I was talking with my friend the other day and he asked, saying he knew this sounded about as cliche peace corpsy as you can, but if I have been reflecting on the almost two years I have spent here at all lately? As the end of service gets closer I have been reflecting on things more and asking myself things like, what have I accomplished here? what have I learned? how can I take this experience back with me to America and keep the memory with me forever... Now I didn't say I had the answers to any of these questions, but I have been asking myself them!! I think if somebody told me to tell them one thing about my Peace Corps service it would be this: it's humbling. Not speaking the native language is an incredibly humbling experience. Even two years in, and about to finish, I am nowhere near fluent. It is a crazy level of humbling to go into a classroom of 40 students and teaching for 40 minutes while not being fluent in their language! You are really at the mercy of the students. It is humbling to not have anywhere near the level of control that I did in America, including everything at work and at home. Simple things like my firewood to heat my ger. I depend on several other people to get the wood, then saw it up so I can chop it... it is never something I can just go and take care of myself. So relying so much on other people has been a big difference here. Then even funny things here that I have no control of... I need to shower but have no water... sadly I have put that shower off a day or two far too many times! So what have I done while in Mongolia? You would think in two years I would have like built a new school with smart boards included or something wouldn't you... I wish. I think the impact I have made has been on a smaller scale, but still significant. Batzorig told me that before I came he thought he wouldn't like me, that I would be older and always crabby. He then told me, but your not, you're ok and seldom crabby! haha In my time here I haven't dramatically changed my English teacher's teaching methodology; I haven't put on seminars to educate about important concerns like alcoholism, domestic abuse, eating more vegetables ~things I would have liked to have done. But I think I have gotten a lot of students excited about English, and have gotten them comfortable actually speaking English. And I do think I have developed very close relationships with a smaller group of counterparts and students. My one student gave me a letter the other day that said this... "Hi Allie teacher! You is very clever and good teacher. Thanks for always help me. Mostly people can't live far of their family. But you can. You is brave woman. I spend too much time with you and olympics students. You is my best teacher and my best friend. you have to never forget it. You'll go to America and I graduate my secondary school soon. I'll miss you. I never forget you." She goes on a few paragraphs more and ends by saying, "Maybe I wrote fault (incorrect) sorry." I laughed at that part because she did have a bunch of mistakes that I know she knows that grammar, I'm tempted to read through the letter with her so she can fix those mistakes, but I won't!! Anyways, the point of me writing about this letter is not to brag, but is part of me reflecting on what I really did here. So what have I done here? well I made a positive impact on this student, and hopefully a bunch of others. That is really what I wanted to do in Mongolia. And that is what I want to continue to do when I get back.

Above is my school's people in the Regional Olympics which were held in Batsumber this year. The spring in Mongolia is kind of this funny time full of holidays and competitions which makes consistent anything difficult (my type A personality has shifted a lot more towards type B due to necessity here!) So my main responsibility besides teaching my regular classes this past month has been preparing these 10 students to participate in the English Olympics. All school subjects in Mongolia have Olympics in the spring that both teachers and students in each grade participate in, and all schools take it very seriously. the English Olympics consist of a written test which includes everything: listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, etc. Then a speaking test, for this we had students describe pictures. So on March 19 we had these Regional Olympics in Batsumber, at which a fellow PCV and I were the speaking exam judges. The purpose of the Regional Olympics is to be a practice for the aimag Olympics which are this next Tuesday. So I am actually in UB right now and will head to the aimag center tomorrow, as I will be judging the speaking again with some other PCVs. I was really proud of all my students at the Olympics, Batsumber took first place overall :) I wish I could eloquently convey to all my students how all that hard work they put in, and that their personal improvement was why we as a whole could get a high enough total score to win first overall. Sadly though I think my students who didn't get medals focus on only that, and so do the other teachers, losing sight completely of the point, that they now know so much more English then they did when we began preparing, and unlike the majority of the students in their class, they can actually communicate in English. That is the whole point. Before the competition they asked me if I thought they could get medals... I told them of course I think you can all get medals, but I don't care if you do. They gasped!! and I said, to me the point is you are learning English. We have had many discussions together about why they want to learn English and in these discussions they all say numerous reasons for why they need English in their lives. So I reiterated that that is what I am trying to help them with; they said they want to learn English, and that is what they are doing right now, that's the point.

I have been thinking a lot about education and being a teacher lately, and for a lot of reasons. I have been reading all about Governor Walker and what's happening with teachers and school budgets in Wisconsin. So some days as I'm walking home from a 10 or 12 hour day of school knowing when I get home I need to get my ger in order, make some food and then sit down and make sure I get everything prepared for the next day of teaching in order. And I love this because I love teaching. So sometimes on these walks home I can't help but just get frustrated that it seems like right now in Wisconsin some of these law makers don't understand 'the point' and again forgive me for not being eloquent at all with what I have to say, but they are simply missing 'the point.' I feel like there is a fair amount that should probably change with education in America, and I try to keep myself informed about these things and want to always learn more. I spent my senior year in college making art about inequalities in our education system. Having taught the past two years in Mongolia though I can now look at education in America and education here a bit comparatively, and in general I think we are doing pretty well in America. So when I hear about possible school budget cuts it upsets me. Oh no problem, we will just put a few more kids in each class, teachers will just take on teaching a few more classes... Well I have taught classes of 40 students here, I have seen more teaching with no preparation beforehand than I care to, and if I can be completely honest, it doesn't work, and it is not in the best interest of the children learning. So when I hear about eduction being devalued and teachers being told they need to make sacrifices too, I can't help but just think, man this guy (these guys) are missing the point. Students deserve to have the best opportunity to learn provided to them, yes we have budget problems, which I'm not even pretending to be well-informed about, but there simply has to be other solutions than drastically cutting education funding.

I have been trying to get all my information in order to hopefully apply for some teaching jobs for next fall and I stumbled upon this quote, "You must convince adolescents that being educated will enhance their lives." Teaching in Mongolia there are some days I leave class and think, wow, that was a good class... I think I was convincing today that this English stuff is worthwhile and the students seemed to have a lot of fun too! Good work Allie! And then there are plenty of classes where I wonder how much more each of my fourth graders would learn if the class size was cut in half, and some of these little boys would have the expectation in their head that they too actually need to listen and do the work I am saying... or wonder how my tenth or eleventh graders can possibly think they have 'earned' any grade other than a D (I am told no F's) when they have done no work the whole quarter, they don't even have an English notebook to show me as they stand in front of me saying, "Allie bagshaaa, a 65..." but this all gets me thinking about the whole system here and I wonder if I should bump everyones grades up, or ditch teaching any grammar at all, and instead just try to get these students speaking using the English they do know. I was talking with one of my friends Mongolian friends who is a teacher the other day and she asked me how education in Mongolia and America differ. I said the biggest difference is probably in America we are a lot more private with each student in terms of their grades and all that. In America (at least I hope, or as far as I know) a teacher would never announce a students good or bad grades aloud as a way to glorify or shame them. A teacher would never call a student stupid or intentionally embarrass them. Students aren't subservient, rather they understand figuring things out and messing up is part of learning, and they can always learn more because it is the teachers job to facilitate this, it is not something they either have or don't. Now there are so many great and kind teachers in Mongolia so take everything I say with a grain of salt, but at the same time the education system here is transitioning and there are a lot of old ways that are all too prominent, at least in my experience.

Anyways, concluding this entry that was all over the place... I guess my point is just that I think education is very important and being a teacher provides people like me the opportunity to be one of those influential people in a child's life... and I can't understand why anyone would want to do anything but support teachers and education.

Finally I am posting about the vacation four friends and I took about a month ago! Two weeks in Cambodia and Thailand was wonderful, and a bit strange to be in other foreign countries. There were a few times when talking to a Thai or Cambodian person and they didn't understand what I was saying, to which my first response was to switch into Mongolian and try to explain myself in Mongolian instead -- Only to realize that would do me no good being outside of Mongolia! This only happened a few times though, as most people's English was amazing, and it seemed like everybody spoke at least some English due to all the tourism. So that was very different than Mongolia.

Bangkok is huge! We spent most of our time around Koh San Road amidst all the other backpackers. Excellent people watching, food, shopping, temples... I could go on and on! My friends and I loved seeing so many other kinds of people and speaking so many different languages. Cambodia was great. The people there (and Thai people too) seemed to always be smiling and much like Mongolia, the little kids would yell "hello, hello, hello" to us as we passed by. We took the train from Bangkok to the border, then a taxi to Siem Reip. During the 2 hour drive to Siem Reip from the border I saw a guy getting his haircut in one of those old barber chairs but just out in the open under a little hut for shade, and all kinds of cows and maybe water buffalo? the cows looked so different than the cows in Mongolia. There were several soccer fields with goal posts and everything (have not seen goal posts in Mongolia yet) and people riding motorcycles, usually a baby or a toddler in front, then somebody driving, and then usually a person or two behind them. We ate amazing food and shopped entirely too much. The Cambodians trying to sell us things would always call us "lady" and all the young kids selling things would do the same, "lady, you want a postcard, you buy ten, see, one, two, three..." "I give you good discount, how much you pay lady?" Their sales scheme worked on us probably 90% of time! The main thing we saw in Cambodia was Angkor Wat, temples built in the early 12th century. I don't even know how to describe how amazing all these temples were! One day we did a big loop around the further out temples in a tuk tuk, a carriage thing pulled by a guy driving a motorcycle. Our driver's name was Jumbo; he was a wonderful little man that drove us around all day. The next day we rented bikes, a dollar for the whole day. So we biked the 6ish km out to Angkor Wat, then 17ish around all the inner temples during the day. Biking around was really nice and only got tricky on the Siem Reip streets when we were going into and out of the city, as the roads were packed with other bikers, people walking, cars, buses, and motorcycles. We all survived the whole day though and were really happy we biked. The guys that worked at the guesthouse we stayed at were extremely helpful and kind, and their English was fantastic. The head guy's name was Song, to which he told us the acronym: See Oportunity N Go... this actually really helped me remember his name! He set up a taxi and people to help us getting back to the border and then a bus back to Bangkok. Oh and this guesthouse, which it technically was, but looked like a hotel, air conditioned rooms, TVs, own bathroom... $14 a night split between two people, yeah it was wonderful (yes my perspective may be a little skewed because of coming on this vacation from living in Mongolian ger... but still, it was nice!) So at the gueshouse though we ran into a few Peace Corps Cambodia volunteers, small world! It was really interesting for us all to swap stories and clear up a few rumors about Peace Corps Mongolia --no we don't all get personal horses issued to us! haha We went with them to watch a free show one night and got to see some traditional Cambodian dancing, so that was really cool. I found it really fascinating to watch them speak Cambodian to the local people too. So Cambodia was awesome. Getting back into Bangkok we left that same day on a night bus that took us down to Koh Phangnan and the next day we were laying on the beach! The next few days consisted of basically laying out, eating, drinking fruit smoothies... well yep that's pretty much it, repeated a lot! One morning though I did get up for a run and saw all kinds of students in their uniforms on their way to school. Making me think what a different experience I would have had if I had been placed in a Peace Corps country like Cambodia or Thailand... It's interesting though because talking with the Cambodian volunteers, even though the climate is totally different and all that, a lot of our challenges and successes sounded pretty similar. Anyways, we were all quite sad to leave Bangkok and all the good food, the beautiful weather, days free to do whatever we wanted... but we did leave and got back to Mongolia safe and sound. Being back has been good, school is crazy busy and it is getting a little warmer outside... and in 4 months I will be coming back to the States... crazy.

New Years in Tamir's house

Sulushesh, one of my 5th graders, don't tell the other students but she's kinda my favorite!

Christmas Day in my ger with some teachers.

School New Years Party!!

