I hope you weren't holding your breath for this.

December 5, 2008

So, for those of my regular readers, if you remember back to my first blog post, I talked about how music was one of those must haves for my trip to Mongolia. I can’t tell you how nice it’s been to turn my music up and walk around my apartment, doing whatever it is that I might be doing at the moment. Sometimes I’ll get a hankering for a piece of home and it can only be satisfied by some of the music I brought with me. I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but occasionally I’ll buy a new CD from Amazon. One of the benefits of having an account on Amazon is that I get an email every week or so saying that there is new, free music available. I always download it. Usually, it’s something that I’d never listen to otherwise, but there is sometimes something that I like. About 5 months ago, I put approximately ¾ of my songs into one play list. Sometimes I’d listen to just one or two songs per day, and sometimes I would listen to music practically all day. I just finished listening to them the other day. Wow! That’s a lot of music. I feel sorry for my buddy. Some of his students used his iPod and got a virus on it. He lost over 15,000 songs. Man, that sucks. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost all my music. I’ll see him this next week, so I’ll take my music and let him get what he wants. I think a few others will do the same. The lesson here is, be careful when you do anything involving the internet in Mongolia. Viruses here are ubiquitous and brutal.

Today, when I was at the school, Moogie asked if I would cook dinner for her. At first, I was concerned that she didn’t have any money. Her brother has something wrong with his liver, so she’s spending a lot of money on medicine for him. I asked her what happened to his liver and she told me it’s cause his feet got cold. She said the doctor told them that. Have any of you ever heard of anything like this happening? Is it possible to get your liver messed up because your feet are cold? I told her I’d never heard of that. When I asked her why she wanted me to cook, she told me that she just didn’t feel like cooking. She was just being a lazy bum. I told her I wouldn’t, but I had cooked pinto beans and had some extra, so I told her she could come and eat some. When I gave her a bowl full, she sipped some juice, snarled her nose, and said it tasted like mushrooms. I ignored her for a few minutes and when I looked back, she had quit eating altogether. She didn’t like them. I put some of my infamous Ranch dressing in them and told her to try that, and she liked it even less. Oh well. I like them just fine. I guess she either found something of her own when she went home, or went hungry.

December 6, 2008

Last night, I bought eAccelerations Stop Sign virus protection. I had it a few years ago and really like their security. Something wasn’t working right, though, cause I couldn’t get one of the things to turn on. So, the first part of my day was spent in bed, trying to stay warm, and talking to their online help guy. I fooled with it for a few hours and still didn’t get it right. Of course, with the time difference, their day had finished and I couldn’t talk to them anymore.

This afternoon, there was a karaoke thing that was to start at 3 o’ clock. Knowing that it probably wouldn’t start on time, I went there at 3:45. I sat there for over an hour before it finally started at 5 after 5. It turned out to be different groups of workers from town, competing for prizes. I saw about four or five before they started having computer problems. I don’t know why, but Mongolians seem to have trouble with computers in general. I’ve watched one girl right-click something by left-clicking it first, then right-clicking it. I saw the same girl delete a full folder of stuff by clicking and dragging one item at a time. I showed her how to group select things. Today, the guy kept right-clicking on the desktop and hitting refresh. I saw him do that more than 10 times in a row and nothing happened. I watched for about 10 minutes before getting fed up and leaving.

When I came home, I washed dishes and clothes. Have I told you that I have to dry them by finding somewhere to drape them in my living room? It doesn’t take much before I run out of room. Well, the part of this story that I’m writing this for is that I’d washed some sport shorts and the tie-string was pulled out of the waist band. Dang it, man!! When they were dry, I started threading the string through. Have you ever tried to do that? It’s quite tedious. When I got half-way around, I couldn’t get the string to go any more. I had to undo it and start over from the other direction. Now my thumbs are sore. I’ll be sure to tie the string next time I put them in the wash.

