright guys, but I’ve been around people for the last three weeks. I need some time to myself, just to chill. Also, thought I still make all kinds of mistakes, I’d forgotten how much of the Mongolian culture I now take for granted. I felt like a parent with kids who keep doing things to embarrass them. Whenever we would be out it public, it seemed like I was always telling them to do something or not do something. At one point, one of them said, “We just can’t win, can we?” I told them that, no, they couldn’t. One of my Mongolian friends told me that if you were to not do everything that the Mongolian culture says you shouldn’t, you would never do anything. That’s almost true. I notice that younger people tend to be a little more lenient on the way they interpret the culture, though. That’s good for me.

I went to Water Company today for my regular lesson. They are the class that is the furthest ahead. They were supposed to have a test today, but when I got there, no one was there. Everyone is busy with end of the year stuff, so I guess they have better things to do. Oh well. It seems like I’m going to be doing my own thing until after the New Year. Not a problem with me.

I hung out at the social worker’s office for the rest of the day, doing a little bit of studying for my life-skills lessons and my language. I was totally ready to leave before I did. I still came home a little early. After cleaning my kitchen, which wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, I started watching Weeds. Have you ever heard of that show? It comes (came) on Showtime. It’s about a family where the dad died and the mom turns to selling marihuana in order to pay the bills. I know your first reaction might be, “Oh, what a terrible thing!” but the show is pretty good. It’s pretty funny at times. Check it out, if you have Showtime and it still comes on.

December 24, 2008

My BFFE Matt called first thing this morning!! I was sitting here, just about to get dressed for work when the phone rang. Whenever I get an international call, it only shows four random numbers, and I always forget that, so I had no idea who it was. I was happy to hear him and his family on the other end. They have unofficially adopted me. They like me for some reason. I bet if they knew all the trouble that Matt and I have been into together, they wouldn’t like me quite as much. So, don’t tell them!! When I was talking to his sister about her flight troubles on the way home, I was reminded of this time last year when I was having the same troubles. I was supposed to get back from Amsterdam on the 23rd, but something stupid happened and I was stuck overnight in Washington, D.C. I tried all kinds of stories to try to get them to put me on a different flight, even another carrier. I think one lady was about to do it for me, but when she saw that another guy had my ticket and was doing “something” she refused to even look at it. So, they put me up in a hotel room for the night and rescheduled my flight for the next day. Luckily, there were four other people in the same situation, and they were all cool. We had dinner together that night and sat on the plane the next day. I’ve not heard from any of them since then, but I think of them randomly.

This morning, when I was getting ready to go to the other part of town, I saw the people from over there were here. I took that to mean that there wasn’t any sense in my going over there. I just sat in my office working on some language stuff. I came home after lunch and haven’t done much. One of my Mongolian friends in UB that I talk to tells me that she likes my job. I do, too, but sometimes, it’s frustrating. I really enjoy being lazy, but I’d kind of like to have something to do.

December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!! I hope you have an awesome day.

This morning, I sent about 25 messages to various people across the country. The responses randomly came throughout the day. Once, I got five messages all at the same time. When I checked them, they were from MobiCom, saying that I’d gotten a free 5,050 units. Coincidence? I don’t really know why I got them, but I don’t turn away too many free things. Especially when I can put them to use.

My mom called this morning. It was good to hear from her. She had gotten a phone card that was either 350 state-to-state minutes, or 20 international minutes. That doesn’t really sound equivalent to me. Luckily, someone else gave it to her. Man, I need to start a phone company of my own. As soon as I got off the phone with her, it died. I knew that people would be messaging me for the rest of the day, so I came home for my charger. As I was walking out the door of my office building, the P.O. lady chased after me and said I had a package. I followed her to the P.O. and got the package my mom had sent about three weeks ago. Sweet! What good timing. In it were peanuts, sunflower seeds, Ranch, dry gravy mix, dry milk, couscous, dry buttermilk, garbanzo beans, red beans, lima beans, black beans, split peas, ham pieces, garlic powder, duct tape, my old phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and a new 150 GB flash drive. The first thing I did was try to get my old phone to work. I send a lot of text messages and I hate the way that the regular number pad works for texts. I was looking forward to not having to deal with that anymore. I got the SIM card switched over, typed in all the codes that AT&T said I would need to unlock my phone, and then didn’t have any signal. Drat!! I’ll take it to UB with me next week and see if MobiCom has any solutions for me. I sure hope so.

After that, I put everything from my laptop onto my new drive, and then proceeded to format my computer, AGAIN. It only took a few hours. As soon as I got things back to half-way normal, I re-downloaded the StopSign anti-virus software and got it to work. That made me happy. I’ve been dealing with them online for several weeks now and nothing they offer as a solution has helped. To make it worse, they have been experiencing bad weather and haven’t been able to get to work, so I haven’t heard anything from them. Now I don’t have to worry about that. My computer is like new again. I’m glad to be rid of that obnoxious virus that was floating around my screen.

This evening, I cooked and ate some good ol’ American food: biscuits, gravy, ham, and peanut butter cookies, and a few glasses of milk to wash it all down. Just like the last time I made a similar meal, I ate everything. It was so good. I wanted to continue my usual Christmas tradition and watch a new movie. Maybe I'll go to the theatre next week. Since I didn’t have any movies that I haven’t seen already, I watched Weeds some more. I really like that show. I’m almost finished with it. Good thing I have a few more shows to watch. I have almost every episode of Southpark. I don’t recommend that one, though. It’s got a crude sense of humour sometimes. If you think you can handle it, check it out. Otherwise, I advise you to stay away. It’ll corrupt you.

December 26, 2008

It’s Friday – my free day – so I’ve taken advantage of it. I woke up late and haven’t done much yet. At 1 o’ clock, there is supposed to be a New Year’s play put on by the high school students. I’ll go over there around 1:30 and hope that I’m not too early. Tonight, there will be a party for the government workers. That will be the first party of a week’s worth. Oh, the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia. Maybe I’ll survive it. I’ll keep you posted.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Years will be awesome. Try not to make any resolutions that you know you can’t keep; and try to stick to the ones you do make. I miss you. Talk to you later.

December 5, 2008

So, for those of my regular readers, if you remember back to my first blog post, I talked about how music was one of those must haves for my trip to Mongolia. I can’t tell you how nice it’s been to turn my music up and walk around my apartment, doing whatever it is that I might be doing at the moment. Sometimes I’ll get a hankering for a piece of home and it can only be satisfied by some of the music I brought with me. I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but occasionally I’ll buy a new CD from Amazon. One of the benefits of having an account on Amazon is that I get an email every week or so saying that there is new, free music available. I always download it. Usually, it’s something that I’d never listen to otherwise, but there is sometimes something that I like. About 5 months ago, I put approximately ¾ of my songs into one play list. Sometimes I’d listen to just one or two songs per day, and sometimes I would listen to music practically all day. I just finished listening to them the other day. Wow! That’s a lot of music. I feel sorry for my buddy. Some of his students used his iPod and got a virus on it. He lost over 15,000 songs. Man, that sucks. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost all my music. I’ll see him this next week, so I’ll take my music and let him get what he wants. I think a few others will do the same. The lesson here is, be careful when you do anything involving the internet in Mongolia. Viruses here are ubiquitous and brutal.

Today, when I was at the school, Moogie asked if I would cook dinner for her. At first, I was concerned that she didn’t have any money. Her brother has something wrong with his liver, so she’s spending a lot of money on medicine for him. I asked her what happened to his liver and she told me it’s cause his feet got cold. She said the doctor told them that. Have any of you ever heard of anything like this happening? Is it possible to get your liver messed up because your feet are cold? I told her I’d never heard of that. When I asked her why she wanted me to cook, she told me that she just didn’t feel like cooking. She was just being a lazy bum. I told her I wouldn’t, but I had cooked pinto beans and had some extra, so I told her she could come and eat some. When I gave her a bowl full, she sipped some juice, snarled her nose, and said it tasted like mushrooms. I ignored her for a few minutes and when I looked back, she had quit eating altogether. She didn’t like them. I put some of my infamous Ranch dressing in them and told her to try that, and she liked it even less. Oh well. I like them just fine. I guess she either found something of her own when she went home, or went hungry.

December 6, 2008

Last night, I bought eAccelerations Stop Sign virus protection. I had it a few years ago and really like their security. Something wasn’t working right, though, cause I couldn’t get one of the things to turn on. So, the first part of my day was spent in bed, trying to stay warm, and talking to their online help guy. I fooled with it for a few hours and still didn’t get it right. Of course, with the time difference, their day had finished and I couldn’t talk to them anymore.

This afternoon, there was a karaoke thing that was to start at 3 o’ clock. Knowing that it probably wouldn’t start on time, I went there at 3:45. I sat there for over an hour before it finally started at 5 after 5. It turned out to be different groups of workers from town, competing for prizes. I saw about four or five before they started having computer problems. I don’t know why, but Mongolians seem to have trouble with computers in general. I’ve watched one girl right-click something by left-clicking it first, then right-clicking it. I saw the same girl delete a full folder of stuff by clicking and dragging one item at a time. I showed her how to group select things. Today, the guy kept right-clicking on the desktop and hitting refresh. I saw him do that more than 10 times in a row and nothing happened. I watched for about 10 minutes before getting fed up and leaving.

When I came home, I washed dishes and clothes. Have I told you that I have to dry them by finding somewhere to drape them in my living room? It doesn’t take much before I run out of room. Well, the part of this story that I’m writing this for is that I’d washed some sport shorts and the tie-string was pulled out of the waist band. Dang it, man!! When they were dry, I started threading the string through. Have you ever tried to do that? It’s quite tedious. When I got half-way around, I couldn’t get the string to go any more. I had to undo it and start over from the other direction. Now my thumbs are sore. I’ll be sure to tie the string next time I put them in the wash.

Ha, I just thought of a funny story. I’m watching TV and there is an “Eskimo” on there. I put it in quotes cause I know that isn’t the politically correct term for them now, but I don’t know if this guy is Inuit or whatever other ethnicity that are usually grouped under the name “Eskimo.” Anyway, last year, when I was at the annual baseball picnic that my law firm used to do for us, I asked one of the guys where his wife was. I had never met her and wondered why she never came with him to anything. I asked him if he didn’t tell her about them, or was he ashamed of her, or what? He smiled wryly and said, “She’s an Eskimo.” Incredulously, I said, “No way! Like an Inuit?” He said, “No: she’s fat and cold.” I laughed heartily and told him if I ever met her I was going to tell her he said that. I knew he was kidding, but I couldn’t help myself. Well, it was about four months later before I finally met her. Our office building was really big, and I saw him walking away with a woman I’d never met before. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was his wife, so I hurried after them, ready for some mischief. When I caught up to them, I said hi and he introduced me to his wife. I said, “Oh, you don’t look like an Eskimo.” She looked at him, then at me with a puzzled look and said, “Huh?” The guy shot a look over her shoulder full of daggers and vehemently shook his head no. I just laughed hard and said I was just messing with her husband and left him to do the explaining. I don’t know how he got out of that. After he left, he came and found me and told me that he owed me one. Good stuff. I laughed out loud just now when I saw that on the TV and remembered that story. I hope you get a giggle out of it.

December 7, 2008

Today was an easy day of preparing for this coming week. Mostly, that’s consisted of washing a few more things that I’ll want and getting things ready to go in my bag. I’m almost packed. I just have the last minute things. You know, toiletries and such that I’ll use in the morning before I go. Oh, and I washed all the dishes. The last thing I want is to come home tired, after a week of training, and not have any clean dishes. It’s such a hassle to wash dishes here. I have to boil water, take all the dishes out of the sink, put the pot of hot, soapy water in the sink, wash a few dishes at a time, then take the wash water out and rinse the dishes. I only have one sink basin, so it makes things timely. And to cook, it’s not hard to use a sink full of dishes. Such a hassle. Ha, Tsegii hasn’t been here in a while, so I’ve been washing my own dishes. Oh, woe is me!

Tonight, I was talking to my buddy that is way out west, in the Kazakh part of the country. His name is Matt – just like my BFFE back home – and he is one of a few people who are my favourite here. He’s finally decided to write a blog of his own. For your reading pleasure, I put his link on my blog. Enjoy. If you’ve ever heard about the Mongolian/Kazakh Eagle Festival, it happens over there where he is. He’s got pictures of some of the birds. He’ll have them up eventually. In the meantime, write a comment and tell him he’s a ding-dong, and that I told you to do so. He’ll appreciate it as much as I would. He’s got that goofy sense of humour that most of my friends do.

December 8, 2008

I woke up this morning at my regular time for work, but instead of going to the office, I got on the meeker for UB. I thought that my co-worker was coming with me, but as they were waiting on me to get in, I had my other co-worker call her. She had decided that she was going to go later in the day. Um, okay. I found out that she wasn’t going to stay at the same guesthouse with me, also, even though she knew that I’d called and made reservations over two weeks ago. Later, I found out that Mongolians weren’t allowed to stay at the guesthouses. Did she know that already? Why didn’t she or anyone else tell me that? So, when I got into the city, I dropped my bag off and set off on my day’s tasks.

My first stop was the Peace Corps office, where I got a flu shot and a hepatitis A shot. Later in the day, I realised that they made my arm a little sore. As long as they keep me from getting both of those things, I guess I can handle it. From there, I went with some friends and ate lunch at a Korean place. It wasn’t extra good, but it was different, so I really liked it. While eating, they convinced me to stay at the guesthouse where they were, so when we finished, I got my bag from the first place and went to their place. For dinner, a bunch of us met at a Japanese place for one of the guy’s birthday. It was really ritzy, and just a little bit pricey, but well worth it. I had some kind of awesome chicken pasta dish. As you might be wondering, I took pictures of all of it for you to see. Oh, and have I ever mentioned the random porn that shows up in Mongolia? Near the restroom, there was a cartoonish poster displaying a 60-day plan for all different sex positions. I don’t know if it’s still like that, but before, there was a small newspaper that would come to my town called the Morning News – in Mongolian, of course. At first, I didn’t pay attention to it, but while I was sitting there with the social workers as they flipped through it, I saw that there was a naked woman on page five. What!? They didn’t even act like they noticed it. There were two or three editions there, so I flipped through all of them and confirmed that they all had different pictures of naked women on page five. This amazed me. First of all, porn is “officially” illegal in Mongolia. Second of all, this was a newspaper! Sheesh! I don’t think there will be a day when I’m not amazed at something here.

When we left there, we went to a bar that has 1,200tg beer. Now that, my friends, is a steal. I just checked the exchange rate at the bank the other day, and $1 will get you 1,217 tugrogs. That makes the beers $0.986 ~ $0.99. Who doesn’t like cheap draft beer. The brand was Mustanger, a locally made lager. As I’ve said, I’m pretty tired of lagers, but this one was a lot smoother than normal. It was lighter than a full-bodied beer, but heavier than a light-beer. We started out with the full group of 15 from dinner there, then it dwindled down to only nine of us. Oh, and do you remember the French guy I told you about last week? He was with us, along with a really cool Mongolian lady that we’d met last week, also. We were all having a really good time. Then, when I went to the bathroom, a Mongolian told me to go out and wait. Usually, I'd be like I would back home and shoot the guy a dirty look as I busted on in and not worry about the consequences. Being in the Peace Corps, I have to be much more careful about stuff like that. Especially in Mongolia. Have you ever heard about the concept of "machismo" in Latino culture. Well, in Mongolia, they have the same thing. If a male feels threatened in any way, he will buck up and want to fight. It was very hard for me to go out of the bathroom and wait; but I did, with a patient smirk on my face. When he finished talking to the other guy, he pulled me in the bathroom and tried talking to me in English. He was very drunk. I talked to him in Mongolian and he was impressed. Later, he came to my table and pulled me away from my friends. They were watching, so I wasn't too worried, but I was a little. He was even drunker than before, so he was very hard to understand. He kept saying, "I'm sorry. Yesterday. To lunch." I don't know what he was talking about, but I told him to wait a minute, then I got up and went back to my friends. Eventually, he came over there. I finally figured out that he was hitting on me. In Mongolia, being gay is not something to be open about. In fact, most Mongolians will tell you that there are no homosexual Mongolians. As one of my friends put it, he was having some definite conflicts with his sexuality. He started pushing one of my friend's head and I pulled him away. Then, he acted like he was going to push another friend's head, and that friend wasn't quite so nice. When my friend stood up with the meanest look I’ve ever seen, the drunk guy tried to act big. He was only about half the size of my friend. He spoke very little English, but he knew how to throw the middle finger and say the accompanying phrase, though it wasn’t exactly right. The "guard" tried to make him leave, but he came back and started more. We finally decided to leave. My friend that stood up was in the Marines before, so I'm sure you can imagine how hard it was for him to back down. It kind of sucks that we can’t go out and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about something like that.

When we got back to the guesthouse, my friend and I hung out for a few minutes, then an American living in Siberia and two Britons that are traveling came in. I met the American last week (she’s the one I told you that said it was like we were multiplying at the club). The Britons were in their early 20’s, and they were really cool, too. We stayed up a long time talking to them, laughing the whole time. Once, I noticed a sign on the wall that said we weren’t supposed to watch TV after 11:00. I suppose that was so the other guests wouldn’t be disturbed. They didn’t say anything about us hee-hawing like some donkeys out in the common room, though. The Britons and we Americans made fun of each others’ accents and differences in cultures. I’ve already you how the American “Z” sounds like “zed” when coming out of the mouth of a Briton, but did you know they pronounce their “H’s” different, too? Instead of it sounding like “aytch,” it sounds like “haytch.” We were sure to tease them about that. Their best comeback was, “It’s called English because we invented the language. You guys are the ones saying it wrong.”

December 9, 2008

I finally got in the bed at 3:45 last night and woke up at 6:30, wanting to sleep more. After hauling my packed bag about a kilometre to the Peace Corps office and getting on the bus, we arrived at Nukht Hotel. It’s in the mountains, by a forest outside the city, and is really nice. I took several pictures of the area. For the first day, we all expected to have breakfast, so none of us ate. That didn’t happen and we started our first session at 9 and was in and out of different ones all day. The quality and quantity of food is awesome. Before, we would have buffet-style meals. This time, we had three-course meals. We were all surprised. This evening, I hung out with Oko and random people. Surprisingly, this first night, not everyone was out partying. There were still a few, though, and I was sure to find them. I think we’ve figured out that the TEFLers (English teachers) are the partiers of our group. After getting in bed late last night, and getting up early, I’m super tired.

December 10, 2008

What a long day, full of sessions!!! We went straight from one to another, from 9-6:45. Though they were probably as tired as we were, it was good for Mongolians, though. Many of the things were review for all the Volunteers, but most of it was new for the Mongolians. I know it will be good for them to know all this stuff and then take it back to their job.

This evening, a few of us started to walk to the nearby village for cheap alcohol. Everything here at the hotel is pricey. On the way, we met a guy who told us there was no store. Well, shoot. We just went back to the hotel and dug a little deeper in our pockets. I hung out with random groups of Americans and Mongolians, all who were being idiots and having a good time. At one point, another guy and I were the only Americans with a large group of Mongolians. We decided to split a bottle of vodka for the group and pour out the shots Mongolian style, where you go one by one, around the table. We didn’t know any better, so we handed the shot to the lady sitting next to us. Someone across the table spoke up and told us that we were supposed to start with the oldest male. We were embarrassed as we quickly took the shot back and went to the oldest male. We were glad to find out amongst a group of people who knew that we didn’t know any better. Though I got back to my room at a decent time, Evan and I stayed up til past 3, talking. It’s been a long time since we have seen each other, so it was cool.

December 16, 2008

Well, somewhere along the way, I got distracted. I stayed up late every night and was on the move everyday, so I haven’t written regularly. To my regular readers, I’m sorry. I’ve have been told by some that they’ve missed my usual, weekly posting. I’ll try to make up for that here. Maybe I won’t leave anything out. If so, I’m sure I’ll tell the story eventually.

Every day of training was packed. We had just enough time to wake up, eat breakfast, then make it to our first session. We had to hurry, though. If you were late, they made you stand by the wall, took your picture, then made you sing some silly song. There was a good mix of Americans and Mongolians everyday. I made sure that I wasn’t one of them. I would hate to stand in front of everyone and sing. The pictures went on the Wall of Shame so everyone could give them a hard time later. It was a little bit funny. Though it was long and tiresome, I got some good ideas started with Oko. It was hard to get things straight, but with a little help from a translator, we got it done. Oh, and my mom asked why I took someone who couldn’t speak English. Well, cause my boss wasn’t allowed to go, and neither of my counterparts speak English. There were only a handful of Volunteers who had English speaking counterparts. Among them were Tunga and Usukhuu. Tunga lived in the U.S. for 6 years, so about the only thing she didn’t understand was a few slang phrases. I don’t know where Usukhuu learned English, but it’s quite good. Ha, they were a hit for all the guys who nick-named them Apple Bottom Jeans and Boots McGee. You’ll have to email me to find out how those nick-names came about.

We didn’t have a chance to go outside once during the days. That sucked, cause it was really pretty there. We really wanted to sled and have a snowball fight. In the evenings, we found plenty to entertain ourselves with. The last night, we had a talent-show. I skipped the first part of it, cause my CYD buddies were trying to force me to perform, and I had absolutely no interest in that. Instead, I had a meeting with the PC Language Facilitator. I will start working on editing the language book for the next group of Volunteers. It’s something I’ve been interested in since training. After the talent show, we played the “snort game.” Everyone gets in a circle, then one person snorts like a pig at the person to their left or right. That person can return the snort or pass it to the next person. If you are one of the two in the middle of snorting, and you laugh, you are out. It’s very funny. It’s always fun to see who gets out right off the bat and who ends up being the winner. The game went on for so long that one guy almost threw up from snorting so much. Oh my, I laughed so hard. They finally called a truce when it was down to 8 people. After that, we “danced our pants off,” to put it in the words of one of the guys. For some reason, there were only about 4-6 of us in there at any given time. It was fun.

We were glad when IST (In-Service Training) was over and we headed back to the city. I had a wonderful time in UB, staying awake late every night and spending too much money. Friday evening, some of us went to eat at Broadway Pizza. That’s the first time I’ve had pizza since being in Mongolia. One of the guys who has been there before said it was alright, but I thought it was awesome. Especially since they had Tabasco, that I put on everything. Shuree (the cool Mongolian I wrote about last week) met us there. When we finished, the Americans wanted to go back to the guesthouse to drink, but since Mongolians aren’t allowed there, I felt guilty for asking her to join us and then ditching her. So, I went with her to Tse for 1,200tg beer. When we walked in, we were told that all the tables were full and that we could sit at a table with someone else, if we didn’t mind. Of course I didn’t mind. I always enjoy meeting new people. We sat at a table with two Mongolian guys and talked to them for a while, and I promoted the 2nd PC goal of teaching Mongolians about Americans. They asked me all kinds of questions. It was cool. We sat there for a while after they left, then met everyone at Oasis. I think I’ve written this before, but the best part about that place is that PCVs get in for free. The music is pretty good, too. On top of that, it is a definite ego booster for the guys. All the Mongolian chicks there seem to be trying to get a green card. Once, when Shuree went to a bar, the lady behind her started talking to me, smiling really big. Shuree came back for a second to tell me she’d seen her friend and the lady quickly shut up and turned back around. When Shuree went back to the bar, the lady turned back and started talking to me again. She saw Shuree coming back the second time and turned away. When I told my guy friends, they all started laughing. Ah, too bad I can’t put that attention down to my good looks.

Saturday, I had a couple of TEFLer friends coming in on the bus, so I made my way across the city to the station. The previous several days had seen snow and all the people walking on it packed it down into ice. I saw that Mongolians – all except the elderly – love to slide across it. You can almost skate across the whole city. It’s very fun. If you’re not sliding, you can’t take full steps, and you have to watch where you step. Most all the sidewalks are paved, but there are very uneven. Just a few blocks after I’d set out across town, I crossed the street and turned right. As soon as I did, my left leg slipped out from under me and I fell on my butt. Doh!! I was a bit embarrassed as I picked myself up. Of course, no one around me offered to help. I had on my long, thermal underwear, a big, thick fleece shirt, scarf, gloves, and a hat. I really was warm enough. I knew that Mongolians didn’t think so, though. The first guy to say something said, “No coat, friend?” I told him that I was fine and he told me that maybe I would be sick later because I was too cold. I assured him I would be okay as I continued on. Later, I passed at least three other people who muttered “stupid” as they passed me. I just smiled and kept walking. I finally made it to Mendee’s place. I made sure I left with some extra time to spend with him. He’s really cool. Then I met Toy at the bus-station and took her to our guesthouse. It was almost full from all the PCVs there.

That night, everyone continued their usual UB activities. We wanted to go to Oasis, but it was closed for some reason, so we went to Face Club instead. It costs 5,000tg to get in. I hate paying a cover charge. Back in the U.S., I would hardly ever go somewhere that had a cover charge. My friends always gave me a hard time about that. I would go if they wanted me to go bad enough to pay my cover. I feel like the place is making enough money off jacking the prices up on alcohol and food that they shouldn’t have a cover charge, too. But, Face was alright. It was bigger than Oasis and the music was a little different. Also, the Mongolian girls weren’t all over us. Not that we would’ve minded the attention, but we know better. There was a hip-hop group that performed a few songs. Their first song was House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” I knew it instantly. That is the first hip-hop song that I ever heard, so I kind of like it. Their second song was Mariah Carey and Busta Rhymes’ “I Know What You Want.” Though all the words were in Mongolian, I recognised them easily. After those guys finished, they had some silly contests. The first thing they did was to get some people on stage and then send them into the crowd on a scavenger hunt. One girl ran to me and asked for my right boot. After she got that off, she asked me for my other one, cause she’d misunderstood the first time. Later, she came and gave me a gushing thank you for being nice and helping her. The next thing was a dance competition between some girls. One of the PCVs got in on that. After seeing some of her moves, we started questioning just exactly where she’d learned her moves. To put it nicely, they are the kind that you might have to pay for normally. She won second place and a bottle of vodka. Somewhere during all that, I found that I’d lost one of my gloves. I searched all around the area we were sitting and concluded that I must have dropped it outside when I met some people who’d lost their way. I was very happy when I found it out by the road. I took a picture for you and I to commemorate the moment. Afterwards, a couple of us went to Cola and Kabob. I’d known about that place but had never been there before dinner that evening. It was awesome. It might be my new favourite place. Especially since it is open 24 hours.

Sunday, one of the PCVLs (PC Volunteer Leader) had a brunch at his place for all the people who were in town for the holidays. He had a bucket o’ Bloody Mary and people brought food and cooked lots of American food. All of it was delicious. We all had plenty to drink, but he kicked us out before the last of the Bloody Marys were gone. I haven’t had those in years, so I really enjoyed them. When I left there, I met Shuree and we went to her aunt’s for dinner. When I walked in, I saw that boats were on the menu. Yum! How did she know those are my favourite? Shuree’s cousins were there, too. The teenage boy and the 6 year old girl were both cool. They had done some modeling and were in some magazines that I got to look at. After dinner, we drank the two bottles of wine that we’d picked up on the way. Surprisingly, it was okay. I usually don’t like wine. I got a big, silver bowl of milk tea, too. The others had regular cups. When I asked why I got the silver, I was told that it was a great sign of respect for guests to get that. Because of the season, I was also given a fortune telling kit. It’s a small cashmere bag and mat, with four sheep ankle bones and a guide to what they mean. You roll them out, and depending on how they end up, you figure out what you’re fortune is. Shuree was given earrings and a necklace. They were really pretty. When we left, we were going to meet everyone else, but where they were had just closed and they were going to bed early. So, we went across town to a part that I’d never been to before, to Boston club. I had a new beer called Mongol. It was a really nice pub. At first, the place was packed with people having a work Christmas party. Before long, though, we were two of only about six people in there. I took a picture of the neat tables for you.

Monday, after an early meeting, I met Jason at the guesthouse. He had a bottle, so we started drinking vodka around 11:30. It was from an aimag (province) in the west of the country and tasted a lot different than the usual. He and the owner of the guesthouse told me that I need to work on the face I make after I take a shot. I just can’t help it!! For lunch, we met Tuul at Broadway Pizza for lunch and beers. She is the girlfriend of a guy who just finished his PC service. Her English is very good, and she’s very cool. Like Jason said, “She is a ray of sunshine.” She gets our stupid humour and teases us right back. For example, she lives in UB but works in a town about 200 kilometres away. When I asked her why, she said, “Because it is a part of Mongolia, too. When we left there, we went to the Grand Khan Irish Pub for more beers and Nachos that were made with cheese flavoured Doritos. While there, Tuul looked around and saw her favourite Mongolian actor. She is a little bit shy, so I got a piece of paper, gave her my pen, and we practically pushed her over to talk to him and ask for his autograph. She found out that the other two guys with him were a famous director and a famous poet. I was sure to take her picture with them.

This morning, I woke up and went to the Peace Corps office and had the last shower of a week’s worth of awesome ones. I will really miss that. My boss has told me several times since living here that she would get mine taken care of, but that is yet to happen. Maybe one sunny day, as the Mongolians say. Just to help me out, Shuree went with me in the cab to the meeker station. On the way, right before we got there, she heard on the radio that the place was closed for their “holiday.” Apparently, that’s an every Tuesday thing. The cabbie said that he just thought we were going somewhere near there and that’s why he didn’t say anything. He pulled over while we called my boss and the meeker drivers to find out where they were. I waited in the meeker for about an hour before we finally left. I took a few short naps on the way home and have had a hard time staying awake this evening.

I talked to my buddy Evan and he told me his everything froze. He lives in a wooden house, where there is no heat except what he makes in the fire place. One of his bottles of hot sauce busted and got on everything in the immediate area. I didn’t ask, but since it was frozen, maybe it was easier to clean. A couple days later, he was using his brand new space heater and extension cord with internal breakers. Apparently, the heater was too much for the 220V and it caught on fire. He said that he didn’t lose anything, but now his place smells like smoke and has fire extinguisher dust everywhere. Have you ever sprayed one of those? Once in university, when I lived in the dorms, one of my so-called buddies sprayed one under my door, into my room. It was a short burst, but it covered absolutely everything. When I left, a couple years later, there were still corners that had the dust in it. I still owe him for that. Ryan, if you’re reading this, I’m going to get you back one day. You just wait. I’ll get you!

I have a few special shout-outs. First is to Elaine, for water. I meant to do this after the Thanksgiving weekend – and maybe I did – but I forgot. I was really thirsty, didn’t want beer, and had run out of tugrogs. She bought me a water and said, “Everyone deserves water.” Thanks Elaine. Second is to Nathan’s dad, for beer. Nathan went for beers with us guys one night while his wife went to dinner with the girls. They had originally decided that they would use the credit card for his wife’s dinner, but that place didn’t take cards. So, he paid for our beers, saying it was on his dad. Thanks Nathan’s dad. Third is to Julia’s mom, for Q-tips that I’ll get eventually. Julia told me that she reads my blog regularly and when she sent Julia a package, she put something in there for me. Sweet!!! Thanks Julia’s mom. I’ll be doing something at work soon. Last, and not least, is to Alex’s mom, who reads my blog and tells her what I’m up to. Just want to say hi.

December 17, 2008

Today was my day to go to the other part of town and work with the social workers. When I got there, they were still working on the population statistics that they were working on two weeks ago. To get the day started, some random guy came in the office and started saying something. He argued with one lady first, then the social worker and he started really going at it. All I got out of the whole thing was something about Saturday. After about five minutes of escalating volumes, she stomped out of the room crying. I was the only one who just stared, wide-eyed. Everyone else went about their counting like there wasn’t a huge argument going on over their heads. Crazy. Other than that, it was a slow day where I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I worked on my own thing, figuring out an “action plan” for the life-skills lessons that I’ll start next month. I’ll talk more about them then. I also went to the school to talk to the English teacher. The one that used to be there is the lady who married the PCV that was here before me. When she left a few weeks ago, the one that works in my part of town started going over there on Wednesday s. I was just bored and wanted to alleviate that somehow. When I got there, I found out that there was a new English teacher, so I met her. She just graduated university in the spring, so she’s fairly young. Her English is a bit shaky, and she’s a little shy – like most Mongolians – but I think she’ll be alright. When I thought I was going to go home, I was taken to watch a children’s Christmas play. The kids were cute. Did you know that they combine Christmas and New Years here? I didn’t. I found out a few days ago, so I don’t know their reason for it.

When I got back here, I made a quick trip to the store before coming home. Right as I was about to walk into my building, I said hi to a guy that walked passed me. He didn’t say anything until he was several steps past. He is the assistant to the fire chief and was pretty drunk. He started asking me if I wanted to drink with him and I told him I didn’t have any beer or money, thinking that would be enough to get him to leave me alone. He showed me that he had beer, so he came to my place and gave me one. It turns out that he was way worse than I’d first judged. Once, he went into my kitchen and grabbed a pot of water that I had sitting on the table, sloshing it on him and the floor. I told him to be careful, but he thought I was just saying that cause he spilled the water. He didn’t realise that I had that pot soaking with vinegar water, to get rid of tea stains. He took a big ol’ gulp and sat it down before he knew what it was. Boy, you should’ve seen the look on his face. It was a little funny. I was talking to one of my Mongolian friends on the internet and I finally asked them to call me and talk to him with the hopes that he would leave. It was another 15 minutes before he did. Yanaaaah!!! That basically means shoot, dang, shucks, or whatever other kid friendly swear word you can think of. Whenever I say it, people always giggle at me. I thought it was just cause I said it funny, since I did act like an idiot when I said it. Come to find out, that is what women say. Tuul was the one to tell me about it. I know a few not at all nice words to say, but she didn’t suggest those, either. She just told me to not say it like a woman. Now how in the heck am I supposed to do that?

I added another blog to mine, if you’re interested. It is by a married couple that is in the group that came before mine. I just thought you might like a different perspective on the life of a PCV in Mongolia.

December 18, 2008

I met with Densmaa, my boss, today. I gave her a quick telling of what we did during IST, then we went over my plan to begin life-skills lessons for peer-educators. First, we’ll have to meet with the school social worker to find respected, motivated 10th and 11th graders; then we’ll prepare the lessons and teach it to the students; we’ll have a big break for practically the whole month of February; we’ll have a refresher course for the students; then we’ll have them give the same lessons to their peers and report back to us on what works and what doesn’t. After we get that down and make sure it’s working, I’ll add a different lesson to their repertoire. Life-skills are things like critical thinking, decision making, relationship communication, and the like. I will also teach these same things to the social workers so they can do these same trainings later. Then, when all the students advance a grade, or graduate, we will start over with new ones. I’ll let you know how it goes.

As soon as the meeting finished, I went to a kindergarten Christmas play. Have I told you that kindergartens here are really pre-schools? They have classes for ages from kids aged six months to five years. The play was supposed to start at 10. I was on my way out of the office at 10:45, worried that I’d missed it. What was I thinking? When I got there, it was still another 30 minutes before they got started. I think (hope) that I’ll never get used to Mongolian time. The kids were all dressed in animal and angel costumes. There was a Mongolian Santa Claus, too. I think the kids were three and four years old. Some of them were crying and all of them were herded from and to their places with the help of the teachers and all the parents. I laughed out loud several times. I couldn’t imagine something like that ever happening in the U.S. Parents would stand up and block everyone’s view so they could get that optimal shot of their kid and no one seemed to mind. At the end, Santa gave out big bags of candy and snacks to all the kids, who immediately opened them and started chowing down.

And that was about it for my day. I spent most of the rest of my day writing some of the above. I’ve added at least five pages worth. You will have to set aside a large chunk of time if you want to read it all at once. In the afternoon, Densmaa called me to her office. When I got there, she told me that the PO had called and said I had mail. Why didn’t she just tell me that when she called me? When I got to the PO, there was a big package from MCG, my old work place!! I wasn’t expecting it and was very surprised. I immediately brought it home and ripped it open. It was a paper box full of all kinds of stuff. As I was going through it, there was a plastic container of cotton candy that had broken. That was my excuse to eat most of it all at once. The nutrition facts say that there are about two servings in there. I made it into about one. There was a card, duct tape, men’s magazines, Cheetos, Pez, wasabi peanuts, Ghirardelli chocolates, macaroni and cheese, dry milk, fruit snacks, snakc bars, peppermint patties, Jelly Belly jelly beans, Peeps, gum, individual drink mix, extra-crunchy peanut butter, and microwave meals. Did you know that I have a Pez collection? I don’t know how many I have, but I have a big bag of them back in the U.S. And Peeps might be another of my preferred candies. I’ll never forget getting those for Easter. My mom always made sure there were some in my Easter basket when I was a kiddo. Ha, the microwavable meals were frozen. I know they weren’t like that when they were bought, but they were when I opened the box. What does that tell you about how cold Mongolia is? I was sure to write MCG and tell them all how much I appreciated them as I ate some of the stuff for my dinner.

This evening, I watched American Gangster. Have you seen that movie? It’s about three hours long and very good. It is one of the many movies and TV shows that I got from Evan this last week. They should give me plenty of entertainment for at least a few weeks.

December 19, 2008

Well, I’m trying to upload some pictures for you, but the stupid thing doesn’t work like it used to anymore. I don’t know what the problem is with leaving something half-way like it was in the first place so the user can easily figure out the new things. I hate it when websites change their whole everything and don’t give good directions on what they did and how to work with it. I have over 200 photos from the last couple of weeks for you, but it might be a little while longer before you get to see them. I’ll let you know when I figure it out. There is a super slow way to do it that I might try.

I woke up later than normal this morning and didn’t go into my office until about 11 o’ clock. I was told that Friday’s are my free day, so I’ve been taking that quite literally lately. At work, I just typed up something that I had written out that I needed to write in Mongolian, then I went to lunch at the guanz (diner). Just as I was walking in, three guys from my office building got there. They are about my age and are pretty cool. They like to give me a hard time. If you know me, I like that kind of thing. They always speak Mongolian and whenever I say something in Mongolian, they always “repeat” what I said, but say a different word that sounds very similar. There are a lot of words like that, so they have plenty of chances. I mess with them in English, but there is no one else there to laugh with me, so it doesn’t work as well. I don’t have someone there to slap me on the back when I say something particularly funny, like they do. All’s good. I still find ways to mess with them. I rode in the car with them back to the office. The guy sitting next to me said something about wrestling with him. When I asked him when, he smiled and said right then. I jumped on top of him in the back seat and started pummeling him. He barely held me off as he caught a case of the giggles. Ah, good stuff.

About two weeks ago, I had tried to redo the music on my mp3 player. When I plugged it into my computer, it wasn’t recognised. Dang it! I looked everywhere and couldn’t find the installation disc, so I asked my mom to look for it. I had her looking all over the place for it and she couldn’t find it either. It wasn’t that big of a deal yet, so I kind of forgot about it. Wouldn’t you know it, I was moving some things around today and found it where it shouldn’t have been. Doesn’t it always happen like that? Okay, never mind. The disc drawer keeps spitting the CD back at me. Maybe I’ll figure this out one day.

I hope this takes care of you blog fix. Take care. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

November 28, 2008

I realised that I forgot a story or two. The first is from when Mendee and I were in the market. The market was as full as any other time and we were carrying my bag Mongolian style. That’s where one person holds one handle and the other person gets the other and holds the bag between them. The first time I ever saw someone doing that made me giggle. I’ve found that it’s very helpful, though, if you have a heavy or cumbersome bag. So, we were pushing our way through the crowds and, as always, I was watching everyone, making sure they weren’t going to do anything stupid. About that time, I saw a guy coming toward us. He started to go around me, but when he saw how we were carrying the bag, he tried to go right between us and bumped into my chest at the same time someone from behind crowded close. That is one of the exact situations I’ve been warned against, so my OH CRAP reaction kicked in; but not before Mendee strong-armed the guy out of the way with some harsh words. The guy attempted to pick pocket me. He didn’t get anything, though. Still, my heart was beating fast for a minute.

This evening, we went to Budvar pub. Do you know about Budvar? It is the original Budweiser. There was actually a big lawsuit about four or five years ago, but of course, the American Budweiser didn’t get into any trouble, since they have a gazillion dollars. I thought we might meet some other PCVs there, but it ended up just being Mendee and me. That was cool. I really enjoyed the fact that they have dark beer. As I’ve said before, most of the beers in Mongolia are lagers, even the imported kind. I could tell he was as glad as I was to have another guy to talk to. He lives with his wife, son, and college-aged niece. We talked about all kinds of guy things. If you don’t know what guy conversations are like, I’m not going to enlighten you. It’s better that you stay innocent. Haha.

November 29, 2008

I woke up late today and felt pretty good. After trekking all over the city yesterday, I was really tired when I finally got in the bed last night. And the bed I slept in was huge. I could actually stretch out and not have my head and feet cramped. After taking my time to get ready, I met some other people and walked to where the Thanksgiving luncheon was to be. It was at a really ritzy neighbourhood, where the ambassador lives. Once inside, you could almost think that you were in some U.S. suburb. When I walked in, there was all kinds of food. Here is a list of what I had on my two different plates: turkey, stuffing, dressing, deviled-eggs, green bean casserole, hash brown casserole, mashed potatoes, salad (the real kind, not Mongolian salad, which is really slaw), slaw, celery with peanut butter and raisins, pita bread with spinach dip, chicken salad, strawberry tart, brownie, and at least 3 or 4 other things that I can't think of right now. That's a list of all the things that I ate, but only about 3/4 of the things that were there. Before I got there, I was totally expecting for people to only give half an effort into what they brought. I was happily surprised. There were about 50-60 Volunteers, 15 staff with their families, the ambassador and some embassy staff, and a couple of other people that have to do with American foreign affairs. It was nice to eat and visit with everyone. I especially enjoyed seeing Evan and Alex. They were with me during training and we were/are pretty close.

When I left there, I went to theatre and watched Tropical Thunder. There is always at least one American Movie playing, and that was it. The theatre is enormous. I got there just in time for the movie to start. There are assigned seats, but I didn’t even pay attention to that since there were plenty of empty seats. The Coke and popcorn was something that I haven’t had in a while and it was kind of nice. The movie was full of stupid humour and I was cracking up, but I noticed that the Mongolians weren’t. When I started paying attention to the Mongolian subtitles, I saw that things weren’t translated correctly. I don’t know if that’s because it was being edited or because those words/thoughts/concepts don’t translate. No matter. It didn’t take anything away from my enjoyment.

I left there and went to Budvar, since it is pretty much across the street. Last night, the place was hopping, but we were two of only six people when we showed up. About the time we were thinking about leaving, about 10 more PCVs randomly showed up. They had already been drinking and were a bit rowdy. One of my friends from Bagakhangai was in town, too, so she hung out with us for a bit. She is working on her masters at a school in UB, so she’s usually in the city on the weekends. About an hour later, she went home and the rest of us went to Oasis. That is the club that I went to before. Do you remember me telling you about it? They let PCVs in for free with the assumption that they will make up the cost in alcohol sales. I didn’t buy any alcohol there, but judging by everyone else’s drinks, the club wasn’t hurting for money. Most of the people that were at the Thanksgiving lunch were there, plus several Mongolian friends and other random people.

I met some really interesting people. Like any international capital, there are bound to be travelers, and if you’re in the right place, you are bound to meet them. I met a French guy named Damien. He is on his second world tour. This time, he has walked as much as possible from France. After he goes to China, he will slowly make his way back. I really like meeting new people and hearing their stories, so I was sure to ask him to share one of his favourite with me. He told me how he was walking in some mountain in Russia and it was getting dark. He was concerned about where he was going to stay for the night when he saw some lights off in the distance. He headed that way and found an old Russian farmhouse. When he first knocked on the door, they opened it, saw him, then shut it in his face. He screwed up his courage, knocked again, and pleaded his story to them. They ended up letting him come in for the night, fixed him a really nice dinner, and gave him a warm place to sleep. He said that he’d originally planned to leave in the morning, but he ended up staying for five days. When he left, the family was trying to get him to marry one of their daughters. Another guy I met was named Ryan, from South Africa. He went to photography school and his affluent family paid for a trip abroad. When it was over, his parents told him he could either move out and find a job or he could continue to travel and stay with them for free, but he would have to pay for his trips. He decided to travel. After working three jobs, seven days a week, for eight months, he had enough money saved up to turn in a notice at all his jobs. For whatever reason, he decided to come to Mongolia. When I told him about the old Russian military base where I live, he became very interested. He wants to be a war-zone photographer. I told him he was welcome to visit anytime and we made plans for him to visit me on Dec. 15. I really enjoy all the international connections that I’m making while I’m here.

November 30, 2008

This morning, I woke up and asked a friend back in my town when the last meeker would be going back. I was reminded that local elections were going on today, so the market was closed. Before, the elections were for districts. This time, it’s on the community level. Since the market was closed, that meant that there were no meekers there. They were somewhere else, and I had no idea where. My next thought was that I might be able to take the train. Mendee’s father is a train worker, so we asked him and found out that there was a train leaving this afternoon. That gave me enough time to run to the State Dept. store for some mushrooms and canned chili. I’ll eat some of the chili tomorrow and enjoy the heck out of it, I’m sure. When I left, I went across the street and ate two chicken sandwiches at Big Burger. As I’ve written before, chicken is hard to come by here, so whenever I can, I try to eat some. I really miss it. From there, I went back to Mendee’s and went with him to vote. We dropped off my flash drive to get some pictures printed, and then went to the train station to buy a ticket. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I just walked up to the counter, handed them my passport and money, told them where I wanted to go, and they handed me my ticket. When we got back to pack my stuff and pick up the pictures, I barely made it to the train on time. I had to run and get them to open the door to me. I was worried that I was going to have the same thing happen to me that happened to one of my friends on her way in. She missed her train by two minutes and didn’t get her money back.

When I got on and got settled, I was excited to be finally riding a real train. I rode a train in Amsterdam, to Brussels and back, but that was one of those new-fangled trains. You know, the kind that goes from zero to a million in less than a minute and you can hardly tell you’re even moving. This train was one like you’d see on old movies, chugging across the land. The train drowsily zig-zagged through the countryside and took about 2 hours and 40 minutes to get to my stop. If you remember, the train station is in the other part of town from where I live. I had talked to my boss, via text, and asked her to find someone to pick me up, but my phone died before she could find someone and let me know. I was a bit concerned when I got there. One of the train workers helped me carry my bag, and I think he was in the process of helping me get to where I wanted to go when a car honked at me. It was someone to pick me up. Whew! I was not looking forward to carrying my bag 6.5 kilometres, in the dark.

When I got home, I went and talked to my boss for a few minutes, then came home and surfed the web. That’s pretty much all I did tonight. When I talked to Ryan last night, he reminded me of a website called CouchSurfing.com. I had checked it out a long time ago, but had forgotten. I signed up tonight. Check it out if you like.

