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October 11, 2008

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

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

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

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

October 12, 1008

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

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

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

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

October 13, 2008

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

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

October 14, 2008

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

October 15, 2008

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

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

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

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

October 16, 2008

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

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

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

October 17, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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