Ha, I just thought of a funny story. I’m watching TV and there is an “Eskimo” on there. I put it in quotes cause I know that isn’t the politically correct term for them now, but I don’t know if this guy is Inuit or whatever other ethnicity that are usually grouped under the name “Eskimo.” Anyway, last year, when I was at the annual baseball picnic that my law firm used to do for us, I asked one of the guys where his wife was. I had never met her and wondered why she never came with him to anything. I asked him if he didn’t tell her about them, or was he ashamed of her, or what? He smiled wryly and said, “She’s an Eskimo.” Incredulously, I said, “No way! Like an Inuit?” He said, “No: she’s fat and cold.” I laughed heartily and told him if I ever met her I was going to tell her he said that. I knew he was kidding, but I couldn’t help myself. Well, it was about four months later before I finally met her. Our office building was really big, and I saw him walking away with a woman I’d never met before. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was his wife, so I hurried after them, ready for some mischief. When I caught up to them, I said hi and he introduced me to his wife. I said, “Oh, you don’t look like an Eskimo.” She looked at him, then at me with a puzzled look and said, “Huh?” The guy shot a look over her shoulder full of daggers and vehemently shook his head no. I just laughed hard and said I was just messing with her husband and left him to do the explaining. I don’t know how he got out of that. After he left, he came and found me and told me that he owed me one. Good stuff. I laughed out loud just now when I saw that on the TV and remembered that story. I hope you get a giggle out of it.

December 7, 2008

Today was an easy day of preparing for this coming week. Mostly, that’s consisted of washing a few more things that I’ll want and getting things ready to go in my bag. I’m almost packed. I just have the last minute things. You know, toiletries and such that I’ll use in the morning before I go. Oh, and I washed all the dishes. The last thing I want is to come home tired, after a week of training, and not have any clean dishes. It’s such a hassle to wash dishes here. I have to boil water, take all the dishes out of the sink, put the pot of hot, soapy water in the sink, wash a few dishes at a time, then take the wash water out and rinse the dishes. I only have one sink basin, so it makes things timely. And to cook, it’s not hard to use a sink full of dishes. Such a hassle. Ha, Tsegii hasn’t been here in a while, so I’ve been washing my own dishes. Oh, woe is me!

Tonight, I was talking to my buddy that is way out west, in the Kazakh part of the country. His name is Matt – just like my BFFE back home – and he is one of a few people who are my favourite here. He’s finally decided to write a blog of his own. For your reading pleasure, I put his link on my blog. Enjoy. If you’ve ever heard about the Mongolian/Kazakh Eagle Festival, it happens over there where he is. He’s got pictures of some of the birds. He’ll have them up eventually. In the meantime, write a comment and tell him he’s a ding-dong, and that I told you to do so. He’ll appreciate it as much as I would. He’s got that goofy sense of humour that most of my friends do.

December 8, 2008

I woke up this morning at my regular time for work, but instead of going to the office, I got on the meeker for UB. I thought that my co-worker was coming with me, but as they were waiting on me to get in, I had my other co-worker call her. She had decided that she was going to go later in the day. Um, okay. I found out that she wasn’t going to stay at the same guesthouse with me, also, even though she knew that I’d called and made reservations over two weeks ago. Later, I found out that Mongolians weren’t allowed to stay at the guesthouses. Did she know that already? Why didn’t she or anyone else tell me that? So, when I got into the city, I dropped my bag off and set off on my day’s tasks.

My first stop was the Peace Corps office, where I got a flu shot and a hepatitis A shot. Later in the day, I realised that they made my arm a little sore. As long as they keep me from getting both of those things, I guess I can handle it. From there, I went with some friends and ate lunch at a Korean place. It wasn’t extra good, but it was different, so I really liked it. While eating, they convinced me to stay at the guesthouse where they were, so when we finished, I got my bag from the first place and went to their place. For dinner, a bunch of us met at a Japanese place for one of the guy’s birthday. It was really ritzy, and just a little bit pricey, but well worth it. I had some kind of awesome chicken pasta dish. As you might be wondering, I took pictures of all of it for you to see. Oh, and have I ever mentioned the random porn that shows up in Mongolia? Near the restroom, there was a cartoonish poster displaying a 60-day plan for all different sex positions. I don’t know if it’s still like that, but before, there was a small newspaper that would come to my town called the Morning News – in Mongolian, of course. At first, I didn’t pay attention to it, but while I was sitting there with the social workers as they flipped through it, I saw that there was a naked woman on page five. What!? They didn’t even act like they noticed it. There were two or three editions there, so I flipped through all of them and confirmed that they all had different pictures of naked women on page five. This amazed me. First of all, porn is “officially” illegal in Mongolia. Second of all, this was a newspaper! Sheesh! I don’t think there will be a day when I’m not amazed at something here.