As usual I have been meaning to post some updates for awhile and thought I would at least do it before 2011... oh well! Things have been pleasantly busy around here lately. Mongolians celebrate New Years big time, so that has made things pretty exciting. I have had to explain quite a bit that I celebrate Christmas on the 25th and then also New Years on the 31st. Most Mongolians don't really celebrate Christmas, but a lot of the New Years decorations and songs and everything is Christmas themed. So I think that has to do with some of the confusion on thinking the two are one in the same. Our school New Years party was actually on Christmas Eve. They decorated the gym and all teachers (except me, as I have no kind of outfit like this here!) got super dressed up, like prom style! It was a really fun night; I had a blast... felt a little under the weather the next day though! My teachers and students were so nice, sending me text messages wishing me a Merry Christmas and coming to my ger with food and presents... it made Christmas really seem like Christmas. And it's certainly cold enough here to be Christmas! New Years Day it was like -20 I believe, with the night being like -30 or -40... today was around zero degrees I believe so it felt wonderful in comparison! On the 31st I went over to Tamir's sister's house next door and ate buuz, and then on the first I went to Tamir's house and again ate buuz... so I ended one year and began another eating buuz! Buuz are the national Mongolian food; they are sheep meat wrapped up in dough that's steamed. Anyways, once I get back in America it's back to vegetarian life for me! Here now though, personally I have chosen to eat a little meat sometimes just because I think it's respectful to the people serving me their food. Sorry the pictures above are an out of order mess! I can't ever seem to figure out how to upload them correctly... maybe I will get it right before I come back!

I remember talking with some of my PCV friends before school started about how when we get to December it's almost like we are done... well it's December! And time really has gone by soooo fast this year. Today on facebook a bunch of the M21s (21st group of volunteers in Mongolia -I am an M20) posted that they have been in Mongolia for 6 months now, this was just really interesting because that is about the amount of time I have left here now... which is exciting, and strange all at the same time. Knowing that, it gets part of me really excited about coming home, and then makes part of me think, holy crap, I have a lot to get done here still in not that much time! Anyways, this weekend I have been extra productive! Chopped a lot of wood, did two loads of laundry, continually cleaned my ger (only to have Leo come in and poop and pee all over the place, grr!) went running, bathed, etc. etc. I know what you are thinking, why are you telling us you bathed...? Well it takes longer when you have to heat up the water and first do your body, then dump that water, heat some more water and then do your hair, doing all of this over a tupperwear basin I guess you could call it. So yes, I always include "bathing and washing hair" on my weekend "to do" list, it just takes too long to not have it on there and be able to have the satisfaction of crossing it off!

School has been going well, not a whole lot of school news to report on though. Just trying to keep planning lessons that will entertain my 4th graders enough to hold their attention for the 40 minutes! Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I am not... Usually though class is a lot of fun, when I am finished teaching all three fourth grades in a row though I feel like I just ran like 8 miles or something, it is exhausting! My older students have been a lot of fun lately, not sure how much English they are really picking up, but usually class goes alright, so I'm grateful for that. The other day in one of my 11th grade classes one of my guy students came in really really mad. He was knocking over desks and his neck was all cut up. Well about two minutes into class his homeroom teacher comes and calls him out of my class because she had heard about the fight, so that's when I found out what had happened from the other students in class... the boy he was fighting with is actually my neighbor so I know him a little bit. So I just said, "Oh really? but he is such a nice boy?" to which my students thought I said he was good looking by saying he was nice, and I had to clarify, no, no, I mean nice, as in he is a kind person! and then here is the point of my story... one of my girl students, who I'm pretty close with because she is one of my olympic girls that I meet with at least once a week outside of class, says, "no I don't think he is very nice... I don't think he respects women." To which I was like, man, my work here is done!! The feminist in me was proud! I had just the week before talked with her and some other girls about qualities in men that we were hoping to find if/when we get married. We got into this conversation because these girls were oh so curious when I would get married and to what kind of guy???? It was a fun conversation. All joking aside though a good one to have, and my main point to these girls was, make sure he respects you and respects women. Sounds all preachy I know, but here domestic abuse is a scary and very real reality for a lot of women, and the amount of drinking that some men do does not help this cause any. Personally I think in America, Mongolia, and around the world for that matter we still have a long ways to go in terms of domestic violence.

Totally different topic now... I sang a Mongolian song at a concert this past Friday night, yanna. So a few weeks ago my director told me (I was never asked) that I would sing this song at a concert our school was doing. Now, I like singing like when I'm alone, or if I'm teaching students a new song, but in front of people.... not so much. And in a different language in front of all kinds of people that are actually really paying attention because it's a foreign person singing in their language.... yeah again, I was not too thrilled to hear I would be doing this! They did let another teacher sing it with me though, thank God, because I was so freaked out I would forget the words, luckily I did not. So I arrive at the club, with my hair semi- "did" as they told me, and my make-up thicker than normal as they told me to do, and I changed into my Mongol Deel as I was told to wear. But then they told me to take off my long-sleeve shirt that I was wearing under my deel, and to take off my black tights. To which I was like noooooooo, can't do that (my legs were not exactly clean shaven! too much info. I know, but it's the truth) well, when my director handed me a pair of skin-colored nylons what was I supposed to do, refuse? I was assured the lighting is poor and the people are far away, so no worries about the leg hair.... Then a teacher brings around a shot of vodka and says to drink it all, then I won't be nervous. And I did drink that whole big shot, and I think it did help because I wasn't really all that nervous! Trust me the song was probably not very good, I couldn't figure out my microphone at first, and then couldn't really hear myself throughout the song, so for all I know it sounded horrible, but I did it!! And my students seemed pumped about it, and they cheered so much, it was kind of wonderful. I will hear what they really thought tomorrow at school, yanna. I am glad though that I didn't stick with my first thought of, there is no way I'm doing this, I'm not a singer, how could they expect me to do this, with all these people watching, no, no, no..... because I think the fact that I did it, makes me more a part of everything here. And how happy my teachers were about me singing a Mongolian song, and how proud of me they were, made doing it worth it. No matter how good or bad it sounded... I did it, and that made the people of my community so happy. And this was one of those times I think, when their happiness was what really mattered.

Sorry these pictures are crazy all over the place... can't quite figure out how to put them where I want them on this blog thing! They are pretty easy to figure out though, soccer kids, an 11th grade class with me, then one of my fourth grades, then Batnym fixing the glass on the top of my ger... little scotch tape will fix anything!

It is starting to feel like winter for real around here... I don't know how Batnym has been running around without a hat on because when I do that my ears are in paaaaain! Snow is sticking around now and the water is freezing. So I am pumping myself up for the next 4 months of freezing cold! Good news though this means I get to again start my beloved hobby... chopping wood. The other day Batnym asked me if people in America need to chop wood? My response was, nope, we just press a button. He thought that was very interesting! Granted a lot of people in Mongolia live in apartments, especially in the capital, but he never has so this information was pretty mind blowing.

This school year is still going well. Things just seem to be easier this year, so that's really nice. And because I understand more about what's expected of me and how things work this year I have been able to try more in my classes. Things that I probably wouldn't have known how or wouldn't have thought were possible last year. I also think I am better at setting boundaries for myself and working with my counterparts on whatever they ask of me, but in a way that I am comfortable with too. Some students have mentioned next year and then they are always surprised when I tell them, "I won't be here next year, but you will probably get a new American English teacher." My little fourth grade girls are always cute about that, getting all mad, like, we don't need another English teacher, nope, I'm not learning English from them! The other day a group of them were walking home with me and decided to give me a Mongolian name... only they coundn't agree on a name, so it's still unkown, the possibilities are endless!

The other week some 10th grade boys asked me if we could have a soccer competition and it ended up being awesome. I was a little nervous because I didn't know if it would work with all the other scheduled things, and then how to even begin organizing everything... but it all worked out so well. They let me know how many teams wanted to play, ended up being 11 teams, and then I made a bracket and wrote out the rules. Then my counterparts helped me out a ton; anything I couldn't explain to the students they did. And my one counterpart came out for the whole competition to help if there was ever confusion with anything, and he acted kind of like my translator. He being one of about 4 people in my school that can do this, so I was really grateful that he was willing to help me out. Then different 10th grade boys reffed all the younger kids games for me as I just stepped in if we needed, but mainly stayed on the sidelines (sidelines is a bit of a stretch for what we play on but you get the idea!) This time it was just a boys competition, and more than 100 boys in grade 8-11 played. I hope we can do a girls' competition soon... feel like that would be a really good thing for me to do here. But it was just so cool for me to do this here because it's something I miss doing, being involved in soccer. And to see some of these boys who can really play, like really play, was awesome. Especially because those few boys that are really good at soccer aren't necessarily good at wrestling and things like that that are really valued here. It was just a really cool thing, and I'm happy it didn't end up being a disaster! Not too much else new to report... It's Sunday night here now; I have planning for school to do still but the day of cleaning, washing clothes, running, bathing (and bathing here is a chore in and of itself!) etc. has left me pretty tired so I may just call it a day and finish up my lessons tomorrow... I look forward to the day when those things are not an all day task!!

Me with my new puppy Leo, read on to hear about how this happened!Batnym working hard watching cartoons on my computer, p.s. Mom and Dad he asks if you can send some more :)

Batzorig on a friend's horse. He can ride but doesn't have his own horse right now.

It is good to be back to my soum and all settled in, and it is slightly surprising how quickly I got used to not bathing very often again... Today was the start of the third week of school. So far school is going great. Our school Training Manager assigned me to teach all the fourth grades and then some of the 10th and 11th classes. I am soooo happy with this schedule, as the fourth graders are adorable and they get so excited whenever I come in the room to teach them. And outside of class they are always asking when I will come again, which is odd because they have to know when I teach them, it's always the same! And then with the older kids I don't really have any behavior issues during class so I'm hoping I can get a lot accomplished with them. The problem there is they are just so not used to speaking English ever, which must seem weird as they have been studying it since 4th grade, but that's how it is. My one tenth grade today was funny because the two girls who competed in the English Olympics for their grade last year are in this class. They are really hard working and we spent a lot of time working on all kinds of English and a lot of speaking last year to get them ready, so during class today it was like they were my translators. No joke, they would translate everything when the other students didn't understand... kinda cool, but also slightly problematic for trying to get the rest of the class to work when they just rely on these girls (I mean I would too!) Anyways, teaching is going well so far, and these fourth graders remind me how much I loved teaching in America. Teaching them feels like real teaching again. Not that I don't like teaching here, I do, but teaching English is just not the same as teaching was or will be in America. I look forward to teaching all in English again to students who speak my language too. I feel like I relate pretty well to my students here, but not in the same way I could in America I think because things get lost in translation. So in America I am going to try to remember and never take for granted the fact that I can walk into my classroom on Monday and just small talk with my students about their weekend without them thinking it's a speaking practice exercise so I get only the responses they think I want to hear based on the learned grammar.... Anyways, I miss that about America, but I think this experience here is so great and honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I look forward to taking what I have learned here and applying it back in the states -if I can find a job once I return that is!?! Is it too soon to start worrying about that???

My counterparts and I just submitted a proposal for some grant money to buy teaching resources so hopefully that gets approved. It would be really nice to have some dictionaries to work with during class, instead of having to pause everytime we don't know a word as I look it up in my dictionary, then translate, annoying. Other than that school has just been busy with teachers writing their curriculums for the year to be submitted to the training manager, then methodologist of Tov Aimag I think. It's starting to get cold here but not too terrible yet. Some wood and coal has been delivered for me already, though still need someone to saw my wood into smaller pieces so I can chop it... hopefully I can get somebody out here to do that within the next few days. Other news... I got a new puppy! The boys tell me Lucy died, but I kinda think she didn't. I think she probably got pregnant and they took her away.... not sure though. So I was pretty bummed about that when I got back and she was gone. Then about a week ago Tamir and Batzorig returned from picking vegetables in the countryside, and they brought with them this tiny boy puppy. Tamir was just like, "here, your new puppy" to which, I was just like ohhhh k? Thinking, that's not really how it works, old dog dissapears, so just find a new one in the countryside... but I guess it is how it works! But it took like all of two days for me to be loving this new little guy. And in the past week or so he has already grown a ton, is actually kinda fat now, gotta cut down his carb intake now I think. I finally decided on the name Leo for him. That was actually my dad's nickname; he didn't seem to mind when I said I wanted to use the name for my new puppy.... I had wanted to name him Theo, but the "th" sound is really hard for Mongolians, so when I noticed the boys couldn't say that name I had to think of something new! So Leo it is!