Now, I have a harrumph in my throat from all the smog and club smoke. I have never been in a city with smog before. UB is terrible. It’s even worse in the winter time, with the cold weather keeping it close to the ground. You can see and smell it the instant you walk outside. It’s actually got my nose sore, too. My nose is sensitive anyway, from getting banged up so much in wrestling, and it doesn’t take much to aggravate it. I’ll have to be careful not to get a nosebleed. For now, though, I’m going to bed a bit early. I’m still just a little sore from wrestling, and my legs are wore out from pounding the pavement across the city and back all weekend.

December 2, 2008

Today, in my English class, we reviewed for a test. Last week, I told them they will have a test on Dec. 16. I think I will make it written, with a mix of fill in the blanks, matching, and answering questions. We’ll see. Today’s lunch was boats. Yum! Even better was that they weren’t fresh out of the steamer, so I could eat them right away. The rest of my day was quite boring. I went to the social worker’s office, but they are always doing stuff on the computer, and I have no idea what it is. Even worse, they don’t know how to explain to me what they’re doing when I ask. Usually, I just sit there and do a little bit of language studying. That reminds me. Something happened to my Mongolian notebook. During training, I made a notebook with absolutely every lesson that we had, plus a lot of extra stuff. About three weeks ago, I couldn’t find my notebook. I’ve looked everywhere and asked people, and I can’t find it. I’m really bothered about that. I think that someone stole it. If that’s the case, that really makes me mad. Just the other day, I started making a new one. I won’t be able to reproduce the one I had, but at least it will be something. Luckily, the Peace Corps randomly sends out language materials, and I have my training book and a couple of others. Also, a guy sent us a link to something from the internet. I don’t know the exact address right now, but if you do a Google search for Byki, I’m sure you’ll find it. Look for the Mongolian stuff and you can check out the language. You can even download the lists. I doubt you’d want to, but I did.

December 3, 2008

Like all Wednesdays, I went to the other part of my town today. It’s always an adventure to see who my co-worker can find for me to ride with. Today, I rode with the driver of a benzene truck. I don’t know what benzene is, but when I asked him what was in his truck, that’s what he said he had. I got to the other part of town around 10:15 and they told me they were working on population numbers for people and animals. The animals in Mongolia outnumber people almost 10 to 1, so it’s a pretty big deal. I sat around for a little while, watching people working on their stats. At lunch time, some random lady showed up with hoshor and I enjoyed the free lunch. Just a few minutes after that, one of the social workers called my boss and then handed the phone to me. My boss told me that they were busy and I could go home to rest. Then, just to make sure I understood, she sent me a text message saying the same thing. I don’t know why they didn’t show me what was going on, or ask me to help, but I didn’t mind. The only thing was, there was no one going back toward my part of town any time soon. Instead of sitting around, I decided to take off walking. Wouldn’t you know, this was the coldest day so far. The Peace Corps Safety and Security Adviser sends us text messages when there is inclement weather. Last night, we got a message about how cold it was going to be. I thought about that as I took off walking the 6.5 km (4.01 miles). I put on my gloves and toboggan and took off walking. I wasn’t even out of the other part of town before my nose was freezing. You remember that harrumph I told you I had in my throat? Well, I’ve found out that if you want to get rid of something like that, just take off walking in negative temperatures. It all came into my nose and I couldn’t help but blow it out. Oh, and you know how you randomly see some rednecks put their thumb against one nostril and blow snot out the other? Gross, huh? Well, almost every person in Mongolia is a redneck, including me. That harrumph is gone now cause all the snot went from my throat to my nose. Gross! It took me 45 minutes to get to my apartment, and I was pretty doggone cold by the time I got here. I got online and check the temperature and it said that it was -20 degrees Celsius, and felt like -32 degrees Celsius. Whew! I feel tough after walking that far. I had to go to the bank, and there was a woman who asked me how I got here. When I told her I’d walked, she just looked at me. I told her I’m “strong” (tough) and she just giggled. I sure do feel tough after walking that far in such temperatures.

December 4, 2008

I knew there wasn’t going to be anything going on at work today, so I stayed home and slept late. For all of you who didn’t think I would do it, I’ve uploaded some pictures. It didn’t take a long as I thought it might, but it still took almost an hour. I guess that’s not bad for right at 250 pictures. I hope you enjoy them. Those are all that I’ve taken since I’ve been here. I went to work around 2:30 for my usual English lesson. Wouldn’t you know it, when I got there, no one came. I was getting ready to come back home when my co-worker, Oko, came into my office. She went looking for everyone and they all said they were busy. Oh well. You know I didn’t mind. I hung out with her for a bit before coming home.

December 5, 2008

This has been a lazy week for me. After this last weekend, knowing that I’m going to be gone all next week, I haven’t felt like doing anything. Good for me that my boss hasn’t been in town and nothing else has been going on. I slept late again today, then got up and cooked a really good brunch. Have I ever told you about “stuff?” It’s something that my mom used to make for me whenever I would go home. I really like it. It’s potatoes, onion, meat, and eggs, all fried together. I always put some strawberry jam and hot sauce on it, too. I ate a big bowl of it and wanted more. This afternoon, I went to teach English at the Labour and Social Welfare Department. There were only three people there, and two of them speak decent enough English to understand most of what I try to say if I speak really slow and use simple language. After that, I went to the school to talk with the students. There were only three girls and the teacher there. We talked for about 20 minutes, then they decided they’d rather play on the computer. Fine with me. I got a beer and came home early. Now, I’m cooking some pinto beans. I made some slaw earlier. I plan on having an easy evening.

I hope you are good. Next week, I will be in UB for training. I’ll come back to my town the following week. It will be good to hang out with Americans for a whole week. I’m sure I’ll feel as lazy as I have this week when I get back. I’ll have my internet with me, so email if you like. Oh, I’m downloading the new Ludacris CD right now. So excited. Talk to you later. See ya.

November 23, 2008

Sometimes, there are stories that I remember at random times. It could be about something that happened yesterday, last week, or last month. Who knows what they’ll be about; who knows when I’ll remember them; and who knows what I’ll be doing when I remember them. Oftimes, it might be something that I have just forgotten about by the time I got here and began writing to you. Other times, it might be because I didn’t think you would find it as amusing as I do. Well, either way, I was doing my chores this afternoon – washing dishes and clothes, and sweeping my carpet, since I don’t have a vacuum – and I thought of a few of stories that I’ve decided to share with you. So, with no further adieu, I submit the following stories for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

Have I told you about my “bed?” Well, in all actuality, it’s not a bed. It’s a futon. Have I ever told you how much I dislike futons? The first day that I came into my apartment, when my boss was showing me around, she told me that the couch lays down into a bed. I was a little surprised, cause the couch didn’t look like a traditional futon: it just looked like a couch that was on the verge of being cheap. It doesn’t look like those things that litter the houses of fraternity boys who rent houses together; or the living room of one particular sorority girl, who will remain nameless (but she knows who she is). One of the things that I dislike about futons so much is the look. I think they are ugly. When they are new and unused, they look alright to have in a game room, where not too many people will see it, and those that do could care less. But whenever it’s been slept on for more than a week’s worth of nights, or it’s seen a lot of pant-seats, they look terrible.

The biggest reason that I dislike futons is because they are so very uncomfortable. Have you ever slept on one? Are you anywhere close to being 5’ 9” or taller? If so, you know that you can’t stretch out on a futon and get comfortable. If, after a few minutes of figuring this out you still decide that you want to lay flat on your back, stretched out, then your only option is to find some funky angle that has the very top of your head and the very bottom of your feet with barely enough room to not be totally uncomfortable. That position leaves your neck slightly cricked, so you next have to figure out if you want to lay with your head on this end or the other. Now, you finally get your angle figured out and you find that there is another player in the game that involves your discomfort: the big metal bar that is right down the middle of the fold. Now, I know that there has to be some kind of engineering reason as why that one bar is as big as it is, but is it really prudent that it’s angle be convex and be in your back? That is the point where I abandon any fantasies of sleeping on my back, curl up on my side, and renew my dislike for futons.

However, as I said, mine isn’t the traditional futon. It has a sufficient amount of padding covered by cloth that is securely attached to a wood-box frame; and doesn’t look too bad for Mongolia. The best part was that the first night I slept on it, I was extremely pleased to find that that awful bar going down the middle wasn’t there. My only problem was finding a half-way comfortable position so I could lay on my back if I wanted! It took me a few nights, but I got it figured out. It’s still uncomfortable, though. I’ve always been one of those people who toss and turn in my sleep, and sleeping on a futon only exacerbates that. Well, lately, I’ve been noticing that all my tossing and turning has been twisting my couch around. I didn’t realise how much, though. As I was sweeping around the bottom of it today, I noticed that the feet of the couch were about three inches away from where they began, and the head of my bed was further away from the wall than the foot. Sheesh! I must’ve been doing some violent tossing and turning. And it’s not unusual for me to have a crick in my neck, either. I have one now. So, my official opinion on futons is that they are a pain in the neck.

Another random story is about Moogie telling me that she likes Tupac. I only thought that a little odd, since Mongolians are in love with people that most Americans outgrew a long time ago. They absolutely love ABBA, and many girls tell me that they really like Britney Spears. So, when Moogie told me that she likes Tupac, I just raised my eyebrows and asked her how she even knows who he is. She told me the Volunteer that was here before me gave her a CD with some Tupac on it. Cool. I heard her tell me that a couple of times before I actually got to hear her CD. When I finally did, I realised something was wrong from the first beat. I’ve been listening to hip-hop music since I was 12 (about 19 years), so I know most all of the mainstream artists and many of the more obscure ones, along with their respective style of music and raps. As soon as I heard Moogie’s Tupac, I thought that maybe, just maybe, it was a remix. His songs have been remixed to so many different kinds of music that maybe this was one I hadn’t heard yet. But when this “Tupac” started rapping, I knew for sure that it wasn’t the real deal. Then, the next song came on and it sounded an awful lot like the one that just went off. Sure enough, it was the same song, looped. I laughed at her and told her there was only one song on the whole CD, and it wasn’t Tupac. She had absolutely no idea. Later, I let her listen to one of my many Tupac songs and she told me that she didn’t like him as much as she thought. Ha, I didn’t think she would.

My third story is about the surge protector that I’m using for all my electronics now. I feel much better with it. Among the things that the Peace Corps gave us before we came to our site is a three-pronged surge protector. Before, I wasn’t using it because my wall outlet is only made for a two-pronged plug. So, I just kept it in the packaging and used one of the cheap Chinese thingies. It is just like the one that shorted out during my first couple of weeks, so I was always nervous about it. When the PC Country Director came last week, the driver saw what I had going on, picked up my adapter, plugged the three-pronged surge protector into it, then plugged it into the wall. Voila! It worked like a charm. Since I’ve been using this, it has turned itself off several times. It’s a little annoying, but I’m glad that it works like it’s supposed to. It makes me wonder, though: Where was all that extra juice going before?

November 24, 2008

Local elections, on the community level, are gearing up. As before, that keeps my boss quite busy, so there’s not much to do, again. I’m becoming accustomed to having no kind of structure. Luckily, when the Country Director was here last week, he reiterated that most all PCVs are implicitly supposed to do nothing more than work on their language acquisition and get to know people in the community, for the first six months. My language isn’t going as well as I’d like, but I am getting to know all kinds of people. Just today, the military leader came into my office, just to say hi. People do that all the time. They’ll come in, shake my hand, ask how my work is (a very common question in Mongolia), say a few more things that I only sometimes understand, and then leave just a few minutes later. I always give them my full attention, but it’s rare that either of us fully understand the other. No matter. Friendships can be maintained across language boundaries, I’m finding.

Today, after easy day of English, there was a horse-head fiddle concert. It’s called a horse-head fiddle because there is a horse’s head carved into the end of the neck. It has two strings and a bow, and the body of it is square. The musician sits on a chair, with the fiddle sitting in his lap, facing forward. I’ve heard that it can be played while riding a horse, and I’ve seen a statue depicting just that, but I don’t know. I don’t know why it’s called a fiddle. Do you know the difference between a fiddle and a violin? The only difference is the playing style: the instruments are the exact same. That’s as much as I know about it. Anyway, as usual, there was much more going on that just the horse-head fiddle. There were dancers and singer, too. I wish I knew what some of the dances are all about. They are kind cool, and very precise, even down to the movement of a finger at a certain time. I’ve taken some videos, so maybe you can see what they’re like.

November 25, 2008

Today was my usual Tuesday. I taught English at the Water Co. and they bought my lunch. The hoshor I had was so hot that I took a bite of soup to cool my mouth. I never understand how Mongolians can eat things as hot as they do. I find myself thinking that every time I am sipping some freshly made tea and the Mongolian sitting next to me is gulping it down.

There was another concert today. I was told that there was one for children at 3 and one for adults at 6. Somehow, I was of the understanding that the one at 3 was going to be BY children. When I got there and the concert began, there was nothing to change my thinking. It was really good, with all kinds of singing, dancing, instrument playing, drama, and poem recitals. The Culture Centre was packed, as always, with people standing around the walls. At 6, I went back, expecting something to be different. The first thing I noticed was that, like all the dances I go to, they kept all the kids out. Another thing was that I got there just a few minutes early and was able to find a seat. After 30 minutes, though, I saw that everything else was the same. I decided to come home.

November 26, 2008

Today is a Mongolian national holiday. I think it is Independence Day. The best part was that there was no work and I got to sleep late. Another really good part is that Tsegii didn’t have to work, either, so she and her niece came over this afternoon and made bansh. I talked to her last week when she was eating bansh and she said that she would come here this week and we would cook it together. Ha. Her idea of us cooking together is me standing in the kitchen with her and handing her the ingredients as she does all the work. When it got to the part where the dough is to be rolled out into small circles and filled with meat, she told me to roll the circles. I rolled one into some kind of polygon and told her to do the rolling and I’d do the stuffing and pinching. I’ve pinched hundreds of boats, so I felt I could handle that. Well, apparently, there is a difference in how you pinch boats and how you pinch bansh. She busted out laughing at my first try and told me that we were making bansh, not boats. I don’t see that it matters what they look like, but apparently they aren’t bansh if they aren’t pinched like bansh. It was a little bit funny. As always, I stuffed myself. Oh, and I have leftovers! Yay!!

November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s not much of one, here, today. My celebration will be Saturday.

At work, Tuesday, some guys came in and changed my window. They have been busting into my office for the last couple of weeks to take measurements. The window, like most in Mongolia, is double-paned, and the outside pane was cracked. After taking off part of the frame, they couldn’t get the glass out. So, what did they do? They made cracks in the glass and broke it, sending tiny shards all over the floor. Holy crap! I kept waiting on them to just hit the middle of the window with the hammer, knowing that glass would go absolutely everywhere if they did. Luckily, they didn’t; but there was still glass everywhere. Then, they had to clean the dirt out of the frame. They did and left every bit of it on the window sill. When they finished, they walked out of the room without looking back. I was pretty peeved. Of course, I left for the day before I could find anyone to clean it, and I forgot all about it. That’s the first thing I had to deal with this morning. Ah, what a hassle. Also on Tuesday, my computer just turned off and I had no idea what the problem was. I checked the power and nothing was happening, so I went and told the IT guy that my computer was broken. When he came in, he pulled the plug out of the outlet it was in, put it in another, and turned the computer on. Ah, soog! I felt like a tar-tar. I had internet, too. It went out Monday morning and I didn’t have it until this morning. But for only a couple of hours. I’m so looking forward to tomorrow, when I buy that modem.

This afternoon, I went to the school to do some wrestling with a few of the high school boys. One of them is about my size, and the other two are smaller; but they are all tough, strong, and squirrelly. I was there for about an hour and wrestled for a total of about seven minutes. That was enough time for me to be reminded how full of energy high school boys are, and that they can still put a hurting on me. I was huffing and puffing like I’d ran a marathon. I had a crick in my neck already, and now it’s even worse. I, once again, have mat burns on my knees. Maybe, one day, I’ll learn. I doubt it, though. I really enjoy wrestling.

This evening, I finally got a haircut. It was very long. Longer than I’ve let it get in a couple of years. When I was there, I didn’t say anything other than hi, thanks, and see ya. I sat down and she pulled out the clippers and went to town. I got basically the same haircut that I did the first time, when she just buzzed me. She left a little more on top this time, though. Oh well. Now I can go another month or so without a haircut.

November 28, 2008

I woke up at my normal time this morning, but instead of going to work, I got on the meeker headed for UB. Usually, I just have my backpack, but since I’m staying the weekend, I had my big duffle bag, full of stuff. Mostly, it was my sleeping bag and pillows. Not heavy at all, but quite large. Sometimes, the meekers have room behind the back seat for storage. This one didn’t. At first, I put my bag in the seat next to me, but they weren’t having that. As I’ve written before, they cram as many people as they can on those things, and my bag was taking up precious butt-space. They found a place for my bag behind the driver. My body is sore all over from wrestling yesterday and being crammed between the side of the meeker and the nice old lady next to me didn’t help one bit.

I got to the market at the usual time and called my friend, Mendee (pronounced Men-day), to tell him I was there. I am staying with him this weekend. He was one of my trainers during Pre-Service Training, and it my favourite Mongolian. Since training, he has been telling me that anytime I go to UB, I can stay with him. He seems to be as happy as I am about the visit. Anyway, when I talked to him, he said he would be there in about 10 minutes. Forty minutes later, I was still standing in the cold, thinking that my toes were going to be frost-bitten. I decided to go inside the bank. To get there, though, I had to go inside the market. The entrance fee is 50tg, so when I handed the lady a 5,000tg bill, she looked at me, asked the lady next to her if she had change, then told me to pay on the way out. Ha, right. I sat in the bank, thawing out, for another 30 minutes before Mendee finally showed up.

The first thing we did was make our way to where they sold water boilers. I told you how mine quit working after one month. I bought another, for the same 16,000tg price, that is stainless steel. We’ll see how long this one lasts. From there, I made a quick trip to the Peace Corps office to turn in a receipt for postage. They reimburse my 2,600tg for sending letters to the American school that I write to. It’s not much, but every little bit helps. When we left there, we went to the G-Mobile store so I could buy the modem that I have been so looking forward to. After a few questions, I found out that their service doesn’t work where I live. Yanaa! (Ah, shucks!) So, we went to Skytel to check out their modems and service area. The internet person was gone to lunch, so we decided to go around the corner to Hanburger & Pub. (Yes, it’s really supposed to have an “n.”) The cheeseburger and fries I got was awesome. I was full, but I so could’ve eaten another. When we finished, we went back to Skytel, where they told me that they didn’t accept my debit card. Ah, soog! We had to walk 10 minutes away to an ATM. Remember, the whole time, we are carrying my duffle bag between us. When we got back, I was in luck, kinda. They have service where I live, but the price was more than double than the 135,000tg I thought I was going to be spending, and I have a 5GB/month limit. Oh well. At least I have internet all the time, where ever I want it, and I don’t have to worry about it going out as long as I pay the bill. I pay the bill by having money transferred from my account to theirs, at the bank. Fairly easy, I think.

When we got to Mendee’s apartment, I was expecting something like mine. He had told me that it was very old. When I walked in, if I didn’t know better, I might’ve thought that I was in an American apartment. It’s quite nice, and very spacey, with modern appliances and decorations. He left to pick up his some and do some grocery shopping, and I took a nap. After yesterday’s wrestling and today’s walking all over the city, I was worn out. I felt much better when I woke up.

Now, we are about to eat dinner. After that, we will meet some other Americans at a pub. So, I’m going to use my new modem and post this. Next week, I will post some pictures. I know, I know. You are probably saying that I’ve been promising this for a while and you will only believe it when you see it. Well, you’ll see. Talk to you later.

P.S. I’m very excited to be in the city this weekend. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for about a month and a half. It’s the first time that I’ve been able to spend the night away from my site without being on Peace Corps business. I can hardly wait to eat some American Thanksgiving food tomorrow. There will be turkey, but no ham. So, if you eat any ham, please eat an extra bite for me. Oh, and banana pudding: eat about three bowls of that for me. I love that stuff. Too bad that stuff wouldn’t be good by the time I would get it, cause I’d sure have my mom send me some.

November 14, 2008

This evening, I went to the kindergarten to take a few pictures. As I said before, I didn’t know before, and as it turns out, I still don’t know what happened. Tsegii asked me to take some pictures as they had some kind of meeting with parents. The meeting lasted about an hour, and then I took pictures of all the things Tsegii sewed. She used to work at a sewing factory while she attended college, so she made some very cool stuff. I was very impressed. Eventually, I’ll post the pics so you can see them. Afterwards, she came to my place and cooked dinner and washed dishes. I’m not sure if I’ll ever not be surprised by that. I really do like to cook, and I don’t mind washing dishes, but it’s cool to have someone do those things for me. But, for any of you wondering, she only does that about once a week, if that often.

When she left, there really was a dance going on tonight. When I first walked in, everyone was just sitting around. After a minute or two, one guy got up and sang a song. I don’t know his name, but I see him in my building at work all the time. I was surprised to see him singing. After that, they turned the lights down, turned on the strobe lights and mirror ball, and turned up the music. All the way up. I don’t know if I’ve written about it before, but whenever Mongolians have music at a function, they turn it all the way up to where it’s almost distorted. It hurts my ears sometimes. Anyway, I sat through the first song and scoped out everything. As always, people were dancing in a big circle. For the second song, since I had had a bit of liquid courage, I got up and joined the circle. At the end of every song, people scrambled to find a seat so they wouldn’t be the last one on their feet, but they were usually right back up again since the next song started immediately. At one point, I looked around and saw that almost everyone in the place was dancing and the circle was spread out to the walls. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Of course, all that was interspersed with waltzes and I sat and watched everyone, hoping that I wouldn’t get asked to dance. All the men joked with me and I kept telling them that I “can’t” and “I don’t know how.” Tonight, they played music that I couldn’t tell was any different than usual, but apparently it was. It set people off dancing quite differently than the normal waltz. It was very pretty. I sat and watched, wide-eyed. One of my co-workers, Oko, was up and dancing for every song, executing all the steps perfectly. I think I found my dance instructor. Toward the end, a lady named Tuul would smile and wave every time she danced passed me. Eventually, she either got the idea, or the courage, and pulled me to my feet and made me dance with her. I was so nervous and kept watching my feet the whole time. She kept smiling and telling me to look up. Luckily, we just did the simple one-two, one-two around the floor, leaving out all the twirling. That would’ve surely put both of us on our butts when I got tangled up. I think I only stepped on her feet about 4 times. Several times, she told me, “It’s my Happy Birthday!” It was kind of funny to hear her say it. I know some people who would say it like that on purpose, just for a laugh, but she really thought that was grammatically correct. I just smiled and told her happy birthday.

When that dance finished, I walked with a crowd of people to the Transportation Dept. The first thing they got out of the way was them reprimanding me for not being there to teach them English. I was sure to tell them that I’d been there several times and knocked on the door and no one answered. They said something about knocking for 30 minutes that I took them to mean that I should’ve come at 2:30, instead of the appointed 2 o’ clock. Now why would I come at any time other than the scheduled one? Oh well. They quickly forgot about that when the vodka and wine was pulled out. I think that they had already been celebrating Tuul’s happy birthday by the slur on some of their tongues. They did the usual thing where someone goes around giving a shot at a time and everyone says something before taking their shot. At one point, a couple of the guys got into what I think was a political argument before several of the ladies fussed at them and told them to drink more. Later, some other guys came in that I’ve never seen before and one of them ended up getting in a big ol’ argument with the guy sitting next to me. The newcomer was being held back by a couple of his buddies and was eventually escorted out. I don’t know what that argument was about, but it got heated quickly and they were up in arms about it. That kind of caught me off-guard; but it made me giggle when I figured out what was going on. Other than that, the only problem was when someone didn’t finish their shot. They also brought out some fruit stuff called “compote.” The kind they had was cherry. Basically, it was a jar of cherries in juice. They played some kind of game where they pulled out several on a spoon and the person had to take them all in their mouth. It wasn’t that hard. I had to take four in my mouth. When I did, everyone shouted like it was a big deal. It really wasn’t; even when I had to take two more before I spat the seeds out. We were all there late. I finally got home around 2:30. I think that’s the latest I’ve known of people partying around here.

November 15, 2008

This afternoon, I woke up from a nap to no power. Dang it! As I’m supposed to, I texted my boss and told her about it. Usually, she responds quickly and tells me if it’s just me or the whole town is going through the same thing. This time, she didn’t say anything. I figured she was busy, like always. A couple of hours later, I was talking to Moogie and told her. She told me that other places in town had power, so it must just be me. She came over and showed me where the circuit box is outside my door. That helps a lot. At least now, if it is my fault, I can fix it myself, without having to bother anyone else. I don’t know why it went out this time. There were only two things running in my whole apartment: my heater and the fridge.

November 16, 2008

Today, I went to my office with pen and pad to write my first letter to the class in the U.S. that I’ll be writing to. I wrote about things like the difference in temperatures between here and Austin, TX; why I joined the Peace Corps; why I agreed to come to Mongolia; what Mongolian housing is like; a typical day for me; and how to count in Mongolian. It turned out to be 10 pages. Whew! I write in my journal every night before I go to bed, but I haven’t written that much by hand since I was in school studying for a test. Needless to say, my fingers were very cramped by the time I finished. I’ve been told that the kids are very excited about the whole thing and have already sent me a letter. I hope they are interested in what I have to say and have inspired even more questions. I’m looking forward to getting their letter to me.

This evening, I went over to Moogie’s place for dinner. She made bansh tea. In case you don’t remember, bansh is meat dumplings that are boiled. In this case, they are boiled in milk tea. They are very good. I had two bowls and wanted more, but I was stuffed. I also ate a traditional Mongolian pastry called bove (which just so happens to be one of the slang words for “penis”), with some homemade raspberry jam. The jam was extra sugary, very thick, and really good. I could’ve eaten more of that, too, but I figured that my stomach couldn’t handle it. When we finished eating, we played a Mongolian card game that is quite confusing. I’ve played it a couple times before, but I just don’t get it. I also taught her how to play Rummy. After the first hand of showing her how to play, step by step, we played a real game. Just like my first game with Ariuka, Moogie was way ahead of me until the very last hand. We both passed the 500 point mark on the same hand, but I beat her 560 to 540. Man, that was close.

When I came home, I finally beat Warcraft III. I’ve been playing that game for a couple of months now. I’ve probably spent a total time that would add up to days trying to beat it. The last stage was really hard, taking me about six or seven tries, but I finally got it. As with most games like that, there were all kinds of neat little videos and clips as the credits rolled. Then, at the very ended, the makers taunted me with, “Now, come back when you beat the game on hard.” Psh, it was all I could do to beat it on normal. For now, I’ll settle for the Expansion Pack. I’m sure that’ll give me a few more months of entertainment.

November 17, 2008

Hole-ly Crap! I’m eating my lunch right now and this macaroni and cheese (with Ranch dressing) is freakin’ A awesome. Thanks mom. I forgot how much I like this stuff. There were two microwavable cups – why microwave, I don’t know, cause I sure don’t have one – and they both had busted inside. Because it is the microwavable kind, there was a white powder in there that I can only guess is some kind of thickening agent. It and the pasta were all in the box, but I was careful and got it all out. I decided to cook both at once, and I’m about to eat every bit of it. Yum!!! (Ed. Note: I found out later that mom got me the microwavable kind because they were in “cute” containers. Haha. Thanks mom.)

Also in the box was some Polysporin, Thera-Gesic (analgesic creme), Circus Peanuts (giving me an excuse to finish the half-bag I had left), Nilla Cakesters, extra-crunchy peanut butter, dried buttermilk, Pop-tarts, lotion, Lint-brush (very appreciated, since I don’t have a means of getting rid of lint after I wash my clothes), sassafras tea (I haven’t had it since I was a kiddo, and I’ve missed it), and the latest issue of Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity, Inc. magazine. I’m in it!!! (But they are forgiving of 3 years of my schooling by saying that I only went for seven years. Shh! Don’t tell!) They talked about how I had graduated with a double-degree in Psychology and Sociology and I had joined the Peace Corps, to be stationed in Mongolia. There might’ve been something else in the box, but I can’t think of it.

I also, finally, got a box from my BFFE Matt (a.k.a. Matthew, J. Matthew, James, Bubba, Dirt, Barbara, Little Barbara, Big Headed Bubba, Frubba, Chubbs, Chubbo, Chump, Charles, Rectangle Head, Recess Jenkins, The Window Licker on the Short Bus, Nickle, and at least five others I can’t think of) and the guys. That box had some extra-strength tape on it. Mongolians call tape “scotch.” When I was opening it in my co-workers office, and having a very, very hard time, they kept talking about the tough “American scotch.” Also in the box was beans, curry, cumin, allspice, garlic salt, pepper, extra-crunchy peanut butter, Sticky Fingers habanero hot barbecue sauce, Tylenol, Ziploc bags, Q-tips, toothpaste, Ranch dressing, two AA batteries, a bag from Target, and the first ever Pi Kappa Alpha – Theta Pi Chapter Newletter. I’m in it, too!!! It talked about my graduation, the Peace Corps, and me being the best man in Matt’s wedding back in May. I was very surprised to see an old, crazy picture of Matt and me when we were on the verge of having just a little bit too much fun one night. I can’t put into words how excited I was to get both of the packages. Shortly after getting them, I brought them home and put everything in its proper place. Oh, and I was really glad for the peanut butter. I was almost out of what I have, and they don’t sell the crunchy kind in Mongolia. If it’s not crunchy, I don’t care for it.

Afterwards, I met with the real art teacher. Before, when I met with the guy about the International Art Exchange, I didn’t know that he wasn’t the real art teacher, but the training manager. Of course, the art was supposed to be finished last week, but it wasn’t. Now, the real guy says it will be next week. We’ll see.

This morning, I made my way through the freezing wind to go to the Transportation Dept. to tell them that I needed to change their appointed time. For the first several minutes all I did was thaw out. The ladies there are very nice and sat me down and gave me a hot mug of tea. Back in the summer, it wasn’t so cool to be drinking hot everything, but now that it’s as cold as it is, I like it. We changed the time, and I showed up at 5 o’ clock for their first lesson; but not after a few shots. They sat me down in the director’s office and poured out three quick shots. Needless to say, I was feeling a little loose during their lesson. They didn’t have any light in the room, other than the little that came in from the hallway and the waning sunlight as the sun went down that came in the window. I hope they do something about that soon. It kind of slowed things down.

November 18, 2008

This morning, I was awakened at 6:40 to the croaking of my phone. (My ring tone is a bunch of frogs.) As I reached to answer it, I wondered who in the heck could be calling at that hour. It was my BFFE Matt! Yay! He’d finally bought a calling card and we talked and talked and talked for 40 minutes, non-stop, about anything we could think of, until we were cut off. I even got to talk to his wife, Sarah. What a treat. That totally made my day. Thanks, lil fella.

By the way, here’s something to think about and possibly write to your representative about. Matt – along with a few million other people – has AT&T cell phone service. To call internationally, it would cost him around $1.80 per minute, after he pays for the $10 or so per month fee. Why does it cost so much for a loyal customer, who is never late on their bills, and never has any problems, when any old Joe can walk into Wal-Mart and buy a $10 calling card that is from AT&T? That sounds a little backward, to me. What do you think?

November 19, 2008

I think the days that I go to the other part of town are becoming my favourite. One big reason is because they don’t try to usher me all over the place to teach English. Another reason is that they actually let me be in the midst of all the social work that they do. It usually takes me a little while to figure out what’s going on exactly, but they always answer my questions. Today, I rode over there with people from the bank and the Transportation Dept. I understand why the lady from the bank was there, but not the people from the TD. Today, elderly and handicapped people came. There is a government policy where Mongolia gives the elderly and handicapped 140,000tg, reading glasses, hearing aids, canes, and back braces. When I asked, I was told that the money is for buying firewood and paying for housing, and they get it once a year. It was kind of neat to witness all of it. Except for two or three men, it was all women. Some of them were in their late 70’s, and it seemed like all of them were half blind and could only barely hear out of one ear.

But, as nice as the benefactors were to everyone about everything, I was very surprised when they openly laughed at a mentally handicapped woman and called her “amusing.” I had seen the woman sitting over there but really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to her, other than that she was staring at me. But Mongolians staring at me is nothing unusual. Once, another lady’s phone rang and the mentally handicapped woman said something while smiling big. The woman sitting next to me that was getting forms signed started laughing and pointing her out to others. When I asked what was funny, she simply said that the mentally handicapped woman was “funny, amusing.” And no one even thought twice about the comment; except for me, of course. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought the mentally handicapped woman had done some kind of imitation, purposely trying to be funny, going by the way they laughed at her. I just looked at the woman who said she was funny.

Around lunch time, someone brought a big bucket of meat and another of potatoes and we had lunch. Everyone was crowded around, eating what they could. About the time we finished that, someone else came in with a big bag of meat, and we dug in. There were several big thermoses of tea brought, too, and I drank a lot, in an attempt to stay warm. All the tea made me need to pee, too. For some reason, they don’t have running water in their building, so I have to walk over to the school. Of course, I am freezing when I get back, making me drink more hot tea and starting the process all over again.

About the time we finished, the Peace Corps Country Director and one of the PC Medical Officers came to pick me up. They brought me to my place and spent about an hour and a half asking me questions. The PCMO asked questions about my health and things about my living situation that concern my health. Some of the questions were whether I had running water; where did I get my food, and was there plenty of vegetables; and was my fire extinguisher properly charged. She also took a look at my thumb and told me that I might be lucky and not have a scar. Not that I mind scars. I kind of like them, as long as they’re not on my face. I’m a little kid like that. The Country Director asked me about my site visit last week and made sure that everything was addressed properly, and asked if I thought anything could be improved upon. It was nice to talk with some fellow Americans. The people that came last week were Mongolians that work for Peace Corps, and they speak really good English; but they don’t speak English like Americans do, or talk about the same kinds of things. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I enjoyed the company.

Yesterday, one of the guys that works in my building brought me some abstracts from some scientific papers with lots of jargon about how to properly write a scientific study. He asked me if I would translate them for him and wanted them done by the end of the week. I read through one of them and understood it perfectly, but there was no way that I could translate one of them by the end of the week, let alone four. They were very short, and simple to the point of being convoluted. I told him that I couldn’t do it. Well, Moogie asked me to go and help her translate something today, and I wasn’t thinking about yesterday, so I told her I would help. I thought it would be something simple. It usually is. When I got there, she had those abstracts and couldn’t figure it out. I rolled my eyes as I sat down to help. I kept asking her what in the heck the guy wanted it translated for – since his job has nothing to do with what those abstracts were about – and she had no idea. It took over an hour to translate two paragraphs. Most of the words aren’t in my dictionary, since they are all technical jargon, so I had to basically have a freshman 101 class to explain all the concepts, and then dumb them down as much as possible so she could translate it to mean something kind of like what was originally intended. I found myself spending several minutes explaining one word at a time. Luckily for me (but not for her) she got sick and decided to stop for the day.

November 20, 2008

This week, I started rolling my sleeves down. Before, and for the last several years, I would almost always wear a long-sleeved, button-up shirt to work, and roll the sleeves up. First, it was to help me stay a little bit cooler, and second, it was to keep my sleeves out of my way whenever I might do something where they would be in the way. Until this week, I was only wearing the bottoms of my long underwear. I’ve started wearing the tops, now, and I have to roll the sleeves down to cover them. Not to mention that it’s a little bit warmer. It’s going to take some getting used to the feel and the look.

Here’s something else that I’ve noticed before but didn’t think much of until this last week. Mongolians leave doors wide open whenever they go out them. They open the door to my office and see it’s not where they thought: they leave the door open when they leave. They leave the store where they’d bought some groceries: they leave the door open. They leave any building: they leave the door wide freaking open. I mean, WTF? When I was a kiddo and left the door open, my grandmother would always yell at me, saying, “Were you raised in a barn?!” Truly, I don’t know what being raised in a barn has to do with not closing a door behind you, but it stuck and I make sure that I close a door behind me whenever I enter or leave somewhere. Here, I’ll be sitting in my office, standing in a store, sitting in the social workers’ office, or anywhere else, Mongolians will come in, leave, and leave the door wide open, and it’ll drain all the heat out before I realise why. And I’m the only one who makes a move to shut the door, too. Sheesh!! Good thing I don’t know Mongolian for “Were you raised in a barn?!”

Right before lunch time, the fire chief came into my office and asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with him. Well, it was earlier than I’m used to eating lunch, but sure. I didn’t have anything else going on. We went to the guanz (diner) in the Water Co. and he bought me a bowl of vegetable soup, boats, and prishkee. I ate every bit of it, too. Very good. When we left, he asked me if I wanted to go to his office and drink vodka with him. Um, not really, but okay. When we walked in, he sent his assistant to the store. The guy came back with a half-litre of vodka and a litre and a half of water. As soon as I saw the size of the bottle, I was regretting my decision. He poured two quick shots for both of us, then told me he didn’t have anything to do today and indicated that he was going to drink the rest of the bottle. I told him that I had a little bit of work to do, so he poured me one more shot and told me that I was finished. Whew! That was close. The full belly and the vodka helped me have a good nap when I came home on my break.

This evening, I went to help Moogie translate the other two abstracts. She remembered most of what I told her yesterday, so that helped a little bit. The biggest problem was getting her to translate what I said, instead of what was written. We literally went one sentence at a time, sometimes one phrase at a time, and made sure she understood what I was telling her. She seemed to be taking longer than I thought she should be. At first, I thought it was just the differences in grammar. That was only part of it. I noticed that she kept looking at the paper, trying to figure out what to write. When I saw her doing that, I told her to only translate what I said. She kept on, so I finally turned the paper over so she couldn’t see it. Things went a little bit quicker then. I told her to be sure and ask the guy why he wants those things translated when she gives them to him. I mean, those things were so abstract, that without a whole lot of schooling on all the concepts, they won’t mean anything to someone who reads them. I’m really curious what he’ll do with them.

November 21, 2008

Today has been a pretty good Friday. In the late morning, I went to the school to watch the singing, dancing, and drama competition that was going on all day. It started with the youngest grades and went up in order. I went back for a little bit after lunch, then went to what I used to think was the Transportation Dept. This whole time, that’s what I thought the place was. That’s what I was told it was. Today, I found out that it is really the Labour and Social Welfare Department. No wonder they were over there the other day giving out money. Oh well. Now I know. Anyway, there was only one lady there for today’s lesson, so we did something different. She knows a smattering of English words and phrases, so we practiced some conversation for the first 30 minutes. For the next 30 minutes, we were going to work on the lesson that I’d started on Monday, but since the chalkboard is in the same room as the ping-pong table, she challenged me to a game. Sure, I’d rather do that any day, instead of teaching English. I don’t know where she learned to keep score, but it ain’t the same place I learned. After the first 6 serves, the score was to her advantage, 4-2. Or so I thought. I asked her the score, just to make sure, and she said it was 4-2, me. Huh? How in the heck did that happen? So, I started paying attention and she was giving me a point whenever I hit the ball, even if it didn’t hit on her side of the table. She was giving herself a point whenever she hit the ball, even if it didn’t hit on my side. That was some messed up scoring, but I won, so I can’t complain too much. After that, I went back to the school to watch the final two grades do their performances. They were good and had some cool costumes.

Okay, it’s the end of my work day. Ha, not like I’ve really done much of what could really be called work. But it fits the Peace Corps definition, so I’m satisfied. I hope that you are good. Talk to you later. See ya.

November 8, 2008

Last night, Tsegii came over while I was celebrating Brother Baasun’s Birthday, waiting to go to the dance. She had to baby-sit her niece, so she wasn’t going to go. Before I left, I changed into the clothes I was going to wear and asked her how I looked. I had on a big, thick fleece shirt and a scarf. She smiled and said, “You look fat.” I was appalled and made moves while talking about changing my clothes. She said, “No, fat is good!” I’ve heard Mongolian women say that several times, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. I asked one lady and she said that she likes it when she hugs a guy and she can’t put her arms all the way around him. It’s not unusual to see a woman that is attractive by Western standards to be married to a really fat guy and be extremely happy about it. The same goes for men. I’ve seen many thin men with fat wives. Reluctantly, I took her word for it and headed for the Culture Centre. It was close to 9 o’ clock and the dance should have been hopping, if it had started yet. When I got there, all the lights were out and no one was there. Well, shoot. I wish I’d have known it wasn’t going to happen. I had passed up an opportunity to go and play volleyball so I could go to the dance. Oh well.

For dinner, I decided that I wanted to eat boats, so I started cutting meat around 2:30. Like I’ve said before, it takes me about 3 ½ to 4 hours to make them. I’ve seen Mongolians make them from scratch to finish in about an hour, along with other food, too. It’s all in the cutting, I’m sure. As I was cutting the meat, I was listening to the TV and I let my mind wonder. Next thing I knew, my thumb wound up under the knife and I sliced into it about a quarter of an inch. Luckily, the knife was kind of dull and my fingernail helped stop the blade. Whew! I was bleeding pretty good before I could get the end of my thumb wrapped up. At first, I just used one of the butterfly bandages that is in my medical kit, but the first one didn’t hold well and let some blood come out, making the stickiness not work. I had to use another, and then wrap it with medical tape. The tape didn’t want to hold too well, so I wrapped that with some duct tape. So, for those of you who were wondering why I might need duct tape, this is another reason. It was hard to finish cutting everything, without the use of my thumb, making it take even longer than normal. Good thing I like boats.

November 10, 2008

Today, I finally got the installation discs from Dell that I’d asked for over a month ago. When the guy brought the package into my office, I’d actually forgotten all about it. Fortunately, I don’t use that software that much. In the instructions, there is a warning that says when I install the software, everything that is on my hard drive will be erased. Dang it man! I really, really, really hope that this will make everything work like it is supposed to. Still, I will wait a while before I do it. At least until after I get internet. That will make things much easier.

I got something else unexpected while at work today, too: a cold from my co-worker. I think she gets as bored as I do sometimes, so she comes into my office on occasion. Today, she was coughing up a storm, and her voice had that sound to it when your throat is sore and you’ve been coughing too much. At least she had the courtesy to cover her mouth. It didn’t help much, though. This evening, I feel the beginnings of a scratch in the back of my throat. Drat! I hate being sick. I hope this doesn’t last too long.

November 11, 2008

Today’s free lunch, after teaching, was bantan. It’s a kind of flour soup with mutton in it that tastes an awful lot like chicken and dumplings. I’ve written about it before. Do you remember? I really like it. It wasn’t long after that when one of the people I tutor (Muugy) decided that she had nothing to do for lunch other than cook boats for me. Sweet! I was already full, but I can always eat boats. As I’ve said before, I’d gladly take money if Peace Corps allowed it, but food is the next best thing. As much as I eat, I’m surprised that I don’t gain weight instead of lose it. It’s not like I’m particularly active over here. In February, there is a national holiday called Tsagaan Sar that translates as “White Month.” Everyone gets dressed in their finest and goes around to their friend’s houses, where they eat boats and drink vodka. There is a PCV who just ended his service that once ate over 100. I told him that I’m going to make a run on his record. I’ll let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, I’ll be practicing.

This evening, I was having a particularly hard time with the stage of Warcraft III that I’m on. Right now, I’m trying to beat Hellscream after he has drank the blood of the evil demon. For a couple of days now, I’ve been trying to beat this stage, but it’s very hard. I know that most of you won’t understand (or care), but he’s a particularly hard enemy. To figure out how to beat that character, I went to my office to check the internet. At first, I was worried whether the door would be open so I could get in.

When I got there, there were a couple of guys drinking vodka. I know that most of you who read my blog are not guys, but the peer pressure of drinking for a guy is very difficult. In Mongolia, it is even worse. When I first walked in the door, I saw the guys and thought, “Aww, crap!” Those guys are a few of the ones who are known to be drinkers. One of them is a building worker, and one of them was the local military leader. They are both really nice guys and I try to talk to them every chance I get. Tonight, they had been drinking for a while, so they were way ahead of me when I met them. Later, one of the local policemen came who is an ex-wrestler, so I got a bit of training. In case you can’t imagine, drunk wrestling is as difficult as sober wrestling, but a little more awkward. There were four guys trying to integrate American and Mongolian wrestling. I understood it, but it took me a few minutes to get it. I also talked with the military guy about the differences between American and Mongolian military marching. Mongolian marching is a little flashier. I couldn’t imagine doing a 10 mile hump while marching like that. American marching seems to be intended to eat away the miles with as little pressure on the marcher as possible while maintaining uniformity. To step it out in a Mongolian march, one has to be more conscious of what you’re doing, and it’s not a natural gait. It looks like something a Communist military would do, too.

November 12, 2008

Today was my day to go to the other part of town. There wasn’t anything going on, so I just hung out with Tulga. He’s a nice guy. For lunch, we ate at the kindergarten, then went to Tulga’s place. It wasn’t long before his mom started cooking and we ate again. Tulga ate his first bowl, and then got another for himself and me. I was too full and told him so, but he ate all of what he had. He is the one that I told you about before who wants to gain weight so the women will like him. I did notice that he’s starting to get a little bit of a belly, so maybe he will get what he wants soon. Let’s hope so.

For whatever reason, the meekers weren’t running their usual routes, so it took me longer than normal to get back to my side of town. I didn’t do much of anything besides watch TV when I got home. I felt like crap from my cold and a lack of water today, so I’m going to bed early.

November 13, 2008

Today, Peace Corps came for my site-visit. That means that I didn’t go in to work and I slept late. Ah, after going to bed early, I felt much better today. The reason for a site-visit is to make sure that everything is going as planned and to fix anything that needs it. For the first couple of hours, my programme director and my regional director asked me all kinds of questions about what I do in my free time; how many friends I’ve made; what do I do with my friends; do I visit them and do they visit me; what I need taken care of in my apartment; what kind of things I’ve been doing for my job; what kinds of things that I plan to do for my job; how do I get along with my co-workers; and a few other random things that I can’t remember. They are really nice people, so it was a pleasant conversation.

About the time I was getting ready to eat some lunch, they decided that they were ready to go and talk to my boss and co-workers. I thought I was going to have to postpone my usual lunch time, but when we got to the office, my boss had sent for food from the guanz (cafe). We had boats and ardz. Ardz is that twice-distilled mare’s milk that I wrote about before. I’ve had it at least one other time since I first wrote and told you that I planned to stay away from it, if possible. Well, it seems like every time I decide I don’t like something and would prefer not to have it, that is the exact thing that I get the most of. Fortunately, a few of those things have kind of grown on me and while I don’t exactly like them, I don’t dislike them anymore. Ardz is one of those things, now. It is definitely an acquired taste. They asked my boss basically the same questions they asked me about my work.