When we left there, we went to a bar that has 1,200tg beer. Now that, my friends, is a steal. I just checked the exchange rate at the bank the other day, and $1 will get you 1,217 tugrogs. That makes the beers $0.986 ~ $0.99. Who doesn’t like cheap draft beer. The brand was Mustanger, a locally made lager. As I’ve said, I’m pretty tired of lagers, but this one was a lot smoother than normal. It was lighter than a full-bodied beer, but heavier than a light-beer. We started out with the full group of 15 from dinner there, then it dwindled down to only nine of us. Oh, and do you remember the French guy I told you about last week? He was with us, along with a really cool Mongolian lady that we’d met last week, also. We were all having a really good time. Then, when I went to the bathroom, a Mongolian told me to go out and wait. Usually, I'd be like I would back home and shoot the guy a dirty look as I busted on in and not worry about the consequences. Being in the Peace Corps, I have to be much more careful about stuff like that. Especially in Mongolia. Have you ever heard about the concept of "machismo" in Latino culture. Well, in Mongolia, they have the same thing. If a male feels threatened in any way, he will buck up and want to fight. It was very hard for me to go out of the bathroom and wait; but I did, with a patient smirk on my face. When he finished talking to the other guy, he pulled me in the bathroom and tried talking to me in English. He was very drunk. I talked to him in Mongolian and he was impressed. Later, he came to my table and pulled me away from my friends. They were watching, so I wasn't too worried, but I was a little. He was even drunker than before, so he was very hard to understand. He kept saying, "I'm sorry. Yesterday. To lunch." I don't know what he was talking about, but I told him to wait a minute, then I got up and went back to my friends. Eventually, he came over there. I finally figured out that he was hitting on me. In Mongolia, being gay is not something to be open about. In fact, most Mongolians will tell you that there are no homosexual Mongolians. As one of my friends put it, he was having some definite conflicts with his sexuality. He started pushing one of my friend's head and I pulled him away. Then, he acted like he was going to push another friend's head, and that friend wasn't quite so nice. When my friend stood up with the meanest look I’ve ever seen, the drunk guy tried to act big. He was only about half the size of my friend. He spoke very little English, but he knew how to throw the middle finger and say the accompanying phrase, though it wasn’t exactly right. The "guard" tried to make him leave, but he came back and started more. We finally decided to leave. My friend that stood up was in the Marines before, so I'm sure you can imagine how hard it was for him to back down. It kind of sucks that we can’t go out and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about something like that.

When we got back to the guesthouse, my friend and I hung out for a few minutes, then an American living in Siberia and two Britons that are traveling came in. I met the American last week (she’s the one I told you that said it was like we were multiplying at the club). The Britons were in their early 20’s, and they were really cool, too. We stayed up a long time talking to them, laughing the whole time. Once, I noticed a sign on the wall that said we weren’t supposed to watch TV after 11:00. I suppose that was so the other guests wouldn’t be disturbed. They didn’t say anything about us hee-hawing like some donkeys out in the common room, though. The Britons and we Americans made fun of each others’ accents and differences in cultures. I’ve already you how the American “Z” sounds like “zed” when coming out of the mouth of a Briton, but did you know they pronounce their “H’s” different, too? Instead of it sounding like “aytch,” it sounds like “haytch.” We were sure to tease them about that. Their best comeback was, “It’s called English because we invented the language. You guys are the ones saying it wrong.”

December 9, 2008

I finally got in the bed at 3:45 last night and woke up at 6:30, wanting to sleep more. After hauling my packed bag about a kilometre to the Peace Corps office and getting on the bus, we arrived at Nukht Hotel. It’s in the mountains, by a forest outside the city, and is really nice. I took several pictures of the area. For the first day, we all expected to have breakfast, so none of us ate. That didn’t happen and we started our first session at 9 and was in and out of different ones all day. The quality and quantity of food is awesome. Before, we would have buffet-style meals. This time, we had three-course meals. We were all surprised. This evening, I hung out with Oko and random people. Surprisingly, this first night, not everyone was out partying. There were still a few, though, and I was sure to find them. I think we’ve figured out that the TEFLers (English teachers) are the partiers of our group. After getting in bed late last night, and getting up early, I’m super tired.