So between Leo and the boys there is rarely a dull moment. Batnym discovered my crystal light packets the other day, and he likes how I put bread in a frying pan to make toast -he says it's "goy ampte!" which means basically means really good. And Batzorig seems so much bigger and more mature this year; he is almost always working on chores outside when he's not at school. The other day he discovered my hair products... I told him try them all out; I mean he has ladies to impress now that he's 14! He is great though. This past weekend it was sunny and warm outside during the day so I just left my ger door open. And in strolls this drunk guy, not a problem, I just grabbed my dog and went and got Tamir to talk to the guy, tell him to go, etc. I locked my door and just kept doing my laundry as the guy keeps knocking on my door. Then I hear Batzorig come and start talking to him, telling him that I don't understand Mongolian so I'm not going to answer, and I'm probably afraid of him because we haven't met, and probably am calling the police right now so he should go... and he did. These boys are just wonderful is my point.

Above is a picture of the M21s at their swearing in ceremony! There are now about 140 of us (including M19s, 20s and 21s) serving as Peace Corps volunteers in Mongolia. This M21 group is very talented and many came in with great experience. I think they will do big things in the next two years! I am considering it the end of summer now, as it is starting to get colder... I am moving from the city back to my Soum... and now I feel energized and ready to start a new school year! This summer has been full of fun things. Last week we had 3 days of a seminar called MST (mid service training) where my group of M20s were reunited again after about a year of being in Mongolia. I loved this seminar because it was more laid back than ones we have had in the past; we got time to reflect on this past year and then look at the next year in front of us. I think we are in such a cool place right now being half-way through our service because I know so much more about everything than I did at the beginning of the last school year. So I am really hoping to use everything I've learned thus far to make this year that much better, while being realistic about everything. I will head back to my Soum tonight, back to the reality of no running water... haha, I could not be more excited though about seeing all my students and everyone again though.

While we were at MST a few friends and I went to a store to buy a few things and the boy working in the store happened to be in 10th grade. We were telling him what we wanted in Mongolian and then he would respond in English. So then I started talking with him (mixed English and Mongolian) and he studies in the 1oth grade and works at this store in the summer, then goes to school in UB during the school year. He went on to tell us that he wanted to involved in an English speaking club or something because they never practice speaking in school. Whenever his teachers give tests they are only writing, so they never really get to practice speaking in English. Some of our Peace Corps friends in UB (and actually most volunteers around the country do clubs like this) do a 'Monglish' speaking night every week for people to come and speak in Mongolian and English so we gave him their number so he can maybe participate in that during this next school year. It was just a really cool thing leaving the store and being like, "see that's why we are here..." for kids and people like that. And I have many students like this boy in my Soum, who are so excited to have me there because they have never had an opportunity to speak with a native English speaker ever before. I am going to try to always remember this fact during this next year. I think it can be really easy to get down if one of my classes doesn't go well because of classroom management, or to get frustrated because things get cancelled or moved around or something like that (these things happen often) and then I forget about this bigger picture and the day to day impact of us just being unique in that we are native speakers.

Anyway, I have a lot that I want to accomplish this year and feel lucky that most everyone I work with in my Soum is motivated and wanting the same things. I think we can make this a really good school year, and I am excited to get started.

It has been forever since I have updated anything on here because my summer has been all over the place in a very good way! I was able to come back to America for about a month visit during June which was amazing! I had such a good time spending time with friends and family and just doing things I enjoy in America that I haven't been able to do here. Eating hummus, salads, pizza, bagels, Mexican food.... ahhhhh, America, it was a beautiful month at home! So my first few days back in Mongolia felt a little strange. I was kind of surprised by that, as people always had said, "oh will you want to go back to Mongolia after being in America?" to which I was always like, "Of course, I love it there!" And being back now is fabulous, but those first couple of days were a little strange. So I am glad to be back in the swing of things here and feeling good about my next year of Peace Corps service. I start teaching the new group of volunteers this next week, which I'm really nervous about right now. I hope after the first few lessons I will know what they are like a bit more and what works when facilitating their lessons and what doesn't and planning for everything will get easier. These past few days have been a little stressful trying to get everything ready for lessons just because I have no idea what to expect when I go into the classroom with them. At this point I am used to teaching kids who speak minimal English -Not American adults who can understand all of the words coming out of my mouth! So my hope is that they are not too tough on me and our lessons go alright and are enjoyable.

Living in the city in an apartment has been really nice. I am living the high life with running water and all that these days. It has allowed me to go running more because I can shower after. Usually I even see a few Mongolian people out running in the morning when I am. I always see cute older men and women walking for their morning exercise. I don't think running here is a big thing at all so it is always kind of surprising and cool when I do pass those one or two people out for a run when I am. The other really nice thing about the city is all the food options. I can buy any fruit or vegetables (for the right price) but still it is an option here! Fruit and vegetable stands are set up outside too so I can just grab what I need on the corner right by my apartment. I am sitting in a coffee shop with wireless right now, another amazing perk of living in the city. As great as the city is, I think by the end of summer I will be ready to go back to my Soum life. It's awesome to get a taste of living here, but where I really will want to be for the next year is my Soum. The break in America and my time in the city this summer I think is going to give me great energy to get things done in my school next year. At the end last year I was pretty tired out and needed a break, but now I am getting really excited about everything this next school year has in store.

Lots of exciting stuff happening around here! Tonight the new group of Trainees arrives! We are all really looking forward to it; a bunch of us PCVs that are in UB will go out to the airport to greet them. Then I fly to America on Monday!! Very excited. This morning I ran a 5k in the first ever International Marathon in UB I believe they called it. A bunch of other PCVs ran the 5k too, and one PCV ran the half marathon and another ran the full! I have not yet heard from him how it was... hopefully he finished running! The reason I wanted to update my blog though was because last night was probably one of the best I have had in my time here in Mongolia thus far. The group Ozomatli from Los Angeles came and played a concert in UB, and they were AMAZING. I went to the concert with a bunch of PCV friends and we had a blast, dancing and singing along the whole time. Generally Mongolians are a bit more reserved about dancing (from what I've seen at least) so we were kinda that group of white people dancing like crazy haha. As the concert progressed though Mongolians around us were dancing too, and a bunch dancing right there with us. What was especially awesome was that Ozomatli had a Mongolian guy throat sing mixed into one of their songs, which the crowd just loved. They also spoke a little in Mongolian, a tough thing to do, but so worth the effort considering they wanted to connect with their crowd. At the end of the show us PCVs started yelling "encore" over and over, this didn't catch on too much, so we told the Mongolians around us it means again, then we all yelled again in Mongolian over and over again. Now I'm sure Ozomatli was planning on doing an encore anyway, but they came back out after we all started yelling in Mongolian, and this was really cool. When they came back on stage they all had traditional Mongolian hats on, making the crowd just errupt. After the show we talked with the guys from Ozomatli backstage and took some pictures (I didn't have my camera so I don't have them to post now, but maybe later if I can get the pics from my friend). They were amazing people to talk with. We were all so curious about them and asking them all kinds of questions, but the cool thing was that they were equally as interested in us and what we are doing here in Mongolia. Ozomatli was actually invited by the U.S. State Department to serve as Cultural Ambassadors; this was part of a government sponsored tour. Ozomatli is all about addressing local, national, and international social issues. I think they are incredibly talented; they create amazing music and beyond that they have such a message behind what they do. I don't know how to talk about world peace without sounding incredibly cliche and naive... but attending a concert in Mongolia funded by the U.S. government, performed by a mixed group from L.A. that got Mongolians and foreign people alike on their feet and dancing and singing together... maybe that's a good start. If you don't know about this group I think you should check them out. Even if you don't agree with their political views I think we all gotta respect what they do.

Well it has been quite some time since I have written... my computer has been broken for a few months. I hope to get it fixed and install the best virus protection in the world and then bring the same lap top back here for my second year... that is the plan at least! Nothing too exciting happened during April and May though; I'm having a hard time even remember anything that I should re-cap on here. The end of the year was a little crazy with all the different tests students are given. School is actually still going on, but I am in UB. I came into UB about a week ago to start a seminar called TOT (Training of Trainers). So I am part of the 20th group of Peace Corps volunteers that has served in Mongolia. In country everyone just refers to us as the M20's. The next group of volunteers though, the M21's, will be arriving here on June 5. There will be 76 of them I believe, which is 7 more than we had coming in, and I guess then the next couple groups after them will be bigger and bigger... within a few years I believe they hope to have a group of 110 volunteers come in. Anyways, so us M20's and all the Peace Corps staff are very excited, and very busy! getting ready for the new group to come. The M21's will have a summer much like we did last summer. They will all have an orientation in Zuunmod for a few days, then go in groups to different small communities to live with a host family for the summer. Thoughout the summer they will be trained by myself and a bunch of other PCV's and Mongolian counterparts. Peace Corps breaks the summer in half, with different PCV trainers for the first and second halves of the summer. I will be training the M21's for the second half of the summer along with another PCV who is a friend of mine and two Mongolian counterparts. Our Mongolian counterparts are awesome; one is a middle age man who has a ton of experience in education and teaching in Mongolia. The other is a girl the same age as me; she studied at a Mongolain University to get her bachelors, then in England to get her masters, then after returning to Mongolia she worked in the President's office! This past week of working with them and the other PCV's has been awesome. I hope the summer goes really well and we can be helpful, effective trainers for the new group. I am training the sector of Cross Culture and Community Development. Every trainee will have sessions with us every week. Then they will have sessions for their specific sector and Mongolian language classes as well. Last summer I had Cross Culture, Mongolian language, then my sector was TEFL training. The other non TEFL sectors are Community Youth Development, Business, and Health. So right now the Peace Corps is crazy busy with all of us summer trainers trying to get everything for summer prepared before the new group comes in one week!!!! Needless to say we have been working pretty long days. Today is Saturday and we are heading out to meet with the host families, tomorrow we have a little retreat kind of day, Monday we do final checks at the host families homes, Tuesday is a national holiday: Women and Childrens Day!! so we have off and a big group of us PCV's are actually going to travel 45 minutes outside of UB to Zuunmod and have a barbeque. Then Wednesday through Friday will be crazy getting all lessons planned out because ideally we would like to have all lessons set for the summer so we are not rushing to plan them out the night before this summer.

My friends and I are going to run in a 5k in UB next Saturday, which should be a lot of fun. Then that night I think the plan is to head out to the airport and be there to greet the new group. They did this for us last year, and as exhausted and out of it from the flight we were, it was really cool to have the current volunteers there to support us coming into the country. Then I will actually leave for America on Monday! I am very excited to come home for a visit. Being in UB is a bit like America, with the variety of foods I can buy, real coffee at a select few places, running water and a shower in our apartment, foreign people kinda all over the place now as it is warmer.... buuuuut still not quite America haha, so I'm pretty excited to come back for a visit. It will just be nice to see my family and friends; that is definitely what I am most excited for. Other perks include being able to speak crazy fast English to everyone, walk anywhere and not be stared at or probably even noticed by anyone, and of course just eat and drink everything delicious that I have not had for the past year! Though one of my Mongolian counterparts at my school warned me he will be giving me a Mongolian language test when I get back because I can't forget my Mongolian!!!! So some people in America may get a little Mongolian language lesson from me so I make sure the language stays in my head for that month that I'm back!