Ha, at one point, my boss started talking about the difference in the way I talk and the way the Volunteer that was here before me talked. I explained to her that he is from California, and I’m from the South. I told them that, comparatively, my accent isn’t as bad as many of my friends, but people from the North can always hear it. Then, just to demonstrate, I put on my best Southern accent and talked for a minute. You should’ve seen the look on their faces. It was funny. They noticed how I talked with the front of my mouth more and said that it is very difficult for Mongolians to do that. Mongolians tend to make the sounds for their words with the back of their mouth and throat. It’s almost impossible to lip-read what a Mongolian is saying. During training, whenever someone would say a new word, I would watch their mouth, trying to see how they made those sounds. It never worked and I finally gave up trying.

Meeting with my boss took about an hour, and then I had the rest of the day to myself. This evening, as soon as I walked into my apartment and turned the light on, it went right back off. At first, I thought that the light might have blown, but when I checked everything else, I found that the power was out. Dang it! On my walk home, I had been thinking about what kind of food I was going to cook and was looking forward to something hot. Now, I wasn’t able to cook anything. I had to settle for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Good thing I like those. Tsegii came with her niece about that time, too. We sat and were entertained by her niece by candle light. Good thing I bought those candles way back when. Too bad I didn’t think to buy some kind of candelabra at the same time. But, with the usual Mongolian ingenuity, Tsegii had me in working order. She turned a bowl upside down, dripped some wax onto it, and then stuck the candle in the wax. It held perfectly. Some time while she was here, we found that my water was off, too. That’s bad enough, but since the radiator works on steam, that meant that I was totally without heat. At negative temperatures, it doesn’t take long for all the heat inside to dissipate. Luckily, while I’ve been writing this paragraph, the power and water came back on. Now I can start to thaw out. When I told my boss about my power and water being off, she said that a town up the road had turned it off. I don’t know why in the heck they have the option to do that, but I wish it wasn’t so. I wonder how much a generator costs?

November 14, 2008

Well, this week has been a fairly slow one. But, if you know me, you know that I don’t mind slow one bit. So far, today has continued the pattern. I got to talk to my favourite elementary teacher today. Actually, I’ve started a Peace Corps programme called One World Classrooms with her. Peace Corps reimburses the price of one letter a month and I write to them and tell them all kinds of things about Mongolia. She told me that her kids are all excited about it and have already written me a letter. I’m looking forward to it. I figure I’ll write them a letter this weekend. I hope they can read my terrible handwriting. Yikes! I’m so used to writing for myself that it might be hard for a 4th grader to read my chicken scratch. I’ll have to be careful about that. She’s read some of my writing before, so maybe she can work as my translator.

Schools all across Mongolia have been on break this week. That means that all my Peace Corps buddies that teach English have had a free week’s vacation. Some of them have stayed home and rested while others have gone to visit friends in other towns. All I’ve gotten out of the deal is that I don’t have to go to the school today and meet with the students. Instead, I will go to the kindergarten for some kind of something they have going on. As always, I only half understand what will happen before it does. Also, I heard another rumour of there being a dance tonight. I’ll check it out and let you know. Other than that, I have another lazy weekend planned. One where I will be extra careful while I’m cutting any meat. My thumb still hasn’t healed. It would’ve probably been good if I could’ve gotten a few stitches, but I didn’t feel like going through all the hassle of getting to the city, going to the Peace Corps office, finding the doctor’s office, going back to the Peace Corps office, then finding a ride home. What was that saying again? Oh yeah: If you’re going to be dumb, you gotta be tough.

Have a good weekend. As always, send letters, emails, and texts, or call any time. I hope you’re good.

October 31, 2008

Right after I updated my blog earlier, I went to the bank. When I walked out, there was a lady across the street yelling and waving me over. I had to look around and point at myself questioningly before I realised she was actually talking to me. I followed her into the Transportation Department building, into a room where a few ladies were playing ping-pong. They wanted me to play with them. Um, okay, I like ping-pong. When it was my turn, a 40-something-year-old lady beat me 11-4. The only reason I got the four points I did was because she messed up. Sheesh! After that humiliating loss, I found out the real reason they called me over: they wanted me to start teaching them. Ah, soog! I told them I would, two days a week. It’s not like I don’t have the time to do it.

When I went to the school, we continued our informal lessons on American slang. They now know how to say and respond to “What’s up?” They learned all the different uses for the word “killa,” too. They’ve learned the intricacies of when and how to throw the peace sign and the different meanings it can have. And they’ve learned the difference in how to hold your hand when you’re rocking out and how to hold it when you want to tell someone you love them. Toward the end, they found out that today was Halloween, so I started telling them about it. When I told them that I would try to do something next year, they started talking about coming over to my place, tonight, then started making all these plans amongst themselves. I stood there, open-mouthed, not knowing what to say. I had planned on hanging out by myself tonight, not doing anything. When they finished, it was decided that I would make some kind of American food, and they would bring Mongolian food and come over at 8. Oh, what did I get myself into?!

I needed meat, so I went to the store to buy some. They didn’t have the usual small size that I get, so I settled for a quarter of a sheep that cost about 11,000tg (less than $11). I would guess that that same piece of meat might cost me close to $100 in the U.S. I got home and started preparing everything. Before long, Tsegii came and found out what was going on, and then took over cutting everything. What would have taken me 30+ minutes to cut, she did in less than 10. Like most Mongolian women, she’s a genius with a knife. Like I said, I guess she can’t stand to see me plodding along with the slow cutting that I do. I really appreciated her help. And she didn’t even stay for the fun. She said she was leaving tonight to go into the hoodoo (countryside), to visit her mom.

Right at 8, there was a knock on my door. What a surprise that they were actually on time. Well, the first half of them, anyway. My cooking time was pretty close to perfect, too. I made a spicy spaghetti sauce, pasta, and garlic bread; they brought monton boats (bigger boats, with thicker dough), spicy boats, some kind of meat-stuffed fried-something, a fried dough thingy, a meat, vegetable, and potato mix, rice, and milk tea. As much as I’d cooked, they’d brought at least that much to me and insisted that I eat some of all of it. It was very good. They were excited to eat some of the spaghetti I’d made. When they started eating it, though, they only got a few bites down before they started asking for water. Haha. I’m so used to eating spicy things that I didn’t think it was anywhere near hot, but a couple of them couldn’t even finish their serving. Good thing I consciously did not make it as hot as I would have if I’d been eating alone. By the way, it was all girls and the teacher that came. Later, the second half of the girls came with food, Happy Halloween signs, and painted faces. Very funny. Those girls were as goofy as I am, and quite incorrigible. I don’t think there was a minute where I wasn’t smiling, if I wasn’t laughing out loud.

Eventually, we started playing a Mongolian card game. I didn’t recognise it when they were explaining it, but as soon as we began playing it, I remembered having played it before. I don’t know the name(Punishment, maybe), but here’s how you play. Say six people are playing. You get all four of cards Ace through Five, shuffle them good, then give each person four cards. (If five people play, you use cards Ace through Four, and so on, according to the number of players.) Your goal is to have all four of one number. To do this, everyone passes one card to their left, all at the same time, fairly quickly. Whenever a person has all four of the same number, they slap their hand into the middle of the circle. The last person to get their hand down has to suffer some kind of consequence. Sometimes, these can be quite harsh, and if you don’t do/complete whatever your punishment is, everyone takes a turn at hitting you. I told them that Mongolians are so mean with their games and they just laughed. I suppose their games are another of those things that make Mongolians so tough. One girl had to eat a bowl-full of hot spaghetti, with extra hot sauce added, in less than a minute. One girl had to eat five pieces of hard candy within one minute, which she didn’t finish, earning her seven hard blows to the body. There would’ve been eight, but I absolutely refused to hit her. One girl had to fill her mouth bulging-full with hard candy and couldn’t spit them out. Haha, I bet she had those in her mouth for 45+ minutes before someone told her she could finally spit them out. One girl had to chug a whole bottle of water, which she couldn’t do. Another girl, later, had the same punishment, and when she started chugging, someone made her laugh and water came out her nose. Oh, that was the funniest thing of all. I laughed so hard. It reminded me of being in Jr. High, when my friend made me laugh while drinking milk at least once a year, making me spew milk out my nose. Of course, that happened in the cafeteria, in front of everyone. So funny. Once, I had to get up and dance, since I had told them several times already that I didn’t know how. They got a kick out of making me do something they knew I didn’t want to. After that, no one was able to think up anything properly humiliating, so the next person who was to be punished was told they had to wash all my dishes. It wasn’t my idea, but I was all about it. I actually had thought about how I was not looking forward to cleaning up the mess, so that just made my night. Another girl was told she had to clean my toilet, but I told them I had just cleaned it, so they changed it to something else. One girl was told she had to clean out her teacher’s computer room, and another has to clean out some particularly dirty room at school. Toward the end, they started making it where if you were the last one, you not only got a punishment, but you were no longer in the game. I was one of the last three, then was the next one to get out. Doh! My punishment is that I have to go to their class at 11:30 Monday morning and stand in the middle of them and sing a Mongolian song. I foresee that being fairly embarrassing. I’ll let you know how it goes.

As might be expected from a room full of giggly girls, it was quite loud. I looked at the clock around 10:15, which was only a few minutes before the neighbours pounded on the wall, indicating that we were being too loud. The girls didn’t get the hint, so they kept on, maybe even louder than before. Before long, there was a knock at the door and the neighbours made their request for quite explicit. The girls shushed each other several times, but they were only a tad bit quieter than before. Luckily, for my neighbours, they left a few minutes later. I told them that we should do this every week. I could totally stand to cook the amount that I did – which made plenty of leftovers for myself – and have them bring me food also. My refrigerator it about as full as it can get ,with all the food in there. I should have enough food for the next week. Too bad I have to give their Tupperware back. I could really use some. Maybe, one day, I’ll finally remember to buy some of my own. Hm, I just thought: I can use some of the jam tubs that I use. Those are as like Tupperware as you can get.

Oh, I almost forgot. While at the school, I got a new translation program. The teacher said that it was on the computers when they got them. I just copied the whole thing to a flash-drive and put it on my computer and it works just fine. The only thing is that I can’t use my laptop to type Mongolian. It’s still helpful, though, since I don’t have to thumb through a dictionary for every word. But, I can use it at my office, since it has the program to type in Mongolian. Maybe I can copy that program, too. I’ll check it out.

November 1, 2008

It’s always nice to have a lazy day and not have to worry about doing anything. Those are always my favourite kind. Especially when it’s cold, snowing, and the wind is blowing so hard I can hear it from inside my apartment. I guess I shouldn’t be, seeing as how cold it is here, but I’m always surprised when it snows. Someone told us during training that it doesn’t snow that much. Today was the fourth time, I think, in the last few weeks. At this rate, I’ll soon lose count. The snow from a few weeks ago is still on the ground, dirty and packed as hard as ice. During the whole time I lived in the South (my whole life) I only remember it snowing a handful of times. As kiddos, we always hoped that it would snow, since that always meant that school would be closed. It was a wonder, too, and you know how kids like that kind of thing. Mm, I’ll never forget my grandmother making snow-cream. Have you ever had that? As soon as the meteorologist even mentioned snow, we started beggaring her for snow-cream. That stuff is the bomb. Other than adding sugar and vanilla to some snow, I don’t know how to make it. Maybe you can find a recipe on the internet, if you’re interested.

Ariuka came over this evening. She’s really nice. She studied English at university, so she has a pretty good vocabulary, but I have to slow down when I talk to her. As soon as I start talking to a Mongolian that knows even a little bit of English, I forget myself and talk as fast as I would to another American. Of course, with the slang that I inadvertently throw in there, it takes me a minute to figure out if they didn’t understand a particular word, or if they didn’t understand anything. It’s weird to force yourself to talk slow. Usually, whenever I talk to people, it’s in what several PCVs call Monglish; a mixture of Mongolian and English. Just like anyone, anywhere, in any language, the more I talk to someone, we get used to each others speaking habits, so that makes things easier. But it usually takes a few weeks to notice all the subtleties. Ariuka started to teach me a Mongolian card game, but they are so different than the kinds of card games I’m used to and I never catch on without explicit instructions. She quit trying before we even started and asked me to teach her a card game. I taught her Rummy. She picked it up fairly well, learning simple strategy. In fact, she had me thinking she was going to win until the hand before the very last one, where I set her back and took the lead to victory. I’ve always liked that game. It’s akin to Spades, and I miss playing Spades. Maybe I can find two more people to teach and we can play. That would be fun. I used to play with my dad, step-mom, and step-brother all the time when I was in Jr. High. It was very fun, and I like to brag to my friends that I’m better than any of them. Of course, they’ll never admit that. There are all kinds of different rules for Spades, but I can play with the best of them.

While we were playing cards, Ariuka and I decided that we would like to drink some beer, so I left for the store with a few minutes to spare. All the stores close at 10 o’ clock in my town. I don’t know if I’ve ever written it before, but I love to read fantasy fiction. It’s one of my guilty pleasures. In those books, there are always people wearing deep-cowled hoods and pulling them low to hide their identity from crowds of people. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a reason to do that. Well, tonight, I was able to find out. The hood on my coat could be called deep-cowled. When I went outside, I saw one of the local drunkards before he saw me. I quickly pulled my hood up and pulled it low so he wouldn’t recognise me. He’s a nice enough fellow, but you know how drunkards are. I saw him yesterday, when I got off work, and he started saying something in Mongolian. He was already drunk and started following me around as I went from store to store, doing my grocery shopping. All on a sudden, in perfectly slurred English, he said, “I’m hungry.” I looked at him, smiled, and said, “So am I.” Another drunkard that we passed started laughing loudly, but I’m not sure why: I know he didn’t understand the interchange. At one store, I saw Moogie and asked her what the guy was saying to me. When she asked him, he grimaced at her and said, “I wasn’t talking to you.” That was enough for me to make my get-a-way, though, so I walked out as fast as I could, without looking back, and went to my apartment. As soon as I got there, I realised that I’d forgotten to buy meat. Ah, soog! As soon as I went back out, he saw me again and followed me to the other store. I finally figured out that he was trying to get me to buy him some vodka. My argument of telling him I couldn’t wasn’t helped when he saw the wad of bills I pulled out to pay for the meat. He followed me all the way to my door, acting like he was going to come into my apartment, but I shut the door in his face. Tonight, I was glad to have the experience of wearing a deep-cowled hood so I wouldn’t have to go through that again.

November 3, 2008

This morning, I talked to my mom and she asked me if the time changed in Mongolia. I had forgotten all about daylight-savings time. I told her I would check on it. I did some research on the internet and asked one of my Mongolian friends and found out that the time here doesn’t change. In 2007, the law was changed, saying that Mongolia will no longer observe daylight-savings time. That’s just fine by me. I never liked it anyway. There are supposed to be economical reasons for changing the time, but I never understood them. Mongolia decided that they could save money by not changing the time. I hope it works for them. It sure works for me to not have to wake up earlier. Or would that be later, this time? I always get confused. Anyway, I am now 14 hours ahead of those of you in Huntsville and the Central Time Zone.

I hurried back to the office after lunch, so I could get my things and make it to the Transportation Dept. by 2. When I got there, the door was locked and no one came while I waited. Oh well. That didn’t seem like a very good time, anyway. I will see what I can do about getting the time changed to an earlier one.

This weekend, I was a friend’s place, where they had cable. Have I written that I only have four channels? Just last week, I found that one of the stations has English news, for 30 minutes, a few nights a week. You can tell they definitely cater to a Mongolian audience, though, by the forcedly slow way the announcer talks. Anyway, when I was at my friend’s place, I saw several of the different channels on cable TV. Most of them are Russian, but one is in Dutch (I think), one is French, and another is in English. I watched Al-Jazeera/English for over an hour. Basically, it’s like CNN, with news all the time. That determined me to get cable for myself. I told my boss this morning and she set up the appointment. I was to meet the cable guy at my apartment at 12:30. When I got there, I wondered if Mongolian cable guys were like their American counterparts, where they set a window of time aside for you and don’t show up until the latest possible minute. Sure enough, the guy didn’t even show before I had to be back at my office. I told my boss and she said the guy said he’d knocked on my door and I didn’t answer. Hm, if he knocked, it must’ve been like a mouse. I didn’t hear it, and there were no other noises to distract me. He came back later and got right to work, taking about 45 minutes to complete the installation. Installation cost me 15,000tg, and it will be 2,800tg/month, for 20 channels. I don’t really watch TV all that much, but when I do, I’d like to see more than the four boring channels I had that I couldn’t understand. And the price is worth it. Ha, could you imagine paying less than $2.50 a month for cable?

I’ve uploaded some pictures today. I took my computer to work and hooked it up. It took practically the entire day to upload a couple hundred pictures, and I still didn’t finish all that I have. I’ll probably not be able to again until Thursday, so I’ll try to upload the rest then. As always, the link is on the upper-right side of my blog, so feel free to check them out when/if you get a chance.

November 4, 2008

My English teaching produced another free lunch for me today. I don’t know the name of what I had, but it was some kind of pasta with meat and peppers. Very good.

This evening, I’m sitting here watching Obama, live, voting for, I suppose, himself. For at least 10 minutes now, he and his wife have been standing at their respective booths, filling out their ballots. First of all, I don’t see what the big deal is about showing Obama voting, but I guess that it’s a big deal for the media to show those images. I’m sure that they will spend as much time showing McCain and his family, as well. But what in the heck could be taking so long? I mean, there has already been much speculation about how many people will be voting in this election and how much pressure it will put on the poll workers. I know these two have plenty of experience with how the voting process works, so I can only blame the delay on a confusing ballot. This isn’t the first time that I’ve heard, or suspected, that the ballots are confusing. I really hope that it doesn’t cause a problem with this election. For those of you who vote, I hope that you please be patient, and make sure you understand everything before turning in your ballot. It might take longer, but we don’t need another Florida or Ohio debacle.

November 5, 2008

Today, I had to find my own way to the other part of town. My co-worker that is pregnant hasn’t been in the office in some time, and the other is on a month long “rest.” I don’t really know the reason (law, benefit, etc.) but they get a month or two off per year, to take all at once. I don’t think I’ll get the same privilege. Usually, one of them will help me flag down a car or find someone that is on their way to the other part of town. Today, I just hopped in a meeker (microbus) and told the guy I wanted to go over there. He looked at me funny, but he said he would. As usual, it was another 30 minutes before we pulled away from the curb. When we were almost to the place where the turn was, he unceremoniously stopped and told me to get out and walk the rest of the way. Ha. As I was walking the last couple of kilometres, I thought how I could have already been there if I’d have just taken off walking in the first place. As hard as the wind was blowing, though, I’m glad that I didn’t have to walk any more than I did. When I got there, all kinds of 18-year-old guys, and a few older ones, were signing up to join the military. It was kind of neat to watch all of it. Most of the guys seemed anxious about what they were doing and one or two of them just seemed resigned to their fate. They signed up for one year. I don’t know if Mongolia has mandatory service or not. I haven’t been able to find that out yet. At one point, the social workers were taking pictures and told me to scoot over so I could be in one of them. As soon as they did that, they all started smiling, waving, and saying, “Bye bye. Now you go to the military with them.” I just laughed.

That’s pretty much all I did today. I got a ride back to my office by 2, and no one in the entire building seemed to be doing anything. My boss had told me that she wanted to meet with me (about what, I don’t know) and asked me to wait on her. I was still waiting at 5:30 when she called me and told me she was busy and to just go home. Fine with me.

Throughout the day, a couple people texted me, and another called, to tell me of Obama’s presidential victory. The U.S. Embassy hosted a gathering in UB to watch the election results, and PC Volunteers were invited, if they didn’t have to work. Wow! What a win. That guy must have done something right. Sociologically speaking, I’m extremely interested to see how things will turn out. I mean, who would’ve believed that America would ever have a young, black president? I was skeptical that it would happen. As much talk as there was about African-Americans turning out to vote (which, as it turns out, their numbers weren’t that much greater than the last election, if they were higher at all), I figured that the Rednecks would come out in hordes to balance out their vote. Just so happens that the Rednecks did turn out, but they didn’t vote the way one might have thought. It seems that America really is ready for some kind of “change,” whatever it might be. Let’s all pray that it is for the better. For those of you who voted for Obama: congratulations. For those of you who didn’t: try to work with the other side toward something better than the dire circumstances that America has gotten itself into.

November 6, 2008

Well, I’ve tried again to upload some more pictures, but the internet connection just ain’t working for me. I’ll give it one last try tomorrow, but you might have to wait a while to see the rest. I talked to one of my friends who has bought the internet package that I plan to get and he says it works like a charm; and it’s much cheaper than I thought it was going to be. I’m glad of that. So, one day, you might have a direct line to me. When that happens, I might even be able to call you from my computer. The people that gave me my computer made sure that it came equipped with a camera and microphone so I can use Skype. So, if you get a call from some crazy number you don’t recognise, it might be me, so pick up!

For lunch today, I went with Tamir to the cafeteria at the Water Company. They always have two or three different kinds of food, so I’ve been trying to mix it up and try things that I’ve not had before. Today, I got something that sounds like “prishka.” Basically, it is like a hot-pocket (kind of like hoshor), but different. The breading is thicker and it has more fillings. Also, the filling has more than just meat in it, though I have no idea what it was. With a little bit of catsup, it was very good.

On the way to lunch, we started walking with a couple of ladies that were going in the same direction. One of them, like everyone else, asked me if I was cold. Just like my response to everyone else, I told her that I was always cold. She told me that I should get a scarf and pull my hood up on my head. I smiled slyly and told her that if I pulled my hood up it would mess up my hair. She called me “gangan,” and started laughing. I had a general idea of what it meant, and started laughing, too. When I got to where I could look up the translation, I found that it means, “dandy, dapper, foppish, stylish.” When I told my co-worker, she started laughing. I thought it was funny even more. I’ve never thought of myself as dapper, or foppish. Ha, whenever I think of the word dapper, it makes me think of that scene in “Oh Brother Where Art Thou,” where George Clooney’s character gets mad at the store clerk for trying to sell him some kind of hair product that isn’t his preferred brand and he announces, “I’m a Dapper Dan man!” That always cracks me up.

This afternoon, instead of my usual English lesson, everyone crowded into the conference room to have a short congratulation ceremony for the governor and a few other elected officials who won their recent campaigns. A couple of the politicians and their staff stood up to say a little something, then we all passed around two large silver bowls full of milk, each person taking a sip of each. After that, several of us went to the governor’s office for some drinking. There were 20 of us in there, and we finished two litres of vodka within 20 minutes. Luckily, that only evens out to about three shots per person. That was enough, though. I think they were getting ready to drink more when I left.

I left because Tsegii had finished work at a normal time for a change. Sometimes, she works as late as 9 or 10 o’ clock. At a kindergarten! She came over for our usual English conversation. She’s getting better all the time, though she sometimes messes with me and tells me that she doesn’t understand what I’m saying, though I know that she does. I’ve started doing the same to her sometimes, when she speaks in Mongolian, and she’s as caught off-guard by it as I am when she does it. Kinda funny. For my dinner, I had put some beans on, so after she got there, I made some rice and we had red beans and rice. Of course, I put a couple spoon-fulls of Ranch dressing in hers, and then put about 10 into mine. When I was about to put it away, she asked me for more Ranch in hers. I told you I was going to get people here to like it as much as I do. I think she enjoys the different American foods that I cook sometimes.

About three weeks ago, one of my dresser drawers messed up. The screws that held the bottom were stripped and all my clothes spilled into the floor. Of course, I don’t have a screwdriver, and I was lazy about borrowing one from someone, so I just had everything sitting in a neat pile next to the chest of drawers. When it first happened, Tsegii told me she would bring a screwdriver, but I guess she forgot about it just like I did. Last night, she finally remembered, so we got to putting things back to rights. Of course, me being the man, I insisted on doing it myself. Once, I flexed my hand because of the pressure the screwdriver was putting on my palm and she asked if I wanted her to do it for a while. I jokingly told her that she was too weak. Haha. I thought she was going to have a fit. She started off on a tirade about how she does such and such everyday at work until I busted out laughing, letting her know that I was only kidding. She smiled, but gave me one of those looks that told me I had better be kidding, and muttered something under her breath. She still hasn’t completely gotten used to my teasing nature yet, to know exactly when I’m joking. But she’s as bad as I am, though, so I’m sure it won’t take long.

November 7, 2008

Today promised to be another lazy one at work, and it pretty much was. For the first half of my day, all I did was give my co-worker the English lesson that I did last week, since she was busy during that time and wasn’t there. That wasted a little bit of time. As always, I’ll go to the school and talk with the English students this afternoon. No telling what we’ll talk about today. Ha, I haven’t been over there to sing the song that I’m supposed to yet, so I’m sure they will have me doing that before I’ve been there for too long. That will be embarrassing, considering the only Mongolian song that I know is the Mongolian version of “Rain Rain Go Away.” I’ve only heard one Mongolian sing that song, and I think she might have been 4-years-old. Tonight, I was told that there will be another dance at the Culture Centre. As before, it’s supposed to start at 7 o’ clock. Also like before, I’ll wait until later before I show up. You know, just be casually late, like the cool kid in class.

It’s the end of another week for me. This weekend, I hope to have another lazy couple of days. You just can’t beat those. Don’t forget to check out my pictures, if you like. I still couldn’t get all of them uploaded. I will eventually. I hope that you are all good. I miss you. Talk to you later.

October 25, 2008

I woke up and made a quick trip to city today. How was it quick, you ask? Well, let me just tell you the story of my day.

The meeker (microbus) usually gets into UB around 15 til 11. I prefer to walk an hour across town to get to the Peace Corps office, so as to get the exercise and save money, but it was cold and I was in a hurry to get somewhere warm. Walking through the market, I was approached by several taxi drivers offering their services. I would’ve gone with the first one, but he wasn’t willing to take me where I wanted to go, for whatever reason only he knows. The guy who said he would take me where I wanted was as shady looking as the others, but he was willing to take me. My suspicion was raised even more when I had to ask him twice how much it costs per km. That is something you have to ask up front, cause they will do everything they can to cheat you, if you aren’t careful. He told me the price that I was expecting (500tg/km), and when I got in the car with him, I checked his odometer. That is something else you have to watch. If you aren’t paying attention, they can tell you any random number and expect you to pay them accordingly. When we took off, his odometer was on 8. I thought it odd that he didn’t reset it to zero, but didn’t say anything. As we pulled into where I was to get out, the odometer rolled over to 13, making the trip 5 km (3.1 miles). As I was slowly doing some quick math in my head, talking out loud to myself, the driver said, “Thirteen kilometres.” I looked at him oddly and asked him to repeat what he said. I had heard right: he was trying to charge me for 13 km. So, I started arguing with him, telling him that it was on 8 when we left, and now it was on 13, therefore, I should only be charged 2,500tg, not 6,500tg. The whole time, he had this smirk on his face that let me know he thought he was going to be able to get away with something. Luckily, the conversation was simple, so I didn’t falter on my Mongolian. I think that helped. Finally, he said, “Okay, you pay 3,000tg.” Hesitantly, I agreed. When I started counting my money, I only had enough small bills for what the price should have been, and several 10,000tg bills for which he didn’t have change. If I was a really mean-spirited person, I would’ve pressed my advantage and only given him what I had – and I did think about it – but I decided that I didn’t want to make anyone mad. So, we both got out and went in search of finding change. We happened to be right in front of the big movie theatre, so, after asking a street vendor if he had change, we went there. It was full of tweens, and the guy was rushing ahead of me, and a couple of times I had the notion to turn my back on him and disappear into the crowd. Again, I decided that I didn’t want to cheat anyone, so I followed him to the first cash register, then up the stairs to another when she didn’t have change. Both times, the guy kept reaching for my money, trying to make the transaction for me. I had a feeling that if I gave him the money, he would take what he wanted, and there would be no way for me to get it back. I clutched onto that 10,000tg bill like it was all I had. After I’d gotten change and handed him the 3,000tg, he turned and ran like I was chasing him. I guess he knew he got away with something shady and was afraid I was going to make a fuss. If I’d have known Mongolian better, I probably would have, too.

So, that took up more of my time that I wanted, making my visit to the Peace Corps office later than expected. I wasn’t there long, but when I left, I walked another PCV who was in the city to somewhere she didn’t know – which was in the opposite direction of where I was headed. My next stop was at the State Department Store. I found some cheap, non-Mongolian beer that I got. It was still a lager, though. Man, I’m getting tired of those. I would do many things for a hefty hefeweizen, or a wonderful wheat bier. I also, finally, found a toilet brush. My toilet wasn’t exactly clean when I moved in, and in the 2+ months that I’ve been here, it’s only gotten worse. When I got home and cleaned it this evening, it looked like I was in a whole new bathroom.

From there, I went to Cafe Amsterdam, where my computer still wouldn’t connect to the internet. That is really starting to annoy me. Since I formatted my computer, I now have to register my version of Windows and MS Office. I have 13 days left. Maybe I can do it at work, but I’ll be surprised if I can. After my coffee and panini, I didn’t have enough money for a taxi ride to the market and the meeker ride home, so I took off walking across town, with 10 lbs in my back pack, and another 10 lbs in my hands. I made it to the meeker with plenty of time to spare, but only because it left 45 minutes later than scheduled. Well, that’s why I’d taken a book, so I hardly noticed.

For my dinner, I made some cheese and garlic biscuits and gravy that was in one of the packages I received. My favourite breakfast when I was back home was biscuits, gravy, bacon, sunny-side-up eggs, strawberry jam, and a big glass of whole milk to wash it all down. Needless to say, I haven’t had anything like that since being here, and I was really looking forward to those biscuits and that gravy. About 10 biscuits were made, and two cups of gravy. I ate every bit of it, with strawberry jam on top. The biscuits were a little too salty for me, but it was still very good. I dipped a few of the biscuits in Ranch dressing. When I used to work at Red Lobster, I would dip one of their biscuits in Ranch dressing. I could eat a dozen of those things like that, but I only allowed myself one. Well, maybe two if I thought I deserved it. Do you have any idea how many calories are in one of those biscuits? A lot!

October 27, 2008

I hadn’t been at work for 15 minutes when a guy came into my office, asking me for help. I couldn’t imagine what I would be able to help him with, other than some manual labour, but I followed him anyway. When we got down to the second floor, we went into an office where a lady was trying to make a copy machine do what she wanted. How did they know I was a copy machine genius in my previous job? Haha. They couldn’t get the thing to register the size paper they were using, after they had put it into the loader. I took the paper out, placed it into the side loader, pressed the right button, and then hit Copy. It worked perfectly. Yep, I’ve still got copy machine skillz! Yes, with a “z.”

This morning, I went to the school and met with the art teacher. Last week, I received an email about One World’s Classroom cross-cultural art exchange. I thought it was cool, and easy, so I decided to see if the art teacher was interested. He was. Basically, 30 kids will make some art of something that has to do with their culture, and then I’ll mail it to the company. After they receive what I’ve sent, they will send us 30 pieces of art from kids all around the world. If you are interested in learning more, or doing it yourself, here is the link: www.oneworldclassrooms.org/. You don’t have to be a teacher, or even work in the school system, to get the project started. Just do like me and find the art teacher, or if they don’t have one, talk to any teacher. Heck, you might be able to do it with 30 random kids around town. There is an email on there to ask questions, so just ask. The guy seemed nice and had a quick response when I emailed him.

After the meeting, the teacher who works with the student council walked into the room, so I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions. A few weeks ago, she had asked me to help her start a student council. Or, at least, that’s what I thought she was wanting. Come to find out, they already have a student council and she just wanted me to help with it since I am a Youth Volunteer. That changed my questions only slightly. After some talk of what the student council does, I became appalled at some of their rules. The one that got my attention the most, though, is the one that says that if any student misses 45 hours of school, they are kicked out. “For how long,” I asked. “For the rest of the school year,” was the teachers rejoinder. What! Even if, after the first few months of school, a student has missed 45 hours of school, they will be kicked out of school for the rest of the year. I said, “That doesn’t sound right. That could be detrimental to all kinds of things in that kid’s life, if they are forced to miss an entire year of school.” Mongolia is much like America in that if you don’t have a high school diploma, you can’t find a decent job. Not necessarily a good one, but a decent one. I told them that maybe they should think about changing the rules, so maybe there is like a 3 strikes kind of thing. Say, a kid misses 12 hours, they are suspended for a day. If they miss 20 hours, they are suspended for 3 days. If they miss 45 hours, then you can see what, if any, extenuating circumstances might be involved; and then talk about kicking them out for the rest of the year. The teacher said, “In Mongolia, schools are very different than America.” I said that I was well aware of that, and then said: “If a 3-year-old child has been told not to touch something, and then she does, you don’t just haul off and punch her in the face. First, you might pull her hand away and remind her that she isn’t to touch that thing. If she does it again, you might smack her hand and tell her again to not touch that thing. If she does it a third time, you might spank her bottom and tell her, again, she is not to touch that thing. You don’t just haul off and punch her in the face, right off the bat.” I was told that during the days of Mongolia socialism, they were very strict in school, and there are still many things like that. I just shook my head, seeing that I wasn’t going to convince them in just a few minutes, and dropped it. Man, I’m glad I’m not a teacher here.

October 28, 2008

Today was my day to teach at the water company. At the end of my lesson, they asked me to eat with them again, and then paid for it when I said yes. I sat down to another big plate of beef and rice. If they make this a regular thing, they might just move into the spot for my favourite class. While there, I had a new kind of drink calls ardz. When I asked what it was, someone said it was “fat tea,” which made someone else giggle. When I got it, it tasted like warm, thick airag. Not what I was expecting or hoping for. When I looked for the translation in my dictionary, it said that ardz is twice-distilled homemade vodka, or brandy made from milk. I guess it’s just warm, thick airag. I’m glad I had it, but I think I’ll try to avoid it in future.

At the school today, some of the students had made a lot of art using Mongolian script. Mongolian script is written from top to bottom and kind of looks like Arabic to me; but I think it looks better. I have no idea how to read it, though I’ve had several people point out the letters of different words. To make it harder, the sounds that are used when reading script are different that those used in colloquial Mongolian. It’s said that one could write script whilst riding on the back of a horse. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Some of the words are very cool. For example, the word for horse kind of looked like a horse. Same for sheep and bird. I took several pictures, so if I ever get them uploaded, you can see them then.

This afternoon, I ended up in the law consultant’s office. It was three ladies and I, then another guy showed up. I could tell that he was acting a little different, but I had no idea he was drunk until he winked and showed me the vodka bottle in his coat. Next thing I knew, he was pouring some into my empty water bottle. The women all fussed at him and told me not to drink it. I thought it funny when, just a few minutes later, one of them rushed to lock the outer door while another pulled a coffee cup out of her desk and handed it to the guy. They do shots different here. In the U.S., people usually get their own shot glass. They are all filled at the same time and everyone takes the shot together. Here, the person with the bottle has one shot glass/coffee cup/bowl/bottom of a cut up water bottle or whatever else there is to drink out of and pours one shot at a time, passing them out in a circle. I never understand why Mongolians make a big deal out of me drinking the whole shot. There is something cultural going on that I haven’t figured out yet. I don’t know if I set the precedent, or if the guy was just being particularly pushy, but when the girls didn’t finish their shot, he pressed them to do so. I taught them the saying, “Peer pressure is a b----.” I don’t think they got it.

This evening, I was told there would be a dance at the Culture Centre that would start at 7. I waited on Tsegii to get off work, since she said she was coming for tutoring. After a few minutes of going over some technical jargon that the cell phone company had texted to her, we left and got there around 8:30. Before we left, I asked her if she thought it was alright for me to wear the t-shirt and jeans I had on. She laughed and told me I should change. I was glad I did when I got there and saw that not one person was wearing jeans or a t-shirt. It was a good thing I waited on Tsegii: in typical Mongolian fashion, things didn’t get started until after 9. At first, the governor got up and gave away a few plaques, and then there was a performance by a group of high school students. After that, the waltzes started. I’ve already mentioned how I don’t know those, so when I saw people start asking one another to dance – with some asking people to the left and right of me – I got up and vamped. As an excuse, I bought a juice at the store. When I came back, I stood in the corner, behind some guys who were close to my age that didn’t seem any more interested in waltzing that I was. The governor stopped everything two or three more times to give out more plaques, and there was one more performance by a high school student. Tsegii and some other friends pulled me out of my corner and got me to sit with them. Though I was glad to have someone near to talk to, I was nervous about being asked to dance the whole time. I really did not want to get out on the floor in front of everyone, knowing that everyone would be watching my every step. Everyone already watches and comments on everything I do anyway, without me making a fool of myself. There was one drunk guy there, stumbling over his and his partner’s feet, running two or three girls off the floor when he nearly fell over and took them with him, so I didn’t need to be the second stumbler. I wasn’t drunk by any means, but I was so self-conscious that I knew I would be all over everyone’s feet.

It was funny to watch the beginning and end of each waltz. Mongolians, as a people, are fairly shy. If you didn’t know any better, you might think they are rude. But they all seem to enjoy dancing, even if they don’t always have the rhythm for it. Whenever a new waltz was to begin, people would always wait for a few beats before they got up, walk across the room, and ask pretty much anyone to dance. Women could often be seen waltzing together, but of course, men never did. Men would ask any woman to dance, no matter whose girlfriend or wife she might be. The boyfriends or husbands never acted like they cared one bit. They would spin and twirl all over the dance floor with big smiles on their faces. Then, about two notes before the final one, everyone would break up and dash toward the seats. It was like they did not want to be on the floor last, with no music. I barely suppressed my mirth every time.

As usual, the people-watching provided me with plenty of entertainment. That is, until they started the hip-hop music. As soon as they turned the lights down a little and the slow, syrupy thump-thump-thump of the bass got into people’s bones, everyone jumped up and formed their circles. The way they dance to hip-hop is nothing like I’m used to, so I decided to, once again, keep my seat. That is, until they widened the circle until I was practically a part of it. At that point, I felt compelled to get up and shuffle my feet a little. Ha, the drunk guy was there, stomping his feet loudly and off-beat, in the centre of the circle, drawing everyone’s attention. He did that for about five minutes before an older lady came and grabbed him and made him sit down. If there is a drunken guy around being too much of a nuisance, you can always count on some random grandmother to pull him away and say a few stern words to him. At one point, he went around, trying to get people to get in the middle and dance. I think only two people actually did. I knew I was in his sights and I was ready for him. When he reached for my arm, I took his hand and pulled him to me. I thought that might be enough, but he was persistent. One of the ladies quickly came over and told him to leave me alone. People are fairly protective of me around here. It’s kind of nice.

I met one lady, Ariuka, who is the daughter of the dance teacher. She studied English at university and speaks a little, but not very well. Before, I was told that most English teachers in Mongolia don’t speak very good English themselves. They and their students can usually read and write alright, but not speak very well. She wants me to help her get better. I told her if she would teach me how to do Mongolian waltzes, we might be able to work out a deal. I’ll let you know how that goes. Early in the night, when she asked me why I didn’t know how, I told her that very few people in America dance like that anymore, so it is difficult for me. She told me she didn’t like to dance to hip-hop music because it is difficult. I laughed at her, just like she did at me when she kept saying how easy the waltzes were. I’ll show her my hip-hop videos and let her learn that way. Ha, not like there would be anyone else to dance with her like that. Even if she knew how, I wouldn’t, since we would be the only two in the whole town. And if you’ve ever seen the dancing that goes on in most hip-hop videos, you can imagine the kind of rumours dancing like that might start. There’s only one person I dance like that with, and she ain’t here.

Oh, here’s a funny story. When we were talking about waltzes and Mongolian national dances, Tsegii and Ariuka started talking about the American national dance. I just looked at them, confused. I had no idea what they were talking about. After much explanation and repeating, I finally figured out that they were talking about line dancing. I gave them a big guffaw and told them that line dancing is not the national dance. I laughed about that for several minutes.

October 29, 2008

Today, when I got ready to go to the other part of town, the social workers from over there pulled up. There was a big meeting here today, and they came here for the day. I kind of wanted to go there, though, cause there is a store over there that has four different kinds of Mongolian kimchi. I’ve only tried one, and it is awesome. I usually get a ½ kilogram every week, but since this is the second week I haven’t been over there, this will be the second week that I’ll go without. Maybe I can get someone over there to bring some back for me. Man, I sure hope so. I really like that stuff.

So, that put me with nothing to do today. Just to re-emphasise: I don’t mind having nothing to do. I talked to one of my friends the other day, who is also a Youth Volunteer, and he said that he doesn’t do anything more than teach English, also. Last week, my boss asked me what I do when I’m in my office. I looked at her, smiled, and said, “Oh, all kinds of stuff,” then went on to make up some stuff about doing Peace Corps work, planning English lessons, and trying to find other things to work on. Luckily, I really do those things, so I wasn’t lying; but I didn’t tell her how little of my time those things take up. I feel a little bit guilty for not being busy 40 hours a week, but every time I start to, I remember during my training when we were advised to spend the first 6 months just building relationships in the community. At that time, I looked forward to it, and it’s something that I currently enjoy doing. I often stop to say hi and have a short chat with building workers, social workers, firemen, policemen, kids, street sweepers or any other random person I run in to. So far, it’s only had good results, and I can only expect it to get better. Oh, and since informing Americans about the culture of Mongolia is one of the three Peace Corps goals, I consider writing for my blog PC work. That counts, right?

This afternoon, the school had their annual Cinderella fashion show. At first, I thought that they were putting on a play. I found out that the students designed the clothes and also modelled them. It was very well put on. Some of those girls should not have been wearing what they were, though. They are full grown women in all but name, and you could definitely see it in some of the revealing dresses they were wearing. I was surprised that they got away with that at school, let alone at all. I can’t imagine a school in the U.S. allowing something like that.

October 30, 2008

I got some kimchi today! Yay! I got one of the teachers that was in the other part of town to bring some back for me. As soon as I got home, I opened the bag and started chowing down. Man, that stuff is so good. Like I’ve said before, there are four different kinds, but I always get the same one. I’ll have to try the others, eventually.

I got the IT guy to help me connect my computer to the internet today. It wasn’t as simple as plugging the wire into my computer, but he only took a minute to make it work. Something with setting up a new network connection. Have I ever told you about the way internet works here in my town? I don’t think I have. The whole town is on the same network. I mean the entire town: the governor’s office, the school, the water company, any individual. Everyone. When I found out about that, I no longer wondered why I often get a message saying that someone else on the network has the same IP address as me. No wonder. To top it off, the connection is only 100 Mbps. In case you don’t know, that is way slower than dial-up in the U.S. I think that I will buy the wireless thingy that a couple of cell phone companies sell, the next time I go to the city. I haven’t priced it, or the plans, but I think the thing itself costs around $200. That’s a little expensive, and way out of my budget, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. If any of you loving people would like to help me finance this piece of technology that will help my mental health, you will be more than appreciated. My personal banker takes checks on my behalf and will see that they are deposited into my account. If you do, please let me know, so I can thank you properly.

October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

I told my boss and co-worker about Halloween, saying that it was an American holiday. They started shaking my hand and telling me congratulations. Haha. I laughed, telling them that it wasn’t that kind of holiday. We talked about setting up something for next year, for the kids. I’m sure they will get a kick out of dressing up. I’ll most likely get the Culture Centre to work with me. Next year, I’ll ask for ideas on things to do. I’ll let you know how it goes. I know a couple of groups of Volunteers who are having events and parties at their sites. They have more than a few other Volunteers with them, so I can see how it would be much easier for them to set something like that up. I was invited to their parties, but since they are at least a 10-hour meeker ride away, I won’t go. One and a half hours to go to the city is too much for me. Those things get cramped. A couple buddies back in the U.S. are having parties, too. I wish I could be there. Our Halloween parties were always loads of fun. Ha, I’ll never forget the year that I and another buddy dressed as a clown. Fitting, most people thought. I have a picture of us here, in my apartment. Whenever Mongolians see it, they always laugh and wonder why I’m dressed like that. They have a holiday in the spring that has similarities – they dress in their finest and go door to door, eating “boats” and drinking vodka – but I don’t think they quite get Halloween. Maybe next year.

Well, it’s the end of another week, and I’m looking forward to a lazy weekend. I really need to wash some clothes. I’ve been putting that off for about a week now. I wish they had dryers in Mongolia. Well, I’m sure they do, but not that I’ve ever seen for sale. I think I’ll cook some good food this weekend, too. During the week, I usually get lazy about cooking and make simple pasta meals. I love pasta, so it’s never a problem, but I always want “boats.” Since those things take hours to prepare, I don’t cook them that much. Some women go home and make them on their lunch break. They are fast about what they do, though. Most women here I’ve seen handling kitchen knives can do it as fast as any TV-chef I’ve ever seen. Ha, one time, Tsegii was watching me cut something and said, “Let me do that,” as she grabbed the knife from me. She was either hungry, or was tired of watching me plod my way through that carrot.

I hope you all are good. I miss you. Have fun partying tonight, and please be careful. Send pics!

October 18, 2008

This morning, I went to the school. There was another volleyball tournament going on, this time between area adults. Everyone kept asking if I was going to play, but that isn’t what I went there for. There is a small room that I’ve been told I can use to play footbag. Before I came to Mongolia, that was what I did to get my exercise. A good hour of jumping and kicking will get me as sweaty as anything else I could do. And it’s easy on my old-man knees, too. Boy, am I out of shape. After only 30 minutes, and only getting a paltry 62 kicks in a row (a long way from my record), I was ready to finish. When the kids opened the door and saw what I was doing, that is what decided me. Every time I started to play before, kids always ran up and wanted to play, often taking my footbag off by themselves. Mongolians don’t play the way Americans do. And the kids seem to care less about sharing; unless it’s you they want to share with them. I don’t mind playing with someone else, as long as they play by the rules I’m used to. It seems I’m a little stingy with my footbag, huh? Oh well. I don’t care. I prefer to do it by myself.

The room I was in had mats on the floor, so when I finished, the boys started wrestling American style. Now that’s something I could quickly get into with another person. The boys were all small at about 12 years old, but I wrestled with them anyway. About the time they were tired of me beating them, a guy in his 20’s came in. Before I knew it, he and I were wrestling, American style. Right off the bat, he jacked me up (a wrestling term) and put me on my back. Dang it! The boys were all watching, and my pride was hurt, so we went at it again. I won the next four rounds. Yay! It was all I could do to stand up, but obviously, his pride was hurt, cause he asked me to wrestle Mongolian style with him. I couldn’t refuse, so I gave it my best. For a second, I actually thought I was going to win, too. At the very last second, when I was behind him, working him to the ground, he shifted just enough to make my knee touch first. Ah well. Can’t win them all. When I was finished, I was reminded of exactly what a mat-burn is. I have them all over: knees, elbows, forehead, even on the back of my ear. I’m totally worn out, too. So out of shape.

