The country shuts down during Naadam

July 5, 2008

Whoa! What a day. We all woke up early and had our last breakfast together and enjoyed everyone’s company for one last time. The next time we will all be together will be in the middle of August. I’m already looking forward to that time. Around 20 til 9, my group was told that we were leaving at the top of the hour. We had expected more time and lamented the lack of extra sleep we’d planned after breakfast. At 9:30, our microbus finally showed up. For those of us that didn’t already know, we found out that Mongolian time is a bit different than Western time.

The orphanage was less than a 10 minute ride from the hotel. We got here and were met by about 35 kids who had been expecting our arrival for several weeks. To be honest, I expected a bunch of dirty, misbehaved kids. I was pleasantly surprised. The orphanage has three buildings: the main building, with a kitchen, dining room/lounge, and separate boy’s and girl’s rooms; the secondary building, with a lounge, exercise room, and separate boy’s and girl’s rooms; and the arts building, with several different rooms for music, dancing, crafts, and art. Each of the buildings with housing has male and female bathrooms with showers and regular toilets. It’s been nice to have extra days to take showers. When I leave here, it will probably be another month before I take a shower. There is a big yard area, with a basketball court, volleyball net, a soccer field, and a garden. The kids grow most of their food and do all their cooking. I actually got to help with the cooking today. I think most of you know how much I like to cook. I still haven’t gotten down the recipes yet, or the technique of cooking in an electric wok. Good thing they have a stove and an oven.

Not long after getting here, three of us took turns giving our life-skills presentations. Mine was about Stress Management through Coping Abilities. The Mongolian word for stress is “stress.” What does that tell you about the concept? It’s foreign to them. Of course they have it, but they don’t recognise it like we do. So, the subject is a bit tricky to talk about. Even harder when my audience was kids aged 13-17 years. It made me feel really good when the translator told me that one of the boys said that he had learned a lot from my session. I was really glad to hear that. Luckily, I had a very good translator. Unfortunately, I won’t have that luxury when I finish training and get to where I’ll be working. I might have a translator, but I know they won’t be as good as the one I had today. After we finished our lessons and had lunch, we went outside to play various games with the kids. It was supposed to be structured, but that was quickly lost. One of the guys in my group brought a water-balloon launcher from home. It’s a big hit with everyone here, PC Volunteers/Trainees and orphans alike. By the time they shot two water-balloons, everyone else joined in the fun. When the balloons were all used up, people resorted to filling plastic bottles and squirting others. From there, I found a bucket, and it just went downhill. By the time we finished, about 45 minutes or so later, absolutely everyone was soaking wet. It was great fun. I haven’t done something like that in years. The only not-cool thing was when the kids were in a rush to fill their bottles quicker and started using hot water. It was hot enough outside without being doused with hot water. The aridity sped up the drying out process. After taking a break and walking to the store for popsicles – the good kind this time – we came back and played with the kids for a while, and then enjoyed the concert they had prepared for us. Really, it was the same thing that was done at our welcoming ceremony when we first got into the country. These kids are the ones who did that, also. Oh, and for Trey: you told me about Tuvan throat singing: there are some kids here who do that. For those of you who don’t know what it is, look it up on Youtube. It’s really cool. Also, there were a couple of contortionists. Those girls were quite bendy. The rest of the kids did traditional singing and dancing, and played traditional instruments. This evening, after dinner, we’ve just chilled with the kids. I’m sure most of you know I have the imagination of a five-year-old, so I had a good time. There were plenty of tickle-wars and joke playing. And Mongolians are a very touchy-feely people, so there was all kinds of that going on. I was already that way before I got here, so I will be even more so when I leave the country. For those of you back home who don’t like that about me…well, we will both take a little getting used to it. For those of you who do, you’ll like me even more. Haha. We have three more days of this. As wore out as we all are tonight, I hope we can make it. It will be worth it, though, I think.