Last weekend was the first round of the English Olympics. First a little background information... all subjects hold olympics every spring. Two students are selected from each grade to participate in each subjects olympics. So I have been working with my eight English Olympic kids for the past few months to get them prepared to compete. Last week we traveled to Bayanchandmeg Soum to compete against surrounding area Soums. Getting there was an adventure! 3 teachers (the Russian teacher along with Tamir and I), 12 students, the driver, his wife, and their little girl in one meeker (van), so 18 people total! I found this halarious, and was taking pictures of us all packed into the meeker, which my students thought was just strange that I was so amused by this. Let me tell you, Mongolians can pack like 30 people into these meekers, and I am not even exaggerating! So the fact that we had just shy of 20, in what should be a 12 person or so meeker was nothing special to them. On top of us we packed our bags and some food and we were off! I don't know if people are aware of the road situation in Mongolia, so let me give you a little info.... there really aren't many. It's basically constant off-roading on really rough terrain. About an hour into our drive we got stuck in some deep snow out in the countryside. No worries though, we all just got out of the meeker and pushed! About ten minutes later we were on our way! And a couple hours later we safely arrived at Bayanchandmeg. As far as traveling in Mongolia goes, I am extremely lucky with my site. Batsumber Soum is a few hours by train from UB. The train is slow, but a quick ride for me (compared to volunteers that travel for anywhere from 8-60 hours by car/bus to get into UB), inexpensive, and never has issues like getting stuck in the snow! And other volunteers don't let me forget how lucky I am for this!

It was somewhere around 10pm when we arrived, so I was thinking, alright, I'm going to get to bed... big day tomorrow, right... wrong. All teachers had a meeting to discuss logistics. At this meeting though I saw another Peace Corps Volunteer that teaches in Tov, she came along with the methodologist who works in the Aimag center that she lives in. So this was really nice to be able to see a friend, speak English really fast, and just have someone there that is a first-timer at all of this with me. So during the meeting the methodologist announces that "Allie will be doing a seminar for you all... with really good info., it's going to be great, etc. etc......" then she turns to me and says how many hours do you need Allie?? To which, I stammered a bit and said.... "Oh, um, not even an hour, it will be quick and informal!" And she said, "Teemo...." (this means "oh really...") So I was a little scared here... for one, I had nothing prepared, much less anything soooo interesting that these teachers had to hear. And second, this is probably not a lady that I want to make a bad impression on. So with that looming over my head I went back to my room, where my counterparts and students were in a frenzy of cramming and preparation for the next day. I think we got to bed around 2am. The next morning everyone in my room was up at like 6... and we weren't scheduled to start until 9, so I kept laying until 7 and then got up. I do not function well on 5 hours of sleep! Anyways, I got over my tiredness quick with all the excitement of the day.

To begin all students took a written test, after that was a speaking test. For the speaking test, myself and three others, two Mongolian teachers and then the other American volunteer listened and judged. My students were super nervous throughout the day, but I was so proud of how they did. Batsumber ended up taking second overall. I was extremely pleased with this and proud of my students. The best part was how well they did with speaking. The methodologist and the other teachers said Batsumber's speaking had improved a ton, and the other volunteer said Batsumber was the talk of the town that night after we had left. That was such a relief to hear... I mean, how bad would it be if after Batsumber got an American volunteer, their speaking had not improved any. So I was really happy to hear that they had improved since previous years. And my little seminar actually went great. I just talked a bit about how to make classroom time as effective as you can, giving a few different strategies and ideas. Me and the other Tov volunteer are going to do a longer seminar at the next olympics, and that one I know about and we are going to prepare together ahead of time! The sad thing was how sad some of my students were with how they did; or I think they really were sad that they were not in the top three of their grade to get a medal. A bunch of them cried after finding out how they did, which just about made me cry. As I have been working with these students so much these past months and I know how hard they have been working on their English. And all of them finished in the top half of their grade's students, which is awesome. I tried to tell this to them, but I also understand what it is like to be bummed about not doing as well as you would have liked to. I just wanted them to know how incredibly proud I was of how they did and that Batsumber placed 2nd overall. I think part of it is a pride thing too, in Soums everyone talks about everyone. So if a student gets a medal, that is a big deal and something to talk about. And if a student doesn't... well, people are going to talk about that too. So as much as I know they have improved, and the teachers at the olympics said they had improved... still not a medal to prove it. Anyway, back at school it was nice to have our school director congratulate me (she is also another lady that I never want to get on her bad side!) Tamir told me that they methodologist had called our director and told her I was a good one, so that was really nice to hear. And besides that those things are always nice to hear it was really good for hopefully giving me a little more credibility. Not that people at my school don't listen to or respect me because they do. But people like to see results, and this gave my training manager and director at least a little proof that having me here will help give some results with improving English.The next round of olympics will happen in a few weeks and only two students go, one 9th grader and one 11th grader. I will probably have another blog entry about how that goes! Lately at school we have been busy preparing for this English drama competition. It was actually supposed to be this weekend but was postponed. So this past week of school was crazy busy; I literally felt guilty if I left school before like 7pm. But some days I had to... you can't chop wood in the dark! At least I don't trust myself to! For the next two weeks students have their spring break. I will be going into school most days, and part of each day I will work with those two English Olympic students. I am going to take a long weekend in UB though to re-stock on some things, eat some good food, drink some good coffee, see my American friends. Ahhh I love UB! So far I have not heard of any of my students going to Mexico or Hawaii for their spring break... hehe, man some things here are so different!

Finally trying to get some pictures on here...

One of the posters students drew for Teachers Day... Notice the technology teacher in goal with an ax! I was happy they had me yelling "come on" to my teammates, pretty fitting actually... little do my students here know how much I liked to talk/yell when I played.

This is my puppy!! So that is frost on her face, this was right away in the morning and she was still thawing out... I'm trying to transition her into being a full-time outdoor dog. She is getting to big for my ger and all the Mongolians think I am crazy for ever even letting her come inside! Ok, now don't worry, she sleeps out in my little enclosed entry-way and she likes it! That way she can go out and bark at things at her leisure during the night. I also decided it's about time I give her a name besides just "gulug" the Mongolian word puppy. Well actually Tamir told me I should name her because it's just weird that I call her gulug now when she's huge! So her new name is Lucy I have decided... your thoughts??

My ger!

Tsagaansar back in Erdene Soum! My Mongolian host dad, my American Peace Corps friend, Maggie, and me. I think this was like 10am... starting the day off right.

The other day I made it a point to write in my journal. I planned on being so good about consistently writing in it, but my entries tend to be about as often as those on my blog... But my entry consisted of two lists (if you are unaware, I like to make lists haha) One list was frustrating things, and the other was beautiful things about my life here in Mongolia. The frustrating list ranged from things like having to worry about getting more wood delivered when I've run out... to school things like my seventh grade boys punching each other during class, making me kick them out, only to probably be then punished by other teachers in a way I don't agree with. I definitely had quite a few things included on my list of frustrations, but getting hung up on any of those things really isn't going to help Mongolia. So onto my longer list: All the little beautiful things... everyday is sprinkled with wonderful moments that make me just stand back in awe for numerous reasons. Here is a random sampling of some of these moments I'm remembering off the top of my head now... #1 A bunch of my seventh grades boys called me over to them and rolled up their shirt sleeves a bit to show me "tatoos" identical to mine that they had drawn on their wrists. #2 My puppy (who is big and fat now, I don't think I can even call her a puppy) being sooooo excited and jumping all over me when I get home from school. The wagging tail is the cutest part. #3 Kids that I don't even teach English to because they are too young, always saying hi to me. These kids seek me out! They see me from so far away and start yelling "Allie, hiiiiii", and when I get closer they all repeat the chorus of hellos again. Adorable. #4 Batnyam sceaming to me from outside as I was in my ger. I run outside thinking something crazy or horrible or really important was happening, but he is right outside my ger just staring up at the sky. I look up too; there is one plane flying. This seems like no big deal right, but he tells me that he has seen a plane only once before, and has never sat in one. So I kept watching the plane with him, and ponder it flying above Mongolia. But I also thought about how many more times likely it is for a kid in the U.S. to fly on a plane, than a kid in Mongolia... and other opportunities like that. #5 My old seventh grade classes running up and hugging me after not seeing me for awhile. #6 Having coffee with Batnyam, Batzorig, and occassionally Narnaa (cute little peanut of a girl) in my ger on the weekends. Batnyam can't drink it when it's really hot, so he takes my little water scoup thing and pours the "coffee"~I put probably 7 parts sugar, to every 1 part instant coffee in his. But he pours the coffee from his cup into my water scouper, and back and forth like this until it has cooled to his liking. He reassures me though when he is big like Batzorig he will be able to drink it hot. #7 Meeting up with some friends in UB to meet with different NGO's. We are all in different parts of Mongolia, with totally different school situations and struggles, but we are all doing it. And it is so refreshing to hang out with such good people. I don't even know how to explain it, but it's great. We have these different goals and we are not sure how to reach them but we are going to try. The support system of other volunteers here is the best. There's about 60 of us from the M20 group still in Mongolia now, and I think something like 30-40 of us are English teachers. So there are that many people to possibly talk with about things, and then I have my group of really close friends. When I'm frustrated with something, these people understand. And when I just need school activity ideas these people have them. It is an awesome thing to have support from close friends that are here having a similar experience.

As for other news... the English Olympics are coming up very soon so we have been very busy getting ready. Two students per grade, grades 7-11, participate. I have been working with these students for several hours everyday, including Saturday and Sunday now! I am pretty excited to see how they do. Today I spent about 5 hours judging an English song and English drama cometition with some other teachers. Each class put together an English song and drama and performed for us. Tomorrow we will select who gets to go onto the next stage where we compete against other schools. It was really fun to watch, and cool to see my students dressed up and all nervous about performing. For the past few days I have been helping some of them prepare... I'm now again very familiar with a few of the Backstreet Boys songs I was such a fan of way back when! Anyways, I think spring here is a time of a lot of competitions and holidays. So my goal for spring is to not get hung up on the lesson planning I should be doing, or the grant that I want to have turned in by this month! or the million other things I should be getting caught up on... but sometimes just relax and enjoy it all.

My apologies in advance for a terrible explanation of what the holiday Tsagaansar really is... but that is what I have been celebrating here in Mongolia for this past week! Tsagaansar is one of the big National Mongolian holidays. It began on February 14 and officially lasted for three days, though many people celebrate much longer than that. Tsagaansar celebrates the lunar calendar's new year and the name Tsagaansar means "White Month." During Tsagaansar Mongolian families make hundreds or sometimes even thousands of buuz. Buuz are a National Mongolian food that are comparable I would say to like a meat ball wrapped in a flour shell... wow that's a kind of horrible explanation but I think you get the point! So for Tsagaansar I traveled back to Erdene Soum, where I lived for 2 months this past summer, to visit my Mongolian host family. It was awesome to see them again, and my family was really happy to have me back for the holiday. Being in Erdene for Tsagaansar was awesome because Erdene is like the real Countryside, so I got the total experience celebrating there with my Mongolian family. We would wake up, put on our Mongolian Deels and start the day of buuz eating by like 10am, and didn't stop until at least 10 at night. During the days of Tsagaansar everyone goes around to each others houses and eats buuz, drinks fermented horse milk, milk tea, and vodka, then receives a gift from the hosting family. We would go to anywhere from 3-7 houses per day.... and you are supposed to eat a minumum of three buuz per house, as well as drinking all of those things.... so you can imagine how my body was feeling after a few days of this! It was a wonderful experience and I am very happy I went back to my host family to share it with them. By the third day though my other Peace Corps friends and I were ready to head back to UB! We say we are detoxing our bodies from all the meat and grease right now, and it feels oh so good!