Not long after getting home and bathing, Muugy came over. She told me she would cook my lunch if I gave her some tutoring. That was an easy deal to make. The first thing she did, though, was fix my steamer. I wrote before about how the wire blew itself in two when I plugged it into the power strip, taking the power strip as a casualty, also. I showed her and she pretty much said, “Give me that thing. I’ll show you a thing or two,” then proceeded to take the connector apart, strip the wire, and put it all back together. When we plugged it in – this time making sure that it went directly into the wall, and not the power strip, so only one thing would blow – it worked like nothing had ever happened. Sweet! She then proceeded to cook the dumplings whose name is pronounced like “boats.” She had just enough dough at the end left for one more, but no meat, so she stuffed that one with kimchi, saying that the lucky person would get that one. I have a feeling she knew which one it was when she put it on my plate, cause I got it. That one turned out to be as good as, if not better than, the regular ones. I don’t know how many she made, but she only ate a few, and I finished all the rest. Man, I love those kind of English lessons.

October 19, 2008

I got to sleep late today, but I didn’t get out of the bed for over an hour later as I finished reading the book I was on. I wasn’t up and around long before Tseegi came. At one point, she got up and wondered into the kitchen and saw my dirty dishes. She just smiled at me, tsk-tsked a few times, and then proceeded to wash them. Wow, what a surprise. Mongolian men have it made. When she finished, I figured out why she went in there in the first place. For some reason, she had to work today (on a Sunday!!) and hadn’t eaten anything all day. She said something about eating all my peanut butter, so to keep her from that, I taught her how to make spaghetti. To me, it turned out freaking-A awesome, but I don’t think she liked it as much. Either that, or the hot peppers I put in it had her on fire. She didn’t complain at all, though, and ate most everything that was in her bowl. When we finished, we made some fiesta Ranch, just so she could see what it was, since I didn’t have any already made. She said she liked it. Just wait: I’m going to have this whole town liking Ranch dressing before I leave.

October 20, 2008

Last night, I was so sore I couldn’t sleep well. I mean, my entire body is sore. Even my ears! As tired as I was, and as sore as I was yesterday, too, I don’t know why it took me forever to go to sleep, then rest well once I got there.

When I walked into my office this morning, it was a balmy 29 degrees C (84.2 F). I guess they were right when they talked about my office being warm in the winter. I wasn’t here long before my boss came in and told me about the Open Door Day that was going on at the culture centre and told me to go with her. She said it was a festival and had me thinking it was going to be something fun. Wrong. When I got there, all the organisations (Social Policy Dept., Police Dept., Fire Dept., Insurance, et. al) were there, set up around the room. They all had signs and fliers and tools of their trade. I was told to sit with one of my co-workers, at the table designated for us, and answer anyone’s questions. I smiled and said okay. Basically, I sat there and watched everyone else do their thing. Finally, I got up to walk around and check out other organisations. At the hospital’s station, I got my blood pressure checked and weighed myself. I don’t know what my blood pressure was, but they said it was good. I weighed 82 kg (180.77lbs). That means I’ve lost at least 5 lbs since being in Mongolia. Not bad. We’ll see how the winter treats me. I hear that guys usually lose a lot of weight, trying to stay warm. It was really a boring day, with nothing much to do, but the company was alright. The “land” company was on one side of us and the hospital on the other. Ha, at the end of the day, the hospital hadn’t gotten rid of all their condoms, so my co-worker grabbed a handful and thrust them at me. One of the social workers and a couple of guys were there, and they all started laughing when I blushed and told them I had no need for the condoms. They assured me that I did, then started naming off different women in town. OMG! I think my face was as red as my shirt as they forcibly stuck them into my coat pocket. When we got back to the office this afternoon, my co-worker found that someone had stuffed her coat-pocket full, too. We both got a good laugh out of that.

I was invited to play volleyball with some people, so this evening, I went to the school. They said they would start at 8. So, what did I do? I made sure that I was there promptly at 8. It was a chilly, dark walk. The stars were as bright as could be. When I got there, no one was there. I don’t think I was really too surprised. I was well on my way back when I ran into the gym teacher and his three sons. They were on their way to play volleyball, so I went back with them. We played for a good 20 minutes before anyone else showed up; but not the people who invited me. After about an hour of hitting, we finally began playing a game. It’s been years since I’ve hit a volleyball for real, but I didn’t seem to be doing too bad. I was definitely better than a few of the people there. We played for almost 2 hours, with a couple other people coming later. It was nice to work out some of my soreness, but now I will have bruises on my forearms from digging spikes to go along with the ones I still have from wrestling. Ah well. As I’ve said before: I’m tough. Or was that dumb?

October 21, 2008

At the end of my English lesson at the water company, they invited me to have lunch with them. Considering where I am, their kitchen/cafeteria is very nice, and all kinds of people go there for lunch: teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and of course, the people who work at the water company. They sat down a big plate of rice and beef in front of me and wouldn’t let me pay for it. Sweet! It was very good. I think that is only the second or third time that I’ve had beef since being in Mongolia. I miss it! I don’t know where to buy it around here. I’ll have to get on finding some, but I think it costs more than mutton. I’ll let you know.

October 22, 2008

I was awakened at 5 this morning by a sour stomach. You know, where your stomach feels all weird, and you have those nasty burps that taste and smell sickly sweet, like rotten eggs. Gross. By the time I was to get up and get ready for work, I still hadn’t gone to sleep, so I called my boss and told her that I would stay home. For the rest of the day, I was practically chained to the bathroom. It seemed like I would barely get sat down in the living room before I was up and running again. I finally got some sleep in the middle of the day, but it wasn’t very restful.

Of course, the few dishes that I’d used during the day were still sitting in the sink, dirty, when Tsegii showed up. She gave me that look again and started washing them when she walked into the kitchen. When she finished, she smiled and said, “See: easy.” I told her that when I’m sick, the last thing I’m worried about is whether my dishes are clean. She had brought her niece with her. She was a cute little girl, 5-years-old, and very shy. It took her a while to warm up to me, but like all kids, she eventually did. She had a cold, too, and didn’t cover her mouth while she was coughing, so we’ll see if I catch her cold in the next day or two. Man, I hope not. I hear that several people around town are sick right now. Please pray for me to stay healthy.

October 23, 2008

I felt much better when I woke up this morning. I could’ve used a lot more sleep, but at least I can go to work. And, boy, was it cold! It snowed yesterday morning and all the previous night. That, mixed with the wind, had me pulling up the hood on my coat. The other night, I got a text from Peace Corps saying that the weather is about to really get bad, with snow and winds up to 18-20m/sec. That’s a big difference than in my office, where I was almost sweating, since I’d put on my long underwear this morning. I’ve had to intermittently open the window, so as to cool down some. But only for a few seconds. When I walked into the building this morning, a couple of guys asked me if I was “cool.” I said, “Yes, always.” Mongolians definition of cool is my definition of cold; and their definition of cold is my definition of insane. They asked me if it was cold outside and I told them it was very very cold. They got a big laugh out of that.

I was invited to play volleyball again, so this time, I waited until 20 after 8 before I left my apartment. Before I left, I got my big, fuzzy hat and gloves, thinking that I really wouldn’t need them. Before I got to the school, I wished that I’d gotten my scarf, too. My face was freezing! The snow was compacted into ice, and with the wind blowing so hard, I had a hard time walking. At the school’s gym, people were already in the middle of playing a game of volleyball, which meant I had to wait before I could play. I was surprised that everyone was there on time. Some of the guys that played tonight were really good. Once, though, I actually blocked a guy’s spike. That made me feel good. Ha, and everyone else in the gym started giving the guy a hard time. Pretty funny.

October 24, 2008

I got a package from my cousin Chad and his wife, Chasity, this morning. Yay! Thank you guys so very much. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. There were beans, spices, Pop Tarts, peanut butter, deodourant, Ranch, pasta, toothpaste, gum, and candy. One of the candies is Circus Peanuts. Have you ever had those? OMG! I freaking love those things. On the ingredients list, it says that all they are made of is sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, artificial colours and artificial flavours. I’ve loved those things ever since I was a kiddo. Yum! Like I told them: don’t let your kids eat these. If you do, from that point on, they will be addicted to them. Some people don’t like them, but I think there must be something wrong with them. They are deliciousness in a bag. Yum! One of the Mongolians took one bite and held it in his hand until he left my office. Later, when I was leaving the building, I saw where he had thrown it on the ground. Oh, and how could I forget. There was a couple of pieces of art from sweet little Haley. She’s always made stuff for me, and I’ve always kept them in my office. I will put one in my office and I will put the other one in my apartment.

For lunch, I went with my co-worker and another lady to some building behind our office. I don’t know what they do there, but I think it has something to do with water. We went to the back and found a guanz (diner). I had no idea that was there. I’m very excited to have found it. We had hoshor, and they paid for it. Can’t beat that.

Today is my free day, so the only thing I have planned is to go and talk with the English students at the school. Last week, they told me they like Rock music. Mongolian Rock is a little different than American Rock, though. All their kinds of music are different, actually. Sometimes, they might sound the same, but they are mostly different. Ha, one of the most popular songs in Mongolia right now is by a guy who sings about missing his mother’s milk tea. And their hip-hop is nothing compared to American hip-hop, once you get past the surface. Sure, the guys look all gangsta, with their pants sagging and their bling; but the words are anything but. With the hardest look on their face, they rap about how much they miss their mommas or girlfriends; how they like to hang out with their friends from school; or how they want to do good in life so they can be successful. I know, I know: American rappers say the same thing: but the language is so harsh and vulgar that you would never guess, until you’ve delved into the psyche of the culture. Anyway. I’ve chosen a few Rock songs for them to listen to and typed out the lyrics for them. We will go over two songs by Cake: Let Me Go and When You Sleep. (I just realised that I typed an email to someone earlier and told them the name of one of the songs wrong. You know who you are. Sorry about that.)

Now, I think I’m going to post this, then get my camera and walk to yonder hill and take a few pictures of the snowy countryside. I’ll go to the city tomorrow, and hopefully (please, please, please) my computer will be back to normal. If so, I’ll post some pics for you. I hope you all are good.

P.S. So, I didn’t post this before going to the top of that hill. First, I took my box o’ goodies home and got my camera. It took longer to walk up to the top of that hill than I thought. The whole time, I was walking right into a head wind. I thought my ears might freeze, crack, and fall off before I could get there. Then, guess what. When I pulled my camera out for pictures, the battery had just enough juice in it to come on and tell me that it was low before turning itself off. Doh! I’ve learned a trick to get every last bit of power out of it, though, so I got a few pictures. On the walk back, with my hood up, and the wind at my back, it wasn’t too cold. The wind has been blowing so hard that it has packed the snow very densely. I literally skated across some drifts that were about a foot and a half deep. Fun.

October 11, 2008

As tired as I was when I went to bed, I couldn’t sleep past 9:30 this morning. I guess my body has gotten used to waking up early. Man, that kind of sucks. I can’t tell you enough how I like to sleep late. My mom likes to tell me that she trained me to sleep late when I was a baby. Something must’ve worked, cause if sleeping was a hobby, I would excel at it.

English lessons with Tsegii continued tonight. She stopped by and cooked tsuivan for me! That was not planned, and a bit unexpected, but I ate the heck out of it. After sleeping, eating would probably have to be my number 2 hobby. Especially when someone else does the cooking. She had a really hard time with the word “spatula.” She couldn’t understand why it was pronounced with a “ch” instead of a “t.” I tried to explain Etymology to her, but I don’t think she really understood. Oh, and she even cleaned up, without me asking her, while I was eating. Gotta love those Mongolian women.

I heard rumours of one of the political parties bribing drunk, poor, and mentally disabled voters. I heard they were just blatantly going around and giving money and vodka. There is a three day ban on the sale of alcohol, so they either bought it early, or got some store to sell it to them illegally. It wouldn’t be hard to get the stores to do that. I guess the thinking goes that if one store doesn’t sell you something, the one right next door will, so they might as well go ahead and take your money. I bought a beer myself tonight. The store owner just made sure to wrap it well and told me to put it in my bag. I didn’t know there was a ban until later.

I stayed up late, showing the English teacher American hip-hop videos and the differences between Mongolian and American dancing. Her name is Moogie, by the way. When it got to the parts with the girls shaking their butts the way they do, her eyes got big. It was a bit humourous. I asked her if she could do that and she said, “No way!”

October 12, 1008

I finally slept late this morning. Oh, how nice that was. After lying in bed and reading for a while, I went to check out the election goings-on. I had a hard time getting in, til my boss saw me and said it was ok. There was a policeman at the door, checking everyone’s voter registration cards before he let them in, and even though he knew who I was, and what I was doing there, he tried to strong arm me. I don’t like that kind of stuff. I asked my boss why he was being like that. She was about to go over and give him a talking-to, but I told her not to worry about it. The last thing I need is a cop to have a grudge against me in a town as small as this one.

I bought some horse meat today. I’ve been interested in trying it for a while, just to say that I did. I’ll let you know what I think about it when I cook it. Next on my list of things to try is marmot. A guy in the other part of town told me he would have some for me sometime. I told him that I’d had squirrel before. He didn’t know what that is. The best way I could describe it was to say that it is a tree marmot.

I went back to the election building for dinner. My boss had told me to get there at 4, so I was sure to show up a few minutes early. For once, they were actually ahead of time and eating already. We had that stuff that is pronounced like “whore hog.” It was very good, with lots of spices. I’m always surprised when I eat anything made my Mongolians that has spices in it other than salt.

This evening, I watched a movie called Idiocracy. It’s very funny, about this guy who is the most average guy in the whole world. He is in the military and they do an experiment where he is to be frozen for one year, but, of course, something goes wrong and he’s frozen for 500 years. When he wakes up, absolutely everyone has an IQ lower than 80. The movie makes it like something could very well happen to make people that way, so if I got anything from the movie, it’s this: make your kids learn something! Whew, those people were dumb!

October 13, 2008

When I went to work this morning, people had been awake all night, counting votes. Obviously, they were happy about the results, cause there was a celebration that was just finishing as I was on the way up the stairs. There were all kinds of drunken people, shaking my hand and telling me congratulations. I just smiled big and told them the same. Everyone was tired, though, so they soon went home. That left me being one of the very few people in the building, with nothing to do all day, and I didn’t mind a bit. I was told by one of my trainers to always have a book handy, and I’ve made sure to follow that advice.

I’m not sure if mentioned this before, but I found a lady in my office that sells phone units at cost! I’m very excited about this. Now I don’t have to make a special trip to the other side of town when I need them. Also, she does it where I give her money, she puts my number in her phone, then sends a text. Within seconds, the units are added to my phone. It’s very easy. Plus, I’d rather give my money to someone I know, instead of some random person. You know, that whole, think global, shop local kind of thing.

October 14, 2008

One of my co-workers is pregnant. We found out a week or two ago. Since then, whenever I walk into her office, she looks horrible. She says that she is always sick and throwing up, and hardly ever eats. I was the lucky witness of her throwing up, once, when I went to the restroom. (Bathrooms here are, for the most part, unisex.) I feel bad for her. Another time, I was walking outside and saw her, from a distance, suddenly bend over and start throwing up. Man, I’m glad I don’t have to go through that kind of stuff. Other than the being sick part, she’s excited about it. She told me that since she already has a daughter, she really wants to have a boy. Cross your fingers for her.

October 15, 2008

Today was my day to work in the other part of town. For the first part of the day, I tutored two of the social workers in English. With some of the people that I’m around on a regular basis, I can already see an improvement in their speaking. Their writing is not too bad, but when it comes to speaking, they get as twisted around as I do when I speak Mongolian.

For lunch, I was fed by one of the social workers. I like that part of going over there. Her name is Ganaa. She’s the one with the baby girl that I played with. I played with her more, today. While I was there, it started snowing. When I had to get back out in it, the ever-present wind made it colder than it was, and I was cursing myself because I hadn’t expected it and hadn’t worn the coat for it. I just had my dress coat on.

I was supposed to go to the train station, to teach English, but the boss was “busy,” so I didn’t go. That left me with not doing anything much at all for the rest of the day. I left early and came back to my office. I think I’m the only one who stays til 6. At least on my floor; and especially on Fridays. Today, I went home at 5:30. I figured that since no one was there, and I wasn’t doing anything, my boss wouldn’t care even if she knew.

I cooked some horse meat with my meal tonight. It wasn’t bad, just a bit tough. I have a friend from Uzbekistan who went home to my mom’s house with me one time. For dinner, we had venison. He had never had it. After his first bite, he said, “Hm, tastes kind of like horse.” I think my mom shared my surprise. I mean, I knew that people eat horse meat. I just didn’t know that one of my friends had. I kept thinking of that, as I was chewing and chewing and chewing on the horse meat, trying to see if I thought it tasted like venison. I guess I can see how they kind of taste the same. I prefer venison. I probably won’t buy it again, though, but only cause it is so tough.

October 16, 2008

There is a lady in my building that came into my office today, wearing a Playboy shirt. I asked her if she knew what it meant and she said she did. When I asked her to tell me – in Mongolian, so I would be sure she understood – she told me that it meant “playing boy (child).” I got a good laugh out of that; then an even harder one when I proceeded to tell her what it really meant. First, I showed her the translation, but that only translated to “player.” You know, a guy who fools with a lot of different women, all at the same time. She wrinkled her nose at that. Then, I showed her Playboy’s website. (There is nothing explicit to be seen on there, without a paid subscription, so don’t worry about me showing her any porn. And, no, I don’t have a paid subscription, either.) I explained that it is a magazine that shows naked women and laughed at the look on her face as she told me that Mongolians don’t have any idea that that is what Playboy is all about. I told her American’s do, and since she and I were the only ones who knew, I would keep her secret for her. Pretty funny.

This afternoon, after my English lesson with the people in my building, I went to hang out with students at the school. They take English classes all the time, but they asked Moogie if I would go and just talk with them, for practice. Sure, no problem. They didn’t seem to have the problems that most of the people I teach do, with all the letters and how to pronounce them and stuff. The only time I stumped them was with the “th” sound. They’ve been practicing for a while, but they still struggle with that. When I told them I, and many other English speakers, have a problem hearing the four different “O” sounds of Mongolian, they looked at me like I was weird. It was like I’d told them I didn’t understand why water is wet. When talking about where I’m from, I taught them a new word, too: humid. I don’t think it translates exactly. After that, they asked me to teach them more new words. Hm, I don’t know what I’ll come up with, but I’m sure there are plenty. If nothing else, I can always teach them some of my slang. If you’ve ever had a conversation with me in person, you know that I’m full of slang words and sayings. Ha, I’ve had the explanation of one sentence last 20 minutes once, and that’s when I was talking to Moogie, the best English speaker in town.

I had teased the students and told them that if they all came to cook for me, I would give them all the English practice they wanted. I couldn’t talk them into it. I’m sure it’s cause they cook at their own houses. I’m not sure, but Moogie may have felt bad for me, cause she brought over some bansh soup. First, she asked me if I was interested. I asked her if a bear…. Just kidding. I told her that I was always interested in free food that someone else has cooked. By the way, bansh is boiled meat dumplings. Very good. There were some pieces of dumplings in the soup without meat. I asked her why they were like that, mostly just teasing. She told me they are called “lying dumplings,” cause they make you think there is more than what there really is.

October 17, 2008

When I woke up this morning, it was overcast outside. It’s hard to look outside and see what the temperature is going to be like, but I have learned not to chance a cloudy day in Mongolia. I wore my heavy coat, just to make sure I would be warm enough. Sure enough, by the time I began the walk to my office, there was snow on the verge of rain. It wasn’t long after getting settled behind my desk that it had turned to real snow. The snow only lasted a little while, though the day kept its cloud covering.

This morning, all I did was tutor Muugy. Her name is pronounced the same as Moogie’s, but for the sake of clarification on who is who, I will spell it the way she does. Muugy is the same lady that came in wearing the Playboy shirt the other day. Her English isn’t very good at all, but she seems to really want to learn. Sometimes we will text each other. The next day, she’ll come into my office, with everything I said written out, wanting to know what it means. Hm, that explains why she answered, “Okay,” when I said, “What are you talking about? You’re confusing the heck out of me.” Ha, I guess that’s a little payback for when she comes into my office, talking as fast as she can in Mongolian, then asking me if I understand. I think she is learning that the look on my face when she says a word I don’t know means that I don’t understand. She’s stopped asking me and just started reaching for the dictionary.

This afternoon, I will go to the school again. The students asked that I make a regular, weekly appointment with them. I told them Fridays are the days I can do whatever I want. They usually watch a movie, in English, at the time that I’m going. They decided that they’d rather I come and talk with them instead. That will be fun, I’m sure.

This week, I haven’t written all this out on the day it happened, like I usually do. Instead, I’ve been lazy and only taken notes. That’s made some of these stories hard to remember, and I’m sure not as interesting as they may have been otherwise. From now on, I think I’ll stick to my old way of doing it. Sorry if this isn’t as entertaining as usual.

Also, I want to apologise for any double emails that you may get from me. I’ve mentioned the low-quality internet service before. Sometimes, I’ll try to send an email and I’ll get a message saying that it didn’t send, so I hit the button to retry it. Later, I’ve found out that some people have gotten the same email from me twice, or thrice. So, if that happens to you, that is the reason.

I hope you all are good. One day, I will get into the city and upload some more pictures for you. The Peace Corps is supposed to come and visit me sometime this month, but I don’t know when. I’ll tell you more about that when it happens. Take care. See ya.

October 6, 2008

Well, I still didn’t get my computer fixed this weekend, so I haven’t been able to write in a few days. It’s Monday morning now, and I’m at work, with nothing to do. So let’s see if I can catch you up on a few things.

Friday night found me celebrating Brother Baasan’s Birthday. He’s an alright fella, and everyone seems to like him, so I drank a few beers in his honour as I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith, with Spanish subtitles. Do you guys know about the Rosetta Stone language company? Well, I have the Latin-American Spanish version and had studied it some before I came to Mongolia. I actually had had the entire set for a couple of years, but a good bit of lackadaisicalness never allowed me to learn Spanish as good as I could/should have. Anyway, during the movie, the local English teacher came over. Her English is pretty good, but she still doesn’t understand all the slang. So that, along with me reading the Spanish subtitles and getting a kick out of them changing the words to make it rated PG, had her confused about what was being said.

Saturday, I woke up early to go into the city. Instead of riding the meeker (microbus), I rode in a friend’s car. He only charged me 500tg more than the meeker, for a total of 3000tg, and the extra room was worth it. When I got into the city, he took me across town, for the same freaking price. I guess, since we were in the city, he decided to be a taxi-driver all on a sudden, and started charging accordingly: 500-600tg/km. Sheesh!

My first stop was at the hotel restaurant that is right next to the Peace Corps office. I had been craving tsuivan, so I ordered some and told them I would be back to pick it up. When I went back, they gave me four slices of bread, an egg, a small serving of chocolate spread, and a packet of tea. “Um, this is not what I ordered,” I told them. She looked at me like I was the one in the wrong, and then told me they didn’t have what I had ordered. Well, why in the heck didn’t you tell me that in the first place?

After an uneventful stop at the PC office, I set off across town in search of tsuivan. I don’t know how many places I went into that told me they didn’t have it. How in the heck can a Mongolian restaurant in the capital not have a traditional Mongolian dish? I was getting frustrated, but my craving for tsuivan drove me on. I eventually found a place that was charging 3,700tg per plate. That’s about 1,200tg more than it should have been, but I was really ready for it by that point, so I just paid the price. I won’t say it was worth the expense, but it was good and fulfilled my craving. For a few days, anyway.

From there, I went to Cafe Amsterdam for my usual chocolate mocha and free wi-fi. Only this time, I found that my wi-fi catcher isn’t working. Grr! This computer thing is really starting to get on my nerves. I left there and went to the State Department Store and bought mushrooms and tomato sauce. Man, that stuff ain’t cheap. It will be worth it, though, when I make some spaghetti.

When I had left in the morning, I told my boss that I was going into the city and asked her to find out what time the last meeker would be coming back home. She told me, “Three o’ clock, I think. I’ll find out for sure and let you know.” At 2, I asked her what she had found out. Her response: “Oh, the last meeker just left. I’ll see if I can find you a ride.” Luckily, there was a lady from my town who was still in the city that drove to where I was and picked me up. The best part was that she didn’t charge me anything for the ride. I was really grateful for that. I don’t know how many times we stopped before we made it home, but I remember waking up at least three different stores. I kept dosing off during the ride. I went into one of them and found what I thought was a neat looking computer game. At 6,000tg, I thought it fairly cheap, so I got it. That’s where more troubles began.

When I got home, I was in a bad mood and wanted nothing more than to zone out in front of a neat looking video game. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I can get addicted to those things if I’m not careful, wasting away an entire day. Anyway, I began installing the game on my computer and made it about this far [_____]. It asked for a key-code. “Key-code?” I asked. How in the heck am I supposed to have a key-code when I bought an illegal version of a game from some vendor in a shop who probably bought an illegal version himself and made several copies of it to sell to unsuspecting people like myself? Dang it, man! By that time, it was close enough to my bed time, so I hit the sack, deciding to go to my office the next day and see what I could find on the internet.

Sunday, I got out of the bed just in time to still be able to say that it was morning when I did. I brought my laptop, all the installation discs, and the game that I’d bought, just to see if I could figure anything out while I was here. As expected, there was no way for me to just unplug the internet cord from the back of my work computer, put it into my laptop, and make it work. I don’t know why, but it just didn’t work. I did find a key-code on the internet for the game, though. I used it and finally got the game installed. Does that make things work, though? Nope, sure doesn’t. There are two discs to the game, and no matter which one I put in, it kept saying, “Wrong disc,” even though, at that point, I shouldn’t have had to deal with a disc at all. After further internet research, I found that the game (even a legitimate version) is a crappy one; and everyone I saw, on every forum that I came across, had the same problems I did. So, if you come across a game called Empire Earth III, I advise you to not even pick it up – no matter how cool it looks. I read that there were some patches I could download to make things work, so after some more research, I found what I thought I needed and put them on a thumb drive for when I went home.

Somewhere during all of this, Tsegii came to my office. She had some free time, and as always, was looking for some free tutoring. She doesn’t know the least thing about computers, so our lesson consisted of setting up an email account for her and sending an email to someone she met in S. Korea, whom she isn’t sure will even remember her. Because of all the frustration I was experiencing, it was nice to have some company.

When she left, I got on the internet with Dell to see what I could do about getting all the components of my computer to work like they did when I first pulled it out of the box. I had always heard that Dell had such a great support team, so I was eager to get my problems fixed easily. Yeah, well, don’t believe everything you hear. On Dell’s website, there is a way to chat with a live person, 24/7. I was connected to, and talked to, five different people and was disconnected five times, and nothing got fixed. At this point, I have nothing but scathing remarks about Dell’s support team. Maybe if I were able to call them and spend a million tugrogs trying to figure out how to get things fixed, they might be better at their job. As it was, I’m left with the impression that their online chatting service sucks. All I found out is that there was a disc that was supposed to have been included with my computer for one of the programs that came installed. They told me they will mail a copy of the disc, but only to a U.S. address. Argh!

Finally, I got tired of messing with them, so I went home to try to install the patches I’d downloaded for my game. Click-click-click…things seemed to be going alright. I clicked on the game: nothing. Ahh, soog! About that time, a bunch of malware and spyware warnings started popping up, along with automatic icons being added to my desktop for Gay Fetish Porn. Nothing against Gay Fetish Porn, if that’s your thing; but it ain’t my thing. And, of course, since I had recently formatted my computer, I didn’t have any kind of virus software. I tried to ignore the pop-ups, resolving to work on it today, but it wouldn’t even leave me alone so I could watch a movie. So, again, I formatted my computer last night.

Grrr! That has put me in such a bad mood. During training, we were told that there would be highs and lows of our Peace Corps experience. Sometimes they can be set off by the most random things, and in either direction, they can be extreme. I think, being a little lonely, on top of dealing with this stupid computer crap has me at a low. What a stupid thing to get down about. For me, that makes it even worse. Please pray for me. I know that I will be alright before long, but for the moment, I can hardly think straight.

And I get/have to teach an English lesson today. Blah!

It’s easy to see how some Peace Corps Volunteers across the world could become alcoholics. If you’ve ever gotten drunk, you know that alcohol can make you forget all your problems, for a while. “For a while” is the key phrase. Luckily, I know that alcohol is a depressant that only makes things worse, during and after its effects have taken place. Still, the allure to go buy a two litre bottle of Borgio and see how fast I can drink it is there. Good thing I’m poor. Good thing I live in a fishbowl, where everyone knows everything I do. The last thing I need is for all the Mongolians to be talking about “the American who likes to get drunk all the time.”

So, again, I ask that you please pray for me. As I said, I know I’ll be okay before long, but still.

Oh, and it was very dreary when I walked to work this morning. I think I’ve written before how it’s unusual for it to be that way, with there being an average of something like 280 sunny days per year. I was expecting rain or something. Luckily, or not, it’s too cold for that. I did see a few snow flurries, though. A very few. From what I understand, it doesn’t snow very much here, since there isn’t much precipitation; but when it does snow, it stays forever, since it is so cold.

October 7, 2008

Last night, before bed, I got a text from someone here in town telling me that it was going to snow today. I thought nothing about it, figuring it would be much like yesterday’s flurries. On my way to work, it was just as dreary as yesterday, but there was no snow to be seen. Less than an hour later, when I was on my way to do my thing with the social workers, it had begun to snow in earnest. The flakes are really small, like flurries, but there are millions, billions, even trillions of them on the wind. I think I’ve mentioned before how windy it is here. Looking out my office window, the snow seems to be moving at right angles to the earth. (Ha, all on a sudden, I’m reminded of that scene in Forrest Gump, when he’s in Vietnam, talking about the rain coming from all directions.) It’s a good thing I got the coat I did recently. There is a hood on it, and when I pull it up, in comes down almost to my nose. Any other time that might annoy the heck out of me, but it’s been alright today. It’s keeping me warm, and that’s all I’m worried about.

Today, before I could get out of the building, I was whisked away with no idea where I was going or what I was going to be doing when I got there. I was taken to the police station, put into a room with a chalkboard, and was told to teach them English. Drat! I spent right at an hour going through the alphabet and a few words for each letter. Exactly like the English lesson I taught last week, they had the same problems with letter combinations. “Th” came out as “t;” “W” and “V” were often interchanged; “F” was often, but not always, pronounced like a “P;” and several others that I mentioned before. The worst part of the whole thing was the rag I was given to wipe the chalkboard. A long time ago I was taught the difference between a rag and a towel when I worked at Red Lobster. “Rag” is often used by lower-class, uneducated people, I was told. Don’t fuss at me: that’s what I was told. When I was raised, I learned to call it a rag and thought nothing of it. It seemed a bit hoity-toity to make a big deal out of the distinction between a rag and a towel. Also, a rag can be a towel that is really worn out. Today, I had a towel that was really worn out, which totally made it a rag. That wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was that whatever water it had been dipped in made it smell like it had been used to clean toilets. I didn’t realise where the smell was coming from until about half-way through my lesson. By that point, it was all over my hands, too. Yuck! I was taken straight from there and went to a place that, I think, has something to do with water facilitation. I didn’t really understand what was said to me when I asked where we were going. I taught the same lesson, and had the same problems – minus the smelly rag.

After my lunch, I went to the social worker’s office. They all seemed engrossed in whatever they were doing. When I asked what they wanted me to do now, they just looked at each other, had a verbal exchange, shrugged their shoulders, and then went back to whatever it was they were doing. I stayed there for a few minutes, and then went in search of the lady to cut my hair. I’ve already been there once in the last week, and neither time has she been there. Like before, I got my boss to call her and set up an appointment. I still haven’t learned that language, but I think I can get her to not cut it the way I don’t want to.

Speaking of, it’s about that time. I will step gingerly through the muddy snow to get there. Mongolians place a lot of importance on having clean footwear. I’m very surprised about this, since barely anything is paved; and what is paved has as much mud on it as if it wasn’t. It’s a chore to miss all the mud puddles and keep your shoes clean. Maybe I’ll be adept at it by the time I leave here. We’ll see.

October 8, 2008

I finally got around to finishing my laundry last night. I have just felt so lazy lately that I’ve let it pile up. Do you remember back in the summer, when I was living with my host family, how I wrote about one of my favourite shirts getting stained and messed up? My host-mom had put a new, gold towel in the wash, and it must have been right next to the one shirt. The baby blue polo shirt now has gold splotches on it. Well, I washed that same towel with my laundry this time, thinking that it would be okay. Nope. Once again, one of my favourite shirts has gold splotches on it, along with some of my white undershirts. Drat! The undershirts, I’m not too worried about; but my favourite shirt…. Grr! I really really liked that shirt. I guess I have learned my lesson about putting things like that in the wash with my nice clothes. I’ve always been one to learn a lesson the hard way. Once I learn it, though, you’d better believe that I’ll get it right from then on.

Today, I went to the other part of town. It took a while to find a ride over there. For over an hour, I taught half of the alphabet and accompanying words to the social workers. It was 45 minutes past my break time when we were interrupted.

I went with one of the young guys to have lunch at his place. While we were eating, he told me, “I like fat.” We had been talking about whether we were married or had girlfriends, so I knew he wasn’t talking about the piece of fat that was in his food. I figured he was talking about women. I looked at him funny and thought of a few friends back home who like their women “big-boned,” also (at least one fella I’ll call Alpha Krappa, and another I’ll call Gambling Gary like their women on the hefty side). After asking a few questions, just to make sure I understood him, I figured out that meant that he wants to be fat. Now, this was a new concept to me. “Why do you want to be fat,” I asked. He said, “Mongolian women like fat men.” Hmm, curious. I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but I smiled big, smacked him on the back, and said, “Well, you’d better finish your plate and get another, if that’s what you want.” Later, I asked a Mongolian woman (the English teacher) if it is true that Mongolian woman like fat men. She cocked her head to the side and looked at me like I was asking something obvious and answered in the affirmative. When I asked why, she said, “When I hug him, I like to have my arms all the way full. If I hug a skinny man, maybe his bones will poke me.” That gave me a good laugh, which in turn made her laugh. She basically explained it like this. If you’re fat, it means you have plenty of money to eat good; if you’re skinny, it probably means you are poor. Hm, sounds familiar to the old way of thinking in the West, don’t you think? Back in the days when royalty and leaders were fat, and the peasants were skinny as sticks, with their ribs poking out. I explained to her how it is the opposite in America, today, and all the sociological reasons that I could think of. She seemed to understand, saying that in the city, where they are more influenced by Western ideals, women might not like their men as fat as women in the countryside do. So, if you feel that you are fat, and you can’t find a spouse in America, come to the Mongolian countryside. Someone will love you.

In the afternoon, I hung out with the other part of town’s English teacher in her class. One of the other teachers is running for some political office in the upcoming elections, so she has taken over an extra subject. I think her class consisted of kids between the ages of 10 and 11 years old. When I walked in, they all immediately stood up, and said to me, in unison, “Hello teacher!” I gave them a big smile and the Mongolian greeting in return. With them standing when I walked into the room reminded me of my fraternity days, when we were in a meeting and some ladies walked in. We would all stand up until they took their place in the room, as a sign of respect for them. It was weird for me to be the recipient of that kind of treatment: I felt like a proper lady. Haha. Now I’m just being an idiot.

Around 4:30, we started looking for a ride to bring me back to my part of town. It was almost 6 when we finally found someone coming in this direction. The car I got into was plastered with Communist party logos and propaganda. Good thing the windows were tinted and I didn’t have my picture taken.

The snow from yesterday is still on the surrounding hills and far-away mountains. I expect it to be there for several days. As I have written, once it snows, though you can get sunburnt like on any summer day, the temperature is low enough for it to not melt.

Tonight, Tsegii’s English lessons continued, though she was so tired she could hardly stay awake. More than once, I would be explaining a word to her, looking it up in the dictionary, and look up to see her eyelids drooping. I was surprised she stayed as late as she did, knowing how tired she was. I think she works with kids 6 months to 1 ½ years old, and they wear her out every day. And, just like in all aspects of Mongolian life, Mongolian time comes into play with her job, too: parents often don’t come to get their kids til almost 7 or later, some nights. Whew! What a day she must go through. I couldn’t handle it.

October 9, 2008

I have finally figured out why it is that I will see random kids running around during the day, when they should be at school. They are broken up into two groups and go to school in shifts. The young ones go in the morning; the older ones go in the afternoon. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I can never figure it out. Either way, there are two girls whose parents work in my building that are always coming into my office to visit me. I think they are about 7 years old, and they are as cute as can be. One of them has her two front teeth missing, with a faithful snot trail hanging from one nostril. I don’t know what it is about kids in Mongolia, but they just let snot run out of their noses without the least bit of care. They don’t even try to sniff it back into their nose. And I’ve only seen parents wipe their kid’s noses less than a handful of times. It’s pretty gross looking. I can only imagine what it feels like. Could you imagine going around all day with a thick line of snot hanging from your nose to your upper lip? Bleh! The other little girl has some of the biggest ears in town, and some rotting front teeth, but she is as cute as the other. They always bust into my office, blabbering about something, 90km/h, all the while giggling at me and each other. Hm, 90km doesn’t translate: that’s only 56mph. Better make that 145km/h (90mph). They talk about all kinds of stuff and ask me all kinds of questions, and I hardly understand a third of what they are talking about. They sure seem to like me, though. Sometimes I have to shoo them away, cause I feel like a babysitter, but they always come back later, their feelings not having been hurt at all.

This morning, I went over to the school to get a white-board for my English lesson. I taught English to about 7 or 8 people that work in my building. Though I hate teaching English, there are some aspects that are fun/funny. Everyone I teach is adults, so when they make mistakes in pronunciation, I correct them. Why is that funny, you ask? Well, it’s cause sometimes, instead of saying “six,” they say “sex,” other something else similarly risible. Whenever they say something wrong, or odd, I’ll get them to say it in Mongolian, so I’ll be sure to know what they mean, then I’ll write the word they mean, alongside the word they said. Everyone got a big laugh at the fella who said “sex” when he meant “six.”

Before we finished, the boss came in two or three times to hurry us along. Something was going on, and he was anxious to get started. When we finished, everyone corralled me with the herd of people going to the Culture Centre. When I asked what was going on, I didn’t really understand what they said, other than that I should go with them. When I got there, though, I saw my boss and figured it out. It was a big political rally for some of the local candidates. The main attraction, though, was famous singers, poets, and musicians, and two of the Olympic boxing medallists. The hall was filled with people and the excitement was electric. Everyone cheered handily at the least mention of any of the stars or their accomplishments. Sometimes, you could tell when everyone was just overwhelmed with elation by their clap. “How?” you ask? Well, Mongolian clapping is one of those things that still has a strong Russian influence. When they clap as a group, everyone claps in unison. It’s almost creepy. It’s like the epitome of brain-washing. There seems to be no warmth in it at all. But when they were excited, everyone’s clapping was incongruent with their neighbour’s, and you could hear their joy in their hands. Just looking around, most everyone had big smiles on their faces. I shook hands with the boxer that won silver. I was only one of a million people he’s shaken hands with since he has returned home from Beijing, though, and I could see in his eyes and body language that his mind was anywhere but where his body was. I bet that he will be glad when things finally settle down and he can go home and just be lazy on the couch for a couple of weeks. I guess that’s part of the price you pay for being good at what you do, though. I also spoke with the political wanna-be for a few minutes. Her English was excellent. I think she worked as a CEO somewhere in America for a few years, so that explains her good English. She seemed to be a very nice lady.

At the end, there was still some time left for the work day, but no one had any thoughts for working. Most were still standing around, outside the building, hoping to get in a word or two with the redoubtable artists and athletes. I saw more than one drunken guy pulled away, by security or his wife, because he demanded more attention than he was getting. None of them meant any harm. They were just drunk. If you’ve been around drunken people before, you know how they are about wanting your attention when they feel like they have something to say. They didn’t seem to taken it poorly when they were reprimanded. They walked away with smiles just as big as they had worn when they were vying for attention.

Amongst the commotion, I slipped out and left work a few minutes early. When I got home, I pulled out a jar that I had recycled (recycling anything and everything is the name of the game in Mongolia) and began cutting up cloves of garlic and peppers, so as to make my own garlic butter. I just minced it all together, put it in the jar, and then filled the jar with melted butter. It took a couple of hours to cut it all up by hand. After a few days of sitting, that will be extra good on whatever I decide to use it for.

Tsegii was supposed to come over for more tutoring. Our planned lesson was to be in the kitchen. She was going to teach me how to properly make tsuivan, and I was going to teach her how to say it in English. Because the Olympic guys and artists went to her work, (for the opposing political party’s rally, no less) she got there much later than she’d planned. She stayed only long enough to say that she was tired and would not stay. Well, shoot. By this point, I was hungry. Luckily, the English teacher was there. Somehow, I talked her into cooking me some tsuivan. It’s not exactly easy to whip up a meal in Mongolia, so I’m not sure how I got her to do it quite so easily. Either way, I was thankful. The tsuivan was good, and there was enough left for my lunch tomorrow.

October 10, 2008

It’s Friday! It’s the end of the day on Friday! It’s the end of the week! I’m glad it’s finally here. This weekend, I plan to catch up on my rest. Though I’ve been getting a full eight hours of sleep each night, I still wake up feeling enervated. I plan to go to bed early tonight and wake up late tomorrow, and not doing anything all weekend.

I hope you all are doing good. I’m doing much better than I was earlier in the week. Though I haven’t even posted this, I can feel the effects of your prayers for me. Thank you for that. I miss you all. Some more than others, and I think you know who you are. I miss you and pray for you every day.

Take care.

September 27, 2008

Yesterday, my boss told me there would be some kind of something today, and that I should go with her. Of course, I would. I’m always down to be involved in what’s going on, to experience something new. She had told me that there was some kind of “car performance” going on. I don’t really care about stuff like that, but I was interested to see what it was all about. When I woke up this morning, I asked her what time we would get started and she told me around 2 o’ clock. About 30 minutes later, she told me that we would leave at 12. Twelve o’ clock came and went, and I still hadn’t heard anything from her, so I decided to take a nap. Around 1:30, she told me to meet her at 1:50. A few minutes after 2, I finally saw her. We were in a hurry, waiting on the governor to come and pick us up so we could go to some kind of celebration in the other part of our town. When he got here, it was another 30 minutes before we left.

When we finally got over there, we walked into a room full of elderly Mongolians, all waiting on us. There were a couple of guys there each with snuff bottles, in a seeming competition to see who could offer us theirs the most. I’ve learned the polite way to decline (accept it, sniff the top, then give it back) so I didn’t have to worry about that too much. We sat down and started eating right away. Wouldn’t you know it, the first thing that was placed in front of us was a big plate of innards. Bleh! I thought that I was finished with those, now that I live on my own. As my friend told me, though, only in Mongolia can you go to a nice event and be served innards. Luckily, I only ate a few bites of that before it was replaced with something much better. I stuffed myself. It was all so good. And the airag was flowing freely. I think I’m beginning to get used to it. As I’ve said before, it’s alcoholic, but only very slightly. I had about five or six glasses of it and never felt any effects. Sad. After drinking that much fermented horse’s milk, you’d want something. After everyone had sated themselves, the governor stood up and gave some kind of speech about something; then another lady did the same. A couple of medals and plaques were given out to some people. For some reason, they had me give a couple of awards to two older ladies. I don’t even know what they were for, but they seemed very happy to receive them from me. When everyone was done talking, we passed out gifts to all the people there. The men got some kind of nice little tea set and a bottle of oil. The women got a nice candy bowl with a bottle of oil.

When we left there, we passed by the place where the car show was supposed to be and saw that it was over. Oh well. It would’ve been fun, but I’m glad I got free food. We came back to my part of town and did the exact same thing all over again. I ate even more, totally making myself full. Also, at both events, there was a half of a cooked sheep. I don’t know how they picked the person to do it, but some random guy came out of the crowd and cut it up into pieces, giving some to every person in there to take home with them. That gave me two: one from each place. That will give me some food for a day or two at least. I’ll put the big hunks of fat in a pot of beans. That will be good.

Today, I put on my thermal underwear for the first time. Not because it was any colder than it has been (it was actually just a few degrees warmer, since the wind wasn’t as much today), but because I’m tired of being cold. They have helped a lot. There was once when I even noticed myself quite warm, but I was inside at that point. I guess I will start wearing them from now on. I have another pair, too. I figure when it gets even colder, I’ll double up. I hope that will work. I’ll let you know.

Oh, and I was very glad when I woke up this morning and found that the water was on. I had prepared for it to be out for the entire weekend. Now I have all kinds of extra water here. I won’t get rid of it, though, in case something unexpected happens. The pipes are still laid bare in the streets, so I’ll wait until they are at least covered again.

September 28, 2008

Today, I woke up with the resolve to format my computer. This took lots longer than I’d wanted: pretty much all day. The biggest problem was backing up all my files first. My external hard drive doesn’t have enough room for everything that is on my computer, so I had to use my work computer to store some extra files. That required a trip to my office and some time waiting on the transfer. I don’t know what the problem was, but it took me forever to figure out how to get my computer to format. Before, when I did it on other computers, I just put the disc in the drive and it did its thing. I had to go through many more steps before I finally got it right. It was right at my bed time when I finally finished.

I made a trip to the store to get a few groceries. While there, the owner asked me if I wanted to drink some airag. Sure, why not. It’s always nice to make friends with new people. She ushered me into the back room where several of her friends had already been at it, with the addition of vodka. They were all eager to shake my hand and say hi. Most Mongolians are very congenial when meeting strangers, especially after a few drinks. After a glass of airag and a shot of vodka, everyone jumped up to leave. I followed suit and was right behind them. That was fun.

Tsegii came over for more tutoring tonight. I think I’ve written this before, but I have no idea about what to do when it comes to teaching someone English. Usually, we just talk about whatever comes to mind. As I’ve said before, her English is horrendous – as is my Mongolian – so we keep the dictionaries between us, referring to them often. Tomorrow, at work, I will teach my first English class to my co-workers. I hope it goes a little bit better. The PCV that was here before me was an English teacher, and he worked with them a little. I hope they don’t expect me to be as good as him. We’ll see how it goes.

September 29, 2008

Today was my first English lesson. My co-workers had gone around and asked how many people wanted to attend. She had first asked me how many I was willing to teach and I told her 10-15 people would be plenty. She came back with a list of 20. Okay, I can make that work, I guess. The lesson was to be at 3 o’ clock, and I dreaded it all day. I just don’t like teaching. One of my many majors at university (I had 5 different ones by the time I finally graduated with a double-degree in Psychology and Sociology) was education. After substituting a few times, I decided that teaching wasn’t for me. Granted, I substituted for elementary kids who can be the worst little brats to put up with at times; but still, I didn’t like it. (To my favourite elementary teacher, as I’ve always told you, I envy your patience to put up with them.)