July 6, 2008

We are all so worn out today. Playing all day with thirty-five kids can do that to a person. We did more life-skills lessons today, then took turns teaching random games to the kids. That was kind of fun, but hard to explain complicated stuff to kids who have the bare minimum of English. I taught a few silly card games, some people taught American songs, some taught American football and paper-airplane making, and some taught Twister. The contortionists won Twister, hands down. This evening, we put on an American talent show for them. Out of 8, only two of us have any kind of talent. One girl played a guitar and sang, and one of the guys sang a song. I did a very short tumbling routine. All the kids were excited when they heard what I was going to do. Too bad I had about 30 seconds of stuff for them. We did an air-band routine to a couple of songs. One guy is from Eritrea, so he did a bit of a traditional dance from there. One guy did the most ridiculous “magic” tricks. They were very funny. For instance, someone sat in a chair, under a blanket, with a cabbage on his head, and the “magician” poked nails, metal bars, and knifes into his “head.” This evening, we had “American” food. We made pasta with tomato sauce, and “pizza” hoshors (hot-pockets). The kids loved the talent show and the food.

July 7, 2008

I don’t know about the rest of Mongolia, but it’s mosquito season in Darkhaan. And just in case you didn’t know, I’m a mosquito’s favourite flavour. I make the 50 ft. walk between two of the buildings and have to ward off half the mosquitoes in the surrounding area. It sucks. I was outside playing and got bitten 5 times within that many minutes. I can’t wait until it turns cold and every mosquito in Mongolia dies a horrible death.

July 8, 2008

We’re back in our host communities this evening. I got to sleep late today. That was nice. Though we all slept in the room with all the kids, they left us alone whenever they were awakened at whatever time. I still didn’t want to get up when I did. Like yesterday, we had a couple hours of language with a substitute teacher. She spoke good English. Like most everyone else who speaks English, she only knows the language pertaining to her job. Fortunately, for us, her job is to teach language to foreigners. She can talk grammar all day, but not much outside that. She actually cleared up some confusion that we’d had.

After lunch, I went to begin packing my things. As I was going through my backpack, where I’d had my money clip, I found that my money clip wasn’t how I left it, and the 5000tg that was in it was missing. That is less than $5, but it’s a lot of money here. Especially since Naadam begins tomorrow and all the banks close, so I won’t be able to get any money. That really tainted the rest of my day, and my overall thoughts on the entire experience. Damn, that made me mad. For the rest of the day, I kept looking at every boy and wondering which one of them got into my bag and took my money. I told the head of the orphanage, but I really don’t expect anything to come of it. The kids make some random crafts and sell them for extra money, so they gave me a couple of things to say they are sorry. I really appreciated the sentiment. I got a set that includes a table-runner, four placemats, and four sets of chopsticks, which are all made of some kind of fabric. They are really nice. Oh, and I got an extra table-runner, too. I gave that to my host-mom. If other people’s host-families are any indication, she will put it up somewhere and never use it. All’s good. At least she’ll have it and think of me.

At the appointed time for us to leave, we found ourselves waiting again. So, all the kids took us and got in a circle, and then we sang songs and played silly games. It was cool. When they cars finally showed up (an hour late), there was hugs all around, then the tears started flowing. Several of the kids cried, with some just tearing up and others sobbing, and a few of the PCTs crying, too. Several of the kids had made Valentine-like cards and gave them to us. They were cute, but quite humourous, saying things like, “I miss you, I mess you, beautiful,” and “Hi my love Brother. You are pretty. I love you. Thank very much.” The thought is what counts, though. It was a good 10 minutes before a couple of people in my car calmed down. We will be back in Darkhaan at the end of our training, so we promised that we would stop in and see them. That will be fun. I’ll be sure to keep my money in my pocket when I do.

This evening, we got home right before the storm came. Of course, my family was happy to see me and had dinner ready. Have I told you about byyz (boats)? They are like wontons, but somehow, they are much better. Oh, and kimchi. I try to share and not eat it all, but it’s hard. Especially since the others only dabble in it, whereas I eat it by the forkfuls.

I finally wised up and put my mosquito net over my bed. It took about three bites for me to remember it. The whole time I was in Darkhaan, I lamented not taking it with me. I’ve been sitting under it for the last couple of hours and haven’t been anywhere near as distressed as I have been for the last several days. I mean, I was seriously distressed. Anytime there was something to be done outside, I couldn’t think about anything but how to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. And since the windows had no screens on them, my sleep was affected by the mosquito bites, too. I had absolutely no respite. Hopefully, that will be taken care of tonight. Luckily, I have some Sting Eze, but that’s only for after you get bit. I’d like to avoid it, as much as possible.

