In UB for Thanksgiving celebrations. I'm so excited!

November 23, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 24, 2008

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

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

November 25, 2008

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

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

November 26, 2008

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

November 27, 2008

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

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

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

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

November 28, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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