This afternoon a few Peace Corps friends and I are going to meet with an NGO here in UB. We are all really interesting in different gender issues here in Mongolia and would like to work specifically on sexual harassment somehow. Us three Americans have met on our own, and we have an idea of what we would like to do in the future, but we are going to need a lot of help from Mongolians and hopefully some of these NGO's. I hope this meeting today can give us a better idea of the kind of things that have been done and are currently being worked on in Mongolia. I think we are going to find though that not much of anything has been done to date. I will update more on this topic as things hopefully get rolling, but as of now it's just all these ideas we have floating around.

Other news... Mongolia has an event called the English Olympics (actually not just English, every subject has an Olympics) every spring. Two students from each grade participate in the English Olympics as well as one teacher. I have been working with my Olympic students for months, so I am excited for the competition to see how they do (also a little nervous). As I understand it there are several preliminary type of rounds between Soums and then if the students make it they go onto the Olympics in the Aimag center (like a State Capital). I have definitely seen improvement in my students speaking because we have practiced so much, but I have no idea how they will do against other schools students. They have worked so hard and are such good kids though so I really hope they do well. Plus if they do well I feel like it will prove to them and everyone else in the school that you really can speak English if you work on it. A lot of times students are pretty good with grammar, and written English work, but when you ask them a question where they have to speak.... well that is much more difficult for them. Speaking is one of the skills I really want to focus on at my school and help both my teachers and students with their speaking skills. This is also one of the main reasons most schools want a volunteer like me in the first place; to have a native speaker around, for people to listen to and practice speaking with. It was nice to go back to Erdene Soum and hear people say (in Mongolian of course) that I have studied Mongolian well and my Mongolian is good. Now trust me, it's still not good, but it's a lot better than it was in the summer. Why....? Because I've practiced and studied. So besides the fact that knowing the language better will help me with everything I do here.... I also want to learn Mongolian to prove to my students that you can learn a language. I started off knowing nothing, and most of the time when I speak I sound silly and make so many mistakes. But that is ok, you just have to try and work at it, and it will gradually get better.

Well, nobody likes Mondays right, though my day as a whole was pretty good. Every morning I go and have tea with one of the first grade classes, which has turned in to one of my favorite parts of the day. First of all, who doesn't love cookies and tea in the morning? Second, these kids are adorable! They are six years old and they wear the cutest uniforms in the whole world (one of these days I will take a picture and then finally post some pics on my blog). But the kids all say hi to me when I walk in, and the saying hi lasts for like the first five minutes I'm in there. Then they all want to show me what they are working on, so I walk around and check everything out, throwing out a lot of "san bain's!" (good job!) Then when I leave the chorus of "goodbye," "biarte," "bye bye," "see you tomorrow," "margash olsetla biarte" etc. I say everything in English and Mongolian... maybe when these first graders get to fourth grade and have their first English class they will be way ahead of the curve! haha

Next was my 7b class, who most all the time have pretty excellent behavior. I have a ton of fun teaching this class. They cheer when I come in to teach, and we joke throughout most of class. If I do something they don't like, for example writing a bunch of new words on the board and saying "ok, write these down." Some of the boys will right away say, "teacher mo!" (bad teacher!) ~No worries they are only kidding, so to this I pretend to start crying and they immediately take it back and yell, "teacher san!!!" (good teacher) The point though is that I do feel like this class might be learning some English because I can actually get and keep their attention, and most of them write everything I ask them to and participate well. Their good behavior also allows me to plan more fun lessons. Last week when we were learning words related to crime, don't judge the material, I didn't write the books! But in groups I had them acting out the different new vocabulary words: burglary, pickpocketing, shoplifting, etc. and it was a lot of fun. Soooo I leave this class and go to my 7g.... Right at the start I have like ten kids asking to go outside and go to the bathroom... so I tell some of the girls to go, as the boys go and don't come back for 30 minutes. I write the date on the board, as I do every class at the beginning, and as usual the same 10 or so students are writing it along with me. I feel bad for this group because through the chaos of the class they are trying so hard to concentrate and hear (and throw me f'ing bone I think) but it is nearly impossible. So I write the date and do my lap around the room, 3/4 of the kids aren't writing the date because they are coloring other stuff (today I just took the stuff away), they don't have their notebook (I tell them get other paper, I don't care what paper they use), they don't have a pen (what do you use for all your other classes??), or they just continue doing what they are doing like they have no idea why I'm standing there. So then I always get this feeling of, ok, these few kids aren't going to write even if I get their notebook out for them and wait until they start writing (just to get me to go away) so I think... get back up to the front of the room and teach for those kids that genuinly want to learn. So I do. But as much as I say in Mongolian for them to be quiet please, and listen please, and look please... all of those students that are not doing any of those things are being too loud for the ones that are to even hear me, so I lap it again. A group of boys had clustered in the back of the room, and had started to fight -they were playing though, not really fighting, more like wrestling how they do. One of the twins was getting the little garbage can to take out, and water bottles to go fill (seems nice right, but so not something he is supposed to be doing during English class). Other boys I walk by and tell to get out their notebook just continue to draw in their English book and have none of the notes taken. Another desk with two students is just sitting there with nothing out, which they never do, this is no surprise. Then a handful of others are drawing; English notebook nowhere in sight.

So a lot of days there comes a point where I guess I just kind of give up, and I kinda just wait for things to calm enough that enough students can hear me so I can continue. Today I guess though I was less patient or just more annoyed. I left the room to go find a counterpart so she would yell at them. I'm not about to scream and yell in English, as I think I would have a classroom full of kids laughing at their crazy teacher that nobody can understand. The frustrating thing though is when Tamir and I came back the kids are all back in their seats, sitting quietly, as they were afraid of who I was going to bring back with me. Then kids who have done no work throughout the whole class are all pointing fingers at each other for "who was being bad." Then my counterpart leaves me alone again and the chaos resumes. It makes for a very long 40 minutes.

I guess you could say I don't know what to do with this class. It is very frustrating for me as a teacher because I know I can do better, but I don't know what to do. And I feel like if I spoke their language, or if they spoke mine, I could get some kind of a better understanding so that we could accomplish things during class. Though I guess thinking that way isn't going to get me anywhere, as no time soon are either of us going to speak the others language well enough to make that happen.... It is also so frustrating to me too because I don't like when teachers blame students for things that I think the teacher could have avoided all together if the teacher would have done a better job. Like with behavior management things; it bothers me when teachers blame students for not paying attention or something like that, and I'm seeing their lesson and thinking, you're not giving them anything to pay attention to! So I am trying to keep myself in check by always thinking if I were a student would this be interesting? But so far with this class it doesn't seem to matter. So many days I've come in with different manipulative things I've made or fun word games planned, only to leave discouraged because obviously such activities wouldn't go well with this class, why did I waste that time planning them?

Well that's enough about 7g for one day I think. This past weekend was good, did a lot of ger work. Chopped a lot of wood so I don't have to do that during the work week. Then I actually went by foot for the first time to get water from the well. When I have gone before it was in Tamir's Husband's truck, which is easy enough. He was not around though, actually in UB getting surgery (he is ok, no worries) so we had to go without the vehicle. Batzorig, Bagi, and I took our water jugs in metal carts and pushed/pulled them the mile or so to the well (in the freezing cold mind you). Then the way back was a little slower going now being full of water! The whole thing was kind of a funny adventure for me being the first time, and knowing I probably won't have to get water that way many more times ever. But what a serious pain in the butt for people that have no vehicle, or even if you do, just the fact that you have to travel far away to get water that will only last you a little bit before you have to do it all again. The irony of it to as I was on my way to and from getting the water, was knowing when I got home I needed to use it to wash my clothes by hand (another hour or two of manual labor).... All the ger work though is a piece of cake compared to teaching 7g.

Happy 2010 from Mongolia! Not trying to brag too much, but I was actually hanging out in year 2010 like 12 hours before all of you! haha Mongolians celebrate the New Year big time, though not many actually celebrate Christmas, though most knew a little about it. It seemed like all my students and others in Batsumer thought that we called what they call New Years, Christmas; I explained that Christmas is on December 25 and New Years is another, seperate holiday on December 31. My students were adorable on Christmas; they made such a point to celebrate the day for me. Mongolians don't celebrate Christmas (or at least in my Soum none did) so I just went into work as usual on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I had my seventh grade classes on Christmas day and they came and got me, tied a scarf around my eyes and brought me into the classroom. Then they threw confetti they made on me and sang the Christmas songs that we had done the previous classes. They had bought fruits and cookies and candies for me so they instructed me to sit and eat, as they all stared smiling at me.... It was quite odd, considering they are never quiet and just paying attention to me like that when I am trying to teach them. But this time all attention was awkwardly on me eating. They had also decorated the chalkboard with all kinds of Christmas pictures they drew, and paper flowers they had made. The funny thing was that they glued this stuff to the chalkboard... so went to leave all the kids scraped away at the chalkboard to try and get all the pictures off to give to me... In my head I was thinking, which one of you thought glue was the best way to go?! It was really, really sweet of them though, and it made my day. Then a group of teachers threw a little Christmas party for me at night. The director toasted, saying this was the first Christmas celebrated at the school in Batsumer, and that we will celbrate again next year. The teachers had all kinds of foods and drinks and we sang songs and danced. It was fun and again, so nice that they all did that so that I could celebrate my holiday.

New Years Eve day was craziness at school. It is kind of like when we would have Christmas parties and things at school in America, but times 10. Each classroom had music blasting and all kinds of food, champagne, cakes, candies, etc. It was a blast, but also kind of funny that each classroom had turned into like a disco club in the middle of the day. And the students kept wanting me to dance, which I'm like wow this is insanely awkward! ~I did it anyway. But you know, usually I like to dance when I'm out with my friends at a dance club or somewhere that it is dark and everyone is dancing... not when 40 9th graders are staring at my every dance move (no doubt thinking, ohhhhh so this is how Americans dance...)! The kids are all awesome though; they are such good hosts, every classroom I went in they insisted I sit and eat cake and dance and just hang out, which as a teacher, it is always nice to feel like students want to be around you. The night before Batsumbers teachers and other workers from the Police Station, Government Building, Kindergarten, and Hospital all celebrated New Years at the culture center. Same type of deal, lots of food, drinks, dancing, singing, etc. A lot of women wore prom-type dresses to the event, and men in suites. I don't have such attire with me here in Mongolia (and I was so close to bringing that old prom dress, crown and those heals too...) so I, as usual, stood out a bit in my sweater and black pants. Though last time I was in UB I did purchase some black boots with a little heal, so I fit in a bit more wearing those! Zulaa my supervisor said I should go around and wish the head government guys a Happy New Year, which I was like, um please come with me! So we went over to their table, and I wished them a Happy New Year. The three of them were so nice and very interested all about me (in a cute older men type of way). They said that they are going to introduce me to many rich, big Mongolian men so that I can pick on to marry. I said sure, why not!

The other day in class my 11th graders started asking me just random questions at the end. Then this group of boys were like, "teacher come on!" and I was like, no, no, it's, "teacher come here" ~teacher come on sounds like something completely different than "come here" I think! So they had written a note (they are all like deathly afraid of speaking in English, but can write pretty well) and it said, "Do you have a husband?" I said, no. Then in about a minute, "Teacher come here!" The note says... "When will you get a husband?" I said, I don't know! A minute later, "American or Mongolian husband?" Me, I don't know! A minute later they write, "Mongolian." I write, "Who??" They respond by writing some famous Mongolian wrestler. To which I was pretty pumped, as they could have been like, oh that drunk guy out there in the street or something, but to give me an olympic wrestler.... not too shabby! But I did ask them if he is good looking, because let's face it, I need that! And they assurred me, "Teacher he is beautiful." Done deal, sorry mom, marrying this wrestler.