Tomorrow is Naadam, here in the hoodoo (countryside). It rained really hard when it stormed, for about 45 minutes, so it will be really messy. All the sports are outside, too. My family knows that I want to wrestle, so I think they will make sure that I get to the field on time. I hope I get to. I didn’t get a chance to buy the traditional uniform. If you don’t know what it looks like, do a Google search for “Mongolian wrestling,” and check it out. Can you see me wearing one of those things? I hope they will let me wrestle without it, if someone in my bagh doesn’t have one for me to borrow. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

July 9, 2008

Naadam is a celebration of Mongolian culture that has been going on for centuries. It dates back to at least the time of Chinggis Khan (Gengis Khan, for people outside Mongolia). There is a longer name for it, but I don’t know what it is. Basically, Naadam translates to “The Three Manly Sports.” There is horse-racing, archery, and wrestling. Females can compete in all but wrestling. In the horse-racing event, the jockeys are usually little kids, so as to test the horse’s ability, not the jockey’s. The length of the race depends on the age of the horse. I noticed, too, that all the horses that race are males. Today, it was confirmed that that is true, and there is even different names for male and female horses. In the archery event, it is nothing like what I was expecting. The competitors, all ages and genders, used communal bows, and the arrows were shorter than what I’m used to and had blunt wooden tips. Their technique is different than what I’m used to, also. They put the arrow on the outside of the bow and held the string underneath it. Instead of a target, the contenders arched the arrow toward a square of dirt between 50 and 75 yards away, depending on age and gender. The judges were the bravest of the group: they stood right next to the target area. I actually saw one of them get hit in the butt. He just jumped while everyone laughed. The wrestling event is the biggest of the whole thing, with the beginning ceremony over an hour long. In a normal competition, there are 512 wrestlers, competing for 9 rounds, in single-elimination. There are no age limits, time limits, or weight classes. The first man to have any body part other than his hands or feet touch the ground is out.

I woke up early this morning, in expectation of today’s events. Wrestling was to begin at 11:00. I woke up with plenty of time to take care of everything and get there on time. As soon as I arrived, I made my way to where the wrestlers were signing up and put my name on the list. They kind of smirked at me, but let me put my name down. I got there kind of early, but there was at least one really big guy there before me. I remember thinking, “Man, I hope I don’t have to wrestle that guy.” He weighed at least 120 lbs. more than me. Of course, I had never been to a Naadam, and couldn’t speak the language, so I had no idea of the wait I was in for. As I said, the opening ceremony was over an hour, so I had plenty of time to sit around and get a chill. It was overcast and sprinkled on and off throughout the day. Finally, the time came and people began to wrestle. Mongolian wrestling is nothing like the kind of wrestling that I used to coach. Well, it is a little bit, but not really. The closest style that I can relate it to is Greco-Roman wrestling. All wrestling is done on the feet; none on the ground. And unlike the wrestling I’m used to, people can grab and pull on your clothes. One of the other PCT’s dad is a local champion, so he took care of me. He took me over to some military guys and got them to let me borrow one guy’s boots and a set of their communal outfits. Yep, I actually wore that skimpy little thing. I stripped down right in the stands and changed into it. Most of the people in my bagh and the other bagh, about 20, were there to see me. After a couple hours of waiting, it was finally my turn. I ran out to one of the judges, did a little dance around him, where he basically pushed me in the directions I was supposed to go, then he took my hat off and I did my Eagle dance. That’s the first thing I need some practice with. Seeing them do it, it looks like a guy standing there with his arms out; but it’s not that easy when you have hundreds of people watching and giggling at you doing something you’re unsure of. Oh, and guess who my opponent was. It was that really big guy that I’d first seen who I’d wished wasn’t going to be my opponent. Drat! I think I lasted about 20-30 seconds. On the go, he tried for a leg-grab, but I kept him from doing that. From there, he got a hold on my sleeve and there was nothing I could do to break his grip. He tried an outside foot sweep, but I avoided that, too. The whole time, I was trying to break his grip and get one of my own on him. About that time, he did an inside sweep, taking out my left foot, making me fall onto my right knee. And that was that. All my friends were cheering loudly, and I could hear them laughing when I was done for. All’s good. I don’t mind. I had fun doing it. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time now. At least he won his next two matches, so I don’t feel too bad about losing to him. When I walked off the field, the guys at the desk gave me 500tg. Word! Imagine what the winner of the whole thing gets? One of my friends used my camera and took pics, so I’ll post them when I can. Other friends took more pics and videos, and I’m sure they’ll post them somewhere. I’ll try to find out where and let you know.