December 10, 2008

What a long day, full of sessions!!! We went straight from one to another, from 9-6:45. Though they were probably as tired as we were, it was good for Mongolians, though. Many of the things were review for all the Volunteers, but most of it was new for the Mongolians. I know it will be good for them to know all this stuff and then take it back to their job.

This evening, a few of us started to walk to the nearby village for cheap alcohol. Everything here at the hotel is pricey. On the way, we met a guy who told us there was no store. Well, shoot. We just went back to the hotel and dug a little deeper in our pockets. I hung out with random groups of Americans and Mongolians, all who were being idiots and having a good time. At one point, another guy and I were the only Americans with a large group of Mongolians. We decided to split a bottle of vodka for the group and pour out the shots Mongolian style, where you go one by one, around the table. We didn’t know any better, so we handed the shot to the lady sitting next to us. Someone across the table spoke up and told us that we were supposed to start with the oldest male. We were embarrassed as we quickly took the shot back and went to the oldest male. We were glad to find out amongst a group of people who knew that we didn’t know any better. Though I got back to my room at a decent time, Evan and I stayed up til past 3, talking. It’s been a long time since we have seen each other, so it was cool.

December 16, 2008

Well, somewhere along the way, I got distracted. I stayed up late every night and was on the move everyday, so I haven’t written regularly. To my regular readers, I’m sorry. I’ve have been told by some that they’ve missed my usual, weekly posting. I’ll try to make up for that here. Maybe I won’t leave anything out. If so, I’m sure I’ll tell the story eventually.

Every day of training was packed. We had just enough time to wake up, eat breakfast, then make it to our first session. We had to hurry, though. If you were late, they made you stand by the wall, took your picture, then made you sing some silly song. There was a good mix of Americans and Mongolians everyday. I made sure that I wasn’t one of them. I would hate to stand in front of everyone and sing. The pictures went on the Wall of Shame so everyone could give them a hard time later. It was a little bit funny. Though it was long and tiresome, I got some good ideas started with Oko. It was hard to get things straight, but with a little help from a translator, we got it done. Oh, and my mom asked why I took someone who couldn’t speak English. Well, cause my boss wasn’t allowed to go, and neither of my counterparts speak English. There were only a handful of Volunteers who had English speaking counterparts. Among them were Tunga and Usukhuu. Tunga lived in the U.S. for 6 years, so about the only thing she didn’t understand was a few slang phrases. I don’t know where Usukhuu learned English, but it’s quite good. Ha, they were a hit for all the guys who nick-named them Apple Bottom Jeans and Boots McGee. You’ll have to email me to find out how those nick-names came about.

We didn’t have a chance to go outside once during the days. That sucked, cause it was really pretty there. We really wanted to sled and have a snowball fight. In the evenings, we found plenty to entertain ourselves with. The last night, we had a talent-show. I skipped the first part of it, cause my CYD buddies were trying to force me to perform, and I had absolutely no interest in that. Instead, I had a meeting with the PC Language Facilitator. I will start working on editing the language book for the next group of Volunteers. It’s something I’ve been interested in since training. After the talent show, we played the “snort game.” Everyone gets in a circle, then one person snorts like a pig at the person to their left or right. That person can return the snort or pass it to the next person. If you are one of the two in the middle of snorting, and you laugh, you are out. It’s very funny. It’s always fun to see who gets out right off the bat and who ends up being the winner. The game went on for so long that one guy almost threw up from snorting so much. Oh my, I laughed so hard. They finally called a truce when it was down to 8 people. After that, we “danced our pants off,” to put it in the words of one of the guys. For some reason, there were only about 4-6 of us in there at any given time. It was fun.