Other than the all the craziness of the holidays not too much is new. School is still good, it is busy, and classes can at times still be very frustrating. Still have that wondering if my kids are learning any English from me. Though when I work with them in smaller groups, like when I have clubs with each grade of students and when I work with the kids that will participate in the English Olympics in the Spring, I do feel like I am actually accomplishing something. The other main thing I need to get going is to consistently work with the other English teachers. We have in theory been doing this all year, but week by week it is hard to make actually happen when so much other stuff is going on. That I think though is the key to my being here being truely sustainable; if I can help the other English teachers language improve, then in theory all the students English will also improve. Other random funny thing... The other day in my seventh grade class (of course) some boys were trying to pierce their ears with dull pencils. Which I have already told them, "No, No, No! -you need something sharper and your ear to be colder, so do it after class out in the snow!" But they are persistent, so anyways, I have a group of boys practically crying, ear bleeding during class as I'm trying to teach about the Past Simple Tense. Needless to say, I don't think they could say, "My ear bled during English class today."

Yesterday I returned to Batsumber after being gone for about a week. Peace Corps brought all of us English Teachers into UB for a week of "In Service Training (IST)." Each of us brought along one of our Mongolian Counterparts. We stayed at a nice resort that is just outside of UB for the week, and it was wonderful to not have to make fires or cook for myself for the whole week! Coming back to my freezing cold ger yesterday was a little rough... IST was awesome though. We did so much during the week that I'm having a hard time even trying to remember everything. Everyday was packed with different sessions led by Peace Corps. Some of the time we were in sessions with our counterparts and some of the time it was only volunteers while our counterparts went to other sessions. We had Mongolian language class for an hour every morning, so I have plenty of hand-outs to be studying for awhile. I also re-took my language test (didn't pass when I took it at the end of the summer). I was happy this time though because I did well and actually scored a step higher than the level Peace Corps said I needed to get. Then we had sessions dedicated to Cross-Culture topics, Medical topics, and lots of Teaching English topics. During these there was plenty of time to discuss things that are happening at site and to share with the other PCV's, while also getting input from our Mongolian counterparts. It was great to have the Peace Corps staff there for translation too. So all sessions where we were with our counterparts Peace Corps would translate everything being said. It amazes me how the Mongolians that work for Peace Corps can translate everything from Enlish to Mongolian, and Mongolian to English. Maybe someday I will come close to being able to do that a little bit!! As of right now though I am far from it! Anyway, one of the main things we did at IST was learn how to, with our counterparts, write out a future project that we want to do at site. Tamir and I wrote out goals and a plan for how I will go about teaching English to our other English teachers. And also how together we will teach English to all of the teachers at our school. I hope we can stick to our plan at site. At IST we had time to write out what we want to do, and had each others un-divided attention. This is not usually the case when we are at school. There are always a million things going on, and things always seem to change and get interrupted. So I hope our plans do actually happen, and I'm going to try hard to make sure they do. IST was a very motivating week. There is nothing like a week away from school (and a week that is completely dedicated to learning about teaching and everything in Mongolia) to make you want to go back to site and really do good work. I met some amazing people this past week and had a blast hanging out with all my American friends. So it's a little strange to be back all alone here in Batsumber! This week is also Christmas, which is going to be a little strange to just go into school and teach on Christmas... I think I'm going to dedicate this entire week of teaching to Christmas songs! At least if I teach about Christmas it will feel more like Christmas is what I'm thinking.

Traveled to the big city this past weekend for Thanksgiving. A few facts about Ulaanbaatar the capital (and by facts I mean approximate facts based on what I've heard). We all call it UB, which is way quicker than saying Ulaabaatar everytime! Most Mongolians though just call it the city. It's kind of like New York City, New York I would say. Somewhere between 50-60% of Mongolia's population lives in UB. In UB you can find most any type of thing you would want. There are outdoor markets, a big mall called the State Department Store (though any clothes or shoes in there are wayyyyy too expensive for me and my Peace Corps issued salary!), tons of small shops that sell every type of thing just depending on the store. Then there is a wide variety of restaurants and cafes. The restaurants we went to look the same as any nice one in the US would. I ate pancakes, a wide array of veggies, pizza... I drank coffee and had real red wine (any of the wine that my school has had at events.... I'm not a fan! I would rather have the vodka! let's just leave it at that!) So UB has a lot of appeal, and I really like the city. Plus I stayed at my friend Cassandra's apartment (which I can't even talk about how nice it is or I will start crying in my ger!) with a bunch of other volunteers, and that was just so good to see all my friends again and catch up on things and swap stories. It's also so encouraging to see all these other people enthusiastic about what they are doing, but at the same time all having different very challenging stories. We just relate to each other on so many levels living here together. The downside of the whole trip though was that it was slightly overwhelming. I have been alone here in my Soum for awhile now and love being the only one amongst all Mongolians. So to have all these people I wanted to meet with and catch up was almost too much! It sounds weird... but that's how I felt. And I had this big list of things to buy, and I did buy a lot, but shopping here is different. It's true you can get most everything, but I'm still new, so knowing exactly where and how is still a little tricky for me. Maggie and I were shopping for clothes and we wanted to try on pants. Now I don't know how to describe where we were shopping. It was a big market (inside) so there are just rows and rows of little stands kind of, each one selling different things. So when we wanted to try on pants (yes I know how to ask to do that in Mongolian, pretty proud of myself) what they do is just hold up a little sheet around you and you just do it! So the lady held up the sheet then Maggie and I added a coat on the other side to help each other out. Trust me, you are still not totally covered! So trying on things could be a bit awkward with people all around.... I will get better as time goes on here I think! All in all UB was great, just a big overwhelming.

I was really happy to get back to my Soum, though I've spent quite a bit of time getting my ger to be back in the swing of things! Just getting water again and washing everthing and cleaning out my stove so I can get a fire going so things will thaw out.... it just is a lot to do when you just get back and honestly just want to lay down and sleep! Or eat something because your starving, but all the dishes are dirty so you need to wash them first, which requires water, which you don't have..... not that that happened to me or anything! I'm just saying... haha. School continues to be challenging. They are re-doing my schedule for the second quarter so things are kind of up in the air right now again with when exactly I'm teaching what. I still have my two seventh grades though and my eleventh grade elective. I love the eleventh graders; it is an elective so they are all really motivated to learn English and just really well behaved. Almost to the point where they are so quite and good during my class that I feel awkward with them all staring intently at me the whole time.... Then my seventh graders.... the one class has actually been exceptionally good lately. We play hangman at the end of almost every class because we get through all the material because they are so good. They like to go up and be the teacher and I sit and pretend I'm a student to get in on the guessing of letters. It's funny though because they like me and me only to guess, a kind of "try and stump the teacher" deal, and they have stumped me quite a few times! I gotta watch myself, can't have them thinking I don't know every single English word there ever was.... Then there is my other seventh grade class. Wow, they are like the ultimate test to a person's patience. It's like every class period there comes a time when I just give up, most all of them are not listening, half are not writing anything I'm teaching down, and a select few are so disruptive I'm pretty sure other teachers would hurt them for how they are behaving in my class..... So I am trying to think how I can do better for this class; there has got to be a way, I just haven't figured it out yet.

This class caused me to really think about the question, "What am I doing here?" and not in a way, like I don't like it and want to go home. But just in a way that I need to think about that question and really examine to myself why I am here, and how I can make a difference here. I feel so lucky to have been placed in Mongolia, and the country, culture, and people are beautiful. I really love Mongolia. So that is what makes me think, "How can I help Mongolia?" How can I help my students, thus help the country develop..... That is what I'm trying to figure out.

It's really strange to think I have been here for 5 months already. So far the time has gone by so fast that I can't believe that it has already been 5 months... then again, this is the longest I have ever been away from home I think, because even in college I would get home for all major holidays and everything. I am missing people back home, and some things (like my almost daily caribou coffee ~though thanks to my mom I do have caribou beans for my french press :) but I don't miss home to the point that it makes me sad or anything. My Mongolian counterparts will often ask me if I miss home... and I tell them exactly that, yes I miss people, but I am very happy here. Who knows, maybe the miserably missing home will hit in a month or two... will keep you posted!

So this past week was the third week of not having students at school, and next week school is again cancelled for students because of H1N1. Now I know what you are thinking, "Wow, you never work... I'm joining the Peace Corps and going to Mongolia." In truth though I have been working! This past week all teachers went into school. I did English lessons for the teachers, which was a lot of fun for me to teach people English that aren't like hitting each other as I'm talking, and they take notes so well, and repeat after me so well... it was strange! haha Though I am starting to miss my students I have to admit... The other really nice thing about this week was that I met with three new teachers to work on my Mongolian language. This is extremely helpful to me, just to be able to one on one get tutored, and it's also a nice way for me to meet more of my counterparts. So far I know my fellow English teachers pretty well, Tamir very well, but not many teachers beyond that. I mean all the teachers are very nice to me, I say hi to them and all that, but it's not like I can communicate too much with too many of them beyond that because they don't speak English, and my Mongolian... well let's just say it's not at their level yet! haha So anyway, this past week was really fun for me to just study Mongolian and get to know more people that I work with.

Where the real work comes in though is the ger maintainence! Let me tell you, it's a good thing we have not had students so I have not had to prep. any lessons for them because living in a ger is time consuming! haha It is typically like 10 degrees or so outside right now, and into the negatives at night, so keeping my ger warm is constant work. After a week or so of asking my director, my supervisor, my counterparts, etc. they finally did send school workers to my house to saw some wood for me so I can chop it. So I've been chopping wood like it's my job! I feel so good when I get my ambar (little doorway thing they built for the front of my ger) full of wood and coal, only to have the supply dwindled down to nothing in a few days! haha So the basic upkeep of my ger takes some time. At this point I still really like chopping wood and re-stocking everything, taking my dirty water, ashes, etc. out, getting new water and all that... though at some point I'm sure once school is back on and I just don't have time for everthing, I can see myself being like... hmmm an apartment in UB sounds pretty appealing right now! I was helping some guys try to apply for their green cards the other day, and they told me if I can make it through the winter living in a ger then I must be a descendent of Chingghis Khaan... that makes me a little nervous!

Other than that not too much is new... have just been catching up on my reading, studying, cooking a little bit, and cleaning my ger a lot.

Due to all of the swine flu students did not have any school this week. Teachers went in yesterday and Monday for a bit to work on their classrooms. We completely cleaned the foreign language room and re-painted the desks and the floor. In typical Mongolian style we did this a little differently than one would in the U.S. but in the end the room looked good, and it was actually a lot of fun to be at school doing a different kind of work. The rest of the week myself and the rest of the teachers get to "relax." It is going to be a wonderful break and a great chunk of time to catch up on things and hopefully even get ahead on my lesson plans. Though I put relax in quotes because not too much I (and everyone else for that matter) do here in Mongolia is very relaxing. Yesterday when I got home from the day of working at school I chopped a ton of wood, wood that will probably only last me a few days then I will be at it again. I like all the work I have to do here to live, it is fun, but it is work. There always seems to be a fire that needs to be started, but first take out the ashes from the previous fire, then re-stock my coal/wood supply. Everything here is just kind of like that, there is no turning on a switch for heat or water or anything; you physically have to go through the steps to get anything you want. It is interesting for me, and fun right now, but eventually it will pobably wear on me a bit. So my point is, things just take longer, and three typical school days to stay home and relax will end up being a lot of ger maintenance too. Just to clarify though there are parts of Mongolia that have running water and all these types of things we have in the U.S. The capital of UB is like a big U.S. city I think, and actually most of my friends in the Peace Corps are living in apartments. I feel really lucky about the family whose haasha my ger is in. I live in two of my counterparts (they are married, both teachers) yard. The woman, Tamir is probably my closest friend here, and she is wonderful. So it's nice living in here haasha just because we get along so well, but also because her family is so helpful to me. Tamir will help me cook traditional Mongolian foods, which when I try to repeat on my own somehow they never quite turn out.... haha. But she will bring me food that her family is cooking, and then I make cookies and other treats and give them to her family as well. It is just a really nice relationship (by the way, the Mongolians that I gave my chocolate chip cookies to had never had them and they loved them!) My haasha bro's say "goy" about the cookies, which means beautiful, or really good. And this is always better than them calling something of mine "mohigh" which is bad... and they have done this a few times too! Also when I'm chopping wood it seems like I never get much time to do it by myself before Tamir's younger brother, who I believe is 23 also, comes out and helps me with it. Or rather, he says he will do it and takes the ax and does, which let's face it, he chops about 100 times faster than I do. I asked him if he has ever cut his fingers when he holds the piece of wood with one hand as he chops with the other (I don't do it this way, as I am positive I would cut my whole hand off). To that question he showed me his hand with it's array of gashed scars from the ax... he said he's just cut a "little" of his fingers.