Anyway, 3 o’ clock finally rolled around and four people showed up. Whew! That wasn’t quite as daunting as the 20 that I’d not been looking forward to. I kept the lesson very simple. First, we went through the English alphabet, making sure that their pronunciation was correct. There are several letters in the Cyrillic alphabet that looks like those in the English alphabet, but they are said totally different. A “C” in Mongolian is pronounced like an “S” in English; a “B” can be either a “V” or a “W” sound; a “P” makes a sound like an “R;” the English “F” is usually said like a “P,” though in all actuality, it is supposed to sound like an “F;” an English “Q” is just hard for them to say; and the English “Z” is usually said more like the British say it (zed), instead of how most Americans say it (zee). After we went through the alphabet, I had them come up with several words for each letter. I was actually surprised at some of the words they came up with. As to be expected, there were only two words for “X.” There are about eight in my dictionary, and how do you explain what “xenophobia” means when you have only a slight grasp of what it means yourself? There were more challenges. The “th” sound is very hard for them, often coming out like a “t.” The sounds for “W” and “V” were often reversed. I never understand that. “Wine” is usually pronounced like “Vine,” and vice versa. Officially, the Mongolian “B” is supposed to sound like a “V,” but local dialect (and maybe lazy speakers) makes it more like a “W;” kind of like the “lower class” Brits in the classical books that I’ve read. You know, like that one Charles Dickens book that I just can not think of the name right now, where the boy is an orphan? What is the name of that book? Drat! That will drive me nuts for the rest of the day now. After the alphabet, we went over numbers. Numbers like 15 and 50 usually cause trouble for them. Ha, once, I was talking to a lady about her mother and asked how old she was, in English. She said, “My mother is 15.” In Mongolian, I said, “Really! Your mom is 15?” It was pretty funny to watch her flush with embarrassment. From numbers, we moved on to time. There weren’t too many problems there; or with the subsequent days of the week, other than the “th” in Thursday.

I’m still working on fixing my computer. I had no idea how many different utilities and applications there were to make that thing work as smoothly and seamlessly as it did. To make it even worse, I can’t connect it to the internet to get all the updates I need, so that is a hindrance, also. I think I will go into the city this weekend and take care of that.

During my lunch break, I put a pot of water on to boil, so I could soak some dishes while I was at work. Wouldn’t you know it, I forgot all about it by the time I left. When I got home this evening, I could smell something wasn’t right. Luckily it was just water, so there was nothing in the pot to catch fire. I’m lucky the whole place didn’t go up in flames. Dang, what a moron!

Late in the evening, my Mongolian friend that is the English teacher here asked for my help. She has some CDs with a bunch of English children’s songs on it, and she wanted me to help her transcribe them. Wow, what a bunch of memories to hear some of those songs again. And for many of them, I didn’t know there were as many lyrics and verses as there are. I was so surprised to hear them. There were many more that I had never even heard before, at all. And did you realise how old some of those songs are? Some of them seem to date back to the colonial period. Oh, and there was the ever-classic School House Rock songs on there, like “Conjunction Junction,” and other silly songs that came on during Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kiddo. It had me cracking up to hear some of them. It was worth staying up late to help her do that.

September 30, 2008

Today, I worked with the social workers in this part of town. I got there around 10 o’ clock and everyone (5, including the janitor) came into the conference room, where they showed me all their pictures and awards. By the time they were finished with that, the boss said, “Do you like beer?” “Sure I do,” I said, as they pulled out a big bottle of it. So, everyone sat around sipping on beer and talking. That is, until they thought someone important was coming. Then, everyone went into a frenzy to get rid of all the evidence, chugging their glasses and hiding the bottle. It turned out to be a false alarm, so we all returned to the conference room for more chatting. It was close to lunch time, so they had made hoshor for everyone’s lunch. Along with that, they brought out the vodka. OMG! I was glad that there wasn’t anything going on today where I really had to use my brain. There was another scare or two, where they thought someone was coming in that shouldn’t see what we were doing, and everyone jerked the bottle under the table. I laughed at them pretty hard when they saw that it was no one to be concerned about. For the rest of the day, I sat with two of the women and went over some English. They already had a notebook full of phrases, but the grammar was bad, so I corrected that, teaching them a few new words while I was at it.

As I said last night, I need some updates for my computer to be back to where it should be. I can’t get Word to open without validating it on the internet, so I’m doing all my blog typing at work this week. I really hope that everything will be fine after this weekend.

October 1, 2008

Before I had been in my office an hour this morning, the people who live below me came to find my boss and me. This is at least the fourth time that the lady has banged on my door, insisting that something of mine is leaking through the floor and into her apartment. Each time, I let her in to show her that nothing of the sort is happening. This time, a plumber went with us. Maybe he got her to understand that whatever is going on isn’t coming from my apartment, but maybe between my floor and her ceiling. I hope she understands. I understand her worry, really I do, but I dislike her banging on my door at all hours of the evening, thinking that I’m doing something wrong.

Today, I went to work with the social workers in the other part of town. It was a much different experience than yesterday’s. Soon after arriving, I was shown around to the school, kindergartens, banks, police station, train station, and maybe something else that I can’t remember. Seeing the inside workings of the train station was really neat. Too bad I can’t speak good enough Mongolian to ask all the questions that I had. I felt like a kid, wanting to know what everything did, can I push that button, and can I talk to one of the engineers over the radio.

For lunch, I went with one of my co-workers to her place. While she cooked lunch, I sat in the living room with her husband and 1-year-old baby girl. It was fun playing with the baby. Babies like me for some reason. I guess because they are easy to please if you know how to play with them. And with my kiddo-like imagination, playing with a baby is…child’s work. There was one thing that I saw while there that really confused me. The dad smoked cigs, and after lighting his cig, he let the baby suck on the burnt match. He burnt another match or two and let her do the same. WTF? When I asked why they did that, all I could understand was that it was good for the baby. I don’t know in what way it could be good for a baby to suck on a burnt match. Will someone out there with internet and some free time please try to find out some kind of answer for me?

Another interesting thing was when the husband decided to clean his fish tank. First of all, it was very surprising to find a fish tank in a Mongolian’s home. That was the first one I’d ever seen. And I’ve only even heard of one Mongolian eating fish. I guess, in a land-locked country, it’s not something you have on a regular basis. The tank had the bare minimums in it: fish, a snail, water, a thermometer, and an air filter. There were no brightly coloured rocks, no plants, no little hidey-holes for the fish to play peek-a-boo in. So, why is it that I was surprised when the guy brought out a jar and a small siphon tube to clean the crap from the bottom of the tank? Most of you know, I’m sure, what a siphon is, but for those of you who might not, I’ll tell you. You take a tube, put it into whatever liquid you want to move into another container, and then exert some kind of pressure on the tube to make the liquid flow through the tube. Usually, the pressure is in the form of sucking on one end of the tube with your mouth, until the liquid begins to flow. Usually, this results in the person doing the siphoning to get a mouth-full of whatever liquid it is they are fooling with. This fella did exactly that. Bleh! He got a mouth full of fish crap and didn’t seem to think anything wrong with it as he spat it into the jar. Gross!!! Just another aspect of Mongolian “toughness,” I guess. And I bet his wife kisses him with that mouth and doesn’t think twice about it. Haha.

Back at the office, we went over all the social statistics of that part of town: how many people between what ages; how many single-parent families; how many disabled people; how many orphans; gex met (Mongolian for etcetera). According to their records, there are 1904 people in that part of town. That is around 600 more people than how many live in my part of town, but that part of town seems much bigger. I guess because people over there mostly live in houses that are spread out, whereas, in my part of town, people mostly live in apartments.

When I got back to my office, I had two packages waiting on me: one from my mom, and another from her friend. Thank you so much!! One of the first things that I searched for, before even checking out anything else, was a box of pens that I’d been promised. As I’ve written before, I’m a pen snob. There is a particular kind of pen that I like to keep in my pocket at all times, and the very last one that I’d had messed up only yesterday. There were two boxes in there, way down in the bottom! Yay! Also, there was candy, chewing gum, Ranch mix, oatmeal, Crystal Light, hot chocolate, Kool-Aid, spices, beans of all sorts, pencils, markers, some magazines, and probably another thing or two that I can’t think of right now. I had lots of fun going through everything and finding a new home for it in my small apartment. Now, if only you guys could send me some cabinets….

October 2, 2008

During the night, my radiator came on. Yay! I’m so glad of that. When I was in one of the offices in the other part of town, yesterday, I was almost hot, because their heat worked so well. I hope my apartment gets to be like that. I’m one of those people who likes to wear as little as possible when I’m at home, alone. I hate being fully dressed in my own home. I don’t necessarily walk around naked, but if I decide to, I don’t want to be frozen just from the idea of it. A friend who lives in a ger texted me and mentioned how cold it was this morning. I bragged a bit about my radiator, then told her I wished I could put it in my pocket for when I go outside. My warm apartment doesn’t help me at all once I step out the front door. Really, though, since buying my winter coat, and putting on my long underwear, the only part of me that gets too cold is my hands and face. I haven’t brought out my gloves and scarf yet. I’ll wait until it gets colder for that. It is something that I’m not looking forward to. I do look forward to walking into a warm apartment, though.

This morning, at work, the jeejors (building workers) came around and unscrewed the valve on all the radiators in the building, so as to relieve all the built up pressure. Of course, when that happened, there was some of the old, rusty, built up, stinky water that came out with it. Wouldn’t you know it, at every radiator, some of it leaked onto the floor. Man, oh man oh man, that stuff stinks. I had to burn an incense to get rid of the funk. No big deal. The little bit of funk smell is totally worth the warmth. Now I can sit in my office without wearing my big, heavy winter coat.

I think that I’ve written before about how local elections are coming up. Since I work in the governor’s office, there has been plenty of action going on because of it, with all the campaigning and such. There was actually some kind of political rally going on at the exact same time that I was to give my English lesson. I didn’t mind a bit that no one was there for my lesson. I did regret not being at the rally, though. I wish that I could help with all the political stuff, but the Peace Corps is very strict on not involving yourself with anything political. Besides, how would it look for my own political career if I was a known supporter of the Mongolian Communist Party? Of course, they call it the Revolutionary Party, but it’s still communist. It doesn’t matter to me, either way. I just want to be involved in all the goings-on. I’m really interested in the people that are involved in politics.

October 3, 2008

It’s Friday!! The end of another week for me. I had thought about waiting until I get into the city, tomorrow, to post this; but I don’t know if my computer will be working as I hope it will. So, I will post it now.

I hope everyone is good. Please pray for me. Send emails, letters, and texts, and call whenever you can. I enjoy them all.

September 20, 2008

The water finally came on last night around 8 o’ clock. I found out when I randomly flushed the toilet. The first thing I did was to fill my tumpin and all my containers with water. I had filled them a couple of times during the day at work, but I wanted to make sure that I had as much as possible since it could go out again at any time. Sure enough, when I woke up this morning, late, there was no water again. As I stood there cursing my luck, it came back, though. I was glad of that. I really need to get a much larger water container for times like that, but I’ve been clowning. I’d thought about walking over to the other part of town today, but I’ve been lazy; resting, trying to get rid of this cold. Man, I hate being sick. The worst part is that there is nothing to do about it but treat the symptoms. And I really dislike all the medicines (Nyquil, cough drops, lozenges, etc.) that are for colds. They taste like yuck, and even if I take the pill form, I don’t like the side-effects. I’ve been taking some Mucinex, to get rid of the snot in my head, but it’s making me as dry as a desert. Combined with the Mongolian aridity, my skin looks as scaly as a snakes’. I have lotion that I use, but it smells like a girl. I don’t care. It works, and it’s not like there is anyone around me to notice. Besides, I kind of like it. Yeah, I’m weird, I know.

I went to my office today, to check emails. While I was there, I started going through a lot of old ones and I ran across my subscription to a game called Chicken Invaders. Have you ever heard of it? I know at least one of you out there has heard me talk about the addictiveness of this game before. I love it. It’s kind of like the old school Space Invaders, but with chickens and much better graphics. I had almost forgotten about it, it’s been so long since I played it. It’s definitely one of those games that has replay value, so it won’t be long til I’m good again. I think there is a demo on Yahoo! Games, if you want to check it out. I warn you, though: if you don’t have the time to devote to it, don’t even click your mouse on the icon.

September 22, 2008

I just have to tell you this story.

I had left my office for my lunch break, stopping by the store to buy a few things. As I was hurrying through the cold on my way home (I could see my breath!) I noticed a couple of little girls playing. I don’t remember seeing either of them before, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t. One of them started running toward me, but I thought nothing of it, since most of the kids around here swarm to me to at least say hi. The little girl ran up, thrust a piece of candy at me and said, “Meh,” which means, “take this.” I smiled, and said thanks as she turned and ran away. I guess she just wanted to give me a piece of candy. I smiled all the way home.

Tonight, as I was about half-way through cooking my dinner, the power went out. Dang it! I attribute it to those guys who have been working on the water pipes for the last week or two. Today, they were digging in front of my apartment building. You know those markers that are everywhere in the U.S. that says, “Before digging, please call…?” Well, they don’t have anything like that here. Luckily, the pasta that I had on had just started to boil, so I let it set for a while longer to finish. I put some oil and spices on it and called it a meal. I guess the stuff I had in the skillet will have to wait until I get power again. It’s starting to get dark earlier now, so when I couldn’t see anything, I just got in the bed. It was much warmer there, too. For the last three weeks, I’ve had some kind of heater going 24 hours. I was glad to have the two sleeping bags that I do. One is rated for -15 degrees, the other for -20 degrees. I don’t know if that’s Fahrenheit or Celsius. Either way, being sandwiched between the two keeps me warm, until I have to get up. Brr!

September 23, 2008

I want to tell you about, and relieve you of some worries of, a world news story that is going on in Asia right now. In the last several days, it has been found that a lot of exported Chinese-made milk products are contaminated with the chemical melamine. In case none of you remember, this is the same chemical that was found in previous Chinese food products to boost protein measures so they can cheat the system. I think it is akin to plastic. When ingested, it can cause kidney stones and other kidney problems. It is especially dangerous for babies and small children. If you look on the internet, you can see all kinds of stories about it right now. Just to assure you, the Peace Corps sent us all warnings the other day to not ingest any milk products from China, and gave us the names of all the ones that are imported into Mongolia. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, I had some in my refrigerator, unopened; and I’ve already drank some since being at site. Doh! I’ll keep a check on everything, though, and at the first sign of problems, I’ll be sure to get any kind of medical attention I need. And, yes, Peace Corps pays for all that stuff. If any of you even knew about this and were worried about me, rest assured that I’m okay. I’ve even passed on the message to my boss, and she and the governor are having it translated into Mongolian and will pass it on to all the local residents.

When I got to work today, wouldn’t you know that they have electricity? Why is it that all the residential buildings lose water or electricity through the night, but the government buildings keep on running at full steam? Hmm. I took my computer to work to charge up, so I’ll have some entertainment at home.

This afternoon, I finally got to meet with my boss. I don’t know if I’ve written it before, but local elections are coming up, and she is helping out. Ergo, she is really busy right now and it’s hard for me to get some of her time. I had told one of my co-workers that my electricity was out, but she didn’t pass on the message. When I told my boss, she fussed at me for not telling her last night, as soon as it happened. I figured that everyone was out of power, so I thought she knew. Nope, it was just me. When I told her that it happened while I was in the middle of cooking, she had a lady in the office cook some food just for me. Yum! I guess one good thing came out of it. For some reason, she also let me go home early. When I got here, my power was back on. It wasn’t 10 minutes before it went out again. This time, I let my boss know right away. Turns out, I had too many appliances going at the same time. I don’t know why it’s a problem all on a sudden. For the last few weeks, I’ve been doing the exact same thing and not had the least bit of troubles. Oh well. At least I have heat now. I was beginning to really worry about that. It’s getting to where I can see my breath when I walk to work in the morning. I’ve even begun to wear my thick winter coat. And every day, people ask me if I’m cold. I always tell them that I am always cold. They get a kick out of that.

Oh, and I’m happy to report that I’m over my cold and all the residuals that goes along with it. Back in Alabama, I would have a head full of snot for up to three weeks after a cold. There, I attributed it to the humidity, and maybe the pollen. Here, it’s arid, and there are hardly any trees or other plants at all.

September 23, 2008

Today has been another one of those that has been full of the unexpected. Before I even got to my office, one of the handymen came to my apartment to take measurements for my broken windows. Here, most windows are double-paned, so as to be a little more protection against the cold in the winter time. By double-paned, I mean, you have to open one window to get to the other one, which you can also open. There is about 8 inches between the two. Anyway, one in the kitchen, and one in my living room was broken. Since it’s getting cold, I knew that they needed to be fixed. So that’s what he was doing. And like most everything else in Mongolia, they do window fixing different than to be expected, too. He brought a few large panes of glass to my apartment, measured them to the frame, and then cut them in my living room. To cut them, he had some kind of tool that he scraped across the glass, and then he tapped it until it broke along the scratch. Wouldn’t you know it, that caused little glass splinters to get all in my carpet. Ah, soog! (That’s Mongolian for, “Ah, crap!”) At the same time, my power and water went out again. This time, it was not my fault; it’s out all over town. So, though I can borrow a vacuum cleaner from someone, it won’t do me any good until the power comes back on.

As soon as he finished, I gave my first informal English lesson today. The kindergarten teacher that sought me out yesterday came to my place and we went over a few phrases. She speaks just enough English to confuse both of us. Basically, I went through a few pages of the workbook that we used when I was going through Mongolian classes and had her tell me what the English translations are. I told her like everyone keeps telling me about learning Mongolian, though: the best way to learn is to just listen to it and speak it as much as possible. We’ll see how her English and my teaching progresses.

This afternoon, I went to the school just to see what the kids do while there. When I got back to the office, I went with my boss to the other part of town. Over there is the only place where I can buy phone units at price, and it was time for more. In this part of town, there aren’t any “official” dealers, so they jack up the prices. I needed a few other things, too, so about five of us loaded up and went over there. One of the things I got was bread. In my part of town, all the stores had been out for a few days – and so had I. After a quick trip to the store, we went to my boss’s friend’s house. We sat there for tea and some soup. While there, she found a tick on her curtain. When I asked what it was, she showed me and I involuntarily jerked back. She giggled and told me that it means good luck. They said is blew in on the wind. It’s very very windy here. I don’t know why she thinks that’s good luck. That’s some luck I don’t want any part of. When we left there, we went to another friend’s house. Over there, we had more tea, Chinese vodka (which tastes much different than “regular” vodka), and dinner. I’m liking this whole thing of being fed dinner when the power is out. I don’t like it that there is no heat. Oh, and I noticed that in the other part of town, there heat is already on. As I’ve written before, ours won’t be turned on until October 1. One more week. I think I can make it. Wish me luck.

September 25, 2008

Today at work, my boss called me into her office and we had a meeting with all the social workers in this part of town and the other. We went over exactly what my schedule will be like, beginning on Monday. On Mondays and Thursdays, I will teach English to people that work in my building. On Tuesdays, I will work with social workers in this part of town. Wednesdays, I will do the same in the other part of town. Fridays will be my “free” day. I don’t know if that means I will be off of work that day, or if I will just be able to do whatever I want while at work. We’ll see, and I’ll let you know.

The meeting was over around 11:30 and my boss told me I could go home for the day. Sweet! When I had told her that the guy who fixed my windows left glass shards in the carpet, she arranged for some ladies to come and clean my apartment. When they got there, they did a cursory cleaning of everything, and then winterised my windows for me. That consisted of taking wet newspaper and stuffing it along all the edges, and then putting duct tape over that to seal all the cracks. It took them about 5 or so hours to do all that.

About the time they left, the kindergarten teacher that I’ve begun tutoring came over. Her short name is Tsegii (flower). She’s pretty nice. Tonight, we listened to a couple of songs. I typed the words while we listened, and then we went through to make sure she understood all the vocabulary. Then we listened to the song again. Mostly, this was so I could hear some music, but it is also good practice for her reading and listening skills. The tricky part was explaining the difference between the literal meanings of words and the slang meaning of words. Have you ever tried to explain the exact meaning of slang words to someone in English? Now try that to a Mongolian speaker.

Tonight, I found that my flash boiler has quit working. Ah, soog! I really liked that thing, and was coming to rely upon it a lot. Now I will have to make a special trip into the city to get another one. I might be able to find one at the train-station store, but I’ll be surprised.

Okay, I’m going to post this, I think. It’s Friday, here!! About eight more hours, and it will be my weekend. I’m looking forward to having a free weekend, where I’m not sick, and I can do whatever I like. I hope everyone is good. Write when you can.

Dang it! My co-workers just came in and told me that my water will be out today and through the weekend. I can hardly wait until they are finished doing whatever it is that they’re doing.

P.S. I don’t know if you noticed, but I changed the headline of my blog. It used to say, “This is my adventures in the Peace Corps, while in Mongolia,” or something like that. I changed it because at times, it doesn’t even feel like I’m in the Peace Corps anymore. Of course, all the same rules, regulations, and restrictions are there; but for the most part, I don’t hear from them that much. They are only an email or a phone call away, but as PCVs, we are mostly left to our own devices to make sure we do our job as we will. Just thought I’d tell anyone who might be interested.

P.P.S. To Chad, my most favouritest cousin in the whole wide world: this is your special note to mention you and how much I miss you. Know it or not, you are one of my idols. I always wish you well in everything that you do. Please give the girls hugs for me and tell them that I miss them, too.

September 8, 2008

Last Friday, my boss told me there would be training today. At first, I figured it would be something to do with my job, and I was kind of looking forward to it. When I later asked what kind of training it would be, she told me that it would be about cooking, put on by a Norwegian NGO that is here. So, during my lunch break, that’s what I did. I don’t know the name of any of the foods, but I think they were all supposed to be Japanese. It was stuff like batter-fried vegetables, batter-fried cabbage, “salads” (read: slaw), steamed vegetables, and some fried meat. The best part was that we got to eat it. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t see myself making any of it. All those Mongolian women seemed to be intrigued by what was going on. I don’t think they batter anything; and they fry very little. I was one of three males, and one of them was a young boy who was there, I’m sure, because his mother had nowhere else to leave him. The other guy was just there, not doing much. The women looked amused because I was there and acted interested. Needless to say, men don’t do much cooking here. They do when they have to, but not much.

September 9, 2008

There was a surprise in my inbox, when I checked my email this morning. Peace Corps administration sent out an update telling everyone they got a raise. Yay! Every year, Volunteers are given forms to fill out, to see how much money they spent on things, to assess whether they had enough for the things they need. The last group must have done it right. I got a raise of 45,000tg per month (around $39). Some of this is because my site’s status has changed. Before, I wrote how I got paid countryside wages, though I still had to buy my stuff in the city. They have taken that into account and I’m now being paid special wages for people who are in that kind of situation. Yay, again! I’m very excited about this.

Now I can go buy another power strip and steamer. They both just blew. I don’t know what the problem is with cheap power strips here. This time, though, I think it was the steamer. When I plugged it into the power strip, the power strip blew. When I plugged it into the wall, the steamer blew, instantly melting the wire in two. Both times scared the crap out of me. Now I’m going to have to do some rearranging for a day or two, so my refrigerator can be plugged in. I guess I haven’t mentioned that I only have two electrical outlets in my whole apartment. Did you know that in houses in the U.S., houses are supposed to, by code, have an electrical outlet every 12 feet? I’m guessing there are no kinds of rules like that here. There is one outlet in my living room that has a place for one thing to be plugged in. The other outlet is in the kitchen, with a place for two things to plug in. And neither of them takes the kind of plug that has a ground wire attached. I guess that will be one of the things that I ask my boss to fix.

September 10, 2008

Today was my dentist appointment in the city. After stopping at Cafe Amsterdam for a chocolate mocha, I made it to the Peace Corps office around 12, giving me plenty of time to relax for a bit. My appointment was at 1, so I figured I had plenty of time since I would be taking a taxi to the dentist office. Around 12:30, I called a taxi to pick me up. It finally got there around 1:15. Traffic was backed up and crazy. To go 4.6km (3.4 miles), it took about 20 minutes. Luckily, the dentist office was expecting me and I went right in. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was very surprised to see that everything was state of the art. When the dentist started looking around in my mouth, she could only find a very old chip that I didn’t even know about; nothing that could’ve been from what I’d thought. She decided to fix it. It’s taken me a bit to get used to the feeling, but I’m glad it’s done. I guess that piece of what I thought was my tooth was in the sandwich I’d eaten. Back at the PC office, it took a while to fill out all the reimbursement forms. I was reimbursed for my travel expenses, but since I was just there for the day, I didn’t receive any per diem. No big deal. I found a cheap restaurant to buy my lunch/dinner. The tsuivan was very good.

While at the PC office, I got to check out several books. They have all kinds of resource books, and since I am having a hard time finding a Mongolian tutor, I’ve decided to take my language acquisition into my own hands. I got four books, three of which have CD-ROMs. They will help a lot, if I have the discipline to use them. I also got five books for pleasure. I’m really excited about them. Matt has been telling me about Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series forever, so I got the first four of them. The fifth one is Musashi, a Japanese book. I’ve heard of that character from video games. I had no idea it was a book. I guess I’ll see what it’s all about. That will give me something fun to read for a while.

On the way home, we stopped at a flower store. I bought a little yellow cactus. I thought I’d like to have some kind of plant in my apartment, and I figured a cactus should be pretty easy to take care of. We’ll see if that’s true.

Now it’s close to my bedtime, and I’m really tired. Walking across the city as much as I do, I tend to get worn out since I usually have a backpack with several things in it to weigh me down. It makes me tough though, so I’m not complaining, too much. It just helps me get in the bed early, so I can get some good rest.

September 11, 2008

My work day was filled with computer games. My boss was gone to the city for the day, so there was nothing for us to do. I don’t know who had that computer before they gave it to me, but I don’t see how they got any work done. Warcraft III is on there, and it’s quite addictive. I did take a couple of breaks to go outside and watch the youth basketball games that were going on. Today was the kids’ day of our Naadam.

As I was leaving for the day, I saw the governor in the hall and he ushered me into the conference room. Most everyone else was already in there, including a local congressman. The congressman said some kind speech about something, and then went around with a bottle of China’s national vodka and gave everyone a shot. I don’t know what the difference is, but I could taste it. It didn’t taste like regular vodka. After everyone had two shots to finish that bottle, they pulled out a big bottle of Chinggis: Mongolia’s national vodka. We drank that until it was gone, too. Luckily, there were about 20 or so people in there to share with. When we left, we went over to the new kindergarten for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The congressman and the governor gave another quick speech before we went in. Again, like the first time I went with my boss, there were ladies there tying plastic bags around our shoes before we went into the building. After a quick tour, we went into a big room set up with tables and all kinds of food and drink. Every two or three seats, there were two or three bottles of vodka, liqueur, or wine. It was a party for all the local directors. We sat down and I gorged myself. I knew I was going to be pressured into drinking more, so I wanted to mitigate its effects as much as possible. Sure enough, when most everyone was finished eating, the serving ladies started opening bottles of vodka and pouring everyone a shot. At first, after the prerequisite toast, everyone took a shot together. After that, someone else gave a toast and we went around the circle, taking shots one by one. I don’t know why, but they always get a kick out of it when I just turn it up and don’t make much of a yuck-face. Then, it seemed like every time we took one shot, someone else wanted to toast something for another shot. Finally, the two old ladies I was sitting between decided to leave, so I made my moves with them.

Outside, in the “square,” there was a concert. The band was pretty good, even if I didn’t know any of the songs. People were all in a good mood and dancing. Mongolian dancing is a bit different than what I’m used to, though. They do one of two things. One way is that they get into what I call the classic “DZ circle.” There are those of you out there who know what I’m talking about, but for those of you who don’t, they get in a big circle and just dance. It’s not as exclusive as the DZ’s make their circle, but it’s still reminiscent. To my favourite DZ: I couldn’t help but think of you. Every once and a while, some drunk guy would get in the middle and dance around. The other way they dance is to do a type of waltz. I was trying to stay away from that, but one lady found me and asked me to dance with her. I told her I didn’t really know how, but she persisted and proceeded to tell me how as we were doing it. It’s not hard, but the whole turning thing gets me. Have you heard that saying, “he dances like he has two left feet?” That’s how I felt when trying to do that dance. After that, about three or four more ladies asked me to dance. One of them was really good, and quite patient, and said that I did a good job. I think she was just being nice. Every time, I would look down at my feet, worried about stomping my clod-hoppers on her dainty feet, but she kept saying, “Look up! Look up!” My boss told me later that people told her that she should teach me the Mongolian dance. I laughed and agreed.

When it was all over, it was almost 1 o’ clock, and I’d hoped to come home and go to bed. But, since our department was the one to set everything up, we had to stay there to “supervise” the band’s clean up. By supervise, I mean watch. I carried one speaker for them, but I don’t really count that as doing anything. I was glad when it was all over. I’ve been extra tired today, for some reason. Tomorrow will be full, too. I don’t have to be ready until 10, though, so that’s good.

September 14, 2008

What a crazy fun weekend I’ve had. I’ve been on the go so much that I haven’t had time to write, so let me see if I can catch you up on some things now.

Friday morning, I woke up and took my time getting ready. Everyone from my office was planning to meet at 10 to go out to the Naadam field. Right as the microbus was getting ready to leave, I got a call from Peace Corps. They were having emergency evacuation procedure practice and I had to get to my consolidation point in UB as soon as possible. Dang it! I had so been looking forward to Naadam and now I was going to miss it. To make it worse, everyone here was involved in the Naadam festivities and all that entails, so there were no cars or microbuses going to the city; and it was too late to get the train to take me. I had planned my day and then those plans were disrupted, and I was frazzled on trying to figure out how to get to where I needed to be. Eventually, when I got my boss to understand that it wasn’t something that I could put off until later, or the next day, I quickly came to my apartment and packed a weekend bag (but forgot a few things I’d wished I’d had). She got a policeman to take me out to the main road. There, he flagged down the first car that came by and told them to take me into the city. That’s one good thing about working in the government and having those connections, I guess. Surprisingly, the car wasn’t full, so I had a fairly comfortable ride. Wouldn’t you know it: we got a flat tire about half way there. Guess what else. The driver didn’t have a jack. We stood on the side of the road trying to flag vehicles to stop for us for a while before a truck finally pulled over. He had the requisite jack, but it didn’t go quite high enough to put the new tire on. As I was thinking, “You’re going to have to do something to get the car higher so you can get that tire on,” the driver seemed to have read my mind. His unspoken reply was to get a shovel out of his trunk and dig out a trench under the wheel so the tire would go right on. Ingenious! I would have never have thought of that.

When I got to the city, I walked across town to where I was supposed to meet, signed a couple of papers telling how long it took me to get where I was, by what means I got there, and how much I had to pay. After that, I was free for the weekend to do what ever I wanted. Since it was official Peace Corps business, we were given per diem. That was nice. I wasn’t the only one who had to come to the city for the same reason, so people were slowly streaming in until 5 o’ clock the next morning. That gave me plenty of company for the weekend. We all had to meet at one of the older PCV’s apartment and he let us stay there for the weekend, so we had an easy time planning our activities. At first, a few of us went to Big Burger for lunch. The sign looks just like Burger King, but all the food is practically the same as McDonald’s. Unlike McDonald’s, they were out of all but two of their sandwiches, and they didn’t care if you liked it or not. No matter: I got a Big Burger (Big Mac with lots of mayo instead of the Thousand Island sauce), a chicken sandwich, and fries, and loved the heck out of it. It is amazing how you miss fast food and don’t even realise it until you take that first bite and get the fatty, artery-clogging goodness in your mouth. And I didn’t even eat it that much in the U.S. The lady looked at me weird when I asked for more than the one packet of catsup for my fries. When I asked for a third, you would’ve thought that it was coming out of her personal stash or something. I really wanted about three more packets, but I wasn’t going to push my luck. Now if I could only find a knock-off Taco Bell….

There were four of us there and two of the guys live and work in UB, so they had to go back to work. The other guy and I walked around a bit, first stopping at the State Department Store. He had never been, so he wanted to check it out. Randomly, I ran into a lady that I’d told you I met when I was at my training site. She was in town for whatever reason, so we talked for a few minutes. Then we went to the Peace Corps office to hang out for a bit. It’s open to all Volunteers 24/7, so people are there at all hours. There is a bathroom with a shower; lounge with chairs, a couch, a TV, and movies; four computers with internet; and all kinds of books. I found a few more books that I’m interested in to bring home for later. While there, one of the guards came and told us that there was a vendor outside, selling cheese. I asked if it was Mongolian cheese and he said it was. Yuck! I wasn’t the least bit interested. I don’t know what it is that makes Mongolian milk products taste the way they do, but I don’t like it at all. Not much later, another PCV came in with some of the cheese, exalting its goodness. Again, I asked if it was Mongolian cheese, but he told me it wasn’t. Sometimes, even though Mongolians speak English, they don’t really understand what you’re saying, so they don’t answer the question correctly. I tasted of the cheese, and though I’m not the biggest fan of cheese, it was so nice to have some non-Mongol cheese that I just had to get some. The guy was cutting it off of a big round, out of his microbus. I got a big ol’ hunk of it. He told me the charge was 6,000tg, but I only had 5,500tg on me, so he took that. Lucky me.

When the other guy and I left there, we decided to go bar hopping in a search for non-Mongolian beer. We had a really hard time doing it. We went to one place where they had the Czech beer Budvar (the real Budweiser), then found Heineken at another, ritzy place. While at the ritzy place, I got a hankering for a dirty martini, but the lady had never even heard of the drink, let alone know how to make it. So I showed her how. She seemed enthralled by my skills, but not the product. She made the same yuck-face that I do when I’m pressured into taking shots of vodka. When we left, we got some beer and went back to the apartment where we were staying. The guy had invited everyone for a party and we were all excited to be able to let loose with our American culture and speak English freely, without having to explain all the subtleties. There were about 15 or so of us there. At the end of the night, there were seven of us that ended up sleeping in the living room floor. It was like a regular slumber party. Quite fun. Of course, several of us talked late into the night before getting to sleep.

Saturday, six of us went to the PC office to shower. There was a shower where we were staying, but no hot water. It was glorious to be able to shave with running hot water and take a hot shower. At my apartment, I have to boil hot water and pour it in a bowl to shave with. It conserves water, which is always good, but it’s a bit of a hassle. By the time everyone had showered, we were all starving, so we went to a place called Nayra’s Cafe. I ordered the chicken pasta in white alfredo sauce. It was delicious. I love white sauce on my pasta. I wish I knew how to make it from scratch. Maybe one of you loving people can find a simple recipe and email it to me. After lunch, we split up and some of us went to the black-market. Man, that place is big. I bought another power strip to replace the one I’d blown, a coat, and a mirror for my bathroom. Until now, I’ve been using a very small hand mirror to shave with. It worked, but again, it was a hassle. I expect this to raise my quality of living by at least a notch or two. We all met up later and went to different grocery stores – since you can never find everything you need in one store – then made another stop at Big Burger before going back to pre-party. There is a club in UB called Oasis that is owned by an American expatriate and an older PCV has worked out a deal where we all get in without a cover charge. It was kind of cool there. They played a lot of music that I really like, so that’s what made it cool for me. There were a few Mongolians, and there were several American expatriates. Some of those guys are creepy and skanky. Ha, one of the Mongolian girls was flirting with one of the guys I was with. When I walked by, she proclaimed me to be the “godfather,” and had me marry the two of them. It was quite hilarious. She even kissed him when I finished my 5 second spiel. I think she had a boyfriend, but she didn’t seem very interested in what he had going on.

In Mongolia, all clubs are supposed to close at midnight, by law, but several of them stay open later. They will often pay the cops to look the other way. We left there around 2 a.m., I think. There were a couple of guys who were PCVs about five or six years ago who had an after-party, so we all went there. Unfortunately, several of the skanky expats and whacked out Mongolian girls were there, too. We stayed there for about 30 minutes before deciding that it wasn’t our scene. Before we went in, we all huddled together and decided on a signal and the person to give it, for when someone felt uncomfortable and was ready to go. As we broke, one of the guys said, “A signal? What? That’s the dumbest thing! A bunch of drunk people…pfft. Nobody’s going to remember an f-ing signal!” I giggled, having a feeling that he was right. Sure enough, when the girl that was to give the signal decided she was ready to go, I was the only one who knew what was going on. The signal was that she would say she wanted a cigarette. (She doesn’t smoke, so it should’ve been obvious that something was wrong.) I immediately said, “Okay, let’s see if we can go find you one,” and started out the door. As I waited in the hallway, people started offering her cigs, not figuring out what her deal was. Finally, enough of them got the point and we left. One girl still didn’t get it until we were walking down the road. We all got a good laugh out of it, once we were gone.

We walked across town to the apartment where we were staying and got caught in the rain. At first, I was irritated about the rain, but then I realised there was nothing that I could do about it, and it really wasn’t that bad since I had good company, so my mood brightened and I enjoyed the walk. We were dripping wet when we got there. After drying off and getting settled in our sleeping bags, a few of us stayed awake for another hour having “pillow talk.” It sounds cheesy, but it was fun. It was nice to have my idiocy appreciated by like-minded people.

This morning, we didn’t get out of the bed until almost 11 o’ clock. The latest microbus coming back to my town was to leave at 2, so I had to hurry lunch. It was good, though. We went to a vegetarian place and I had an awesome chef’s salad and some vegetarian bansh, boats, and hoshor. Very good. I’ve stuffed myself this weekend, and I’m glad I did. After having taken a taxi across town, I got to the microbus just in time for the kabob vendor to pass by. They had the kabobs ready-made, with a little fire box, rolling around on a cart. I got one, just to say I did. I had a very uneventful ride home: just like I like it. This evening, after unpacking, I’ve done nothing but lie in the bed and write this. I think I’ll go to sleep early tonight to catch up on some rest.

September 15, 2008

I got that new dictionary that I’d ordered today. When I ordered it online, the website would only accept U.S. addresses. You know, one of those forms that require a zip code. Well, as you might have noticed on my address when I sent it to you, Mongolia doesn’t have zip codes. So, as soon as I ordered it to be sent to my mom’s house, I emailed them, via their Mongolian website, and asked if they would mail it to me here, since they are based out of UB. They emailed back and said they would. That saved me over a month and a half, at least, of waiting on it; plus the extra charges for shipping it all the way back here. The dictionary has several times as many words as the one that PC gave us, but it is only English to Mongolian, and not the other way around. It’s very helpful, but it would be even more so if it translated from Mongolian to English, also. The problem is that there are so many random, new, or slang words that isn’t in my PC dictionary. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes. I think I might have worked out someone to be something like a tutor, though. I ran into the first lady that asked me to dance the other night and she asked if I would teach her English. I don’t really want to, but since I can’t find a tutor, I told her that if she’d teach me Mongolian, I’d teach her English. It will be very informal, so maybe it won’t be so bad. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m sure the both of us will pick up something from the interchange.

September 17, 2008

For the last couple of days, my stomach has been upset. At first, I thought it was just because I’d eaten so much in UB, but after the first night, I knew that wasn’t the case. There wasn’t any diarrhoea involved, luckily, but it still sucked. And for some reason, it would ease off during the day, then come back full force about an hour before I went to bed and torment me all through the night. I thought that I’d call into work yesterday, but when I woke up, I felt alright enough to go. Then, this morning, I had a sore throat on top of my upset stomach. I think I got the sore throat from my boss. She went to the city for the doctor yesterday, to get her sore throat checked out. Since I knew there was nothing going on at work, and I could use the rest, I told them that I was going to stay home. On top of all that annoyance, our water is out. It has been since late last night. Luckily, my one co-worker that is left in town is as nice as everyone else. She came by early in the morning to check on me, when she’d heard I was sick, and she brought me about a litre and a half of water, also. I’ve used it sparingly, leaving enough to wash my hair and shave in the morning. I haven’t washed my hands all day. I can’t tell you how much that has distressed me today. I was told the water was supposed to be back on this evening, but it isn’t. Like most everything else here, there’s no telling when it will be back on. I’ll be raring for a bath when it does come on.

September 18, 2008

My sore throat is gone, for the most part, but as always with me, that is only the beginning signs of a cold. Already, my sinuses have begun to get stuffed up. This is my first cold since being in Mongolia. Back home, in the clime of AL, I would stay stuffed up for weeks, blowing snot until I thought my nose was going to fall off. We’ll see how long the aridity allows that to persist here. Maybe the Mucinex I took will help a bit, also.

My water is still off this evening. For some reason, though, there is water at my office building. I rounded up all the empty bottles I had (about two gallons worth) and filled them up at work, brought them home and emptied them into my filter and distiller, and then filled them again. It’s a good thing I hadn’t taken my trash out yet. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t have those empty two litre juice and beer bottles. My co-worker told me that the water at work would be cut off tomorrow. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on, but they dug the streets up a few days ago and have been doing some kind of work on the pipes. I can’t wait til they get it where I don’t have to worry about whether the water will be here or not. I was told that the power will be out, also. Drat! Good thing I have plenty of bread and peanut butter for my meals.

September 19, 2008

I know you all have been wondering where I am. I haven’t been able to access the internet here at work this week. Finally, just about 30 minutes ago, the IT guy and I finished running wire from my office to his. I have internet in my office now!! Yay! So, I’ll post this now. I hope everyone is good. Write or call when you can. If you call, remember that I’m 12 hours ahead of you. I don’t mind talking at anytime, but if I’m asleep, it might take me a minute or two to be coherent. Other than that, I won’t mind at all.

P.S. If this posts twice, I'm sorry. I've told you how stupid the internet is here.

August 30, 2008

I went to the city today. I’ve already told you a bit about it. I did a lot more walking than I was expecting; plus, I had an extra 10 lbs. or so in my backpack when I got there. And I think my shoes are just a tad bit too small. I wore those same shoes when I was in Amsterdam last December. When I was there, I did a lot of walking, too. I ended up getting a blood blister underneath the nail of my big toe. It was there for weeks before it finally grew out. I think I will have another one after today. About 20 minutes into my walk, my left foot started hurting me. I thought that it was because I was walking as much and as fast as I was, and that I had extra weight on me. Now, I think it was just because I had those shoes on. As soon as I took them off, my foot quit hurting. It’s a little sore, but I’ll be okay. I’m tough.

After I updated my blog earlier, I went to do a bit of shopping. They have wonderful grocery stores in the city, with pretty much anything that you could want or need. The one I went to is called the State Department Store. I think it really is run by the state, too. It’s kind of like a big mall with a grocery store in it. As I’m sure you might imagine, the prices match the elaborateness. I found some things that I haven’t seen anywhere else, though, so that was nice. I got some vinegar, soy sauce, canned mushrooms, hot kimchi, mayonnaise, a large towel, and a Mongolian beer that I haven’t had yet that was bottled right there. The mayo and vinegar are two things that I’ve been looking for since I’ve gotten to Mongolia and haven’t been able to find until now. I got a 2kg tub of mayo. I don’t know exactly, but that’s around ¾ of a gallon. That should last me a while. I was surprised that the vinegar was only 5%. Have you ever thought about or noticed the acidic percentage of your vinegar? Everyone has been telling us that vinegar here is 70%, and you have to really be careful with it. Supposedly, it will burn your skin if you get it on you. They even have a formula that someone worked out so you can dilute it to 5%. I guess that store is used to having foreigners, so they get the 5% kind, just for us.

While I was in there, I ran into some U.S. Army guys. They said they had just gotten into town and would be there for a month. I talked to them for a bit. They were really nice guys. It made me feel good to meet them. Sometimes I meet U.S. military people abroad and they have this aloofness about them, like they are better than the local people, and they would rather be anywhere else. There has been more than one that I’ve heard bad mouth the country they are in. I never enjoy talking to those guys. Those guys today were nothing but smiles.

When I left there, I had added about another 10 lbs. to my pack. As I said, it took me 40 minutes to get downtown from where the microbus let us off, so I decided to head back. I stopped at a place called Maggiano, got a chicken salad to go, and ate it as I was walking. It was the closest thing to a “real” salad that I’ve had since I’ve been here. By real, I mean something with lettuce, vegetables, and dressing. Here, they call slaw a salad. Back home, I used to love to go to a salad bar and pile my plate high with everything, then put so much dressing on it that it would be dripping over the edge of my plate. This salad wasn’t that big, but it did have that much mayo dressing. Yum. I don’t know what could have made it better, but it wouldn’t have taken much.

When I got back to where I was to find a ride, I inadvertently turned in one entrance too soon. The market is a big place, and that was my first time there. On the way to the city, the microbus costed 2,500tg. I don’t know why, but just as they only leave from my town going to the city until a certain time, they only come back up to a certain time, too. I don’t know what that time was, but it was close, and I couldn’t find a microbus. All I could find was taxis, and they were charging 10,000tg. Apparently, I was the first person for the guy I secured, so I had to wait for him to find some other people that were going my way. If you’re going a fairly long distance, drivers will pack their vehicles as full as possible, so as to maximise their profits. And they drive like freaking idiots. On the way in, I was glad to have a book with me. Several times, I would look up and wonder what in the heck the driver was thinking. They drive fast and take dangerous chances on passing other vehicles. It’s really no wonder why that wreck happened the other day. Anyway, I ended up waiting an hour and 45 minutes before my driver finally got enough people to feel justified in going to my town. Wouldn’t you know it, right as we were about to pull out, I realised that I went to the wrong entrance when I saw where I was supposed to go. Of course, it really was too late by then. I had tried to sit in the front seat, so I would have plenty of room, but there was a guy with his son, so they shared the front seat. That put me in the back, in the middle, on the hump. Very uncomfortable, seeing as the car was a small 4-cylinder. It wasn’t long before my butt was sore, and I was squirming for the rest of the ride. When we got to where we should have turned to come to my town, the driver kept going. When he looked in the rearview mirror, he could tell by the look on my face that something was wrong. After some confusion, I finally got him turned around and going in the right direction. Apparently, my town goes by a different name that what I know it by. One guy in the taxi that spoke a smattering of English said the name, but I didn’t really catch it. I’ll have to learn what that is for next time.

Like in many languages, names here are really words and have some kind of meaning. Many girls are named some kind of flower (e.g., golden-flower, sun-flower, steel-flower), while many of the men have masculine names (e.g., red-hero, steel-steel, strong-age). If you don’t know those words, it makes it hard to remember names. It’s not like in the U.S., where words like Chris, Matthew, and Carl are set aside to only refer to people’s names. Luckily, many people have nicknames – they call them “short names” – and those are much easier. Some of the nicknames I’ve heard are Moogi, Bogi, and Ogi. None of those nicknames are anything like their full names, so I don’t know why they call them “short names.”