We were glad when IST (In-Service Training) was over and we headed back to the city. I had a wonderful time in UB, staying awake late every night and spending too much money. Friday evening, some of us went to eat at Broadway Pizza. That’s the first time I’ve had pizza since being in Mongolia. One of the guys who has been there before said it was alright, but I thought it was awesome. Especially since they had Tabasco, that I put on everything. Shuree (the cool Mongolian I wrote about last week) met us there. When we finished, the Americans wanted to go back to the guesthouse to drink, but since Mongolians aren’t allowed there, I felt guilty for asking her to join us and then ditching her. So, I went with her to Tse for 1,200tg beer. When we walked in, we were told that all the tables were full and that we could sit at a table with someone else, if we didn’t mind. Of course I didn’t mind. I always enjoy meeting new people. We sat at a table with two Mongolian guys and talked to them for a while, and I promoted the 2nd PC goal of teaching Mongolians about Americans. They asked me all kinds of questions. It was cool. We sat there for a while after they left, then met everyone at Oasis. I think I’ve written this before, but the best part about that place is that PCVs get in for free. The music is pretty good, too. On top of that, it is a definite ego booster for the guys. All the Mongolian chicks there seem to be trying to get a green card. Once, when Shuree went to a bar, the lady behind her started talking to me, smiling really big. Shuree came back for a second to tell me she’d seen her friend and the lady quickly shut up and turned back around. When Shuree went back to the bar, the lady turned back and started talking to me again. She saw Shuree coming back the second time and turned away. When I told my guy friends, they all started laughing. Ah, too bad I can’t put that attention down to my good looks.

Saturday, I had a couple of TEFLer friends coming in on the bus, so I made my way across the city to the station. The previous several days had seen snow and all the people walking on it packed it down into ice. I saw that Mongolians – all except the elderly – love to slide across it. You can almost skate across the whole city. It’s very fun. If you’re not sliding, you can’t take full steps, and you have to watch where you step. Most all the sidewalks are paved, but there are very uneven. Just a few blocks after I’d set out across town, I crossed the street and turned right. As soon as I did, my left leg slipped out from under me and I fell on my butt. Doh!! I was a bit embarrassed as I picked myself up. Of course, no one around me offered to help. I had on my long, thermal underwear, a big, thick fleece shirt, scarf, gloves, and a hat. I really was warm enough. I knew that Mongolians didn’t think so, though. The first guy to say something said, “No coat, friend?” I told him that I was fine and he told me that maybe I would be sick later because I was too cold. I assured him I would be okay as I continued on. Later, I passed at least three other people who muttered “stupid” as they passed me. I just smiled and kept walking. I finally made it to Mendee’s place. I made sure I left with some extra time to spend with him. He’s really cool. Then I met Toy at the bus-station and took her to our guesthouse. It was almost full from all the PCVs there.

That night, everyone continued their usual UB activities. We wanted to go to Oasis, but it was closed for some reason, so we went to Face Club instead. It costs 5,000tg to get in. I hate paying a cover charge. Back in the U.S., I would hardly ever go somewhere that had a cover charge. My friends always gave me a hard time about that. I would go if they wanted me to go bad enough to pay my cover. I feel like the place is making enough money off jacking the prices up on alcohol and food that they shouldn’t have a cover charge, too. But, Face was alright. It was bigger than Oasis and the music was a little different. Also, the Mongolian girls weren’t all over us. Not that we would’ve minded the attention, but we know better. There was a hip-hop group that performed a few songs. Their first song was House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” I knew it instantly. That is the first hip-hop song that I ever heard, so I kind of like it. Their second song was Mariah Carey and Busta Rhymes’ “I Know What You Want.” Though all the words were in Mongolian, I recognised them easily. After those guys finished, they had some silly contests. The first thing they did was to get some people on stage and then send them into the crowd on a scavenger hunt. One girl ran to me and asked for my right boot. After she got that off, she asked me for my other one, cause she’d misunderstood the first time. Later, she came and gave me a gushing thank you for being nice and helping her. The next thing was a dance competition between some girls. One of the PCVs got in on that. After seeing some of her moves, we started questioning just exactly where she’d learned her moves. To put it nicely, they are the kind that you might have to pay for normally. She won second place and a bottle of vodka. Somewhere during all that, I found that I’d lost one of my gloves. I searched all around the area we were sitting and concluded that I must have dropped it outside when I met some people who’d lost their way. I was very happy when I found it out by the road. I took a picture for you and I to commemorate the moment. Afterwards, a couple of us went to Cola and Kabob. I’d known about that place but had never been there before dinner that evening. It was awesome. It might be my new favourite place. Especially since it is open 24 hours.