Other news, I kind of have a puppy... I say kind of because I'm trying to not get too attached to the thing! Hence why she does not have a name, and I don't think ever will. Well actually I just call her gulug, which is the Mongolian word for puppy. I like this word, and she answers to it, so I think it will stick. She is Tamir's dog's baby so technically she is not mine, she is the families, she just likes me a lot and hangs out in my ger all the time. When her mom comes crying at my ger door I open up and let the gulug out, then when the gulug comes back crying I open my door and let her back in. It works out for everyone I think! I think they think I'm a little weird for liking this little dog so much because most Monolian people don't think of dogs as pets in the way we do. They are more animals that guard people's haashas, at night it is like this chorus of barking dogs. Many Mongolians I've met are afraid of dogs, some have told me how they have been bit when they were younger, so rightly so. Some dogs are really mean too, I remember being instructed during pre-service training to go down and grab for a rock if a dog is coming at you and usually this motion alone will scare them away because they think you are going to throw it at them. I have not yet had to throw any rocks at dogs. And in the meantime, I will continue being that crazy American teacher at school who is actually nice to puppies... weird.

I don't have too much else to report at the moment. Just loving life here really; I feel like I have several of those "aha" type moments everday here, which is wonderful. I will try to be better about posting more specific stories on here, as things all run together and I forget stories when I don't write them right away.

This past week of school was pretty good, busy but good, and overall less busy than the previous weeks so that was nice. I played soccer a bunch of the days after school because kids kept asking me during the day. Playing seems to give me some form of credibility amongst some of these boys... because let's face it, in the classroom I'm kind of at their mercy. Though it was funny, the other day in my one seventh grade class I just laughed so hard. So there is one student in particular who never takes notes or anything, like I go over to him, get his notebook out and stand there asking him to write and nothing... and I really like the kid, he just doesn't do any work during class time. Though he finds me earlier in the day to ask about English class, and has stopped by my ger a few times and just kinda hangs around for a bit, so deep down he must really like me. Anyways, so the other day I go to class and he is there, but then also his twin brother.... who knows where the twin was for the first 2-3 weeks of school... but I just started laughing so hard because of course that would be my luck that the kid I struggle with so much to get any work done would have a twin! The class thinks I'm crazy I think because I was so amused by this, and they were all like, yeah there are two of them... so what. Then on Friday of this past week, these same kids had me laughing so hard again during class. So I walk into class and I could just kind of tell it was a different day. I asked what the date was and the whole class responded, and started writing it without me even asking... it was weird. Then I look at the twins and they were writing the date. I just about lost it then, I was like, why are you writing? you never write! haha, and the whole class just laughed, but the twins waved me out of the way like, um teacher can you move, you are blocking the board and I'm trying to take notes here... I'm sure it was a one time deal, but it was certainly a great Friday! So the kids in my neighborhood have caught on to me going running and have joined in on this. I had eight little boys tag along on my run today, ages 6-13 just following right along with me. And two of them ran the whole time with me, at first I was just laughing as I was running because it was such a halarious sight to see. I mean in America you would laugh if you saw it, but here in Mongolia people don't exactly go running, so it was just that much more strange. But then I was just impressed that these little guys ran the whole time with me... It's kinda nice to have some running partners here though I have to admit.

Sunday night of another weekend... the weekends so far have gone by so fast. I think it's because the weekends are when I do my laundry and actually cook, work out, bathe, you know, those types of things. And all of those things take A LOT longer here! Yesterday I was supposed to have my soccer club in the morning, but no kids were there at 9:30am... turns out there was a movie showing at the culture center, so that trumped soccer. Such is life. But no worries, the kids came and found me at my ger and we played in the afternoon. My nose hurts today, as one of the kids nailed me with the ball in the face and gave me a bloody nose... and while I was busy wiping away the blood they scored the winning goal... we will need to have a re-match! On Friday night my haasha brothers taught me how to chop wood. Everytime I would chop a piece they would scream and cheer for me; it was ridiculously halarious. I loved it. Some Peace Corps staff came and visited me on Friday; they do these site visits with all volunteers to check in and see how things are going. Which overall things are going great, and my site is wonderful. The thing that concerned them is just how packed my schedule is with so many different kinds of things so soon. My school has me teaching my five classes, and then team teaching a bunch more, then running all these other English clubs, plus doing language classes for primary teachers, secondary teachers, solo-English lessons, and these other seminars with primary teachers.... it's a bit much! Which was exactly what the people who came to visit me said (which was a relief for me that they understood my overwhelmed feeling). Typically they like TEFL volunteers like myself to teach 10-12 hours a week, then have other hours dedicated to things like resource development and staff development. Because really behind everything is the idea of capacity building and sustainable development, so really anything I do here, I should be doing with other Mongolian teachers. Anyways, they met with my school people and we all discussed everything. Tomorrow they are going to look at my schedule again, and I believe revise it, which will be really nice. The point is that I want to do all of these things, but I can't do everything right away. I need to be able to see how things are here, spend some more time on the language and just learn more about Mongolia. Which really they say the first year is kind of like that, just figuring things out, then the second year is when you really get a ton of things done... So we will see what happens with everything now. Hopefully it will work out to just put some of these trainings and clubs and what-not off for a little bit so I have time to prep. for my lessons and actually feel like I'm doing a good job. It was encouraging though that the lady from the Peace Corps was really impressed with my lessons. She was like, Allison what is your background? And I told her Elementary Ed. and she goes, "Oh yes, well that explains it." And she said that my classroom management was so good, which was nice to hear. Considering some days here I feel the complete opposite. I think I had six different kids crying in my one seventh grade class the other day. Kids just hitting each other and what-not. I couldn't turn around to write on the board without something happening, muchless get much "English teaching" accomplished. I'm getting better at not being bothered when some lessons don't go very well like that. And for now I'm still hopefully optimistic that if I plan interesting, fun lessons they will be more inclined to pay attention.

School has been going pretty good lately, though it's challenging. I think the most challenging thing is just not speaking enough of the language. It makes planning for lessons difficult. There are a lot of activities I would like to do, but either don't have the resources, or don't know how to communicate effectively enough with my students for the activity to be able to work. So I'm really still figuring out this whole teaching English as a foreign language thing... and it's not easy, but hopefully will start getting easier soon. Another challenging thing has just been my schedule. They basically doubled the amount of classes I'm teaching now, either new classes that I team teach with another English teacher, or English Clubs that I have on my own. Then I also teach the teachers English and work with primary teachers on developing materials. I really like all of these things, and I think once my schedule gets more set in stone and it's clear when I'm doing what I will feel confident in my abilities to be able to prepare for all these things, but last week when everything got added I did not feel that way! Actually cried at work... I couldn't help it, just had to do it. It was a combination of everything being added to my schedule and times conflicting, for example I was supposed to work with another teacher on her English and my Mongolian. But then at the time I had set up to work with her they added that I would work with primary teachers preparing materials. So I was frustrated because I really need to work on my Mongolian language... and I was supposed to lead a session on materials but had no idea what kind of materials or even a topic that they wanted me to prepare for them. Anyways, I think my counterparts think I'm a tad silly for crying over a scheduling conflict, but they don't know how addicted to having a plan I am! Mongolia is totally going to change my Type A personality I think.... Today I actually stayed home from work because I did not feel well at all, and I don't think me throwing up on anybody at school would be good thing! I'm feeling a bit better now, though have none of my lessons for tomorrow really planned... And tomorrow is my long day with a lot of classes, so we will see how that goes!

Today was my second day teaching lessons. I teach classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (you are jealous of my schedule I know!) On Tuesdays and Thursdays I still come to school, but I have those days to hold meetings with the English club and have different seminars for teachers. I also plan on those days, observe other teachers’ classes, and make different resources and materials. So as of right now it seems wonderful; I have that extra planning time built into my work week that every teacher dreams of! On my first day of teaching I taught four different classes, three of them were wonderful, the students were great, and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. But then my last class of the day was a completely different story… it was a big class, a little over 30 kids, which did not help. But the students behaved horribly; I left class feeling so helpless. There were so many behavior issues going on, that in the U.S. I could have sorted out, but here in Mongolia, my not speaking enough of the language was extremely problematic. I told some of the other teachers that I had a rough time with that class, and they must have talked to the class because today when I taught them they were angels! I went in all prepared to try to explain I would draw a smiley face on the board at the beginning of class, and each time someone’s behavior disrupts the class I would erase part of the face. How much of the face left at the end determines how much time we get to play a game (hangman, which is still educational –but what they don’t know won’t hurt them!) I ended up not even explaining about that though because they were so good there was no need. Hopefully they continue to be like they were today, because today’s class was so much fun to teach. I think they recognized that I’m a lot more fun, thus class will be a lot more fun, when I’m not super-duper frustrated with them!!! I’m happy that this first week of teaching is over though because it was nerve wracking! I was extremely nervous on both days to teach, mainly because I didn’t know what the students would know. Was I going to get blank stares for 40 minutes because the kids didn’t understand a word I said? Or would we blow through my whole lesson plan in ten minutes because it was way too easy…? Luckily, my plans fit in somewhere between there, and I think I will be less nervous to teach in the future. Other happenings… I bought a modem for my laptop so now have internet in my ger. It has been pretty rainy here, and I think it starting to get cold for good ~my fire making skills are soooo not ready for it to get cold yet! Oh and all of my counterparts say I look like Barbie because of my “yellow” hair (it’s light brown but whatever) and blue eyes… I’ve gotten quite good at making vegetable soup; I actually can’t believe I never made homemade soup in the states! It’s pretty easy, and so delicious ~we will see if I still feel this way after two years of soup! Otherwise things are just busy, busy, busy right now. Like the U.S. there’s never enough time in the day. I think once I get my school curriculum/lessons/clubs, etc. organized things will slow down. Email me if you have the urge to mail anything to Mongolia (you know, like teaching supplies, or treats hehe) I can definitely give you my address (get good at writing in Cyrillic!)

I have been in Batsumber Soum for one week now, and it has been a crazy busy past few weeks! Last week all 66 of us trainees were back in Zuunmod, where we had orientation at the beginning of the summer, for our final center days. That was kind of like a big college party I guess you could say, as we all hadn’t seen each other all summer. We had sessions on all kinds of Peace Corps info. during the day, then we would have the nights free to hang out and spend as we pleased :) On Wednesday, August 19 we officially swore in and became Peace Corps Volunteers!! It was a big event with lots of important people in attendance, and I wore my Mongolian dell that my host mom sewed for me. After swearing in we had a quick reception then headed straight to UB where most of us stayed an additional night. Thursday morning my supervisor picked me up and we headed to Batsumber! I will be living in Batsumber for the next two years. It is a Soum (small village) of about 7,000 people. It is in Tov Aimag (Tov would be like the state if we were talking about the U.S.) which is really nice because I am just two hours North of UB by train. This is incredibly close as far as traveling in Mongolia goes!! Some of my friends will travel for days to get back to UB… I on the other hand, can take a day trip to go stock up on fruits and veggies if I choose :) -and I’m going to need to do that soon I think, as the only fruit I’ve seen in Batsumber are apples, and vegetables are pretty much limited to their staples of potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. I will be getting very creative with my cooking soon! My new favorite thing to eat is bread with butter and sugar on it… so simple, but so good! Anyways, enough about food! My school is very nice, and the teachers have been incredibly nice! They have helped me with my ger, and walked with me around town so I could get acquainted with different people and places. They all really want to become better, or fluent in English, so they asked that I only talk to them in English; I said, “yeah that I actually know how to do!” The other night I played soccer with a bunch of these guys on the foot of a mountain, it was beautiful! And quite funny… some of the guys would be smoking a cigarette as they played, and then when they got tired they would just squat down and jump back up again later on. Soccer so far has really been a nice way to meet people, so I hope it continues to introduce me to new people. My one counterpart said, “I did not think girls played sports… I was wrong.” Man did I just rock his world huh?!? Only kidding, but I hope to start a soccer club or two for students once the school year gets going. Other things my school wants me to do are obviously teach, but then also develop curriculum, work with all teachers on their English, have English clubs for teachers and students, and observe teachers and work with them on methodology. So a lot of different things, and hopefully once the school year starts everything will kind of fall into place, because as of right now I’m still just trying to figure out how everything works around here. I hope I can do big things for this community and really make a difference because they are all so excited to have a native speaker here I am told. To be continued I guess….