September 1, 2008

Today was the first day of school, all across Mongolia. Schools everywhere have what is called a Celebration of Knowledge. Of course, since I work in the governor’s office, my boss and I were invited to attend. When we got there, all the kids were dressed in their finest: most all the boys were wearing suits; most all of the girls had on some type of uniform that made them look like a French maid. First, my director and I went into the school director’s office. There, we ate airul (bleh!), and drank airag. Airag is that fermented mare’s milk that I’ve written about before. You know, the alcoholic kind. It was very weak, but still. When the governor finally showed up, we went out and he and some other people gave a little talk. Then, my director and I were called up. She went on for a few minutes, talking about me, then handed me the microphone and said, “Introduce yourself; keep it short.” Uhh, okay. I said, “My name is Trip. I’m from AL. I speak very little Mongolian.” Was that short enough? I wish I would have known that I was going to be asked to say something. I would’ve prepared something a bit more elaborate. When everyone had said what they were going to, a small boy and girl held hands and a bell and ceremoniously went around ringing the bell. When they finished, all the kids streamed by us, each taking a piece of airul and drinking some airag. Next, we went to the other part of town and did it all over again. When we got back to our office, I had just enough time to sit down, then my director told me we were going to the kindergarten. It’s brand new, so when we walked in, they gave us plastic bags to tie around our shoes so we wouldn’t dirty the carpet. I didn’t realise how warm they kept my feet until I took them off. While there, we were given the grand tour, then went into some type of small break room. We sat down with the head of the kindergarten and another lady to drink some tea and eat some snacks. Then, we were poured some juice. Then, we were poured some vodka. What is up with these people drinking alcohol all the time? I took my time with the one shot that I got, trying to not drink it at all. People watch you when you have vodka, though. They make sure you drink it. So, before I left, I had to down it. Yuck!!

When I got back to the office, I had a package waiting on me from one of my very most favourite people in the whole wide world. It was for my birthday. Yay! It took just a day or two less than two weeks to get here. You know who you are: Thank you so very much. It was a small version of a “birthday in a box.” If you don’t know what one of those are, then you obviously haven’t gotten a birthday package from someone who tries to make you feel loved across long distances. It was mostly food, and I appreciate it very much. The little confetti things were fun to clean up, too. I’m sure I’ll find them for days to come. Of course, that’s part of the fun.

I found out the name of my town. It is one of the first things I asked my director this morning. It translates to “tall head.” See what I said about names? That should be easy to remember. Now I just have to figure out if that name refers to the whole town, or just the part that I live in.

This afternoon, my director took me around the whole government building and introduced me to everyone and showed me where my new office is going to be. It’s at the far end of the hall from where her office is. Right now, a lady that has something to do with passports and some kind of registration is in that office. There’s a tall counter in there that will be taken out, and some old, dirty carpet that will be gotten rid of, too. I was told that it would be ready by Wednesday. I’ll be surprised if it is. After we’d met everyone, my director said that she had to go meet with families of the people who died in the microbus accident, and I could take off the rest of the day. Also, since she is going to UB tomorrow, I don’t have to go into work then, either. Sweet! To put it in the words of one of my friends: “I love Mongolia.” His building is getting a new paint job, so he doesn’t have to go to work until Friday. Ah, government jobs. Can’t beat ‘em.

This evening, I’ve started watching a new TV show called Extras. Have you ever heard of it? It comes on BBC. It’s about a couple of wanna-be actors who are extras in a bunch of movies. Every episode has a different famous actor. The guy that wrote the original The Office is in it. Very funny, if you like British humour. Check it out if you get a chance.

September 2, 2008

For dinner, I made my second attempt at Mongolian food. It was the one that sounds like “boats.” The recipe is really easy. You make a simple dough out of flour and water and let it set while you chop up meat, onion, and whatever veggies you might want, adding any kind of spices you like. In mine, I used mutton, onion, mushrooms, garlic powder, pepper, all-spice, and Ranch dressing. I have to say, they are the best that I’ve had since being here. I think, mostly, it’s because of all the spices and Ranch dressing. When you get all the meat and stuff minced and mixed, you take small pieces of dough and roll them out thin, to about the circumference of the palm of your hand. Next, you put a big spoon full of the meat mix and pinch the edges of the dough together. You know, kind of like a dumpling. To cook them, you steam them for about 20-25 minutes. Luckily, the guy that was here before me left a steamer, so that was easy. I had a few too many for my steamer, so I fried the extras. I think they were better than the steamed ones. And, of course, they don’t take near as long. When either the steamed for fried ones are done, you can eat them plain or dip them in your favourite sauce. I’m sure you guessed that I used Ranch dressing. I had some soy sauce, too. Both were good. I must warn you, though: when these things are still hot, be careful when you bite into them. There will be some juice inside that is very hot, and it has a tendency to squirt everywhere until you figure out how to bite them just right. When you take that first, gentle bite, suck the juice out so it doesn’t drip out and get wasted. Then think of me. Yum, yum! Enjoy.

September 4, 2008

At work, I spent almost my entire day translating what will be my “action plan.” My boss gave it to me around 10 o’ clock and I spent the rest of the day working on it; and I only got two of the five parts done. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to translate something from Mongolian to English. So I’ll try to explain it to you. First of all, the grammar is totally different. Say, you want to say something like, “This shirt is small on you.” Well, you can’t just translate those words and put them in that order. If you were to directly translate the Mongolian for that sentence into English, it would sound like, “This shirt being small is.” Or, imagine someone is touching something of yours and you don’t want them to, so you decide to say, “Please, don’t touch that.” The Mongolian for that would directly translate to English as, “That-to don’t touch.” Or maybe you want to ask someone to do something for you. The Mongolian translates as, “You to me it do please.” To just speak it, I don’t have that hard of a time with the grammar. Mostly, it’s because of the way I learned it: I didn’t worry about the direct translation. But now that I’m doing what I did at work today, I’m having a hard time with it. When I translate a sentence worth of words, I get a string of nonsense. One of my counterparts (who, as I’ve written before, speaks less English than I do Mongolian) was helping me a bit today. We translated a sentence and when I looked at it, I had no idea what it was supposed to mean. Finally, she would give me examples of what was being talked about and I think I figured it out. It takes me longer to figure out what the words are supposed to mean after I translate them than it does for me to actually translate them. Another thing about it is that the dictionaries that the Peace Corps gave us aren’t the best: there are a lot of words that aren’t in there. I’ve been told that Oxford makes a good one, and after doing some research and finding that it has about 5.625 times as many words than what I have now, I’ve decided that I’m going to order it tomorrow. That should help a lot. When I get finished with this, I won’t have weeks at a time of doing nothing. Not that I mind not doing anything, but it’d be nice to do something.

At the end of the day, we all went to check out my new office. As I wrote before, my director is at one end of the hall and I’m at the opposite end, and across the hall. The only reason that I don’t like it is if I have any questions or problems, I have to walk all the way down there to see if she is there to help me. (Most people do not have land-line phones in their homes or offices, and I’m not about to call on the cell phone for that.) But the office is cool. Oh, well, I guess I just thought of another reason that I don’t like it. When I was where I have been for the last couple of weeks, my window looked out over the town and the park that is in front of our building. It’s cool to see all the comings and goings, and the park has all kinds of statues and playground equipment. There are always kids and other people out there. Now, my window looks out of the back of the building at an empty lot and some buildings in a state of disrepair. But, I’m in there all by myself, with my own desk and computer. The computer box looks cool. On the front, there is an LCD display that has one of those graphs that moves with however much action is going on, and it shows the temperature, too. Of course, it’s in Celsius. There are speakers, so I can listen to music and not disturb anyone, since my door is usually closed. I will have internet, but not until next week. For now, I’ll have to go back to where I have been if I want to use the internet. I think, when everything gets the way that it’s going to be, it will be alright. The office is pretty big, and I’ve been told that it’s one of the warmest in the winter. My boss’s boss is right across the hall and he told me that if I need anything at all in my life, just to let him know. Everyone is nice and takes care of me like I’m some kind of VIP or something. That’s cool, but I’m not quite used to it yet.

September 5, 2008

First of all, a correction:

A few weeks ago, I wrote that before their recent gold medal wins, Mongolia had the most medals without any golds. I learned later that the correct statement is that Mongolia had the most medals PER CAPITA. I guess when you have less than three million people in your country, that doesn’t sound as cool as having the most medals. Sorry about the misinformation.

Last night, when doing my nightly journal writing, it came to my attention that today is Friday. It’s nice when a Friday sneaks up on you. My day has been alright. All I’ve done, for the most part, is continue to work on the translation that I began yesterday. It took me all but an hour of my day to finish it. Now I’ll have to type it up and make it pretty. All day, random people stuck their head in my office with a look of confusion on their faces. The lady that used to be in there moved to the office right next to mine, so I just pointed that way and they got the idea. Good thing I wasn’t doing anything I wasn’t supposed to, cause some of them pulled the door open quickly and scared me.

When it was time for lunch, one of the maintenance guys came and told me it to come with him to eat. Umm, okay. When I got into the hallway, I saw that everyone was smiling and giggling, heading to the same place, and I knew that something was going on. We went downstairs and into a room that had some tables set up with all kinds of food and drinks. Sweet! I love food. Especially when it’s free. We had a good meal, and I stuffed myself. When we left, they gave us all gift bags. In my bag, there was a coffee cup, a can of coffee that I gave away, incense sticks, and a box of matches. In Mongolia, whenever someone gives you incense and matches, it is culturally appropriate to immediately light one of the matches and let it burn until it goes out on its own. I haven’t figured out what that’s all about yet.

Later, I asked my boss what the meal was for and she said that it was a “Mongolian tradition.” She was going to leave it at that, but I was still curious and knew there was more to it than that. After several more questions, and both of us trying to figure out the correct words, I figured out that a lady had died, and her family had put on the meal. You know, kind of like a wake or something. It’s different than in the U.S., though. There was absolutely no mention of anyone having died at the meal. There was a picture, with some candles burning, but I just thought it was someone that is respected. Also, when someone has died, and you go to visit the family at their house, you don’t say hello or goodbye, there are no loud noises made, and you usually give a small gift of money because the family is expected to feed all the visitors. And you are NOT supposed to say that you are sorry. A common response to you saying you’re sorry might be, “Why are you sorry? What did you do? Did you do something to make my mother die?” Then you have to go through all the awkwardness of explaining what it is that you’re sorry about. After a few days of mourning, Mongolians are expected to go about their life like everything is cool. Sometimes, families will have something like a “death anniversary” each year, on the day that the person died. Other than today’s lunch, I haven’t experienced any of this here, and I hope I don’t. From what I understand, it’s very awkward for an American, since all the things that we would say or do at one of our “death ceremonies” is inappropriate.

September 6, 2008

Around midday, I set off on a walk to the other part of my town. I thought I would see what the walk is like, and check out the stores over there and get a beer while I was at it. I was told that the store that is near the train station has a lot of stuff that can’t be gotten in my part of town. For the most part, I cut through the fields since the road zigs and zags around the old Russian airfield. About halfway there, as I was crossing the road, a Jarrin Yuce (‘69) stopped. A ’69 is an old 1969 American model military jeep that the U.S. eventually stopped producing, for whatever reason. The Russians thought it was a good design – and they are, since they can basically go anywhere – so they bought the patent and started making it themselves. Now, they’re everywhere around here. Even though they are all called ‘69s, I have seen some brand new ones. Anyway, it was a couple of guys that work in the same building as me and they told me to get in. They asked where I was going, and when I obviously didn’t make myself understood, they asked if I was going to watch the Naadam that was going on in Bayan (Rich) Soum, about 10 miles down the road. I didn’t know anything about it, and I didn’t have anything better to do, so I decided to roll with them.

As I’ve written before, one of the big parts of a Naadam is eating hoshor. When we were parking, they asked if I liked hoshor. Heck yeah, I do. So, our first stop was one of the several hoshor vendors. Most of them are all the same. There is a wood stove with a hole in the top, where a big, cast-iron wok sits and is half-filled with oil. An old lady sits at the front of the tent by the stove, feeding the fire and taking care of the cooking, turning the hoshor and taking them out and putting them into bags for the customers. Behind her, in the tent, there is usually at least three other people. One person does the ingredient chopping (meat and onions), the second makes and rolls the dough, and a third fills the dough, pinches it closed, and puts it in reach of the old lady. Usually, they are backed up with orders, so when we put ours in, one of the guys and I went walking around to see who and what we could see. Of course, since we were so close to home, there were several people there that we know – all people that work in our building.

The first person we ran into ushered us to his van, at the edge of the festivities. It was already full, but we squeezed in anyway. Can you guess what happened next? If you guessed that someone passed around a bag of hoshor and pulled out a bottle of vodka and a shot glass, you are right. I wasn’t surprised: I was expecting it. The seal was quickly broken and the one shot glass was filled and passed around repeatedly. After my second shot, in only 5 minutes, the guy I was with saved me by deciding he was ready to go. Everyone was willing to let him go his own way, but it was harder to extract myself from the situation. When I told them I was going to go eat some hoshor, they tried to give me their bag as they tried to force me to sit down. Somehow, I got out of there unscathed. Wouldn’t you know it, we left from there and went straight to another car full of people, where we squeezed in and were given more hoshor and vodka. Luckily, there was only one shot’s worth left in their bottle, so it wasn’t long before we left to get our own hoshor. We sat in a microbus with some more people from our workplace as we ate them.

Everyone around here knows that I coached wrestling in the U.S., and that I wrestled at Naadam earlier this summer, so I was asked several times if I was going to wrestle today. They seemed disappointed when I told them that I wasn’t going to, but took consolation when I told them that I would wrestle at next week’s district Naadam. It’s been rescheduled for Sep. 12. Seeing the guys that wrestled today, I’m not expecting any wins. The smallest guy was still bigger than me. Oddly, there was a guy there who looked like the guy that I wrestled earlier this summer. Maybe I was just having flashbacks. The name of the vodka I’d had translates to “sights; visions.” Oh, and I couldn’t help but to notice that one of the referees looked just like an Ichabod Crane character. But the wrestlers were good. Most of the matches lasted several minutes. And, as I’ve mentioned before, there are no weight classes, so everyone was mismatched. When I see a pairing with a guy who is about 6 feet tall and weighs around 210 pounds wrestling a guy who is about 5 feet 8 inches and weighs about 375 pounds, I can’t help but to wonder if those guys feel as unmatched as I think they are. There were only about 20-30 wrestlers in today’s Naadam, but that doesn’t mean the prizes were lacking. There were three, brand new, still-in-the-box Honda motorcycles for the winners. Maybe one of them was for the horse-racing, I don’t know.

Before the wrestling was over, we got in a microbus and went into the soum to some random house. When I got there, the governor was there with some random Korean guys. We sat there for about 15 minutes as the governor gave a toast and they took shots of Jim Beam. Luckily, I was sitting on the outskirt of things, so I wasn’t given any. All on a sudden, everyone made a dash for the vehicles and we rushed back to catch the end of the horse race. Seeing the winner of a horse race is a big deal. It’s really quite a dangerous place to be. Everyone crowds around the finish line, waiting on the winning horse. It’s a good place for pick-pockets and drunks. People believe that to touch the sweat of the winning horse grants one good luck for the next year. We got back after the first horse had crossed the finish line. By that time, the wrestling was over, too. But the hoshor stands were still taking their final orders. We went back to get more, and I got 10 to go. I ate a few when I got home and saved some for tomorrow.

On the way back, I got them to stop in the other part of our town so I could go to the store that I had wanted to check out. What I’d heard was right: the store by the train station does have lots of stuff that I can’t get in my part of town. I got a couple of beers and scoped out some things that I will go back for later since I didn’t take all my money with me. Actually, it might save me a trip into the city. Maybe when I go back, I’ll get lucky and get picked up. I’ll let you know.

P.S. I’ve seen how my last blog looks. Sorry. I know that was probably hard to read. I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t do that again.

August 25, 2008 It’s my birthday! I’m 31 this year. I don’t know how I got to be this age. I sure don’t feel it. My mom called me this morning. What a surprise. It was good to hear from her. She reminded me of something that I meant to write before. Whenever you call me, you have to dial 011 in front of the number that I gave you. This morning, I asked my director where I could get a haircut. She must not have had much to do at the time since she decided to walk me over and show me where. On the way, the sky opened up and it began to rain and hail. I still don’t have an umbrella. When I got to where we were going, I had dirt all over me. Where in the heck did this come from? It was from the rain. There was so much dirt in the air that it caused the rain. I felt like a bum for the rest of the day. One of my friends told me that it was snowing where she was. Oh, and the haircut lady wasn’t there. Maybe tomorrow. If not, I plan to go to the city this weekend and will find a place there. Dang it, I’m a jerk! I just wrote out a whole lot of stuff and when the computer asked if I wanted to save, I clicked the wrong button. Doh! I’ll try to redo it. My day at work could have only been easier if I’d have stayed home. I spent the first few minutes printing off some forms, then the rest of the day checking emails, updating my blog, surfing the web, talking to my director, and learning a few new words. This afternoon, we went to the other part of our town to do something for work, but that only took about 15 minutes. When we left, we went to the store. They don’t sell any beer in the part of town I live in, so we got some there. I bought a big beer for myself and my director bought 10 for the celebration that was on TV. All the Olympic athletes came home from Beijing, China, today and there was a big to-do for them in UB. People had made plans to watch it this evening and when they found out today was my birthday (I’d told my director a few weeks ago and she remembered and told everyone), they decided to do it at my place. Five of us drank five beers, and then everyone went home and left all the other beers with me. Hmm, now what to do? I drank one by myself, then another lady that works in my building showed up with a present of shaving crème and aftershave. I was surprised. Partly because the smell wasn’t repulsive. I was expecting something like Old Spice. (And contrary to what Miles thinks, Old Spice wasn’t made for my generation. I’m glad that we got his wife to help us make fun of him enough to quit wearing it. Man, that was funny stuff. If you weren’t a part of that, I wish you would’ve been.) One of my friends called to wish me happy birthday, and I enjoyed the conversation as much as ever. A few others texted me, and I enjoyed the silliness. I guess I could tell you about how cell phones work here. Everything is on a prepaid basis. One unit costs 1tg. One in-country text message costs 19 units. I’m not sure, but I think one minute of talk time costs somewhere around 150 units. Most of us have service through MobiCom. A very few have service through Skytel, because they are the only ones who serve the area where those people are. When we got our phones, there was about 5000 units on it already. Within a week, I’ve blown through those. We have to pay for our extra units ourselves. Today, I went to find the dealer in our town. The dealer told me that 1000 units costs 1200tg. Jigga, do what? And that’s how I found out that there are licensed and non-licensed dealers. I’ve told you already about how we pinch every tugrik we have, so I vowed to not buy from that guy anymore. The bad thing is that the only licensed dealer is in the other part of town. When I was over there, I was sure to buy a lot more at the cost they are supposed to be. We’ll see how long they last this time. I was used to having unlimited texts in the U.S., so it will take some bit of self-control for me to cut back on how often I do it here. I finally bought a dish sponge and detergent today. Until now, I’d been washing dishes with laundry detergent and my hands. It worked, but I didn’t like it. And I was always worried about rinsing it off good enough. I feel much better about it now. August 26, 2008 I really must learn the language for dealing with someone who cuts my hair. During my lunch break today, I was told the lady was waiting for me, so I went over, sat in the chair, and made a few hand motions about what I wanted done. When she was almost done, everything looked good. On the crown of my head, I always get the hair cut just a little bit shorter. If I don’t, I get horrendous bed-head and it’s just generally hard to control. So, I tried to tell the lady to cut that one part just a little bit shorter. She seemed to understand when she pulled out a clipper guard and asked me if that’s what I wanted. I said yes and trusted her to her work. She then proceeded to buzz my entire head before I even realised what she was doing to be able to say anything. Dang it, man! So, here I am with hair that is hardly a half-inch long. Oh well. It’ll grow out eventually. I’ll make it a point to learn that language before I get another haircut. August 27, 2008 The last couple of nights have been chilly, so I’ve had my heaters on. I have one small space heater that the Peace Corps gave me, and the guy that was here before me left another radiator type heater. With both of them turned up, I’m not totally cold. It’s so weird that August isn’t even over and it’s as cold as it is. The other day, when my director was here, I was serving the obligatory candy and only had my small stool to put it on. She told me that I needed a table and she would get me one. Today, I went with her son over to the Culture Centre and got one. It’s not in the best shape, but it doesn’t look bad. I’m glad to have it. Now I have something to put my feet on while I’m watching TV. Haha, just kidding. I haven’t done that, yet. Yesterday, I was looking for some meat, but all I could find was huge chunks of it. I only wanted a half-kilogram. When I told my director what I wanted, she got on the phone and called someone, then she told me that I could go home and wait on them to deliver it to me. Wow, what service. It wasn’t bad that the delivery girl was kind of cute, too. It’s probably a good thing I don’t know that number. August 28, 2008 When I woke up this morning, I went to unplug the heaters that I’d left running through the night. I hadn’t noticed that they’d stopped working. When I looked at the power strip, I saw that the cord was discoloured and had melted the carpet. Hm, I guess it’s a good thing the place didn’t catch on fire. I heard a story about the guy before me having his space heater catch on fire. At MCG, I saw first hand how that can happen when you let those things run all the time. So, I guess this is a warning to all of you: be careful with those things, and give them time to cool off. When I got to work this morning, my director was going to the city and had planned to take me with her. We were going to go yesterday, but things happened and we didn’t. So, after some confusion and lots of scrambling, we were finally on our way. Our first stop was in the other part of town, where we switched from a taxi to a microbus. It was the hospital’s microbus and we had it to ourselves, with a policeman to drive for us. I found out later that we were doing a bit of scamming the system. There is a toll booth between us and the city, and hospital vehicles don’t have to pay the 5,000tg fee. Smart thinking. It took us about an hour to actually get to the city, but another 30 minutes to get downtown. Like any big city, it’s sprawled out. Our first stop was at some kind of government office. It’s time for schools to start, and all the government workers have been getting their paperwork together so their kids will have part of their university tuition paid for. Like in the U.S., they get benefits like that. Here, the government pays for 60%. Not bad. We had a huge notebook of papers that we had to turn it. I’m sure my director was glad to have that done with. When we finished, we decided to find some lunch. As we parked the vehicle and got out, the PCV that used to be in my town just so happened to be walking by at that exact moment. What a coincidence. We were all surprised to see each other. He had to take care of something quickly, and then went to lunch with us. We went to a place called Modern Nomads. From what I understand, the place is owned by an American. It’s really good, and has the prices to prove it. But it was so worth it. We had Mongolian food, but it was so much better than any that I’ve had cooked for me so far. I think the biggest reason is that they use plenty of spices. Also, the restaurant donates a big portion of its proceeds to youth development. You can check them out at www.modernnomads.mn. I think that’s the address. Oh, and the best part was that my director paid for lunch. Can’t beat that. I’m sure she will write it off as “business” and be reimbursed. After lunch, I got to do some shopping. That was the biggest reason that I went along, by the way. I had stopped at the Trade and Development Bank (one of the few places that takes American debit cards) and withdrew the only money of my own that I plan to use while I’m here. I was planning to make a significant purchase: a washing machine. We went to some kind of big indoor market and looked at all the different models and prices, talking to several different vendors. I settled on one made by Haier that cost 130,000tg ($112.85). That’s not a bad deal at all. It’s metal – whereas most of them are plastic – and has a 1 year guarantee. Washing machines here are different that those in the U.S. I’ll take a picture for you. Here, there is one piece, but there are two compartments. In one, that’s where all the washing happens. The other compartment is the spin-cycle. It’s kind of odd, and initially makes you think that it’s inferior to U.S. washers (actually, it probably is, all around), but it works pretty good. There’s just a bit more work involved. But, hey, at least I don’t have to wash my clothes by hand. Not only does it suck to wash my clothes by hand, but it’s bothersome and reduces the longevity of them. I also bought a flash water boiler. That will make my life easier, also. Before, whenever I want hot water, I had to put it in a pot and put in on the stove. To warm my bath water, shaving water, dish washing water, and tea water took a while. Now, I just put it in this thing and it takes just a few minutes. It heats two litres to boiling, very fast. I also bought another power strip. I think the one I got is a bit better quality than the one that melted this morning. On our way back to the government office, my director got a call with some bad news. A microbus full of people from our town had been in a terrible wreck and many had died. At first, we were told that there was only five, but she got another call later saying that the count was up to nine. She was visibly shaken. That caused a lot more work for her, with letting the government office know and all that kind of stuff. On our way home this evening, we saw the vehicle that had hit the microbus. It was one of those truck-like things. The cab was all smashed up, and the bed wasn’t even attached anymore. As a result of the deaths, our Naadam was cancelled. It was supposed to be tomorrow. That was lots of work by everyone that is down the drain. I asked her if it will be rescheduled, but she doesn’t know. I will be surprised if it is. It’s started to be cold. If it happens, it will have to be within the next few weeks. Last night, I made some Ranch dressing. Thank you so very much, MCG. Man, I love Ranch dressing. The directions call for mayonnaise or sour crème, and I can’t find either here. Luckily, we got a cookbook from Peace Corps. In it, there are lots of substitution suggestions. It’s a good thing that people have been here for years, having withdrawals from the same kinds of food that all Americans don’t realise they love until they can’t have it anymore. It says that yoghurt can be substituted for mayo or sour crème. Fortunately, that stuff is everywhere. I mixed two packets worth and let it set over night so it would be better, and I want you to know that it really took some patience for me to do that. Tonight, I had made some pinto beans and put lots and lots and lots of Ranch dressing in them. Oh my, it was like heaven. I wanted to turn up the bowl and take a big gulp of it. Yum, yum!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. While we’re on the subject, if there is such a thing as dried mayo or dried sour crème, and you just happen to be making up some kind of care package to send to me, please put some of that in there. I guess, just make sure that all I have to mix it with is water, or milk, or something else simple. If not, no biggie. More packets of dry Ranch will always be appreciated. I will go through whatever hurdles necessary to make it. August 29, 2008 After waking up and cooking my breakfast, I broke out my new washing machine and got to work. I’ve already told you a little bit about the difference between this kind of washing machine and one you might find in the U.S., but let me tell you more. First of all, there are no water connections. It just sits in the middle of the floor, and you plug it in for electricity. I don’t know how many gallons it takes to fill the agitator side, but it was several trips between the sink and the washer. If you want hot water, you have to make it yourself. Luckily, I have that nifty little flash boiler now. When you get it full, you turn the knob and it churns the clothes all around, for up to 15 minutes. When it’s finished, it just sits there in the dirty water. What I did was take the clothes out, soak them in a tumpin full of water for a bit, and then emptied the water from the washer. There is a tube that comes out of the bottom and when you turn the knob to the appropriate position, all the water comes out. It takes a while because you have to keep the tube kind of low to the ground and let gravity do it’s work. I emptied it into another tumpin, making about three trips before it was empty. I put some clean water through there, just to clean the dirt out of the line. After that, I put the clothes back in the washer, filled it up with water, and turned on the agitator again. When that finished, and I’d drained the water again and put more clean water through it to clean out the dirt, I put the clothes into the spinner. It is less that half the size of the washing compartment, so it took about three loads to do all of the clothes that I’d washed. And it’s very easy to make it unbalanced. My first try had the machine shaking all over the kitchen. But the spinner works pretty good. It only does it for about five minutes, but the clothes turn out much drier than I had expected them to be. We’ll see how long it takes for the clothes to continue drying. There are some lines on my balcony that I have them hanging on, but it’s raining today. The wind is blowing pretty good, but I’d bet that it will still be a while before they are dry. No matter the extra time, I’m still glad that I don’t have to wash my clothes by hand. Mostly, I’m glad because the life of my clothes will be much longer now. August 30, 2008 I’m in the city. When I was here the other day, I didn’t get to just hang out like I wanted. So, I made plans to come here today. I woke up early so I could get on the microbus as soon as possible. I got in at 8:15. We waited on more people to fill it, then left around 9. The microbus goes to the black market. From there, it took me 40 minutes to walk here to Café Amsterdam. I think this might be my favourite little café. Partly because it has free wi-fi. That’s always good. When I’m finished here, I will walk around the city, do a little bit of shopping, find some kind of cool place to have lunch, then go home. I will probably be home before 6. If I can figure out where the train station is, I might get back at 7. I would stay later, but there isn’t any kind of transportation that leaves later. I could spend the night with one of my friends here in the city, but I don’t want to just drop in unannounced. If they were Mongolian, that might be okay, but Americans usually don’t like that kind of stuff. Anyway. I’ll post this now. I hope everyone is good. Write when you can. P.S. I’ll upload some pics, also. Check them out when you have time.

August 20, 2008

Another story from yesterday:

When my director didn’t show up and I decided to walk around, my first stop was at the store that is in my apartment building. I got a few small things like tea, sugar, and laundry detergent. I tried to pay with a 5,000tg bill and was told that they didn’t have enough change for me. I had no idea what to do. There was a boy in the store and after the proprietor said something to him, he grabbed the bill and ran out the door. I knew he was going to go somewhere else to get change, but I thought, “Well, if he wanted my money, he’s got it.” He came back with the same bill. I ended up buying more stuff, just so they could make change. I got almost 2,000tg in 50tg bills. I felt like a balla, walking around with my money in a rubber band.

Today was my first day of work. I felt like a secretary today. For the first hour, I worked on writing an introduction for myself. My director will use it when she introduces me at various, up-coming functions. Basically, I wrote my resume in paragraph form, trying to use simple language that she can understand. For the next couple of hours, all I did was reproduce two forms that my director and I filled out when we first met. She wanted an electronic form, and, of course, there is nothing like a scanner in our office. At the least, it was good practice with Word. I now know how to make a table, with however many rows and columns. When I finished that, she said, “Now do that same thing in Mongolian.” Yeah, that was much easier said that done. She had her own copy, in Mongolian, but lost it somewhere. I, literally, spent the rest of the day working on it and only got one of them done. I’m hoping that I can get the PC office to email me copies. That will make my life much easier. Not like I have much else to do at work yet.

My back is sore from hunching over the computer all day. There is a short computer chair and the desk doesn’t have a place for me to put my legs under it. It’s a very uncomfortable position. I am lucky to have internet at work, though. I was able to update my blog and exchange some emails with people back home. To my favourite story teller: thank you. I can never get enough of your stories. I hope you get as much enjoyment out of mine as I do yours.

One good thing about work is that my lunch break came earlier than I expected. I get an hour and a half. Sweet! That gave me plenty of time for one of my beloved naps.

The last couple of evenings, I haven’t done much at all. I’m so mentally exhausted that I just come in, eat dinner, and zone out in front of the TV. I began a new book tonight, though. The guy that was here before me left about 20. I love reading. Originally, when I thought that I was going to be leaving in January, I had planned to waste the entire summer reading all kinds of books. Now that I’m in one place for a while, I’ll have time to do more reading. There are several that I’m not interested in, but the others look alright. I should have enough books to last me a few months at least. I will have a hard time finding time to read them until I figure out some kind of routine. I’m all thrown off.

It was raining this morning when I went to work. Of course, I don’t have an umbrella or a rain jacket. It’s a good thing that I live right across a park from my office. This afternoon, after lunch, it was really pouring. Needless to say, I got wet. I was the first one back to the office, too. I guess I’ll do like my director next time and just wait until the rain dies down. She came in as dry as can be.

Oh, I almost forgot something very, very, very, extremely important. On the ride here, my director remembered me talking about how I was a mosquito’s favourite flavour in my speech. She turned to me, smiled real big, and told me that there are no mosquitoes where I live. I didn’t believe her, but I was excited about the possibility. Come to find out, she wasn’t kidding. I don’t know how, but there are no mosquitoes here! I can’t tell you how happy I am about this. Flies, now, that’s another story.

August 21, 2008

It seems to be my lot in Mongolia to have to deal with people beating on my door late at night when I get to a new place. Around 10 after 1 last night, some drunken guy woke me from a dead sleep. When I finally got the doors figured out (there are two doors and I have a hard time getting the locks to work right) the guy was saying something about a phone. I told him I don’t know what he wants and shut the door. After I’d been back in the bed for 10 minutes or so, he banged on the door again. I have no idea what he was talking about that time. When I closed the door, I watched him through the peep-hole. He proceeded to pee in the stairwell. Nice. He banged on the door again, but I just ignored him. I hope this isn’t a regular thing around here.

When I got to work at 9, my director told me that the power would be turned off at 10 and wouldn’t come back on until tonight, at 11. It didn’t go off until 10:45. When it did, she took me to the police station and introduced me, then told them about the drunken guy from last night. We’ll see what comes of it. There was no water when I woke up this morning, so our next stop was at the water facility. They said they would be by sometime today to fix it. After we’d checked out the new sports facility, I asked what was next. She told me that since the power is out, I had the rest of the day off. Awesome!

Sometime in the afternoon, plumbers showed up with some new piping. They spent a couple of hours in the bathroom, doing their thing. When they left, they told me they would be back tonight to check on things, after the power and water came back. I spent the rest of the day being lazy, finishing a book that I’d started last night. It was around 9:45 when the plumbers showed up, almost an hour or so after they’d said they would. The water had already come on and was leaking in two or three places, so I had had to turn it off. They spent a good 15 minutes looking at what was going on, then they told me they would be back in a little bit with new stuff. The water facility is only a two minute walk, but it took them over an hour to get back. It was after midnight before they finished. I was glad they were done. Now, I have more than just a trickle of water. Still no hot water, but I’m thankful that water comes into my apartment and I don’t have to go to the well to get it.

Ash called me tonight. While the plumbers were working, I passed out. When the phone rang, it took me a few minutes to realise that I had been asleep. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, where you answer the phone and your first instinct is to lie to the person on the other end because you feel embarrassed that you were actually asleep when they called. What is that all about, anyway? I wonder why people feel compelled to do that. I know I’m not the only one to do it. It’s not like they can’t tell, because your sentences are fragmented and don’t make any kind of sense at all. It was good to hear a good friend’s voice. Thanks for the call, buddy. Matt, where you at?

August 22, 2008

Not long after getting to work, my director showed up and told me that she was going to UB; the power was going to be cut off again for the day; and I could go home if I wanted. I stuck around doing a little bit of work and played on the internet until the power went off, then went home and had another lazy day. Apparently, the water facility here runs off electricity, cause when the power goes out, so does the water. Luckily, I had enough sense to make some extra water last night so I would have plenty to drink. I’ve been extra thankful for the peanut butter that I got in my last package. Since I couldn’t cook anything, it has been the staple of my meals while the power is out.

I’ve watched some more Olympics this evening. Has anyone been watching boxing? The two Mongolians made it through their semi-final matches tonight. If one, or especially both of them, wins the gold, I think this whole country might shut down. Three golds in one Games? Cross your fingers and wish them luck.

August 24, 2008

More than a week ago, when I was sitting with my director and working out the details of my schedule, I was bothered that I wasn’t going to have some time to just relax when I got to my new place. Well, things have worked out to where I have had time to do absolutely nothing. This weekend, I’ve hardly done anything other than watch TV and eat. Have you heard of the show Dexter? It’s about a serial killer that kills other serial killers. It’s really good. I think it comes on Showtime. Check it out.

After it rained the other day, the wind blew really hard for a day or two, and it’s been cool ever since then. It’s only the end of August, but I think it’s time for the weather to start changing in Mongolia. Man, I’m not looking forward to the winter. In Alabama, whenever it would get down to about 30 degrees Fahrenheit, I would curse the cold and hate life. I think that is right at -1 degrees Celsius. Mongolia has been down to a record -58 or so degrees Celsius. I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit, but -40 F and -40 C convert to the same temperature. That’s just way too f-ing cold for me. Mongolians have been living here for thousands of years, though, so I’m sure I can handle it. I guarantee that I will be going on a tropical vacation when I leave the country, probably somewhere in South East Asia. Anyone want to join me?

One of my friends asked me what I’m going to do for my birthday. I knew it was coming up, but hadn’t thought of it much. Until she asked today, I hadn’t realised that it’s tomorrow. So, what will I do? I have no idea. I think I told you that my town is split into two parts. Well, in my part, they don’t sell beer in any of the stores. I talked to the guy that lived here before me and he told me that they do sell it in the other part, 6.5km (4.04 miles) away. A round trip of 8.08 miles is a really long way to walk for beer. I’m afraid to tell my director and coworkers that it is my birthday. I’m afraid that they will pull out the vodka and pressure me to drink way more than I can handle. After the last bout that I had with vodka, it’s going to be a very long time before I’m willing to drink anymore. Another question my friend asked is if I feel old. I told her that sometimes I do, when I think about the fact that most of my friends are more than a few years younger than me; but in my mind I don’t feel old, and I hardly ever think about it. And being in a country where you are still considered a youth until you are 35 years old, I still have a few years to go. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I’ve watched some more boxing this weekend. One of the boxers that I wrote about before won the gold today. I’m sure that in the next couple of days, there will be as big a craze for him as there is for the judo guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if those two guys have schools and towns named after them.

I attempted to make my first Mongolian dish today. My tsuivan was, to say the least, lacking. Next time, I’ll have to make lots more noodles. For food, it wasn’t that bad, but it would not be recognised as tsuivan.

It’s back to work for me, tomorrow. It will be a short week, though, so I’m looking forward to it. Thursday and Friday will be Naadam. The first day will be for kids; the second will be the usual wrestling, horse racing, and archery. As before, I’ll take plenty of pics and let you know how it turns out. I’ll post this in the morning. I know how some of you (mom) like to read my updates as much as possible, so I’ll see what I can do about posting more often. I hope everyone is good. Say prayers for me.

P.S. I added some links to blogs that are written by people that are in my group. They are to the right of the page. Check them out if you want to see another point of view about things over here. On Leslie and Nathan's blog, there is a video of me wrestling at Naadam. You will have to scroll down to see it.

August 19, 2008

It’s been a few days since I’ve had time to sit down and write. Let’s see if I can catch you up on what I’ve been doing.

Friday night, there was all kinds of partying going on. Everyone was excited to be officially done with Pre-Service Training. I got in the bed late and woke up early on Saturday. We all met at the theatre to be ready for swearing-in. Everyone wore their traditional Mongolian clothes. It was really cool. After the usual obligatory speeches, the U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia, Mark Minton, swore us in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. After we walked across the stage and received our certificates, we began our performances. I was the second of three to give a speech. I think I had mentioned that I would be doing it before. When I first wrote it and gave it to my teacher, she gave it back and said to change it. She said it sounded like a speech that a boss would give to his employees and that I should make it funny; and use simple language. Okay. That was harder to do than the first version I’d written. When I write formally, I’m used to writing a certain way, and it was hard to change that. When I gave my speech, I was glad that I was behind a podium. I think that is the most nervous I have ever been when in front of a group of people. At one point, I noticed my hand shaking. But, I got lots of laughs. That helped a lot. I was really surprised they thought it was that funny. I thought it would get giggles, but not guffaws. Other people sang songs, played instruments, and did dances; all Mongolian. There was a reception, at a different hotel, and we got to talk with the ambassador (he seems cool) and Robert Reid, the guy who is the Mongolian Country Director for the Millennium Challenge Corporation. I was sure to get his card since that is what I will be implementing in my job. He told me he would give me all the help I need. I will be in touch with him, I’m sure.

We had the rest of the day to ourselves. I walked around with a couple of others as they did some shopping. They aren’t as lucky as I am: they can’t get into the city and get anything they might want or need with so little ease. I’m glad that I’m as close as I am so I didn’t have to carry even more stuff with me. My roommate was one of the few who left that night. Their sites are in the north of the country, so there was no sense in them going to the south, to UB. That night, there was even more partying. During training, the trainers weren’t allowed to drink with us. It was all good once we swore in, though. They, plus a lot of other, older Volunteers joined in our partying. Somehow, I was able to stay away from the alcohol. I was still worn out from the night before, and I had plans to go to bed early. It didn’t work, though. I ended up hanging out with other non-partiers and exchanging all kinds of computer files. I think I have enough entertainment for a little while. I got in the bed late and was up early again.

On Sunday, there were only a few of us at breakfast at the normal time. I’m sure the others were getting every extra minute of sleep they could. After packing all my stuff, I was downstairs and waiting with everyone else. The bus was to get there so we could leave by 10:30. It finally showed up at 11. I don’t know who the logistical coordinator was, but they obviously didn’t think far enough ahead. The luggage area of the bus was filled way before the parking lot was emptied of bags. After everyone was on the bus, we rode Mongolian and filled the aisle with bags, too. We were told that we could expect the aisles to be packed as high as our head sometimes, often with some animal carcasses. I’m not looking forward to that. I can’t imagine that to be a comfortable ride at all.

The bus driver seemed to be on a leisure trip. He drove as slow as he could the entire way. The three hour trip took almost four and a half hours. Most people either put their headphones in their ears or went to sleep. The guy next to me had some speakers for his mp3 player, so we listened to music and goofed off the whole way. Yeah, clowns everywhere are drawn to me, and we always make sure we have our big red noses on.

In UB, we stayed at a dorm for foreign university students. Later in the day, a couple of trucks brought all the bags that didn’t fit in the bus, then we went to the Peace Corps office and picked up our winter bags, a fire-extinguisher, smoke detector, water filter, electrical power strip, space heater, cell phone, Peace Corps passport, and traveling money. As soon as everyone got their phones, they took them out of the box and started figuring out how to work them. For the rest of the day, you could see brand new Peace Corps Volunteers all over the city, playing with their new phones. I exchanged a few texts with one of my favourite people in the whole world. I was told that it wouldn’t work, but I was glad to see that it did. I tried a few other numbers, but they didn’t work. I don’t know what the problem is.

Of course, we were set off on our own and we had to find our way back to the dorms. One good thing about the city is that the taxis charge per car, not per person, like in the countryside. After spending the summer in the countryside, it was like being in another country altogether when we were in the city. UB is big: over 1 million people; a third of the population. It’s as bustling as any other capital city in the world. After the spiel on how dangerous it is there, we were all practicing our safety training. That afternoon, we all dispersed throughout the city in search of some non-Mongolian food. We found an awesome Italian place called Green Olive. I got the Thai chicken and loved it. It was three chicken legs in a bowl of vegetables, filled with gravy. Yum! That night, I was sure to get in the bed early. I tried to hang out with some friends, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

On Monday, I was up early again and went with some people for coffee. I really don’t like coffee, but I thought I could find some breakfast, too. We went to a neat place called Café Amsterdam that is owned by some Dutch expatriates. As nice as it was, it is no Starbucks, though. At Starbucks, the only coffee I ever get is the White Chocolate Mocha. They didn’t have the stuff to make that, but they were able to put enough sweet stuff in there to mask the coffee flavour. While I was eating the panini I’d ordered, my tooth chipped. I don’t have any idea what made that happen. It is the inside, back of my bottom front tooth. I think the impetus is from the last time I went to the dentist – for my Peace Corps application, no less. She has some kind of new machine that she uses, instead of the usual plaque-scrapers. It’s felt weird ever since then. It had me distressed for the rest of the day. I called the PC Medical Officer and was told that I’ll have to find some day in the next couple of weeks to get it checked on.

I’d talked to my director in the morning and she told me she would pick me up in 2+ hours. We went to lunch at French Bakery and she called me to say she was waiting on me. Doh! She was way early. To make it worse, the place didn’t have any power, so we had to go somewhere else. We found another café, where I had a chicken burrito and a strawberry milkshake. Man, oh-man-oh-man. It was freaking A awesome. Three of us had tried to order the same kind of milkshake the night before, but the server told us that there was only enough for one. I wasn’t the lucky one.

Back at the dorm, my director had a taxi for us. I was glad of that. I was afraid that I was going to have to take all my stuff to the microbus stand, and then figure out which one would take me to my site, all by myself. I could have done it, but it would have been a tremendous hassle. When we left, we made several stops on the way. She must have paid the driver a set fee, cause she didn’t seem to be in any kind of hurry. One of the stops was at her little brother’s place. He wasn’t there, but his wife was. She let us in and served us the ever-present tea and candy; then my director brought out a bottle of scotch. I saw it and cringed. I was afraid of what was about to happen as she passed me a small glass of it. I was worried that she was going to be shooting it, like my host-dad did. I was glad to see her sip it, like you’re supposed to. It took me a long time to get through that little bit. I was sure to tell her I didn’t want anymore when I finished. Our last stop was at a grocery store. She bought me some few things to get me started: meat, bread, kimchi, flour, and salt.

It took us almost an hour and a half to get to my apartment. The driver and a handyman helped me carry my bags up to the second floor. I am glad that I’m not on the top floor. Surprised, too. The apartment isn’t bad, according to Mongolian standards. Of course, I wouldn’t pay more than $150 a month if this apartment was in Huntsville. That is, if I would even live in it at all. There is a decent sized kitchen, with all kinds of stuff left by the last Volunteer; a bathroom; a foyer area, with my “closet;” a living room that doubles as my bedroom; and a balcony that looks across an empty lot, at an empty building. The handyman that helped with my bags was working on the plumbing in the bathroom. I got to talk to the previous Volunteer, and he’d told me it was sketchy. I don’t know what the handyman fixed, but it can’t be any better than it was before. Even though it only drizzles out, I have running water, and that’s all that matters. None of it is hot.

The first thing I did once everyone was gone was to strip down to my shorts, turn on some music, and dance in the living room. Yeah, as I’ve said before, I’m an idiot. I took my time unpacking. During that, I put some beans to soaking: I was going to make some chili. My first meal consisted of a can of black bean soup that was in one of my packages. It was good. By 9, I had things in their semi-permanent spot, so I stopped for the night. I took a bath in my tumpin, but it wasn’t as bad as before. I put it in my tub, which has no stopper, and splashed around everywhere. I was glad I didn’t have to worry about getting water all over the place.

Before bed, I watched some Olympics. Have you been watching any this year? The five Mongolian channels that I get only show so much, but what I’ve seen has been good. About a week ago, I saw Michael Phelps win a couple of gold medals in swimming. A few days ago, I saw a Mongolian win the gold in judo. I didn’t know it, but up until that point, Mongolia had the most Olympic medals in the world, but no gold medals. I’m sure you can imagine that the country is going wild over him. His picture is everywhere and he’s been on the news every night. There is a Mongolian that is one of the best ever Sumo wrestlers that people love, but I predict this guy will be even bigger. I saw a woman from Great Britain win the gold and break the world record in a swimming event. Last night, I saw a female Russian pole-vaulter break her own Olympic record, then go on to set a new world record. Ha, of course, that was after the American lady had been doing some trash-talking. That’s what you get, I guess.

This morning, I woke up before my alarm and couldn’t get back to sleep. No big deal: I had plenty of sleep and I still had a few things in my apartment to take care of. My director told me she would be here at 10 to take me around and show me stuff. I finished putting things to rights and made that chili. It turned out good. At 10, I was ready to go. By 11:30, she still wasn’t here, so I decided to get out and walk around. This place is much smaller than where I was for training. It doesn’t help that it’s split in two, either. In my half, there are lots of abandoned buildings in a state of disrepair. From what I understand, this part used to be the Russian side of town and was better, at one time. Since the Russians were kicked out back in 1990, the other side has slowly been getting better. That is partly because the train station is over there. This place was founded as part of a Russian air-strip. I can’t imagine why they didn’t put it over there by the train station. That’s only one of the many enigmas left over from the Russian era.