Sunday, one of the PCVLs (PC Volunteer Leader) had a brunch at his place for all the people who were in town for the holidays. He had a bucket o’ Bloody Mary and people brought food and cooked lots of American food. All of it was delicious. We all had plenty to drink, but he kicked us out before the last of the Bloody Marys were gone. I haven’t had those in years, so I really enjoyed them. When I left there, I met Shuree and we went to her aunt’s for dinner. When I walked in, I saw that boats were on the menu. Yum! How did she know those are my favourite? Shuree’s cousins were there, too. The teenage boy and the 6 year old girl were both cool. They had done some modeling and were in some magazines that I got to look at. After dinner, we drank the two bottles of wine that we’d picked up on the way. Surprisingly, it was okay. I usually don’t like wine. I got a big, silver bowl of milk tea, too. The others had regular cups. When I asked why I got the silver, I was told that it was a great sign of respect for guests to get that. Because of the season, I was also given a fortune telling kit. It’s a small cashmere bag and mat, with four sheep ankle bones and a guide to what they mean. You roll them out, and depending on how they end up, you figure out what you’re fortune is. Shuree was given earrings and a necklace. They were really pretty. When we left, we were going to meet everyone else, but where they were had just closed and they were going to bed early. So, we went across town to a part that I’d never been to before, to Boston club. I had a new beer called Mongol. It was a really nice pub. At first, the place was packed with people having a work Christmas party. Before long, though, we were two of only about six people in there. I took a picture of the neat tables for you.

Monday, after an early meeting, I met Jason at the guesthouse. He had a bottle, so we started drinking vodka around 11:30. It was from an aimag (province) in the west of the country and tasted a lot different than the usual. He and the owner of the guesthouse told me that I need to work on the face I make after I take a shot. I just can’t help it!! For lunch, we met Tuul at Broadway Pizza for lunch and beers. She is the girlfriend of a guy who just finished his PC service. Her English is very good, and she’s very cool. Like Jason said, “She is a ray of sunshine.” She gets our stupid humour and teases us right back. For example, she lives in UB but works in a town about 200 kilometres away. When I asked her why, she said, “Because it is a part of Mongolia, too. When we left there, we went to the Grand Khan Irish Pub for more beers and Nachos that were made with cheese flavoured Doritos. While there, Tuul looked around and saw her favourite Mongolian actor. She is a little bit shy, so I got a piece of paper, gave her my pen, and we practically pushed her over to talk to him and ask for his autograph. She found out that the other two guys with him were a famous director and a famous poet. I was sure to take her picture with them.

This morning, I woke up and went to the Peace Corps office and had the last shower of a week’s worth of awesome ones. I will really miss that. My boss has told me several times since living here that she would get mine taken care of, but that is yet to happen. Maybe one sunny day, as the Mongolians say. Just to help me out, Shuree went with me in the cab to the meeker station. On the way, right before we got there, she heard on the radio that the place was closed for their “holiday.” Apparently, that’s an every Tuesday thing. The cabbie said that he just thought we were going somewhere near there and that’s why he didn’t say anything. He pulled over while we called my boss and the meeker drivers to find out where they were. I waited in the meeker for about an hour before we finally left. I took a few short naps on the way home and have had a hard time staying awake this evening.

I talked to my buddy Evan and he told me his everything froze. He lives in a wooden house, where there is no heat except what he makes in the fire place. One of his bottles of hot sauce busted and got on everything in the immediate area. I didn’t ask, but since it was frozen, maybe it was easier to clean. A couple days later, he was using his brand new space heater and extension cord with internal breakers. Apparently, the heater was too much for the 220V and it caught on fire. He said that he didn’t lose anything, but now his place smells like smoke and has fire extinguisher dust everywhere. Have you ever sprayed one of those? Once in university, when I lived in the dorms, one of my so-called buddies sprayed one under my door, into my room. It was a short burst, but it covered absolutely everything. When I left, a couple years later, there were still corners that had the dust in it. I still owe him for that. Ryan, if you’re reading this, I’m going to get you back one day. You just wait. I’ll get you!

I have a few special shout-outs. First is to Elaine, for water. I meant to do this after the Thanksgiving weekend – and maybe I did – but I forgot. I was really thirsty, didn’t want beer, and had run out of tugrogs. She bought me a water and said, “Everyone deserves water.” Thanks Elaine. Second is to Nathan’s dad, for beer. Nathan went for beers with us guys one night while his wife went to dinner with the girls. They had originally decided that they would use the credit card for his wife’s dinner, but that place didn’t take cards. So, he paid for our beers, saying it was on his dad. Thanks Nathan’s dad. Third is to Julia’s mom, for Q-tips that I’ll get eventually. Julia told me that she reads my blog regularly and when she sent Julia a package, she put something in there for me. Sweet!!! Thanks Julia’s mom. I’ll be doing something at work soon. Last, and not least, is to Alex’s mom, who reads my blog and tells her what I’m up to. Just want to say hi.