PST is almost done… one week left with my host family. One week left of living in Erdene with 12 other Americans and teachers and a family that can help translate things for me, and be there to talk to when I need anything… it’s kind of a scary thought! I am excited to live on my own at this point though, and I’m excited to get back to Zuunmod with everyone and swear in and become an official PCV!!! We had our last day of school with our students this past Friday. To make it a fun last day Maggie and I just team taught review things, so we sang all of the songs we have taught them throughout the summer. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun with this. Then the Peace Corps gave us certificates to give them so we made a bit of a production about that, and it was very cool. Then the kids gave us these little pillows they had made us that were stuffed with flowers that they had picked. Then they wrote our name on the little tag and another word about us; mine said princess. Finally we finished with a huge photo shoot; all of the kids wanted pictures with us. The whole day just got me even more pumped up to get my site placement and be a real teacher at a school here. We had a site placement meeting with Peace Corps the other day where we got to talk discuss placement options. I basically said I’m open to going anywhere, as I don’t really know where I would even request. And realistically they place us based on our skills and after looking at those and what the school wants/needs, they might look at our personal requests, but probably not. So I will probably be placed all alone in the middle of the Gobi since I was not picky in these interviews!! In a week I will know! Yesterday we did a bit host family appreciation event. We (and by we I mean the Mongolian men who know what they are doing) cooked a few goats. They do this by putting hot stones inside the animals or something and they cook them in this box thing… I don’t exactly understand it so I apologize for this terrible description, but the point is it’s this funky, cool way to cook the meat that the Mongolian’s love. Then they put potatoes and carrots in there that steam as well, and it turns into a huge feast. I filled up on all the other fruit, veggies, and treats obviously… My host family has come to terms with the fact that I’m not into the meat at this point! Once I’m on my own though it will be nice to be able to just never cook with meat at all. This last week is going to be packed with trying to fit everything in, making time to spend with host family, friends, teachers, and study for the language test that we will have on Thursday! We need to meet the Novice high requirement for the language test, so I need to make sure to study a lot this week. I’ve accumulated quite a bit of a Mongolian vocabulary already, though speaking it and understanding what they questioner is asking is different than just saying any random word that I have memorized. At site I’m hoping to be forced to really continually just learn more and more of the language, because as of right now they have just tried to give us a bit of a base so we can go out and kind of survive…

Well I have officially been in Mongolia for over a month! We are now about half way through PST, which I cannot believe because the time is really flying by! I am using more and more of the Mongolian language I am learning everyday (my host family gets soooo excited with each new word I use). Though it is slightly scary to think that in about a month I will be at site and on my own. This makes me very motivated to keep studying as hard as I can so I feel more competent with the language by that time. Our Micro-teaching sessions are over and now we are in the process of planning out our next set of teaching, which is called Practice Teaching. Practice Teaching will be much like our Micro-teaching was, now we will just teach for 40 minutes at a time to a larger class of Mongolian students. We will start off team teaching (so I will teach with a partner, my friend Maggie), and then move on to just teaching by ourselves. The organizing of this is basically up to the 12 of us trainees in Erdene. We had our language teacher translate the information for us so we could write out a bunch of signs to post around town (no copying machine obviously) advertising a sign up date for these language classes. The signs read: “Free English Language classes taught by native speakers!!” We are hoping to get a lot of people to come to our information session tomorrow. At this session we will ask each person a few questions in English to get a feel for what level they are at so we can divide everyone out into classes by level. Then Monday we start! Apparently it is kind of a chaotic deal… we are just trying our best to make sure it is organized chaos! Then much like Micro-teaching, we will be assessed by the TEFL trainers on our practice teaching. The point of that is mainly to give us constructive feedback and to just get practice, though another part of this is so they can see our skills, which will then have an impact on our site placements that we find out about on August 15 before swearing in. On July 9 the Peace Corps staff conducted their first of two TAP Interviews. With these they had us fill out a packet on where we think we are at with the different skills and areas we have been working on thus far. Then they filled out the same packet about us and we discussed. It was a good time, nice to touch base with the higher ups and discuss everything. The same day we had short interviews with our LCF’s this interview was just on language. This interview was to check up on where we are at, as they say they would like us to be at the level of Novice High by the end of PST. I believe everyone in Erdene is pretty much right on track, and we actually have a few trainees that are far beyond where we “should” be at this point. I think I am just about where we need to be at the half-way point; my teachers say they like how hard I work and try in class, so that counts for something!!

The other big event that happened was NAADAM!! Naadam is the second biggest holiday of the year in Mongolia. National Naadam is July 11-13, and then we had a local Naadam in Erdene the days before that as well. Naadam celebrates the 1921 independence of Mongolia from Chinese control. At Naadam there is horse racing, wrestling, archery, and tons of other activities going on. All of my host family’s relatives came over so the house was just busy as can be; it was wonderful. Always when relatives come they are so excited to see me and bring me treats, and then I of course can say about two Mongolian sentences to them so I feel a little silly! My little host sister rides horses, so I always love seeing her ride. Some of these kids that ride are teeny tiny, like smaller than some of the first graders I had this fall. Then the wrestling was very neat. These men that wrestle are ripped! A few of our American PCT’s wrestled… they did not win, but it was cool that they did it! Besides that I drank the fermented milk, which was surprisingly pretty good. I at a lot of hoshure, basically deep fried goodness, and of course had a little bit of vodka. I am looking forward to hopefully going to Naadam in UB next year.

My apologies for these entries being few and far between lately, the issue is that the Soum I am in now, Erdene, is pretty small, so there is no internet café or anything like that. Our Mongolian language teacher though happens to be married to the school computer teacher so she works that angle for us to get some internet time in the school about once a week… J we love her. So things have been very busy, which I think will be the trend all through pre-service training (PST). I always have 4 hours of language class every weekday. My Mongolian language speaking capability is still pretty shaky, but I am seeing progress!!! A current peace corps volunteer (PCV) said Mongolian is like the 4th hardest language for English speakers to learn or something like that, so I’m being as patient as I can with it. Then with the rest of the day I either have Cross Culture class or Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) class. With both of these there are native Mongolian teachers paired with PCV Trainers. Cross Culture is very interesting and is teaching us all of the must-know type of information, as well as history, customs, community development, etc. TEFL sessions are also interesting and just very practical stuff for us to be learning. Part of our TEFL training is called Micro-teaching, where we are actually teaching Mongolian kids with another trainee. So far we have done 3 micro-teaching sessions. Our last session on grammar was by far our most successful lesson. We have had 6-8 Mongolian students at these, and we teach them a lesson for a half hour. It is an English lesson, so we speak English, but there is a great variety in the amount of English the students we are teaching speak. That is probably the biggest challenge with these sessions… what if what we plan is way too easy because it involves words/concepts they already all know. Or… what if we get blank stares the whole half hour because they can’t understand a word we are saying!? Luckily, we have had a nice balance between these two extremes thus far! Apparently though when we get to our sites for our real teaching this coming fall there tends to be this huge range of English speaking abilities within classes, not to mention class sizes are upwards of 40 students I guess. In my free time I hang out with my host family, who is wonderful and takes amazing care of me (not as good as my real mom back home, but they are up there!) The other day I got home and my host sisters were cutting into a sheep’s stomach… they laughed pretty hard at my face. I help out with the cooking/cleaning (that’s right real family, I help with these things) and my best friend Ann would laugh at how I slow the process down with my cutting of the vegetables, but hey if they want me to help that’s what they get! I and the other trainees also find time to play soccer (or bombok –rough translation from Cyrillic to English). Though the other day we started playing on a patch of “grass” that at least had some grass amidst the rocky, bumpy dirt, and the soccer ball popped within the fist five minutes of our game. The rest of the game was played with a flat old basketball a kid had. Oh and another trainee and myself were captains picking teams at the beginning, and none of these little Mongolian boys wanted to be on the girls team. As in they literally refused to come be on my team when I picked them (funny how that sexism in sports is pretty much across the board in the U.S. and abroad). Anyways, by the end of the game the boys that did agree to be on my team were happy they did J

Hi all!! So I have blog entries typed up and on my flash drive because we don't have internet in Erdene, where I'm place for PST. Unfortunately I can't get them to open up here right now.... so in a few weeks you will hear more about this past month of my life!!! haha, today we are in UB for a short orientation of things... something like 50% of Mongolia's population lives in UB, so it's a pretty happening place. I love Mongolia and have had some really cool experiences so far :) Sorry this is so short, but my time is up... in like a month I should have internet access and I will seriously update this blog I promise!!! hope all is well is the states!

Well officially in Mongolia and loving it! I am now in my host community of Erdene, living with my host family. So much has happened so sorry for being all over the place! The flight here was surprisingly very good, by the time we arrived in UB we had been up for like a day or something, but were greeted by the very pumped up M19's so it was impossible to be tired. We then stayed in Zuunmod for a week or so for orientation and I got to really get to know the other 68 volunteers that with me make up the M20 group -20th group that has come to Mongolia. The majority of us are going to be Teaching English as a Foreign Language -TEFL teachers. The days of orientation gave us a lot of information, and a lot of general overviews about things we will need to know. Now we are at our sites where we will be for the rest of the summer until we swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. I had language training this morning for four hours, which we generally have everyday, then usually we have some session in the afternoon, either on culture, or something specific to teaching. I feel like I have learned so much already about Mongolia since arriving like 11 days ago, but with that said I feel like such a baby here as well! It is difficult not being able to communicate with the majority of the people around you. My host family is wonderful and takes care of anything I could ever need, but it's like this giant game of charrades, how I try to communicate with them. My host sister is 22 and knows a bit of english, and she really helps me out with things. Yesterday she showed me how to wash my hair, body, and clothes in my washing basin. I will probably do that about once a week, or maybe twice a week, considering you have to walk a ways away to get water. I have really enjoyed the food, though it is very different from what I ate in the states. In the U.S. I did not eat any meat, and little dairy. Here I eat a little meat, and then eat dairy too. There is also a lot of bread, rice, noodles, things like that. I have helped out making meals, though compared to my host mom and sister I am a horrible cook! Basically I just slow the process down! Right now the most frustrating thing for me is the lanuage. I pretty much know the cyrillic alphabet now, but now it is time to start making sense of words, and just picking up as much as I can. I am hoping to continue to learn a few new words a day that I know how to use. My goal is to by the end of the summer feel competent in my Mongolian.... I have a lot of work to do!!!

So I fly out to L.A. tomorrow morning at 7am, which means we will leave Hudson at like 4:30.... We will have an orientation in L.A. all afternoon, then it's off to Seoul the next morning. From Seoul we will fly to Ulaanbaatar, so I will arrive in Mongolia on the 14th if I remember correctly. Should be interesting!!