When I was finished, I went into the stands to sit with my friends and watch more wrestling. There is a phrase that asks, “Are you Naadaming well?” After I said it twice to the girl next to me, she finally said, “Please speak in English.” I guess my accent was too much for her. I did find out that it’s not all my fault that people can’t understand me. Unlike in America, where we are used to hearing all kinds of different accents, all the time, Mongolians aren’t used to hearing non-Mongolians speak their language. So, it’s a little bit their fault that they can’t understand me, too. After that, I walked around and watched the archery and checked out the hoshor stands. That is a big part of Naadam, too. There are all kinds of vendors. Also, there are all kinds of little gambling spots. I’m not a gambler, and I’m sure that it was all rigged somehow or another, so I kept my 500tg in my pocket. The hoshors were good. Most people buy about 20 or 30 or so at a time. I sat and ate several with my host-family. I had some raisin juice, too. It was pretty good. My little cousins got a kick out of me throwing a raisin in the air and catching it in my mouth. After that, we drove over to the horse-racing place. It was a couple of miles down the road, closer to our house. Over there, things were much more rowdy. There were drunken old men at the wrestling place, but they were fairly calm. (This one old fella had a patch of hair coming out the side of his face that was at least 8 inches long. Crazy.) At the horse-racing place, there wasn’t as many drunks, but there were all kinds of jack-ankle little teenagers, riding their horses around, feeling self-important. They would gallop through a group of people and not even say, “Excuse me.” Not that they have that word in Mongolian, but still. I actually saw one jack-ankle boy with an umbrella messing with another jack-ankle boy on a horse. He kept flaring the umbrella in the horses face and the boy on the horse kept trying to hit him with the big stick he was holding. It ended with them staring at each other for a while, until they both walked away. Later, another boy tried to push a boy off his horse, and then received a push to the face. As a retaliatory measure, the first boy hit the horse, as hard as he could, instead of the boy. I sat on a horse for a few minutes, but I was glad to leave there when we did. When I got home, some of my host-dad’s friends came over, and I finally broke out the bottle of Scotch that I’d bought back in Seoul. He liked the two pewter shot glasses, but I can’t say the same about the Scotch. We all had a few shots, and we all made yuck-faces. Bleh! I would’ve suggested putting it in some Coke, but I didn’t want to do that to a $60, 21 year old bottle of good Scotch.

I’m actually surprised to be home this evening. It’s right at 2 a.m., and my host-mom and dad and I are just getting in. Around 9, just as I was beginning to think about settling down for the evening, my host-dad came and told me about some kind of singing that was going on in town, and he told me I should bring my camera. I thought he told me his friends were singing somewhere. When we got to town, it seemed like everyone was in the square. I’ve been there many times, and the fountain that is usually as dry as a bone was working like a charm. It was quite nice. I took several pictures, but it was dark, so I’m not sure how good they turned out. There was a stage set up in the square, so I figured out what my host-dad was trying to tell me. There was a big concert going on for Naadam. There were several opening acts, before the main group took the stage. I think most of you know that I’m a total hip-hop head, so I wasn’t very interested, but the experience was neat. I know at least one of you who would have loved it. I know how you are about live music. We ended up running into my host-family’s brothers and sisters, so when the whole thing was over, we all walked over to their house. Little did I know, but they bought beer on the way. Actually, I went into the store with them, but it was crazy, so I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. Ha, when I was in there, people were banging on the door to get in. I was wondering what was going on, since only half of the people I was with was in the store. So, I went over and unlocked the door. A flood of people barged in. The proprietor wasn’t very happy about that. He didn’t know it was me, so I acted like I didn’t know anything about what was going on. Later, when we had made a good dent in the 4 litres of beer that had been bought, my host-mom started telling the story and laughing about me unlocking the door. Everyone got a kick out of it. It was after 1 when we they decided we were leaving for home. I had no idea what was going on, but to be safe, I got up and put my shoes on. It was so freaking dark outside. It is a clear night and I finally got a good look at the stars. Wow! You can really see why it’s called the Milky Way. We waited forever on a taxi. Not too many run that late at night. And if you are lucky enough to find one that is willing to take you where you want to go, you’d better be good at negotiating. The ride costed us close to double what it would during the day.