My director finally showed up at 2. Mongol-time at it’s best. She said that she’d been in lots of meetings and was too busy earlier. No big deal. That gave me time for a nap, and you know how I love naps. She showed me where several stores and the post office are. She took me to show me my office, too. I ended up sitting through a meeting in her office, and then we went to another meeting. I “introduced” myself, and then she talked about me for 10 minutes or so. I understood very little of what she said. The meeting was about their Naadam. Did I already write that they are going to have theirs on Aug. 29 and 30? Our department is head of the Culture and Sporting Events Committee. I have to help come up with a schedule of events. That will be neat. My director asked me if I would wrestle, too. I had just decided yesterday that I think I would rather just sit and watch, but I agreed to anyway. It’s not like I won’t enjoy it, even if I do lose. My director keeps joking that the next Mongolian gold medal will come from a wrestler from our district, now that I’m here to coach them. Ha, we’ll see. One day, I’ll give you the link to my friend’s blog that has a video of my first attempt at Mongolian wrestling. I have internet at work, but it’s really slow. I will be able to check emails and update my blog, but I think I will have to wait until I get into the city before I can upload pictures and videos.

August 13, 2008

Last night, I was at the internet place for almost three hours. There are a couple of you who were on at the same time (12 hours behind me, in time) so I had a chance to exchange a few emails with you. That was nice. I got to use the place here in Darkhaan that has wi-fi, so I had a chance to use my own computer. Not only is it faster, but it’s cheaper, too. The only downside is that since I don’t get on the internet with my computer that much, whenever I do, the first thing my computer does is download all the Windows updates that it’s not had a chance to get. That tends to slow down things a little bit. It’s worth it, so I don’t mind too much. Another thing that took so long is that I was downloading the new Nas CD from Amazon. I love new music; and Nas is pretty good at what he does. Amazon is fairly priced, though it is a bit slow. Does anyone know of any sites that are cheaper than Amazon, that might be a little faster? I don’t have an iPod, or iTunes, so please don’t recommend anything that has to do with those.

Every time that I’ve been away from Darkhaan for a while, I forget about the pollution. It’s the second largest city in Mongolia, and it has the pollution to match. I’ve gotten used to living in the countryside where the only pollution is random trash fires, dung fires, and a few cars. Here, it affects my sinuses some: I get those nasty black boogers, and I’m constantly “harrumphing,” because my throat catches when I talk. Yuck! That is one reason that I didn’t want to actually live in the capital. Do you ever see Asians on TV who walk around with those face masks? Well, it’s because of the pollution. Before I knew where I was going, I had already decided that if I was going to be in the capital, or another big city, I was going to invest in some of those face masks. That stuff is as bad as smoking. Worse, you don’t really know you’re getting it, and you can’t get away from it. Only a few more days.

Today’s sessions weren’t that bad. Some people find them to be a bore, but I never mind them. The longest ones are about an hour and a half, and then the subject changes to something else totally different. And there are always handouts on anything that we really need to know, so all we need to do is sit there and listen; or act like we’re listening. Being that I have the imagination of a 5-year-old, I find myself doing a lot of acting. But I usually have a good knowledge of what’s being talked about, so it’s not that big of a deal.

This evening, I went to dinner at a place called Nice Café. It is really close to our hotel, and it is the cheapest place in town. I had chicken fried rice, and I put plenty of soy sauce on it. I haven’t had chicken, fried rice, or soy sauce since I’ve been here, so it was extra good. That’s one of those dishes that I plan to make once I get settled into my apartment.

Oh, I forgot: when we swear in, we will get a Peace Corps issued cell phone. It will be ours, and we will have our own phone numbers; and we can call anyone, anywhere, that we want to. Whenever I find out what my number will be, I’ll let you know what it is. I have no idea how much it costs to make international calls, but I would love to hear from any of you whenever you might feel like calling or texting me. As I’ve mentioned before, I won’t be able to afford calling you, but all incoming calls and texts are free in Mongolia. That’s one good thing they have going for them. Too bad all cell providers in the U.S. don’t have that policy. But if they did, I’m sure they would have some other way to gouge you for money.

Earlier this week, we found out that taxi prices have gone up. Like everywhere else in the world, they say it is due to rising gas prices. This time, I think it might have to do with the Georgian/Russian war. Have you heard about it? I haven’t had much of a chance to keep up with international news like I did when I was back in the U.S., but I did get to read a news article about it last night. There is a major fuel line going through Georgia. Though the fighting is no where near the fuel line, it has affected the price. I won’t write my opinion about it, but “can’t we just all get along?”

There is partying pretty much every night when we all get together in Darkhaan. Though I’m not drinking, I still hang out with everyone. It’s about time for everyone to get started, so I’m going to go and check out the scene.

August 14, 2008

After we swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers on Saturday, most of us will go to the capital, Ulaanbaatar (UB). The city, as may be expected, is the biggest one in the country, having a population of 1 million-plus people. Also, as may be expected, it has the highest crime rate in the country. The city is a whole different world. The first part of our day consisted of a session intended to scare us about walking around the city like a tourist. It was a fun session, consisting of pick-pocket demonstrations; but it was also a scary one, consisting of stories of random foreigners getting beat up just because of who they are. Throughout all of our training this summer, it has been pounded into our head that the idea of the police here is totally different than what we are used to in the U.S. You can’t always expect help from them. So, you have to take your own safety and security into your hands and be aware of everything around you. This is one of the reasons I am glad that I’m not placed in the “city.” I put it in quotes because in Mongolia, there is only one city, and that is UB. (By the way, only foreigners call it UB: Mongolians almost always say the full name.) At dinner tonight, with PCVs who live in UB now, those of us who are to be placed there were made to feel a bit better.

Today, we were to meet our directors. Usually we are dressed very casually for the sessions, in t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. I, like everyone else, was sure to wear my suit today. On the walk to the school this morning, the temperature was still cool. It’s still summer for another six weeks or so, so it was as hot as can be before we were to meet our directors. I think I’ve told you there is nothing like air conditioning here. Sometimes, there will be one oscillating fan in a room that holds 200+ people. Most times, I don’t mind sweating, but when I’m dressed up, I absolutely hate it. As I’ve written many times before, there is no humidity like in Alabama, so I wasn’t sweating like I would have if I’d been there; but I still did. That had me irritated, and on top of the anxiety of meeting my boss for the next two years – who speaks as little English as I do Mongolian – I was having a time of staying calm. When it was time to meet our directors, they did it much like they did when they announced our sites and jobs: we were all on one side of the room; the directors were on the other side; and they randomly called out the matches. Every time that it sounded like it could be me, I would tense up. Finally, there were six of us left, and no directors. We were told that our directors were still on the way. So, here I was with all this built up anxiety, and no release. Immediately after that, I had to walk back to the hotel for lunch, sweating more and more with every step. Grr! I rushed through my lunch so I could go back to my room to cool down and calm down. That didn’t get to happen, though. As soon as I stood up to leave, my director walked through the door. I had to sit there, sweating, and have an awkward conversation with her. She was late because the taxi she had taken had some kind of troubles. That is by no way unheard of here, so there was nothing to be done about it. She seemed really nice, but I was irritated. After that, we had to go through a meeting concerning our money matters, and it was all I could do to pay attention. Even worse, my irritation was aggravated by the fact that I am considered a part of UB, but I will not be on the same pay-scale. UB people will get paid approximately 180,000tg per month; I will get paid approximately 130,000tg per month. The reason that UB gets that much is because things are more expensive there. That’s cool, I totally understand that. The reason that my pay sort of bothers me is that I have to go into the capital to buy some of the things I will need. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll find some way to work around it. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I asked my director when she expects me to show up to work. She told me Monday morning. I’m really going to see if I can’t talk her into letting me have at least a few days off before I have to be there. After two and a half months of a rigid schedule, I need some time to detox and settle in.

This evening, the CYD group went to spend about an hour at the orphanage. It was cool to see some of the kids again. I didn’t spend much time with the boys, though. I’m still mad about them stealing my money. I still haven’t been reimbursed for that. I’m working on it. Yeah, it’s only 5,000tg, but that’s a lot of money.

Oh, I figured out how to write in Cyrillic on my computer. Did you know that you can go to the Start menu, All programs, Accessories, System tools, and Character map, and then be able to type in different languages? I didn’t, but someone told me and I figured it out. So, I have that ready for you. Some people also got their cell phones today, since they won’t be going through UB to go to their site. In their phones, they had everyone’s number in there. I got my phone number. I won’t get my phone until Saturday, though. So, when I send you my mailing address, I will give you my phone number, too. I will most likely give it to you before I have my phone, so wait until Sunday before you try to call or text me. The number that I give you will have the country code on it.

I thought of something to tell you that I told you I would tell you when I could. During my training, I was in a city called Sukhbaatar. It is a town in the very north of the country, in Selenge aimag, right against the Russian border. Just thought I would tell you. Maybe you can find it on some map on the internet. It’s not the same as Sukhbaatar aimag, which is to the east of the country. Now that I’m going to my site, I won’t have my address posted on my blog. As I said, I’ll be sure to send it to every one I can think of who might want it.

August 15, 2008

First of all, from my good buddy The Craziest of Carls:

So the most people fit into a car or motor vehicle is 42. There were only two cars with 42, and I couldn't figure out what they were. Like the fifth most people fit into a car was the one I would most relate to being like a VW Bus. It is a Renault Espace, and they fit 34 people into it, probably not too comfortably as they were going for sheer numbers, not to travel anywhere. The two that were the most, one a 56 seater double decker bus the other a Mercedes Benz bus with a normal capacity of 144 people. The 56 seater fit 354 people on it and the Mercedes fit 438. Hope that this was informative and close to what you were lookin fer. Peace Trip. Two fingers nickel.

Today 1 US Dollar = 24.32156 Russian Rubles, which 100 Kopeek = 1 ruble

another site said 1 dollar = 24.4225 rubles, basically 1 ruble = 4 cents. So a 20 kopeek piece would be 1/8 of one cent, 8/1000's of a dollar. 1 kopeek would be 4/10,000's of one dollar.

in 1961 I don't know what the exchange rate would've been, but I did find out that in 1991, the ruble was revalued at 1 ruble now equalling what 1000 rubles once equalled. "The Russian term "kopeika" is a diminutive form of the word "kopio" and it means "a spear"....At the end of the fourteenth century, certain coins circulated in Russia upon which was the design of a spear and Russians simply applied the term "kopeika" (="little spear") to such coins." You can also buy a 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 kopeek coin on ebay for $1 plus 2.95 s&H. Others have slightly higher prices, up to 3.99. A 20 Kopeek coin from 1824 is 500 dollars! I hope this was enough and informative.

Thanks for the info, Crizzle.

So, now for me. Today has been full, but not bad at all. The first thing we sat through was a spiel by the Federal Officer of the U.S. telling us to not break Mongolian or American laws. We are subject to both and can be prosecuted in both countries if we do something wrong.

After that, everyone met with their directors. There, the Mongolians got together and wrote a list of their expectations for us, and we got together and did the same for them. Surprisingly, our lists were very similar. That was refreshing. After lunch, we met with our directors individually and went through a checklist for dates to have particular things done, and a work plan form. My next two weeks is going to be extremely busy. I will get to my site on Monday afternoon and settle in to my apartment and relax. The next day, I will meet my neighbours and some other random people. Wednesday will be my first day at work. A regular work day is from 9-6, with a lunch hour from 1-2. My apartment is right across a courtyard from the governor’s office, so I can go home everyday if I like. I’m sure I will. You all know how much cheaper it is to eat your own cooked food, instead of buying it elsewhere. Ha, not like there will be many restaurants, if any. After that, I will spend different days meeting different people and being shown different places that are important. On Aug. 29 and 30, they will have their district’s Naadam. In the countryside, places move their dates so they can celebrate the national Naadam. How exciting that I get two this year! I think I will try to wrestle again. Maybe I can redeem myself from my earlier loss. I’ll let you know. Also, I will get off of work on those days. September 1 is the first day of school in all of Mongolia. There are always Celebrations of Knowledge at the schools, and our office has been invited to attend the one in our community. That will be cool. Other than that, my work plan shows a tentative 12 hours per week of work; but I’m quite sure that I will be working much more than that.

After we had finished our day, we walked over to the theatre and practiced our swearing in ceremony. Tomorrow, at 10 a.m., the ambassador to Mongolia will swear us in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. We are all excited about it. Afterwards, there will be a reception. Some people will leave tomorrow afternoon, but the rest of us will leave on Sunday, for UB.

I’ve been able to exchange a few emails with some of you again tonight, since it’s not too late here. As before, that has been nice. I hope you are all good. Everyone is getting together to celebrate tonight. Some of us might not see each other for several months to a year. I’ve sent my new address and phone number to most of you. Utilise it when you like. Talk to you later. See ya.

P.S. The picture is of some pigeons roosting in a tree. I have never seen a pigeon in a tree in the U.S.

July 31, 2008

This morning, on the way to school, I saw a guy on a motorcycle herding horses down the road. That’s among the many crazy things that happen here that you don’t even think twice about. Hm, well, I guess I did think twice about it, since I am writing to tell you about it.

August 1, 2008

There is an eclipse going on right now. As I was walking home from school this evening, I noticed that there was something different about the light, but I didn’t really give it much thought. When I got home, my host-dad told me something about the moon and the sun. I remembered the news article that my mom had forwarded to me and I knew what was going on. Of course, what did I do? Exactly what you are not supposed to do: I looked directly at the sun. I could see that the moon was only covering the bottom portion of the sun, for a second. After that, I couldn’t really tell much of anything. I am in the middle of Mongolia. I think, over in the western part, people can see more of the full eclipse. It’s pretty cool that I got to see it. I think the last time I got to see an eclipse was when I was a little kiddo.

Sweet! I just finished writing the above when my host-dad yelled for me to come outside. He had gotten a welder’s mask and was looking at the eclipse. I could see that about three-fourths of the sun was covered now. How cool.

This evening, some of us got together to celebrate brother Baasan’s birthday. As we were walking each other home, we began looking up at the stars. Have you ever been anywhere where it is completely dark at night? I thought I had, but being here, I’ve realised that I have not. The stars are absolutely amazing. One can actually see why our galaxy is called the Milky Way. And to further our astrological amazement of the day, we got to witness a shooting star. Of course, I stopped to make a wish. I won’t tell what my wish was, but it is the same wish that I always make whenever I wish anything. Maybe one day it will come true. I have faith that it will.

August 2, 2008

Joley Moley, what a day! It started out with me being a full-fledged, unwilling participant of Mongolian time. When we were first told about Mongolian time, it was presented in a joking manner. I knew there had to be some kind of truth to it, though. In my studies, I had learned about African time. Have you ever heard of it? Basically, it’s got to do with people showing up whenever they’re ready to show up; not necessarily when the appointment was made. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s all I’ll write here. Research it a bit if you want to know more. Before, I’d only experienced Mongolian time slightly, when waiting on someone else. This morning, we and our families were supposed to meet at 10, and then we were all to go to a day-long picnic. At 10 til 10, I was ready, waiting on the porch for my host-parents to come on. We didn’t have any electricity this morning, so they had had to go down the street to our cousin’s house to cook our food for the day. At 10 after 10, we finally left. I don’t know what any of you know about me, but I absolutely hate being late. I get all antsy and irritated, and feel selfish. As much as I dislike waiting on someone else, I dislike making them wait on me even more.

Finally, we got to where we were going. There is a particularly auspicious tree that is about a 20 minute ride from here called the Mother Tree. Rumour has it that before, there was a different one that died, so now there is another very near it. Unfortunately, I was in the vehicle with the five people who did not get to stop and get out. Everyone else did. A little way past it, but too far to walk back, there was a sort of camp ground with some cabins, two gers, a picnic table area, a billiard table area, a volleyball net, and a basketball court. When everyone got there, all the moms prepared our lunch and we ate it buffet style. It was good. The hoshor remains my favourite. For the rest of the day, we just sat around and enjoyed everyone’s company. I took a nap in one of the gers. Oh, and the gers were bright orange, like a traffic cone’s colour. I don’t know the reason, but that is very untraditional: most all of them are white. For dinner, we had a traditional Mongolian meal whose name sounds like “whore hog.” What you do is take a big tub, put some hot water in the bottom, put some fire-hot rocks in that, put some salt, meat, potatoes, and vegetables in, and then cover it and put in on the fire for about 20-30 minutes. It turned out pretty good. To “wash” our hands, we passed the hot rocks between our hands. I guess that is supposed to kill all the germs. Oh, and we had a few bottles of vodka throughout the day, also, but not enough for anyone to even get a buzz. Mongolians like their vodka.

As soon as we finished eating, we played a Mongolian game that is like tag. Everyone gets in a circle with a partner standing in front of them. Two extra people stand outside the circle; one person is it, and the other person runs around the circle, trying to not get tagged. In order to not be it, the person running away has to jump in front of a pair, making it a set of three. The person who is farthest back is then the person who has to run away from the person who is it. If you are it, and you tag someone before they get to a safe place, you have to get in front of a pair in order to be safe. It’s pretty fun. If you play with kids, you should try this game out.

Right as we finished and were getting ready to leave, a wind storm came. It had been windy all day, and I loved it. I really like the wind. It got ridiculously crazy, though. There were some small shade tents that totally got blown over within just a few minutes. One guy got all three of them in the face. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt at all. There was a split-second where I had thought to step in front of them, so as to stop them from being blown away, but when I saw the metal legs coming at me, I realised that would be a mistake and stepped back. Some people thought to hide in a ger, but I knew that wasn’t a good place, so some of us went into one of the cabins. That’s when things got really crazy. One of the two gers was blown down and people were scrambling to take it apart. I wasn’t having anything to do with that. It was just way too dangerous. After they’d done what they thought they wanted to do, they decided to pile everyone into the microbus. We fit 23 people in there. That’s the most I’ve ridden with so far. Those things are about the same size as a VW van. I wonder what the record is for stuffing it full of people. Why don’t one of you who has all kinds of free internet time look it up and let me know. I tried to warn people that it was not safe for us to be in there, with the wind blowing like it was, but they weren’t trying to listen to me. I’m an American, what do I know? The ride was very very uncomfortable. When we got back into town, there were several fences that had been blown down. Some were completely down, and others only had a little bit. There was a corner of our fence down, but the boys and their uncle have already put it back up. It has finally started raining with earnest. Earlier, it rained hard for about 2 minutes, and then stopped. I don’t think it will stop for a while, now. Since we still don’t have any electricity for me to make hot water, I had thought about taking a bar of soap out there and showering, but it’s just drizzling now. The wind has been blowing all day and I feel a gritty layer of dirt all over me. It’s kind of nasty feeling.

August 3, 2008

I woke up this morning to sounds of construction going on everywhere. It looked as if everyone’s property had sustained some kind of damage, and they were intent on taking care of it today. This morning, I saw that part of our back fence had been blown down, also. For some reason, no one in my family seemed to be concerned. The neighbours were the ones taking care of it. Another family down the street a bit had most of their fence blown down. When they finally got around to putting it back up, they decided to make theirs much bigger than it was previously. Here, there are no property laws, so if you build a fence around it, it’s yours. I guess that’s one of the advantages of living in the least populated country in the world. There yard is now about three times bigger than it was.

I got out of the bed around 11:30 today. It felt so nice to sleep late. My little brother tried to tell me that I was bad because of it. I told him that it was good. When he asked why, I told him it’s because today is Sunday. In Mongolian, the name for Sunday translates as “full good day.” Surely he can understand why it’s good for me to be lazy on a day with a name like that.

Our electricity was still out today, so my host-mom had gotten a wood stove from somewhere and had it out in the yard to cook our meals for the day. She seemed to be as adept at that as she is cooking with electricity. I doubt this is her first time doing it. We finally got power back at around 8:15 this evening. I’m glad we did. It doesn’t get completely dark until about 10:30, but when you are inside, you can’t really see anything beginning around 8:30. I still have some things I need to take care of tonight, before bed. Last night, as much as I liked getting in the bed by 10, I felt like I was wasting a lot of time. It is work and school related stuff, so I don’t want to do it, but I have to. Oh well. I guess I’ll get to it now.

August 4, 2008

Today, we were told that Mongolians had never seen winds as strong as the ones the other day. To us, they were really strong, but I would not have thought them to be that big to them. Two days later, people are still working on their fences, though. Maybe it is true.

I do have a funny story about that evening. In my group, there is a married woman. All the married couples are separated during training, but she’s lucky because her husband is in the bagh that is on the other side of the city. For the picnic, he went with us. At the end of the day, when everyone was piling into the microbus, she and her husband decided to not get in. So, they stayed there and no one knew it. They stayed there, singing karaoke and hanging out with the people who ran the ger camp, until almost 10:30. Her host-mom finally realised that she didn’t come back with us and began calling people and asking after her whereabouts. Well, Mongolians have this belief that you have to turn your cell phone off when it is lightning; else you take the risk of drawing it to you. Silly, I know, but they genuinely believe that. When people finally turned their phones back on, they had missed messages about the whereabouts of “my babies!” Pretty funny, I thought.

Since we had been without power for almost two full days, everything in our freezer had thawed out. To keep from wasting it, we ate all the meat that we had. That meant that when I awoke, there was a lone goat in the pen, bleating mournfully for its life, to no avail. As I walked to school, I told it that I wouldn’t help it; in fact, I was looking forward to eating it. So, you know what I had for my dinner, right? Yep, innards. I think that I don’t really like them. Every time, I have to mentally force myself to put it in my mouth. Luckily, this is my last week here, so I won’t have to eat them anymore. Where ever I go next, I’ll be sure to let them know that I don’t want to eat any. I’m glad I tried them, though.

August 5, 2008

Today, we had two lasts: cross-culture and CYD. We don’t mind either one, but we are glad that things are finally coming to an end. In cross-culture, we learned how to do the Western waltz and the Mongolian waltz. They are a bit different. This is the first of any kind of dance that I’ve officially been taught. The only kind of dancing that I’ve done before is some booty dancing; and that’s mostly at home, by myself, in front of the mirror. Yeah, can you imagine that? Funny, huh? I’m just too self-conscious to feel comfortable doing it in public. We were told that we would most likely be compelled to do these waltzes when we get to our sites, for various gatherings and parties for our workplaces. Drat! Well, at least they will have some alcohol there. Nothing like some liquid courage to get a fella out on the dance floor.

August 6, 2008

Today, we found out that another person from our bagh is going home. He’s married, so his wife will leave with him. That makes two that have left from here, so far; six from our entire class. That is right at the usual 10% that statistics say quit before the end of their 27 months of service. That puts us on track to fulfill one of the auguries of a guy here who says we will have record numbers quit. We have our theories as to why this will happen, but I won’t write them here. If you want to know, email me personally and I’ll tell you all about it. As for me, there have been a few times that I’ve wondered exactly what the heck it is that I’m doing here, but there hasn’t been anything to make me ready to quit. I hate quitting. I don’t like the stigma that goes with it. So, pray for me that I won’t have anything happen to make me want to quit.

We’re out of electricity again this evening. I don’t know what the problem is. I think that I read in something that as PCVs, we are supposed to have at least 4 hours of electricity per day. If that’s all we will have, that would be hard to get used to. I hope that I have much more electricity than that; or else none at all. If I had none, then I could at least get used to it quicker, and learn how to live without it. We’ll see how it turns out. I really don’t think I’ll have to worry about it, though.

I’ve had a few new kinds of food lately. One is called “bing.” It’s fried dough that’s eaten like bread. I don’t know why my host-mom hasn’t made it all along. I like it a lot. The other new food is called “bantan.” It runs a very close second to hoshor for being my favourite. It is literally meat broth with some bit of meat chuncks, thickened with flour. It tastes just like chicken and dumplings; and I love chicken and dumplings. I think my host-dad told me that it won some kind of medal or something like that. I could eat that stuff all the time. It’s really easy to make – as is hoshor – so I’m sure I’ll be eating a lot of it in the future.

On the way home today, I found an old Russian coin lying in the road. There is no telling how long it’s been there, since it was in the middle of our bagh, and none of the roads are paved. It is a 20 Kopeek piece, made in 1961. I wonder what it was worth in U.S. money at the time. I wonder what it might be worth now.

August 7, 2008

We had our last language lesson today. Yay! Well, actually, we will meet next Monday and learn some technical jargon, but we won’t be tested on it. So today was the last one! We are all so excited.

August 8, 2008

It was nice to sleep late today. Our Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) was today, and I didn’t have to go until 2 o’ clock. So, I slept late and studied until it was time to go. Have I mentioned how much I hate to study? Bleh! But, it will be the last time that I have to worry about it for a while. Wish me luck. We will find out our grades once we get to Darkhaan next week.

I began my pre-partying around 6. Everyone had planned to meet at one of the PCT’s place at 7:30, so a couple of us started to make our way there at 7. As we passed the school, some Mongolians asked if we had a lighter. The guy I was with did, and when he let them use it, they invited us to drink beers with them. Okay, sure, we’ll drink your beer for free. After the first one, we tried to leave but couldn’t; after the second, we tried to leave but couldn’t; and after the third, they decided that it was our turn to buy the next beer. They were determined to keep us there, drinking with them. Luckily, one of the PCTs was on his way to find us and walked by. He made his voice sound urgent so we could extract ourselves from the situation.

At our celebration party, we had all chipped in and bought a cloth of respect and a framed picture for both of our teachers. They gave us a cake and a bottle of champagne for everyone, and a card and a Chengis Khan keychain for each of us. Then we started drinking for real. It was a good time.

August 9, 2008

I woke up after 1 today and felt like crap. After some lunch, I went into town with my host-parents to hang out with their friends. I really didn’t feel like going, but I did. I didn’t do much at all while I was there, other than eat and watch some Olympics. I don’t know why, but Mongolians think that a shot of vodka will fix whatever illness that you might have. They badgered me to take a shot for a while before I finally gave in. One of their ploys was to show me the label and point out that it was 38% alcohol. I don’t know why they thought that would lure me into it quicker. It was all I could do to keep it down. We finally came home and I came straight to my room. They wanted to take me to the Mother Tree today, but I begged off, telling them I didn’t feel good. They said they would take me tomorrow. I hope so. It will be my last chance to go: we leave on Tuesday morning. I really want to see it.

August 10, 2008

I got a first hand look at how they kill goats here. Have I written about this before? I don’t think I have. They get two people to hold the goat on its back, one holding its legs, the other holding its mouth and the knife. The person with the knife cuts it open right below its breast bone, then reaches in and unplugs the aorta from the heart. That way they don’t waste any of the blood. They use the blood later when they cook the innards. They take the stomach, pour it full of blood, and then boil it until it’s done. They consider that to be one of the best parts. I disagree. I guess that means more innards for me today. Drat! I was really hoping to not have anymore. I’m going to see if they will fix something else for me. My stomach is still a little queasy and I don’t think I can handle it.

When they had finished gutting the goat, one of their friends brought a blow-torch over and they proceeded to cook the goat with it. At least, I thought they were cooking it. They kept at it for about 30 minutes. When they were done doing that, they cut it up and made “whore hog.” While it was cooking, we went to the Mother Tree. As I said before, it’s an auspicious tree that is out in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know how they chose that one. There were all kinds of hadags tied to the trees. A hadag is the cloth of respect like what I said we gave to our teachers. There are different colours to represent different things. At the Mother Tree, there were all the colours. It kind of smelled like spoiled milk there, because people would throw milk everywhere as an offering. People would touch their head to the tree as they prayed. It was a neat experience. I think most of you know how interested I am in religion. I’m sure the Buddhists would claim this, too, but it has too much influence from shamanism to be purely Buddhist. I’m glad I got to experience it. I think that I can add video to my blog. If I can, I’ll do it one day so you can see some of the things I see.

Back at home, the “whore hog” was ready and we dug right in. I was extra hungry, and extra glad that I wasn’t having innards. They cooked an entire goat. People at on that thing for over two and a half hours and still didn’t eat it all. This time, they put some turnips in the mix. I tried to tell them that people eat the turnip greens in the U.S. It took a bit to get them to believe me. They didn’t seem like they were interested in me showing them how it’s done. Oh well.

August 11, 2008

Today was our for real last language lesson. We spent about an hour going over some technical language. The list of words was much longer than an hour’s worth, so we just asked for some words that we thought we might need to know. As soon as I got home from class, I went into town to print out some pictures. These days, I only think about the price of things in U.S. money when I’m writing for you. When you are paid less than most Mongolians, you tend to pinch every tugrik you have – which is worth less than 1/10 of a penny. By the way, I’ve never seen any denomination less than 10tg – and they don’t have coins at all. The pictures, about 3x5, cost approximately $0.15. I got most of them for my host-family and a few for other friends. They really appreciated them.

I pulled my bags out last night, but I really started packing today. I didn’t do a good job of dividing up the weight evenly. I have two big bags and I put all but one book in one of them. They said that we could take our bags to the school today so we wouldn’t have to carry them all in the morning. The walk that usually takes me about 5 minutes took almost 15. Whew! Now I get to carry that all the way to the top floor of the hotel tomorrow (they don’t have a working elevator), then when I get to my site, I’ll get to carry that however far again. Oh, and like I said, I have another bag; plus two back packs, a sleeping bag, and a water distiller. I hope I’ll have some help when I get to my site.

Today, my host-mom cooked my three favourite foods. Breakfast was bantan, lunch was hoshor, and dinner was boats. You’d better believe that I ate the heck out of all of them, too. Here, no matter how full you tell them you are, they still try to get you to eat more. And there are some things that they don’t really consider to be food. Some examples of this might be bread, sausage, pastries, and candy. So, even though you may have finished your meal, they still offer you more of those kinds of things. If it is candy, it’s easier to just go ahead and take it, then put it in your pocket.

I’m really appreciative of my time with my host-family, and all the training that I’ve received, but like everyone else, I’m so ready to get started on what I came here to do. We will be in Darkhaan tomorrow morning by 9, then spend five days there doing end of training stuff. I don’t know what it will be, but I’m sure those five days will pass by fairly quickly. Oh, and tomorrow, we will find out where our sites are!! We are all anxious about that. I’ve sure that most everyone will swarm the internet place, so I will wait until Wednesday evening to make my way there. I’ll have emails prepared for everyone by then with my new address. So, if you’re reading this, you probably have an email from me. If you don’t, and you want my address, you can do one of two things. Either email me, or ask someone you know that you are sure I gave it to. I don’t mind anyone having it. I’ll appreciate any mail or visits that I might get as a result of you knowing my address.

August 12, 2008

Joley Moley, what a day!! I woke up at 6 and was in Darkhaan by 8:30. They didn’t have all of the hotel rooms ready, so everyone piled their bags into two rooms. Unfortunately, one of those rooms was the one I am assigned to. That means that, though it is now after 5 p.m., there are still other people’s things in here, crowding our space. I’m sharing the room with one other person. I plan on finding everyone who still has stuff in here and making them come and get it before tonight. At least I’m on the second floor, and not the top floor.

The first part of our day consisted of a few welcoming remarks, our very last technical session, and some medical knowledge. Also, we found out our grades on our language test. I got Intermediate Low. Yay! I was so worried that I hadn’t improved, but I did. I just didn’t feel that good about my test. But, I didn’t realise until later that I didn’t have to do a scenario. Maybe the tester thought I was good enough without it.

Before we went to lunch, we got some packages. I had two! How cool. One was from my old work-place, MCG, and it had almost everything that I had put on my wants list. Thank you all so very much. It was heavy, and I was worn out by the time I carried it back to my hotel, but it is definitely worth it. They spoiled me while I worked there, and they continue to spoil me while I’m on the other side of the world. The other package is from another of my mom’s friends. I’ve actually never met her before, and have only talked to her through email, but she seems to be a genuinely nice person. Oh, and she is applying for the Peace Corps, also. Wish her luck. I’ve said this a million times and will say it again: people like me for some reason, but I don’t know what it is. I’m thankful that they do, though.

After lunch, we all went over to the kids’ park. There is a humongous map of Mongolia there, and we were about to learn where our site placement is going to be. Usually, they use a big printed out map and everyone stands in their area. This time, there are so many of us that they had to have something bigger. They had everyone’s name folded up in a box and they drew them out at random. They would draw a paper, read the aimag (state), soum (city), job description, and name. About three-fourths of the names had been called before they called mine. Every time they would call out a job description that sounded like something someone from my group would do, I would tense up. Finally, they called my name. I got almost exactly everything that I wanted! Actually, there is nothing about what I got that I don’t like. I am going to be in a small soum that is about a four hour train ride from the capital, Ulaanbaatar (costing about 1500tg), working for the government in the Social Policy Department, living in an apartment. Holy smokes! I’m so excited. I know that I told several of you that I would ask to live in a ger, but after being here for about a month and finding out what kind of work it is and how hard it is in the winter, I changed my mind and asked for an apartment. I’m glad I had the experience of a squat toilet this summer, but I did not want to have to deal with that in the middle of winter, when it gets down to -50 degrees Celsius.

In my packet describing my job, it says I will be working in the governor’s office. I’m especially excited to be working for the government. That is something that I want to do when I go back to the U.S. Under the section that gives a brief introduction, it says, “Governor’s office works in accordance with Mongolian laws to implement and monitor programs, evaluates education activities and determines the district development policies. It organises trainings and workshops on laws, English languages, life skills and health. The office has 4 main departments with 34 officers.” The development needs of the organisation are to “develop the district; decrease poverty; improve the relationship between government and non-government organisations; and provide workers with apartments.” There are many other things that I will be doing, and I don’t know what all they are going to be yet, so I’ll write about them when I learn what they are. For now, I just ask that you say a prayer of thanks for me.

I know that I wrote that I would send emails with my new address once I get it, but I will have to wait. It is in Cyrillic. I know how to read it, but I don’t know how to get it in typed form so I can email it to you. I’ll figure that out soon.

Also, I said that I would wait until tomorrow before I go to the internet, but I think I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to go now. I still have many hours to waste this evening, so I might as well start there. I hope that you all are doing well. I miss and think of you all; some especially so. I think you know who you are. If not, you should.

Also, I'm uploading some pictures. Check them out when you have time.

July 25, 2008

I just got in from town, posting my last blog. Whenever someone in our group gets a package, they always wait until we are finished for the day before they hand them out. Today, I was one of the lucky ones to get a package!! It was from my mom. Thanks mom! Mostly, it was some stuff that I’d gotten ready before I left, consisting of a few books, some writing pads, pens, and some Girl Scout Samoas. I love Samoas. Those are the absolute best cookies ever made, in my opinion. I have fond memories of sitting and sharing a box with someone, eating the whole thing in one sitting. I could eat a whole box by myself, though, but I try to have a little bit of control. Also in the package was some candies and snacks. Have you ever heard of Nilla Cakesters? I hadn’t until I opened the box. One of them was smashed, so I opened it first. OMG! Those things are awesome. I suggest you pause, right where you are, make a trip to the store, buy a whole bunch of them, eat some on the way back, and then eat the rest as you finish reading this. They are so good. The only thing that could make it better would be if I had some cold milk to go with all this stuff. Have I ever told you that I have an enormous sweet tooth? I love candy. Ha, one of the first things I learned to say in Mongolian is that I like candy – “Be chickerind dortay.” But, the sweets I have will last me quite a while. I have pretty good control when it comes to eating sweets. I feel fat enough with all the food that I’m served. As much as I want to eat all the candy, I know that I don’t need it. Now, when I get to where I’ll be, and will be cooking for myself, that might be a different story. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Today is Brother Baasan’s birthday. He seems to be a pretty cool fella. A few of us got together to celebrate in his name. It’s really a rare occasion that we get together, so it was a good time. When I left, we happened to be next to one of my cousin’s house. It just so happened that they were getting home at the same time, and they hopped out of their car to ask my help with their computer. They had a game they were trying to install and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work. After some messing around and asking questions, I found out they had recently bought the computer in the capital. One problem, though, is that whoever sold them the computer had set up an administrator account and put a password on it. What a jerk! I have no idea how to explain to them that they probably didn’t buy what they think they did. Tomorrow, I will “help” them fix it. That probably consists of formatting their computer. Man, I hope I don’t mess something up for them.

By the way. Have you seen the show Futurama? It’s dumb, but funny. If you have a chance, check it out. And for my friends who know about San Francisco, you should check out Eddie Izzard’s stand-up Dressed to Kill. Good stuff.

July 26, 2008

When we first got here, we were told that we were going to have to do a community project this summer. In my bagh, there are two groups: the entire CYD group, and part of the Health group. At first, we were told that CYD had to split into two and do a project each, and the Health people had to do a project of their own. Then, we were told that we were going to have to do those projects, plus another project all together. I don’t know what the problem was, but we were getting all kinds of conflicting reports on exactly what we were to do. Finally, we were told that our entire bagh had to do one project, all together. Whew! That cut down on a lot of freaking out. Next, we got together to try and figure out what exactly we wanted to do. That is a story all its own, that I won’t relate here. Needless to say, there was plenty of argument involved. One wouldn’t think it would be that hard to agree on something, but I don’t think our bagh has ever totally agreed on anything, yet.

Eventually, it was resolved that we would make an area where the local kids could play volleyball. Kids here love basketball and volleyball. At first, we were going to do it at a random empty lot that kids play in all the time, after cleaning it up a bit. After some discussion with our teacher, and the sports director at the school, it was decided we would do it at the school; and instead of a volleyball court, we would make a track for them to run on. So, we made an appointment to meet at the school today, at 5 o’ clock, with all the shovels and kids we could gather. We showed up and got right to work, with the awkward Mongolian shovels that we’d brought. What is a Mongolian shovel, you ask? Well, have you ever seen those small, military shovels that have short handles, with no kind of an angle whatsoever? It’s basically like that, but the handle could be made out of anything from the thickness of a broomstick, to the thickness of something that your hand can’t entirely wrap around; and it could be wooden or metal. And most all of them are spade-shaped. I was the lucky one to have one that had a long handle made of wood, and the shovel head was angled slightly, and squared. Everyone with the other shovels went through and tore up the ground for me, then I used mine to “grade” the track, so it would be close to level: thirty metres by two metres. Within the first 20 minutes, I had a blister on the palm of my right hand. It took us almost four hours to finish. And the whole time, the sand fleas were eating away at our legs. As I’ve written before: either I’m tough, or I’m dumb. I’m just glad to be done with the whole thing. One more thing to check off our list. When we were finished, several of the kids started having races. That was cool to see. We were glad to see that they were at least getting a kick out of it tonight. Ha, once, when some kids were running back, some other kids started running. I don’t know how they didn’t see each other, but two kids ran into each other head-on, at full speed. Neither was hurt, so we all got a big laugh out of it. Man, Mongolians are freaking tough. I see things happen to kids all the time that would have an American kid absolutely screaming bloody murder.

A few weeks after being here, we were warned about what is called a “fire plant.” We thought the person telling us was just teasing, but he assured us he was not. He said that when you rub against it, it feels as if you are on fire. The only way to stop it is to pee on it. Kind of like a jelly-fish sting, I guess. Ha, he told us of one girl, who knew what it looked like, and squatted over one when she peed, with disastrous effects. Oww, I can only imagine. That would suck. Well, today, I had my own run in with the “fire plant.” As I was walking through a field, I saw a big plant and purposely stepped on it. I missed part of it, though, and it swiped right across my leg. Instantly, I said, “Yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi!” which is Mongolian for, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!” It felt just like it was described to us: as if my leg was on fire. After about 20 minutes, most of the sensation dissipated, but six hours later, I can still tell where the plant touched me. Too bad I was in a hurry and didn’t get a good look at the plant. I’ll have to find out what that thing looks like before this happens again. It’s quite uncomfortable.

July 27, 2008

What a day I’ve had. I woke up at a decent hour, for a Sunday, though it was still hours later than my host-family was up and about. As I was eating my breakfast, I told my host-mom that I was going to leave at 1 o’ clock and go to the other bagh. Well, as always, that set off a flurry of action. She ended up cooking a big lunch for me, about an hour and a half earlier than I would normally eat it. That made my breakfast and my lunch about an hour and a half apart. Oh well.

The other bagh was having a cookout and they had invited us. What fun. There are at least one or two people over there whose company I particularly enjoy, so I was looking forward to it. I had directions to the house where it was going to be, so I made the trip by myself. I even got the whole way without a taxi driver trying to rip me off. I was feeling good about myself. In my directions, it said that the house was a 15-20 minute walk from the school. I had my watch on, so I checked the time and set off, not paying much attention to anything but the time. After 15 minutes, there were no more houses, and there was plenty more hill. Okay, I thought, I’ll go another 5 minutes and see what I see. After 5 minutes, I still hadn’t crested the hill, so I figured that my pace was off and decided to check on the other side of the hill. Once on the other side, I couldn’t get a good view of what was going on, so I decided to go “right down there” and see what I could see. Well, before I could get “right down there,” a microbus full of people came from the direction I was heading and stopped next to me. The driver said, “Go back that way.” I said, “Why?” The driver looked at me and said, “Go back that way.” I said, “Why?” Another guy in the back poked his head out the window, and the driver said, “Go back that way.” I said, “Why?” Of course, this was all going down in Mongolian. I could feel the tension rising. The guy who had stuck his head out the window said, in English, “I’m Captain.” Okay, I thought, and…? In Mongolian, I said, “You mean, the police?” He said he was and I realised that there were several police on the microbus. Then he said, “Go back that way.” I said, “Why?” The driver asked for my passport. I told him I didn’t have my passport with me. Then everyone froze. Oh crap, I thought, and then I remembered my Peace Corps ID card and gave it to them. They took the requisite forever to look at my ID, as all police do, and then started asking me where I’m from. I told them I’m from America and I was just walking because I thought my friend’s house was that way. After all this confusion, a third policeman got out of the microbus, came around to me and said (in perfect English), “You can’t go that way. The Mongolian/Russian border is that way. You have to have a letter from town saying you can go that way. Only microbuses and taxis are allowed to go this way. You must go back the way you came.” Ohhhhhh! I thought, Why the heck didn’t you come out here and talk to me in the first place? Then the first police officer took my picture, with his cell phone no less, and we all went our way. As they drove away, over the hill, I thought, How do they know that I don’t let them get out of sight and then continue the direction I was going? Whatever. I finally found the house I was looking for. If I were to measure the distance at my pace, it only takes 10 minutes to get there. Oh well. Nothing like a good story.

At the cookout, we had a good time. They had all bought a bunch of food and decided to just get together and have a good time. It was nice. Mostly, it was just people sitting around socialising. In case you don’t know about me, I love socialising. I’m an adept when it comes to socialising. I’m quite the butterfly. I enjoyed visiting with the people over there. They made hamburgers and French fries. Of course, things here don’t fry crisply, so the French fries weren’t what was wanted, but they seemed to be alright. When we left, we went to find a taxi. I was 150tg short of being able to take the 700tg taxi ride, so one of the guys loaned that amount to me. After waiting and hoping for a taxi, one finally showed up. Then, he told us that since it was after 8 p.m., the ride was going to cost us 200tg more than normal. There were three of us in the taxi, and I thought one of the guys was going to get into a big argument with the driver. There are a few of us who take it personally when we feel as if we’re being ripped off, and he’s one of them. We decided to pay the fee, but that only took us into town. We had determined that we would not pay any more price hikes for the taxi to our bagh, so when we got to the taxi-stand and found out the prices, we decided to walk home.

It had rained a lot this morning, and on and off the whole day, so our normal route through the field was rife with water puddles. The zigging and zagging probably added at least 10 extra minutes to our time. I was pretty tired when I got home. On the way, I thought, the last thing I want to do right now is go home and speak Mongolian. You know how it is when you’re tired: you don’t want to have to engage your brain if you can get away with it. Well, wouldn’t you know it, we had company over; and they were drinking. Doh! Luckily, it is people I’d met before, so the novelty of me has worn off for them a little bit. Still, I was socially required to sit and have a couple of beers with them. It wasn’t too bad, though. I’ve noticed that in the last couple of days my understanding of Mongolian has increased. I don’t know if that’s because people are dumbing it down for me, or if I’m getting used to it. I hope it’s the latter. Still, it’s better than some people here. It’s kind of cool when people ask me what a Mongolian said cause they know I understand better than they do. In a couple of weeks, we will have another language test. The first one was just an assessment of what we had learned. This one will be the real-deal-Hollyfield, with the results being sent to Washington, D.C. We have one more unit to learn, and then we will spend the rest of the time doing review. I hope to do even better than I did the first time. That’s shooting for a lot, so cross your fingers for me.

July 29, 2008

Today was our last language lesson of new material. For the rest of the time, we will only do review. Our test will be at the end of next week. We are all very excited about it and can hardly wait for it to be over with. From what we were told, it will be the exact same kind of test that we took before, but about 10 minutes longer. I don’t think that will be very hard. I know that I can conjugate verbs better than before, so that will be a plus.

Also today, we learned who will be going to Bayan-Olgiy (the Kazakh region). I am very relieved to report that it will not be me. I don’t want to go there for two reasons. One is because I would have to begin a new language all over again. I struggle enough with Mongolian. The second reason is that I would feel so isolated over there. That region is what the Peace Corps calls a “fly site.” That means that you can only get there via a plane. It’s so far away, and over such rough terrain, that it would not be feasible to take a car there. It would just take too long. So, because of that, you can’t easily go and see your friends in other parts of the country. Mongolia is about the size of Alaska. That means it’s pretty big, but not too big to explore. If you’re over there, that limits your exploration, unless you are willing to spend more money to do it. I’m trying really hard to only live on the money that the Peace Corps gives me – and I’m doing good so far – so that means I probably won’t make it over there anytime soon.

This evening, as I was sitting on the porch studying, my host-dad and –mom said, “Trip, let’s go.” “Okay, where are we going?” I said. “That way,” they said. When we got to where we were going, the lady started taking my measurements. She was measuring me for a traditional Mongolian shirt. Sweet!! I have several friends whose host-parents have bought one for them, and I have been jealous. I don’t know if I’ve written this before, but I think my family is one of the poorest, so I didn’t think they would be getting one for me. I’m very excited about it. As you know, I’ll send pictures when I can.

July 30, 2008

So, I know there is at least one of you that knows I’m a pen snob, but did the rest of you know? If not: I am. In particular, there are two different kinds of pens that I use. Both are the ones that I had on my wants list. When I was packing my things to come to Mongolia, I was sure to pack enough of each to last me a couple of months, at least. The one kind, I use for letters and journaling. They write big and the ink flows as quickly as my thoughts. The other kind is the one that I carry in my pocket, all the time. If there is anything that I need to take a note about or if there is something that I need to sign, it is the one I reach for. Partly it is because I don’t want to use anyone else’s pen that could have been in anyone’s grubby hands or nasty mouth; but mostly because I like the precision that it affords. When I was back home, one pen could last me for about two months. I would usually be out of ink when I threw it away. Well, since I’ve been here, I’ve been lucky to have one last me a couple of weeks. For whatever reason, the balls keep coming out of them. It sucks even worse because it is hard to find good pens here. Especially for a pen snob.