December 17, 2008

Today was my day to go to the other part of town and work with the social workers. When I got there, they were still working on the population statistics that they were working on two weeks ago. To get the day started, some random guy came in the office and started saying something. He argued with one lady first, then the social worker and he started really going at it. All I got out of the whole thing was something about Saturday. After about five minutes of escalating volumes, she stomped out of the room crying. I was the only one who just stared, wide-eyed. Everyone else went about their counting like there wasn’t a huge argument going on over their heads. Crazy. Other than that, it was a slow day where I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I worked on my own thing, figuring out an “action plan” for the life-skills lessons that I’ll start next month. I’ll talk more about them then. I also went to the school to talk to the English teacher. The one that used to be there is the lady who married the PCV that was here before me. When she left a few weeks ago, the one that works in my part of town started going over there on Wednesday s. I was just bored and wanted to alleviate that somehow. When I got there, I found out that there was a new English teacher, so I met her. She just graduated university in the spring, so she’s fairly young. Her English is a bit shaky, and she’s a little shy – like most Mongolians – but I think she’ll be alright. When I thought I was going to go home, I was taken to watch a children’s Christmas play. The kids were cute. Did you know that they combine Christmas and New Years here? I didn’t. I found out a few days ago, so I don’t know their reason for it.

When I got back here, I made a quick trip to the store before coming home. Right as I was about to walk into my building, I said hi to a guy that walked passed me. He didn’t say anything until he was several steps past. He is the assistant to the fire chief and was pretty drunk. He started asking me if I wanted to drink with him and I told him I didn’t have any beer or money, thinking that would be enough to get him to leave me alone. He showed me that he had beer, so he came to my place and gave me one. It turns out that he was way worse than I’d first judged. Once, he went into my kitchen and grabbed a pot of water that I had sitting on the table, sloshing it on him and the floor. I told him to be careful, but he thought I was just saying that cause he spilled the water. He didn’t realise that I had that pot soaking with vinegar water, to get rid of tea stains. He took a big ol’ gulp and sat it down before he knew what it was. Boy, you should’ve seen the look on his face. It was a little funny. I was talking to one of my Mongolian friends on the internet and I finally asked them to call me and talk to him with the hopes that he would leave. It was another 15 minutes before he did. Yanaaaah!!! That basically means shoot, dang, shucks, or whatever other kid friendly swear word you can think of. Whenever I say it, people always giggle at me. I thought it was just cause I said it funny, since I did act like an idiot when I said it. Come to find out, that is what women say. Tuul was the one to tell me about it. I know a few not at all nice words to say, but she didn’t suggest those, either. She just told me to not say it like a woman. Now how in the heck am I supposed to do that?

I added another blog to mine, if you’re interested. It is by a married couple that is in the group that came before mine. I just thought you might like a different perspective on the life of a PCV in Mongolia.

December 18, 2008

I met with Densmaa, my boss, today. I gave her a quick telling of what we did during IST, then we went over my plan to begin life-skills lessons for peer-educators. First, we’ll have to meet with the school social worker to find respected, motivated 10th and 11th graders; then we’ll prepare the lessons and teach it to the students; we’ll have a big break for practically the whole month of February; we’ll have a refresher course for the students; then we’ll have them give the same lessons to their peers and report back to us on what works and what doesn’t. After we get that down and make sure it’s working, I’ll add a different lesson to their repertoire. Life-skills are things like critical thinking, decision making, relationship communication, and the like. I will also teach these same things to the social workers so they can do these same trainings later. Then, when all the students advance a grade, or graduate, we will start over with new ones. I’ll let you know how it goes.