Man, I’m looking forward to sleeping late in the morning. This is the latest I’ve been up since I’ve been in the country, I think.

July 10, 2008

I got to sleep late, like I was wanting. I got out of the bed around 11:30. Ten minutes later, a friend stopped by, and then we walked over to the river. We had to go through the area where the horse racing was going on, so we got to see some of that. There were hundreds of horses. At the river, the current was very swift. Also, we saw several of a certain plant that is illegal in the U.S. In Darkhaan, they were everywhere, but there are not as many here. I don’t think Mongolians know about that particular plant and its side effects. In Darkhaan, there are literally fields of it, and people don’t even look twice at it. A couple of us were taking pictures, just to show people back home, and our Mongolian counterparts asked us what it was. We just told them that it was a weed that grows back home.

When we got back into town, we ran into the PCV that is stationed here in our bagh. A couple of other PCVs are here on holiday, staying with her, so we went to hang out with them. One of the guys used to be stationed here, so we hung out with the people that were his neighbours. We were there for about 5 hours, and there was all kinds of vodka and beers passed around. Fortunately, there was also plenty of food. At one point, there was a big bowl of innards that entered the mix. I found out that something was basically the stomach, filled with green onions and blood. Luckily, there was some Mongolian kimchi to eat with it. And, yes, Mongolian kimchi is different than Korean kimchi; but it’s still good. The biggest difference I noticed is that Korean kimchi is made with cabbage, whereas Mongolian kimchi is not, and it has big chunks of garlic. Man, I miss garlic. Soon, I will be making a list of things that I really miss, that I really want, that can not be bought in Mongolia. For those of you who love me and want to send me something, that will be something for you to think about.

July 12, 2008

Today is Saturday, and the second day of national Naadam. July 11 is considered Mongolian Independence Day, and it lasts until July 13. During that time, the country pretty much shuts down. In the hoodoo, where I am, it starts on July 9. That is so the wrestlers who win the competition in the countryside can go to the capital and wrestle in the national competition.

Would you believe that we had language class this morning? Yep, we did. Yesterday, too. It was only two hours, so it wasn’t that bad. I’ve been worried about forgetting what little I know, so I didn’t mind. Today, as soon as I got home, my family was preparing to leave. We went out to the real hoodoo, to visit family for Naadam. It took us about an hour to get where we were going. We had to go on the backest of back-roads to get there, too. It reminded me of driving through the forest of Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. Oh, and on the way, something happened to the car we were in, so we had to stop so the driver could do whatever it was he did to make the car work again. He opened the hood, took off the front right tire, poked and banged around for a bit, then put everything back together. When we got there, it was my host-mom’s family. There were two gers, and they are the first ones that I’ve ever been in since I’ve been here. Oh, and while I was there, everyone was told the story about how I wrestled at Naadam. While there, I got to wrestle one of my cousins. Yeah, out of about 7 rounds, he kicked my butt every time. Sheesh! Mongolian wrestling is so different than what I’m used to. After that, we went inside one of the gers to eat. We all sat around and were served pieces of meat and bowls of rice. It was good. A while after we finished there, we went into the other ger and ate more. We all sat around big bowls of meat and took turns cutting chunks off the bones and stuffing ourselves with it. Yum. We took a few minutes to walk over to the river and take some pictures, then came back to watch wrestling on TV. That’s when the vodka, wine, and airag started flowing. Wouldn’t you know it, I don’t like any of those things. But, to be polite, I didn’t refuse any. Guess what they gave me to chase the vodka with when I made a yuck-face. Fat. A big fat chunk of fat. At least it was better than the vodka. Oh, and once, I asked where the bathroom was. They just pointed out toward the field. Good thing I only had to pee.