On August 12, we will find out where our permanent sites will be. We are all very excited about it. I will write more about that later. The reason I mention it now is this: if there are mailings that you plan to send to me, and you haven’t gotten them ready yet, please wait until after then. I will email you with my new address then. I will not post it on my blog (as a matter of safety), so you will need to write it down and put it somewhere you won’t lose it. I will tell you all of this again when it is time, so don’t worry if you forget between now and then.

I’ll go to town tomorrow and post this. This weekend, we will have our host-family picnic, so I won’t be able to then. I hope you all are doing well. There are a few of you in particular who I have been missing more than usual lately. I think you know who you are. Please know that I love you as much as ever and I pray for you every day. For the rest of you, I miss you, too, and thank God for you. Take care.

July 20, 2008

This has been my first full weekend all to myself in a few weeks. Last week, we had language class on Saturday; the week before, we were at the orphanage. This weekend, I’ve been sure to get all my laziness in. About all I did yesterday was to go into town for the internet. Oh, and while I was there, I was entertained by watching the drunks. Maybe it’s just because I’m in a place where I notice absolutely everything that is different than in the U.S., but I seem to see more public drunkenness here than back home. And people get drunk early. I never see them drinking in public, though. As illegal as that is in the U.S., I think it is even more so here. But they sure make sure they get as much in them as possible before they go out. And they seem to have some good balance. I’ve watched guys stumble all over the road, but I haven’t seen any of them fall yet. When I notice them, I try to lower my eyes when they look my way. If they see me looking my way, it is inevitable that they will come over to shake my hand. It’s hard to get rid of them once they have your attention, too. They will pull your clothes to keep you near. I once had a store owner yell at a drunk, so as to get him to leave me alone.

When I got home yesterday, I had a long nap. Really, it was just sleep. Anything past 20-30 minutes is no longer a nap. I did a little bit of studying, but not as much as I watched movies. Today, I didn’t get out of the bed until 10:30. I bet my host-family thinks I’m a lazy bum, since I had heard them up and about by 5 a.m. I don’t care. I love sleeping late on Sundays. If I’d had an air-conditioner, or even a fan, I would probably have slept later.

I went to the river again today. I had just sat down to do some studying when some friends Hoy’d me, which is the equivalent to hey. We rounded up some others then made the trek. This time, the river wasn’t up so much, so we all went in. The water was the perfect temperature, but the current was very swift. Luckily, it wasn’t very deep. We had fun letting it carry us away, then starting all over again. After we had been in the water for a good 45 minutes or so, I had just stood up from being carried down stream and then stepped on some glass. Damnit! To make it worse, I was the one who, on the way, was saying how I hoped that there wasn’t any glass and how I would hate to be the one to step on it. Broken glass is ubiquitous in Mongolia. No matter where you go, you can’t get away from it. I felt it slice into my foot. When I reached down to pick it up, it was the top part of a vodka bottle. Luckily, it, like the water, wasn’t too deep. It cut more at an angle, rather than going straight in. One of my friends loaned me their handkerchief to tie some tissue paper to the bottom of my foot. The first thing I thought of was the PC Medical Officer warning us of cutting our feet, then getting water born viruses in the cut. It’s the kind that turns into worms coming out of your anus and making you itch in the middle of the night. It took another 45 minutes to get home, but the first thing I did was to clean it out with some antiseptic cream. Man, I hope that works. I actually heard about those worms years ago and had a few bad dreams about them. Dang, that would suck. Cross your fingers for me. One good thing to come of it: I’ve learned the word for the bottom of your foot, and how to say that it bled.

July 21, 2008

I went out to the Denj this evening to do some praying and studying. It was partly to get away from the stifling heat in my room. It seems to be the hottest part of the summer here, and of course, there are no air-conditioners or fans. The view was awesome and the breeze was nice. If there wasn’t such a bug problem around here, I would leave the door and window to my room open. My host-family doesn’t worry about the bugs and just leaves the house door open. I hear them every morning, beginning somewhere around 5:30, thwack-thwack-thwacking away at the scores of flies that have gotten into the house during the night. When I go in for breakfast, I dodge the dead bodies as if I were walking through a mine field. It’s kind of gross, actually. Ha, it reminds me of when I was a kiddo, visiting my grandfather in the summer. He would give my sister and me a nickel for every dead fly that we brought him. I would rake up the dough, here.

My host-family finally wised up, though. When I got home this evening, my host-dad was making a screen door. I had nothing better to do, so I decided to help him. I had seen him working on it yesterday, but I had no idea what he was doing; and company came over, so he stopped before I figured it out. Too bad I wasn’t there when he began, to know what he was doing then: I could’ve saved him some headache. If my grandfather would’ve seen his poor carpentry skills, I’m sure he would’ve had a few choice words for him about how he could have made things much easier for himself. I got here right as the last of the frame was being nailed together, so I held things for him as he hammered away, thinking that he knew what he was doing. When we stood the door up, it was too wide for the frame. Doh! He took that last part of the frame back off and proceeded to saw off some extra length on the brace-parts. I don’t know how to describe it in writing to where you would get an accurate picture, but it was quite awkward. When he finished, he began to nail the frame together again. That’s where I stepped in and told him to let’s see if it’s going to fit first. Good thing I did: there was some more that needed to come off. He fixed that, and then nailed it all together. I don’t know how many hours he spent on that thing altogether, but I know it’s more than he should have. Oh well. At least there will be fewer flies and less thwacking in the mornings.

July 22, 2008

This morning, there was a Kazakh language teacher in our class, just to observe. In the very west of Mongolia, there is an aimag (state) called Bayan-Olgiy. The population is mostly Kazakh, and that is the language they speak. Out of four people that will be placed there, one will be from our group. We had our site-placement interviews a couple of weeks ago and found out about it. A couple of people requested the area. I wasn’t one of them. Once you get there, you pretty much have to forget all the Mongolian you’ve learned and start a new language. When the teacher was there, we were all anxious to find out who is going to be the one going. But, just like most everything else in the Peace Corps, we won’t know for a while longer. We think we will be told in the next week or so. Cross your fingers for it not being me.

Today, we started TEFL training – Teaching English as a Foreign Language. There is a whole sector devoted to just that, but just about every PCV will be asked, and expected, to teach English once they get to their site. It is something that I am not looking forward to. Amongst my many majors in school, teaching was one of them; and I switched from that for a reason: I don’t like teaching. For my friends who are teachers, I am proud of you and what you do. For us non-TEFLers, we have a limit on how many hours we have to teach English, but we will still have to. I think the limit is six hours per week. Our training consists of 5 hours of instruction and about 2 hours of practice-teaching. For this, our bagh loaded into a microbus and went to the other bagh, so as to take care of more people with fewer trainers. Today’s lesson consisted of those small things that one might not think of. Instead of narrating what will happen, you should just do it. Give simple, clear instructions, only when needed, not ahead of time. When playing a game, show the game in play, rather than explaining it first. These things seem easy, but it was quickly evident that even when you are practicing with native English speakers, there’s always an idiot in the bunch. OMG! I’m sure you all know that person: the one who makes everything difficult, just because that’s their personality. Yeah, well, there is at least one, and possibly two, in my group. How much better that they showed themselves while with the other bagh. Embarrassing. If any of you pray, please pray for me to have patience. Those are the people who cause me look at my calendar and count down the days that we have left in training. As of today, there are 20 days left; 14, not counting weekends.

July 23, 2008

This morning, when the rest of the sheep and goats were let out to pasture, there was one goat kept behind, with its horns tied close to the fence. Starting around 6 o’ clock, the thing began its distressed bleating and hasn’t let up yet. I’m sure when I come home for lunch, that one won’t be alive anymore. It will taste especially good when I remember it waking me up.

Sure enough, when I came home for lunch, the goat had just been killed and was in the process of being skinned. It was so recently killed that its muscles were still twitching. Today was my host-dad’s birthday. In celebration, some family came over. We ate a big pot of the aforementioned goat’s innards, finished the scotch that I’d given to him for Naadam, and had some beer. They sell 2 litre beers here, so when people get together, that is the size they tend to buy. They pour cupfuls of it for each person until it’s all gone. When we finished the first one, I figured I would buy another. It was appreciated.

Somewhere during all that, a cousin that comes over randomly began to quiz me. There are all kinds of nouns that I know, but he always seems to find that ones that make me say, “I don’t know.” After a few of those, he laughed and said, “Always, you don’t know.” I laughed and agreed. His parents were here, also. His mom is a teacher at the local secondary school. She started asking conversational stuff. After some dumbing down and speaking “proper” Mongolian, I was able to understand and answer her. We did some of that, and then she asked me to sing a Mongolian song. We are working on learning one in class, so I brought that out and she helped me sing it. I think I’ve already mentioned how I have absolutely no musical ability whatsoever. This goes for knowing words to songs. Nothing has changed since I’ve come to Mongolia. If I read the words, and know the tune, I can hum along and not cause too much of a commotion. When I’d given a good attempt, I was deemed “good.” Oh, and one of the guys here has a girlfriend back home that reads my blog sometimes. I think she knows who she is. When my aunt told me that I was “good,” she told me that “that tall guy with the bald head knows very little.” If you’re reading this, give him a hard time. I try to give him a hard time as much as I can. He’s a good sport about it, and he gives me just as much of a hard time about other stuff, so I don’t mind making fun of him here.

After bathing this evening, I went to the restroom. There is a barrel that is in our yard for some reason. When I heard a noise and looked over, a cow had its head stuck in the barrel and was waving it around. Pretty funny.

July 24, 2008

Today, on our break from class, I went with some people to the store. Usually, there is some few that goes there everyday. I just go for the change of scenery. While there today, a buddy and I saw that there was a new beer on the shelf. The name of it is Hite. I think it’s Korean. This particular version is called a stout, and touts itself to be a black beer. We were both excited because we thought it would be something like Guiness. We made plans to meet after lunch and split one. When we got there, we decided to get two. When we poured it, it looked just like a Coke. Drinking it, you could hardly tell much difference from a regular beer. It was nothing like we were expecting. It was alright, though. Even better, it was 500tg cheaper than the other kinds of beer that are supposed to be better, but are not. Maybe one day we will actually find a good stout. For a beer connoisseur, it’s hard to find a nice variety here.

For dinner, I saw my host-mom put a big bowl of rice into the cooker. I paid no attention, expecting the same ol’ same ol’. When they called for me to come and eat, I was totally surprised. I went in to my host-dad rolling sushi! It wasn’t exactly what one might encounter at a Japanese restaurant, but it wasn’t too bad. It had the usual seaweed wraps and rice, and inside of that, they put catsup and yham. Yham is pretty much like a cheap summer sausage. It’s not bad, but it gives me bad smelling burps. Overall, I was surprised enough by the whole thing enough to like the meal. I took a picture, so when I get to upload them, you can check it out. I told them that if they fried some eggs and chopped them up and put them in there that would be good, too. I don’t know where they got the idea, but I like it.

Oh, I almost forgot a funny story. During our break today, one of the people in our group went to the rest room. When they came out, they said they’d dropped one of their sandals down the hole. We all hee-hawed, it was so funny. There was a bunch of women there with babies, and when they figured out what had happened, they laughed just as hard. Our teachers, too, laughed hysterically, when we were looking for something to fish it out with. Of course, this person is a princess, so they wouldn’t fish it out for their self, nor would they wash it off. Oh, I will get joy out of this story for some time to come.

July 25, 2008

Last night, I had a dream about my partner and me teaching today. I dreamed that it went horribly, with everyone knowing English already, which threw off our whole lesson plan. Luckily, it wasn’t that bad once it was time for the real thing. We taught a group of six women. A few work for phone companies, and a couple work for an insurance place. I didn’t understand where the others work. Most of them could everything that we were saying, but they couldn’t repeat it very well. Like many Mongolians, they could write English fairly well, but they can’t speak it very well. We taught them how to say, “Hi, how are you? What is your name? My name is…. Where do you work? I work at/for…. It was nice to meet you. It was nice to meet you, too. Good bye.” I’m glad to have it over with.

We are in town and have finished our day early, so I will get to post this in a little bit. I hope that you all are doing well. Talk to you later. See ya.

July 15, 2008

I forgot to write about something the other day. You know how you see French people on movies kissing each other on the cheek? Well, Mongolians have an equivalent. What they do is get really close like they are going to kiss you on the cheek, or forehead, and take a really big sniff of you. I first heard about this when we were still in San Francisco, before we got to the country. It was still a few weeks before I saw it happen. When I did, I saw my host-dad do it to the 1-year-old little girl that is somehow related. I still haven’t figured out all the exact relationships of people that are in and out of here all the time. My little brothers call everyone “older sister,” or “older brother,” even though they are usually aunts and uncles. There are specific words for aunts and uncles on the mom’s side and those on the dad’s side, but they aren’t used that much. Another thing that is weird to Americans is that there are not specific words for “little brother,” or “little sister.” There is only one word for both that means “younger sibling.” Also, that could refer to a cousin. To make it worse, these words could also be applied to any other random person. Say a middle-aged fella goes into a restaurant and he addresses his young server. He might call him, or her, his younger sibling and no one would think twice about it.

Anyway, I digress. When I went into the hoodoo (countryside) with my family the other day, my host-mom’s family was the host. I think it was her oldest sister’s place. She is 67. Of course, since she’s the oldest, she pretty much ran things. Here, once you become a grandmother, or the equivalent age, people defer to you in all social situations; even the old men. So, we were all sitting around, and I was just watching the interactions and trying to pickup on what was being said. At one point, I knew they were talking about me by the way they were looking at me and laughing. My family sure likes to laugh a lot. Many times, I’m not sure if it’s at me or with me. Either way, I don’t mind. After plenty of laughing, my host-mom’s oldest sister came over, grabbed me by the cheeks, and took a big ol’ sniff of my forehead, giggling the whole time; then she gave me the thumbs-up. The thumbs-up is more than it is in the U.S. All the fingers can be used as a scale of 1-5 on how good or bad a thing or a situation is. The thumb is the best; the pinky is the worst. If you get the myy (mow) finger (the pinky), then you know you’ve done something wrong and probably offended someone. Anyway, I felt honoured that she had sniffed me. It pretty much meant that I was accepted. Oh, then I proceeded to attempt to walk between the ger poles. There are two support poles inside a ger, and you are not supposed to walk between them: you are supposed to go around them; even if that means making someone else get up to get out of your way. Also, when you enter a ger, there is a men’s side and a woman’s side: the left is for men; the right for women. The very back – or north – is reserved for the eldest or most respected person that is in the ger. Oh, and all doors, of all buildings, usually face south. I’m not exactly sure, but I’ve been told that it’s from the days when Mongolians were in constant conflict with the Chinese, so they could see them coming.

Okay, I’m rambling a bit. I ran back from town, with a 10+ lb. pack on my back, so I’m a little bit tired. I thought it would be a good workout for my aching calf-muscle – and I guess it was – but it is even sorer now. Oh, and I’m out of water, so I think I’m going to have to go to the store and buy some. It takes hours for my water-filter to do its thing. I’d really like to be able to drink the water from the well, but I’ve been warned that all the water in Mongolia is infested with fecal matter, and drinking it would give me giardia. I don’t know exactly what that is, but it makes you vomit and diarrhea; so I definitely don’t want it.

July 16, 2008

Last night, a girl from our bagh went home to the U.S. As far as I know, she is the second of our group of 65 to go home. From what I understand, it had something to do with her family in the U.S. I hope she is doing alright. She was very cool, but I wasn’t particularly close to her. Oddly enough, she is from the same place and went to grade-school with a girl that I’m really good friends with back home. What a coincidence. Surprisingly, she left some things to be split between those of us remaining. The guy she left them with split everything up evenly and then made numbers for us to draw. I got number 1. I picked the Q-tips, floss, and lotion. The Q-tips was the thing that did it for me. I brought a travel pack with me, with plans for my mom to have more sent. They haven’t arrived before I’ve almost ran out, and I’m big on cleaning my ears. And just in case any of you don’t know: name brand Q-tips are much better than the generic kind: they have more cotton on the end. And I’m sure the floss and lotion will come in handy at some point. Just in case you’re wondering, the lotion is brown sugar and fig flavour. I know it’s girly, but I like scented lotions.

July 16, 2008

Before I joined the Peace Corps, I had a television, but I didn’t have cable. I didn’t even have an antenna. All I ever did with it was to watch the occasional movie and play the occasional video game. I remember many conversations amongst friends when they would say, “Hey, you know that one show, when such-and-such said so-and-so?” My response would always be, “Nope, I don’t watch T.V.” I would always get strange looks and questions about what was wrong with me. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the idea. There was a reason I didn’t have cable, though: I get addicted to T.V. I could waste hours sitting in front of a T.V., flipping through the channels, watching random shows. (National Geographic and the History Channel are my favourite.) I knew that it would totally ruin what little bit of studying that I did for school. Before I decided to apply for the Peace Corps, I made the decision that I would get cable and waste a whole summer doing nothing but watching T.V. Even after I applied, I had originally been told that I would be leaving in January of 2009, so I still planned on spending the summer of 2008 watching T.V. Those plans were changed when I got the call to leave in June of 2008. I don’t regret the decision to leave one bit. As it turned out, though, I’ve still been able to waste my free time “watching” T.V. this summer. Have you heard of the show The Office. Joley Moley, that show is freakin-A-awesome. I have watched the first four seasons in a matter of weeks and laughed my butt off. How about the show that comes on HBO called Rome? That is a good show, too. I’m about halfway through the first season now, and I have the whole second season left. Some of the other PCTs have entire T.V. shows on their external hard-drives, so I’ve gotten all that I’m interested in. At the same time, I’ve gotten several movies. I guess I don’t have to worry about entertainment for the next 26 months.

July 17, 2008

Imagine it’s 5 o’ clock in the morning and your neighbour begins to make the loudest, most obnoxious noise you can imagine. What would you do to make it stop? Well, as I see it, you have three options. First, you immediately – or at a later and equally inappropriate time – begin to make your own loud noise and hope that they get the hint to keep quiet when people are supposed to be. Second, you could call the cops and have them do something about it. Third, you could go over yourself and politely ask the offender to be quiet.

Now, imagine you’re in Mongolia, it’s 5 o’ clock in the morning, and your neighbour begins to make the loudest, most obnoxious noise you can imagine. What would you do to make it stop? Well, I don’t know the answer to that question, but I sure wish I did. This morning, at 5 o’ clock, our neighbour began beating on what I imagined to be a 50 gallon drum, with absolutely no kind of rhythm. The sound reverberated through the walls of my room and kept me awake for over 30 minutes, as whoever it was beat away, doing whatever it was they were doing. And there was nothing I could do but lay there and pray for patience. Here, people don’t have a sense of what “disturbing the peace” is. Back home, I had a buddy driving through campus of university with his windows down, playing a jazz song on his radio at normal levels, disturbing absolutely no one. He got a ticket because the cop could hear him 50 feet away, or something stupid like that. Here, even if you could find a cop, he would probably be louder than you, no matter the time of day. People just don’t care that there might be some person who isn’t planning to wake up until 8 o’ clock. They go about whatever it is that they want to do, no matter how much noise it makes and who it disturbs. Oddly enough, during the middle of the day, when you might think that people would be making all kinds of noise, taking care of all kinds of projects, there is seldom a sound to be heard. Oh, the strange and unexpected things a person has to get used to.

July 18, 2008

It’s Friday, and the end of another week. I was looking at the calendar this morning and saw that in about two weeks, we will practically be finished with our pre-service training. When is the last time you can remember going through job training? How did you feel about the experience? Was it fun? Was it horrible? Was it a little bit of both, and you could hardly wait for the whole thing to be over so you could begin the job you were hired for? Before I applied for the Peace Corps, I read over and over how it would be “the toughest job that you will ever love.” I’m quite sure that that will be the case, but dang, I’m tired of training. Everyone in my group feels the same way. We are so ready to find out where our site is going to be, get there, and begin the job we will have for the next two or three years. Luckily, there are at least a few people that make the whole experience pleasant, if not exactly fun.

Today, I got my first real package. I know I wrote that I got the converter that my mom had sent to me, but that was shipped from the factory, so I don’t really count it. The package was from my mom’s friend. I’ve only met her twice, but she is a really nice person. Ha, just to give my mom a hard time, her friend sent me a package before she did. In it, there was chewing gum, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, Lifesavers, Goldfish, Frosted Cheerios, and Wal-Mart bags. The Wal-Mart bags were only meant to be for stuffing, but you wouldn’t believe how useful they will be. They don’t have things like that here, so at the least, I will be able to carry home my groceries. And the snacks: yum! As soon as I got home, I ripped into the box and started munching. Oh, here in Mongolia, if you open a package of stuff in front of people, it is only polite that you share with whoever happens to be with you, even if that means it will all be gone in 5 minutes. I was sure to wait until I got home, inside my room, before I opened the box. I was even lucky enough to get in there before my family even saw that I had a box at all. Maybe it’s stingy, but all the PCVs suggested that we do just that if we wanted to have anything left for our self. The food here is wonderful, even if it is repetitive, but sometimes I get cravings for stuff from the U.S. It’s nice to have a taste from home. So, to you who sent the package (you know who you are) I would like to say a public thank you: “Thank you.”

I’ll try to go to town and post this in the morning. I hope everyone is doing well. Write me when you can. I’d love to hear from you.

Sorry, this computer is being stupid. Most Mongolian computers are, though. And their internet connection is slow. I'd planned on putting this list on a side bar, but it won't let me for some reason. Maybe I will Later. Thank you all.

Wants list

Dry pinto beans

Dry red beans

Extra crunchy peanut butter

Blue Sanford uniball Micro pens (Maynard Cooper knows which ones)

Blue uniball vision elite pens (Maynard Cooper knows which ones)

Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste

Arm & Hammer Ultra Max Antiperspirant Deodourant Unscented

Q-tips (name brand)

Packets of dry Ranch sauce

Hottest hot sauce you can find

Garlic powder

Cumin

Curry

Black pepper

All Spice

Duct tape

Quart-sized Ziploc bags

Tylenol

Aleve

Gillette Mach 3 replacement rasors

July 5, 2008 Whoa! What a day. We all woke up early and had our last breakfast together and enjoyed everyone’s company for one last time. The next time we will all be together will be in the middle of August. I’m already looking forward to that time. Around 20 til 9, my group was told that we were leaving at the top of the hour. We had expected more time and lamented the lack of extra sleep we’d planned after breakfast. At 9:30, our microbus finally showed up. For those of us that didn’t already know, we found out that Mongolian time is a bit different than Western time. The orphanage was less than a 10 minute ride from the hotel. We got here and were met by about 35 kids who had been expecting our arrival for several weeks. To be honest, I expected a bunch of dirty, misbehaved kids. I was pleasantly surprised. The orphanage has three buildings: the main building, with a kitchen, dining room/lounge, and separate boy’s and girl’s rooms; the secondary building, with a lounge, exercise room, and separate boy’s and girl’s rooms; and the arts building, with several different rooms for music, dancing, crafts, and art. Each of the buildings with housing has male and female bathrooms with showers and regular toilets. It’s been nice to have extra days to take showers. When I leave here, it will probably be another month before I take a shower. There is a big yard area, with a basketball court, volleyball net, a soccer field, and a garden. The kids grow most of their food and do all their cooking. I actually got to help with the cooking today. I think most of you know how much I like to cook. I still haven’t gotten down the recipes yet, or the technique of cooking in an electric wok. Good thing they have a stove and an oven. Not long after getting here, three of us took turns giving our life-skills presentations. Mine was about Stress Management through Coping Abilities. The Mongolian word for stress is “stress.” What does that tell you about the concept? It’s foreign to them. Of course they have it, but they don’t recognise it like we do. So, the subject is a bit tricky to talk about. Even harder when my audience was kids aged 13-17 years. It made me feel really good when the translator told me that one of the boys said that he had learned a lot from my session. I was really glad to hear that. Luckily, I had a very good translator. Unfortunately, I won’t have that luxury when I finish training and get to where I’ll be working. I might have a translator, but I know they won’t be as good as the one I had today. After we finished our lessons and had lunch, we went outside to play various games with the kids. It was supposed to be structured, but that was quickly lost. One of the guys in my group brought a water-balloon launcher from home. It’s a big hit with everyone here, PC Volunteers/Trainees and orphans alike. By the time they shot two water-balloons, everyone else joined in the fun. When the balloons were all used up, people resorted to filling plastic bottles and squirting others. From there, I found a bucket, and it just went downhill. By the time we finished, about 45 minutes or so later, absolutely everyone was soaking wet. It was great fun. I haven’t done something like that in years. The only not-cool thing was when the kids were in a rush to fill their bottles quicker and started using hot water. It was hot enough outside without being doused with hot water. The aridity sped up the drying out process. After taking a break and walking to the store for popsicles – the good kind this time – we came back and played with the kids for a while, and then enjoyed the concert they had prepared for us. Really, it was the same thing that was done at our welcoming ceremony when we first got into the country. These kids are the ones who did that, also. Oh, and for Trey: you told me about Tuvan throat singing: there are some kids here who do that. For those of you who don’t know what it is, look it up on Youtube. It’s really cool. Also, there were a couple of contortionists. Those girls were quite bendy. The rest of the kids did traditional singing and dancing, and played traditional instruments. This evening, after dinner, we’ve just chilled with the kids. I’m sure most of you know I have the imagination of a five-year-old, so I had a good time. There were plenty of tickle-wars and joke playing. And Mongolians are a very touchy-feely people, so there was all kinds of that going on. I was already that way before I got here, so I will be even more so when I leave the country. For those of you back home who don’t like that about me…well, we will both take a little getting used to it. For those of you who do, you’ll like me even more. Haha. We have three more days of this. As wore out as we all are tonight, I hope we can make it. It will be worth it, though, I think. July 6, 2008 We are all so worn out today. Playing all day with thirty-five kids can do that to a person. We did more life-skills lessons today, then took turns teaching random games to the kids. That was kind of fun, but hard to explain complicated stuff to kids who have the bare minimum of English. I taught a few silly card games, some people taught American songs, some taught American football and paper-airplane making, and some taught Twister. The contortionists won Twister, hands down. This evening, we put on an American talent show for them. Out of 8, only two of us have any kind of talent. One girl played a guitar and sang, and one of the guys sang a song. I did a very short tumbling routine. All the kids were excited when they heard what I was going to do. Too bad I had about 30 seconds of stuff for them. We did an air-band routine to a couple of songs. One guy is from Eritrea, so he did a bit of a traditional dance from there. One guy did the most ridiculous “magic” tricks. They were very funny. For instance, someone sat in a chair, under a blanket, with a cabbage on his head, and the “magician” poked nails, metal bars, and knifes into his “head.” This evening, we had “American” food. We made pasta with tomato sauce, and “pizza” hoshors (hot-pockets). The kids loved the talent show and the food. July 7, 2008 I don’t know about the rest of Mongolia, but it’s mosquito season in Darkhaan. And just in case you didn’t know, I’m a mosquito’s favourite flavour. I make the 50 ft. walk between two of the buildings and have to ward off half the mosquitoes in the surrounding area. It sucks. I was outside playing and got bitten 5 times within that many minutes. I can’t wait until it turns cold and every mosquito in Mongolia dies a horrible death. July 8, 2008 We’re back in our host communities this evening. I got to sleep late today. That was nice. Though we all slept in the room with all the kids, they left us alone whenever they were awakened at whatever time. I still didn’t want to get up when I did. Like yesterday, we had a couple hours of language with a substitute teacher. She spoke good English. Like most everyone else who speaks English, she only knows the language pertaining to her job. Fortunately, for us, her job is to teach language to foreigners. She can talk grammar all day, but not much outside that. She actually cleared up some confusion that we’d had. After lunch, I went to begin packing my things. As I was going through my backpack, where I’d had my money clip, I found that my money clip wasn’t how I left it, and the 5000tg that was in it was missing. That is less than $5, but it’s a lot of money here. Especially since Naadam begins tomorrow and all the banks close, so I won’t be able to get any money. That really tainted the rest of my day, and my overall thoughts on the entire experience. Damn, that made me mad. For the rest of the day, I kept looking at every boy and wondering which one of them got into my bag and took my money. I told the head of the orphanage, but I really don’t expect anything to come of it. The kids make some random crafts and sell them for extra money, so they gave me a couple of things to say they are sorry. I really appreciated the sentiment. I got a set that includes a table-runner, four placemats, and four sets of chopsticks, which are all made of some kind of fabric. They are really nice. Oh, and I got an extra table-runner, too. I gave that to my host-mom. If other people’s host-families are any indication, she will put it up somewhere and never use it. All’s good. At least she’ll have it and think of me. At the appointed time for us to leave, we found ourselves waiting again. So, all the kids took us and got in a circle, and then we sang songs and played silly games. It was cool. When they cars finally showed up (an hour late), there was hugs all around, then the tears started flowing. Several of the kids cried, with some just tearing up and others sobbing, and a few of the PCTs crying, too. Several of the kids had made Valentine-like cards and gave them to us. They were cute, but quite humourous, saying things like, “I miss you, I mess you, beautiful,” and “Hi my love Brother. You are pretty. I love you. Thank very much.” The thought is what counts, though. It was a good 10 minutes before a couple of people in my car calmed down. We will be back in Darkhaan at the end of our training, so we promised that we would stop in and see them. That will be fun. I’ll be sure to keep my money in my pocket when I do. This evening, we got home right before the storm came. Of course, my family was happy to see me and had dinner ready. Have I told you about byyz (boats)? They are like wontons, but somehow, they are much better. Oh, and kimchi. I try to share and not eat it all, but it’s hard. Especially since the others only dabble in it, whereas I eat it by the forkfuls. I finally wised up and put my mosquito net over my bed. It took about three bites for me to remember it. The whole time I was in Darkhaan, I lamented not taking it with me. I’ve been sitting under it for the last couple of hours and haven’t been anywhere near as distressed as I have been for the last several days. I mean, I was seriously distressed. Anytime there was something to be done outside, I couldn’t think about anything but how to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. And since the windows had no screens on them, my sleep was affected by the mosquito bites, too. I had absolutely no respite. Hopefully, that will be taken care of tonight. Luckily, I have some Sting Eze, but that’s only for after you get bit. I’d like to avoid it, as much as possible. Tomorrow is Naadam, here in the hoodoo (countryside). It rained really hard when it stormed, for about 45 minutes, so it will be really messy. All the sports are outside, too. My family knows that I want to wrestle, so I think they will make sure that I get to the field on time. I hope I get to. I didn’t get a chance to buy the traditional uniform. If you don’t know what it looks like, do a Google search for “Mongolian wrestling,” and check it out. Can you see me wearing one of those things? I hope they will let me wrestle without it, if someone in my bagh doesn’t have one for me to borrow. I’ll let you know how it turns out. July 9, 2008 Naadam is a celebration of Mongolian culture that has been going on for centuries. It dates back to at least the time of Chinggis Khan (Gengis Khan, for people outside Mongolia). There is a longer name for it, but I don’t know what it is. Basically, Naadam translates to “The Three Manly Sports.” There is horse-racing, archery, and wrestling. Females can compete in all but wrestling. In the horse-racing event, the jockeys are usually little kids, so as to test the horse’s ability, not the jockey’s. The length of the race depends on the age of the horse. I noticed, too, that all the horses that race are males. Today, it was confirmed that that is true, and there is even different names for male and female horses. In the archery event, it is nothing like what I was expecting. The competitors, all ages and genders, used communal bows, and the arrows were shorter than what I’m used to and had blunt wooden tips. Their technique is different than what I’m used to, also. They put the arrow on the outside of the bow and held the string underneath it. Instead of a target, the contenders arched the arrow toward a square of dirt between 50 and 75 yards away, depending on age and gender. The judges were the bravest of the group: they stood right next to the target area. I actually saw one of them get hit in the butt. He just jumped while everyone laughed. The wrestling event is the biggest of the whole thing, with the beginning ceremony over an hour long. In a normal competition, there are 512 wrestlers, competing for 9 rounds, in single-elimination. There are no age limits, time limits, or weight classes. The first man to have any body part other than his hands or feet touch the ground is out. I woke up early this morning, in expectation of today’s events. Wrestling was to begin at 11:00. I woke up with plenty of time to take care of everything and get there on time. As soon as I arrived, I made my way to where the wrestlers were signing up and put my name on the list. They kind of smirked at me, but let me put my name down. I got there kind of early, but there was at least one really big guy there before me. I remember thinking, “Man, I hope I don’t have to wrestle that guy.” He weighed at least 120 lbs. more than me. Of course, I had never been to a Naadam, and couldn’t speak the language, so I had no idea of the wait I was in for. As I said, the opening ceremony was over an hour, so I had plenty of time to sit around and get a chill. It was overcast and sprinkled on and off throughout the day. Finally, the time came and people began to wrestle. Mongolian wrestling is nothing like the kind of wrestling that I used to coach. Well, it is a little bit, but not really. The closest style that I can relate it to is Greco-Roman wrestling. All wrestling is done on the feet; none on the ground. And unlike the wrestling I’m used to, people can grab and pull on your clothes. One of the other PCT’s dad is a local champion, so he took care of me. He took me over to some military guys and got them to let me borrow one guy’s boots and a set of their communal outfits. Yep, I actually wore that skimpy little thing. I stripped down right in the stands and changed into it. Most of the people in my bagh and the other bagh, about 20, were there to see me. After a couple hours of waiting, it was finally my turn. I ran out to one of the judges, did a little dance around him, where he basically pushed me in the directions I was supposed to go, then he took my hat off and I did my Eagle dance. That’s the first thing I need some practice with. Seeing them do it, it looks like a guy standing there with his arms out; but it’s not that easy when you have hundreds of people watching and giggling at you doing something you’re unsure of. Oh, and guess who my opponent was. It was that really big guy that I’d first seen who I’d wished wasn’t going to be my opponent. Drat! I think I lasted about 20-30 seconds. On the go, he tried for a leg-grab, but I kept him from doing that. From there, he got a hold on my sleeve and there was nothing I could do to break his grip. He tried an outside foot sweep, but I avoided that, too. The whole time, I was trying to break his grip and get one of my own on him. About that time, he did an inside sweep, taking out my left foot, making me fall onto my right knee. And that was that. All my friends were cheering loudly, and I could hear them laughing when I was done for. All’s good. I don’t mind. I had fun doing it. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time now. At least he won his next two matches, so I don’t feel too bad about losing to him. When I walked off the field, the guys at the desk gave me 500tg. Word! Imagine what the winner of the whole thing gets? One of my friends used my camera and took pics, so I’ll post them when I can. Other friends took more pics and videos, and I’m sure they’ll post them somewhere. I’ll try to find out where and let you know. When I was finished, I went into the stands to sit with my friends and watch more wrestling. There is a phrase that asks, “Are you Naadaming well?” After I said it twice to the girl next to me, she finally said, “Please speak in English.” I guess my accent was too much for her. I did find out that it’s not all my fault that people can’t understand me. Unlike in America, where we are used to hearing all kinds of different accents, all the time, Mongolians aren’t used to hearing non-Mongolians speak their language. So, it’s a little bit their fault that they can’t understand me, too. After that, I walked around and watched the archery and checked out the hoshor stands. That is a big part of Naadam, too. There are all kinds of vendors. Also, there are all kinds of little gambling spots. I’m not a gambler, and I’m sure that it was all rigged somehow or another, so I kept my 500tg in my pocket. The hoshors were good. Most people buy about 20 or 30 or so at a time. I sat and ate several with my host-family. I had some raisin juice, too. It was pretty good. My little cousins got a kick out of me throwing a raisin in the air and catching it in my mouth. After that, we drove over to the horse-racing place. It was a couple of miles down the road, closer to our house. Over there, things were much more rowdy. There were drunken old men at the wrestling place, but they were fairly calm. (This one old fella had a patch of hair coming out the side of his face that was at least 8 inches long. Crazy.) At the horse-racing place, there wasn’t as many drunks, but there were all kinds of jack-ankle little teenagers, riding their horses around, feeling self-important. They would gallop through a group of people and not even say, “Excuse me.” Not that they have that word in Mongolian, but still. I actually saw one jack-ankle boy with an umbrella messing with another jack-ankle boy on a horse. He kept flaring the umbrella in the horses face and the boy on the horse kept trying to hit him with the big stick he was holding. It ended with them staring at each other for a while, until they both walked away. Later, another boy tried to push a boy off his horse, and then received a push to the face. As a retaliatory measure, the first boy hit the horse, as hard as he could, instead of the boy. I sat on a horse for a few minutes, but I was glad to leave there when we did. When I got home, some of my host-dad’s friends came over, and I finally broke out the bottle of Scotch that I’d bought back in Seoul. He liked the two pewter shot glasses, but I can’t say the same about the Scotch. We all had a few shots, and we all made yuck-faces. Bleh! I would’ve suggested putting it in some Coke, but I didn’t want to do that to a $60, 21 year old bottle of good Scotch. I’m actually surprised to be home this evening. It’s right at 2 a.m., and my host-mom and dad and I are just getting in. Around 9, just as I was beginning to think about settling down for the evening, my host-dad came and told me about some kind of singing that was going on in town, and he told me I should bring my camera. I thought he told me his friends were singing somewhere. When we got to town, it seemed like everyone was in the square. I’ve been there many times, and the fountain that is usually as dry as a bone was working like a charm. It was quite nice. I took several pictures, but it was dark, so I’m not sure how good they turned out. There was a stage set up in the square, so I figured out what my host-dad was trying to tell me. There was a big concert going on for Naadam. There were several opening acts, before the main group took the stage. I think most of you know that I’m a total hip-hop head, so I wasn’t very interested, but the experience was neat. I know at least one of you who would have loved it. I know how you are about live music. We ended up running into my host-family’s brothers and sisters, so when the whole thing was over, we all walked over to their house. Little did I know, but they bought beer on the way. Actually, I went into the store with them, but it was crazy, so I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. Ha, when I was in there, people were banging on the door to get in. I was wondering what was going on, since only half of the people I was with was in the store. So, I went over and unlocked the door. A flood of people barged in. The proprietor wasn’t very happy about that. He didn’t know it was me, so I acted like I didn’t know anything about what was going on. Later, when we had made a good dent in the 4 litres of beer that had been bought, my host-mom started telling the story and laughing about me unlocking the door. Everyone got a kick out of it. It was after 1 when we they decided we were leaving for home. I had no idea what was going on, but to be safe, I got up and put my shoes on. It was so freaking dark outside. It is a clear night and I finally got a good look at the stars. Wow! You can really see why it’s called the Milky Way. We waited forever on a taxi. Not too many run that late at night. And if you are lucky enough to find one that is willing to take you where you want to go, you’d better be good at negotiating. The ride costed us close to double what it would during the day. Man, I’m looking forward to sleeping late in the morning. This is the latest I’ve been up since I’ve been in the country, I think. July 10, 2008 I got to sleep late, like I was wanting. I got out of the bed around 11:30. Ten minutes later, a friend stopped by, and then we walked over to the river. We had to go through the area where the horse racing was going on, so we got to see some of that. There were hundreds of horses. At the river, the current was very swift. Also, we saw several of a certain plant that is illegal in the U.S. In Darkhaan, they were everywhere, but there are not as many here. I don’t think Mongolians know about that particular plant and its side effects. In Darkhaan, there are literally fields of it, and people don’t even look twice at it. A couple of us were taking pictures, just to show people back home, and our Mongolian counterparts asked us what it was. We just told them that it was a weed that grows back home. When we got back into town, we ran into the PCV that is stationed here in our bagh. A couple of other PCVs are here on holiday, staying with her, so we went to hang out with them. One of the guys used to be stationed here, so we hung out with the people that were his neighbours. We were there for about 5 hours, and there was all kinds of vodka and beers passed around. Fortunately, there was also plenty of food. At one point, there was a big bowl of innards that entered the mix. I found out that something was basically the stomach, filled with green onions and blood. Luckily, there was some Mongolian kimchi to eat with it. And, yes, Mongolian kimchi is different than Korean kimchi; but it’s still good. The biggest difference I noticed is that Korean kimchi is made with cabbage, whereas Mongolian kimchi is not, and it has big chunks of garlic. Man, I miss garlic. Soon, I will be making a list of things that I really miss, that I really want, that can not be bought in Mongolia. For those of you who love me and want to send me something, that will be something for you to think about. July 12, 2008 Today is Saturday, and the second day of national Naadam. July 11 is considered Mongolian Independence Day, and it lasts until July 13. During that time, the country pretty much shuts down. In the hoodoo, where I am, it starts on July 9. That is so the wrestlers who win the competition in the countryside can go to the capital and wrestle in the national competition. Would you believe that we had language class this morning? Yep, we did. Yesterday, too. It was only two hours, so it wasn’t that bad. I’ve been worried about forgetting what little I know, so I didn’t mind. Today, as soon as I got home, my family was preparing to leave. We went out to the real hoodoo, to visit family for Naadam. It took us about an hour to get where we were going. We had to go on the backest of back-roads to get there, too. It reminded me of driving through the forest of Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. Oh, and on the way, something happened to the car we were in, so we had to stop so the driver could do whatever it was he did to make the car work again. He opened the hood, took off the front right tire, poked and banged around for a bit, then put everything back together. When we got there, it was my host-mom’s family. There were two gers, and they are the first ones that I’ve ever been in since I’ve been here. Oh, and while I was there, everyone was told the story about how I wrestled at Naadam. While there, I got to wrestle one of my cousins. Yeah, out of about 7 rounds, he kicked my butt every time. Sheesh! Mongolian wrestling is so different than what I’m used to. After that, we went inside one of the gers to eat. We all sat around and were served pieces of meat and bowls of rice. It was good. A while after we finished there, we went into the other ger and ate more. We all sat around big bowls of meat and took turns cutting chunks off the bones and stuffing ourselves with it. Yum. We took a few minutes to walk over to the river and take some pictures, then came back to watch wrestling on TV. That’s when the vodka, wine, and airag started flowing. Wouldn’t you know it, I don’t like any of those things. But, to be polite, I didn’t refuse any. Guess what they gave me to chase the vodka with when I made a yuck-face. Fat. A big fat chunk of fat. At least it was better than the vodka. Oh, and once, I asked where the bathroom was. They just pointed out toward the field. Good thing I only had to pee. July 13, 2008 This morning, I met up with two of the guys and we set out at around 8:30 for the peak of the highest mountain. We had wanted to go there since the first day we arrived. Just looking at it, one might think that it’s about three or four miles away. I couldn’t really tell you how far away it is, but I can tell you that looks are deceiving. Not knowing any better, we didn’t take the most direct route, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. And there were a few other mountains between us and the one we were aiming for. With three breaks of about 20 minutes a piece, it took us over three and a half hours to get to the top. The whole way up, and back down, we had to fend off hordes of gnats and mosquitoes. The sheer number of gnats made them the greater foe. Every time we would take a deep breath, or laugh, we got a mouthful of gnats. The climb was at an angle of what seemed greater than 70 degrees at times, so there was lots of huffing and puffing. At the top, there was a couple of ovoos. I had suspected that at least one would be there, so I wasn’t disappointed. They are usually at the entrance to a city and/or at the top of the highest surrounding hill. When we got to the top, it was an awesome view. Looking south, we could see our bagh and the adjacent city. Looking north, we could see Russia. There was nothing to distinguish Russia from Mongolia that we could see, but we knew it was there, just a few miles away. On the way down, we scoped out a better route and began the trek. It was almost as hard as going up. Think about driving a car down a very steep slope and having to ride the brakes the whole way. Eventually, it wears on the system. We experienced the same effects. Luckily, about a fourth of the way down, we found a trail. Too bad we didn’t know about that on the way up. It saved us at least an hour. Oh, and we came across a valley that had more of that particular plant that I wrote about before. On the way down and back, we took three more breaks. We were worn out. Once, we stopped in a field, near some herders, and had a hard time getting up and out of the shade. We finally got home around 3:45. I’m a bit sunburned, too. I was starving when I got in, and needed a bath desperately. The first thing I did, after chugging some water, was to get my things together and go over to the PCT’s place whose parents have a shower. My tub had soaking clothes in it, so I couldn’t take a bath here. He wasn’t there, but I have finally learned just enough Mongolian to politely ask to use their shower. While his host-mom was heating up the water for me, she fed me a little bit. I ate almost everything put in front of me. The shower was wonderful. As soon as I got home, my host-mom was awake from her nap and had some food waiting on me. I had planned on eating it and then going to bed until tomorrow morning, but better things have transpired. They have a washing machine, and she knew I had some clothes soaking, so she pulled it out and told me to throw my clothes in. Sweet! Even better, she’s taking care of everything for me. As I write, she is trying to scrub a stain out of one of my shirts. I don’t know if they know the difference between a stain and just being dirty, though. I tried to tell her the last time that I did clothes that something was stained and she just said, “Myy,” meaning “bad.” I think she was referring to my washing skills. I don’t care, though. They only have a washer, so as soon as it is finished, and my clothes are on the line, I’m going to go to bed. I’m so tired!! After two weeks of an irregular schedule, everything goes back to normal tomorrow. I want to be well rested. We only have about one month of training left!! We are all excited about that. July 14, 2008 I just survived my first Mongolian haircut. It cost 1000tg – around $0.85. My host-dad practically held my hand and took me two houses down, to a lady who cuts hair in a bedroom of her house. As I’m sure you might guess, the lady had no license like she would have to have in the U.S. Most of you know that I’m worse than some girls when it comes to my hair. I was tense the whole time, worried that I was going to have to go home and shave my head when she was finished. It’s not exactly what I would’ve gotten back home, when I could communicate exactly what I want; but it didn’t turn out too bad. I had not shaved in about a week, so I had her cut off all my facial hair, too. My host-dad got a kick out of that. One of the other PCTs had a beard until the other day, and his family thought it was the best thing when he shaved. Mongolians don’t like much facial hair. We were told that if we were looking for a Mongolian woman, we probably wouldn’t get one if we had facial hair. Good thing I’m not looking for one. They don’t have much body hair, either. All the kids get a kick out of the hair on my arms and legs. Ha, at the orphanage, some kids were standing around, being awed by the hair on my arms. When I showed them my hairy chest, one girl, who happened to be standing nearby, gasped aloud. I couldn’t help but laugh. July 15, 2008 My mom emailed me and told me that my car has finally sold!! Yay!! I’m so excited. Now I don’t have to worry about anything except what I have going on here. Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Because of Naadam, the country pretty much shut down. Oh, and there was the time I was at the orphanage. I’ll finally get to town and to the internet today. The banks have opened, so I have money now. Luckily, I never need money while with my host-family, so that means I have plenty. Especially since I get paid in another day or so. I’ve made a Wants List that I’ll put on the side of my blog. Please, don’t anyone feel compelled to get me any of those things. They would be very appreciated, though. I hope that you are all doing well. Talk to you later. See ya.