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October 31, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 1, 2008

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

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

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

November 3, 2008

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

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

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

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

November 4, 2008

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

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

November 5, 2008

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

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

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

November 6, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 7, 2008

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

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