July 13, 2008

This morning, I met up with two of the guys and we set out at around 8:30 for the peak of the highest mountain. We had wanted to go there since the first day we arrived. Just looking at it, one might think that it’s about three or four miles away. I couldn’t really tell you how far away it is, but I can tell you that looks are deceiving. Not knowing any better, we didn’t take the most direct route, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. And there were a few other mountains between us and the one we were aiming for. With three breaks of about 20 minutes a piece, it took us over three and a half hours to get to the top. The whole way up, and back down, we had to fend off hordes of gnats and mosquitoes. The sheer number of gnats made them the greater foe. Every time we would take a deep breath, or laugh, we got a mouthful of gnats. The climb was at an angle of what seemed greater than 70 degrees at times, so there was lots of huffing and puffing. At the top, there was a couple of ovoos. I had suspected that at least one would be there, so I wasn’t disappointed. They are usually at the entrance to a city and/or at the top of the highest surrounding hill. When we got to the top, it was an awesome view. Looking south, we could see our bagh and the adjacent city. Looking north, we could see Russia. There was nothing to distinguish Russia from Mongolia that we could see, but we knew it was there, just a few miles away. On the way down, we scoped out a better route and began the trek. It was almost as hard as going up. Think about driving a car down a very steep slope and having to ride the brakes the whole way. Eventually, it wears on the system. We experienced the same effects. Luckily, about a fourth of the way down, we found a trail. Too bad we didn’t know about that on the way up. It saved us at least an hour. Oh, and we came across a valley that had more of that particular plant that I wrote about before. On the way down and back, we took three more breaks. We were worn out. Once, we stopped in a field, near some herders, and had a hard time getting up and out of the shade. We finally got home around 3:45. I’m a bit sunburned, too.

I was starving when I got in, and needed a bath desperately. The first thing I did, after chugging some water, was to get my things together and go over to the PCT’s place whose parents have a shower. My tub had soaking clothes in it, so I couldn’t take a bath here. He wasn’t there, but I have finally learned just enough Mongolian to politely ask to use their shower. While his host-mom was heating up the water for me, she fed me a little bit. I ate almost everything put in front of me. The shower was wonderful. As soon as I got home, my host-mom was awake from her nap and had some food waiting on me. I had planned on eating it and then going to bed until tomorrow morning, but better things have transpired. They have a washing machine, and she knew I had some clothes soaking, so she pulled it out and told me to throw my clothes in. Sweet! Even better, she’s taking care of everything for me. As I write, she is trying to scrub a stain out of one of my shirts. I don’t know if they know the difference between a stain and just being dirty, though. I tried to tell her the last time that I did clothes that something was stained and she just said, “Myy,” meaning “bad.” I think she was referring to my washing skills. I don’t care, though. They only have a washer, so as soon as it is finished, and my clothes are on the line, I’m going to go to bed. I’m so tired!! After two weeks of an irregular schedule, everything goes back to normal tomorrow. I want to be well rested. We only have about one month of training left!! We are all excited about that.

July 14, 2008

I just survived my first Mongolian haircut. It cost 1000tg – around $0.85. My host-dad practically held my hand and took me two houses down, to a lady who cuts hair in a bedroom of her house. As I’m sure you might guess, the lady had no license like she would have to have in the U.S. Most of you know that I’m worse than some girls when it comes to my hair. I was tense the whole time, worried that I was going to have to go home and shave my head when she was finished. It’s not exactly what I would’ve gotten back home, when I could communicate exactly what I want; but it didn’t turn out too bad. I had not shaved in about a week, so I had her cut off all my facial hair, too. My host-dad got a kick out of that. One of the other PCTs had a beard until the other day, and his family thought it was the best thing when he shaved. Mongolians don’t like much facial hair. We were told that if we were looking for a Mongolian woman, we probably wouldn’t get one if we had facial hair. Good thing I’m not looking for one. They don’t have much body hair, either. All the kids get a kick out of the hair on my arms and legs. Ha, at the orphanage, some kids were standing around, being awed by the hair on my arms. When I showed them my hairy chest, one girl, who happened to be standing nearby, gasped aloud. I couldn’t help but laugh.

July 15, 2008

My mom emailed me and told me that my car has finally sold!! Yay!! I’m so excited. Now I don’t have to worry about anything except what I have going on here.

Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Because of Naadam, the country pretty much shut down. Oh, and there was the time I was at the orphanage. I’ll finally get to town and to the internet today. The banks have opened, so I have money now. Luckily, I never need money while with my host-family, so that means I have plenty. Especially since I get paid in another day or so. I’ve made a Wants List that I’ll put on the side of my blog. Please, don’t anyone feel compelled to get me any of those things. They would be very appreciated, though. I hope that you are all doing well. Talk to you later. See ya.