As soon as the meeting finished, I went to a kindergarten Christmas play. Have I told you that kindergartens here are really pre-schools? They have classes for ages from kids aged six months to five years. The play was supposed to start at 10. I was on my way out of the office at 10:45, worried that I’d missed it. What was I thinking? When I got there, it was still another 30 minutes before they got started. I think (hope) that I’ll never get used to Mongolian time. The kids were all dressed in animal and angel costumes. There was a Mongolian Santa Claus, too. I think the kids were three and four years old. Some of them were crying and all of them were herded from and to their places with the help of the teachers and all the parents. I laughed out loud several times. I couldn’t imagine something like that ever happening in the U.S. Parents would stand up and block everyone’s view so they could get that optimal shot of their kid and no one seemed to mind. At the end, Santa gave out big bags of candy and snacks to all the kids, who immediately opened them and started chowing down.

And that was about it for my day. I spent most of the rest of my day writing some of the above. I’ve added at least five pages worth. You will have to set aside a large chunk of time if you want to read it all at once. In the afternoon, Densmaa called me to her office. When I got there, she told me that the PO had called and said I had mail. Why didn’t she just tell me that when she called me? When I got to the PO, there was a big package from MCG, my old work place!! I wasn’t expecting it and was very surprised. I immediately brought it home and ripped it open. It was a paper box full of all kinds of stuff. As I was going through it, there was a plastic container of cotton candy that had broken. That was my excuse to eat most of it all at once. The nutrition facts say that there are about two servings in there. I made it into about one. There was a card, duct tape, men’s magazines, Cheetos, Pez, wasabi peanuts, Ghirardelli chocolates, macaroni and cheese, dry milk, fruit snacks, snakc bars, peppermint patties, Jelly Belly jelly beans, Peeps, gum, individual drink mix, extra-crunchy peanut butter, and microwave meals. Did you know that I have a Pez collection? I don’t know how many I have, but I have a big bag of them back in the U.S. And Peeps might be another of my preferred candies. I’ll never forget getting those for Easter. My mom always made sure there were some in my Easter basket when I was a kiddo. Ha, the microwavable meals were frozen. I know they weren’t like that when they were bought, but they were when I opened the box. What does that tell you about how cold Mongolia is? I was sure to write MCG and tell them all how much I appreciated them as I ate some of the stuff for my dinner.

This evening, I watched American Gangster. Have you seen that movie? It’s about three hours long and very good. It is one of the many movies and TV shows that I got from Evan this last week. They should give me plenty of entertainment for at least a few weeks.

December 19, 2008

Well, I’m trying to upload some pictures for you, but the stupid thing doesn’t work like it used to anymore. I don’t know what the problem is with leaving something half-way like it was in the first place so the user can easily figure out the new things. I hate it when websites change their whole everything and don’t give good directions on what they did and how to work with it. I have over 200 photos from the last couple of weeks for you, but it might be a little while longer before you get to see them. I’ll let you know when I figure it out. There is a super slow way to do it that I might try.

I woke up later than normal this morning and didn’t go into my office until about 11 o’ clock. I was told that Friday’s are my free day, so I’ve been taking that quite literally lately. At work, I just typed up something that I had written out that I needed to write in Mongolian, then I went to lunch at the guanz (diner). Just as I was walking in, three guys from my office building got there. They are about my age and are pretty cool. They like to give me a hard time. If you know me, I like that kind of thing. They always speak Mongolian and whenever I say something in Mongolian, they always “repeat” what I said, but say a different word that sounds very similar. There are a lot of words like that, so they have plenty of chances. I mess with them in English, but there is no one else there to laugh with me, so it doesn’t work as well. I don’t have someone there to slap me on the back when I say something particularly funny, like they do. All’s good. I still find ways to mess with them. I rode in the car with them back to the office. The guy sitting next to me said something about wrestling with him. When I asked him when, he smiled and said right then. I jumped on top of him in the back seat and started pummeling him. He barely held me off as he caught a case of the giggles. Ah, good stuff.

About two weeks ago, I had tried to redo the music on my mp3 player. When I plugged it into my computer, it wasn’t recognised. Dang it! I looked everywhere and couldn’t find the installation disc, so I asked my mom to look for it. I had her looking all over the place for it and she couldn’t find it either. It wasn’t that big of a deal yet, so I kind of forgot about it. Wouldn’t you know it, I was moving some things around today and found it where it shouldn’t have been. Doesn’t it always happen like that? Okay, never mind. The disc drawer keeps spitting the CD back at me. Maybe I’ll figure this out one day.

I hope this takes care of you blog fix. Take care. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!