Pizzas and fajitas! I never get enough.

April 9, 2009

I had another first this morning. When I was brushing my teeth, my toothbrush broke. WTF?! I didn’t think that I was putting that much pressure on it, but I guess I was wrong. It snapped right in two. That’s what I get for using cheap products, huh? Good thing I have a backup.

April 10, 2009

Today, people from the Peace Corps were in my town to get ready for Pre-Service Training (PST). They were at the school all day, looking at resumes and interviewing potential Mongolian teachers. When they left this afternoon, I got a free ride to UB. It was probably the most comfortable ride I’ve had since being in Mongolia. It was a nice Landcruiser and, counting the driver, there were only four of us. During the ride, I explained what Easter is all about, and what an Easter egg hunt is like.

I’m staying with Mendee this weekend. His wife is gone to Japan until next week, so we’ve stay up late and had lots of guy talk. As always, I can tell that he misses it as much as I do.

April 11, 2009

Surprisingly, I woke up early this morning. I hung out with Mendee for a while, and then went to eat Korean with Shuree. Have I mentioned that I’d never had Korean – other than kimchi – before I came to Mongolia? It’s so good. The place we went to today was quite cheap. The two of us got stuffed for 7,000tg. After that, I had my Mongolian lesson. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have a teacher. I’ve learned more in the short time I have with her than I have in the last several months. And the best part is that I’ve already been putting it to use.

This evening, I met Eegii. She is a journalist at TV5 that I met through another friend. After sitting and chatting at a café, we went to watch “My Evil Neighbour” at the theatre. It’s a new Mongolian movie, and though I didn’t understand everything, it was very funny. One of the guys is always saying the equivalent of “Right?” and it’s an instant catchphrase. It’s something that most Mongolians don’t say that much, so it definitely gets attention. Mongolians looked at me funny when I said it to them this evening, until I explained it was from the movie.

Tonight, I went to Ivory Club. As always, I walked there and it ended up being much further than I’d expected. Even worse, it was in a part of town that I’ve never been to. The place is a really nice Japanese restaurant/club. A PCV named Kevin played his guitar and sang and Brian DJ’d old American rock songs. There were a lot of Westerners there, but there were still more Mongolians. They seemed to enjoy the music as much as we did.

After walking everyone to their respective guesthouses, I went to Mendee’s. He knew I was going to be out late, so I wasn’t too worried about it as I knocked on the door. Then I knocked again. Then again and again. I started getting worried. After about 10 minutes, I figured that no one was going to wake up, so I went to the Peace Corps office. I finally got to sleep around 4.

April 12, 2009

After only four hours of sleep, I woke up early and went to Mendee’s. He felt bad about not answering the door last night, but I told him to not worry about it. When I left for my Mongolian lesson, I stopped at the store to buy more cheese for pizzas. That stuff is expensive at 5,000 for a small block. I did pretty good at my lesson, though I was tired. At the end, my head was fuzzy and I was starting to make a few silly mistakes. She knew I was tired, so she was patient. I ate “boats” at the meeker stand. I never have any catsup, or any other condiment, but they are good. And cheap, too. I forgot to write that I ate boats yesterday. The only place I could find that had them sold them for 400 each. Usually, they are only 250 each. At the meeker stand, I got 10 for 2,500; and they come with a bit of slaw. They are always enough to fill me up for the rest of the day.

One of my friends was supposed to go to Thailand for vacation in a few days. Well, the riots there spoiled that for her. That stinks. I wish Thailand could get their act together, for their own sake. With 18 or so coups in the last few decades, life has got to be crazy there. I hope they figure it out soon.

April 13, 2009

Today, I was standing outside the government building, waiting for something to start, when one of the guys grabbed me and told me to come with him. As usual, I had no idea what he had in mind, but I followed. We went into a hall where we had a meal for everyone from the family of a guy that died last week. I still haven’t figured out what that’s all about, but I sure appreciate it. We sat down at a table full of food and candy and were immediately served milk-tea. Next, we were given big bowls of soup. When we left, we were given a gift bag. In mine, there was hand soap, tea, incense, and matches. As I’d learned before, I took out one of the matches, struck it, and let it burn til it went out. This time, it didn’t take long for it to go out. When I struck the match, the head broke off and fell into the palm of my hand. Youch!!!!

When I left there, I went back outside to where I was in the first place. There was some kind of education celebration going on. The governor, my boss, and someone else got up to give a speech that no one seemed interested in; then groups of kids danced, sang, and recited poetry. The wind was blowing very hard and was whipping up all kinds of dirt. Right at the very end, when I was getting ready to go inside, a piece of dirt that felt the size of a small car blew into my eye. It took me forever to get it out.

Since the wind was way too strong to do any footbagging, I ran to the military base and back for today’s exercise. I really miss being able to run on a regular basis. On the way there, the wind was at my back, pushing me to go faster and faster. On the way back, it was all I could do to maintain a jog, partly cause I’m out of shape and partly cause the wind was so strong. You should’ve seen some of the looks I got when I ran back into town. Mongolians don’t run for fun, so they think it’s weird that anyone else might. When I got home, my face was muddy from dirt mixed with sweat. I guess that was the impetus for a few of the funny looks. Haha.

It was more pizza for dinner! Yum! I’m so glad that it is so easy to make.

April 14, 2009

This morning, I was awakened by some crazy noise. At first, I thought it was a rain storm and was glad: I don’t have any way to get to work without being soaked, so I’d planned to stay in the bed. After a while, I realised it wasn’t rain. When I went into the kitchen to see what it was, I found out it was my fridge. It was making noises like it was about to blow up any second. I figured there was nothing I could do about it, so I just got ready and went to work. It had quit making noise by the time I got home.

This afternoon, the university students that are here for their internship did a thing for the kids called You Are the Future. As always, I hardly understood anything. It lasted about two hours and I just sat there, looking like a tar-tar. At the end, Densmaa wanted me to say something, but I told her I had no idea what was going on, so I wasn’t going to. I’m getting to where I kind of dislike being on display, just cause I’m the American. It might be different if they actually asked my opinion every once in a while.

This evening, Ambaa didn’t show up. That was okay with me. Instead, Tsegmid and Manibazar came. They are the building worker and military commander, respectively. They are pretty cool guys. I was just finishing some lima beans, so we ate those with the beer they brought. Afterwards, we watched a movie. This time, Tsegmid stayed awake through the whole thing.

April 15, 2009

I finally finished the letter to the kids that I write to in the U.S. Several of them had mentioned how long my previous letters were, and that I should write a book, so I kept this one short. I hope they enjoy it just as much.

I invited the university students to my place for dinner this evening. They showed up right on time with a bottle of Coke. That was good, because I never have anything to drink but water. They came right as I was finishing cooking and one of them enjoyed helping me roll the tortillas. Mongolians are always surprised at the dough, since it is much softer than normal Mongolian dough. Also, they are taken aback when I don’t put oil into the skillet. They all enjoyed the fajitas. I really like the social aspect of it, with everyone reaching across each other to get something else to put into their tortillas, then fighting to keep it from breaking apart as they eat, giggling the whole time, watching everyone else to make sure you or they are doing it right. When I asked them which movie they wanted to see, one of the girls was adamant about watching Harry Potter. I think she’s in love with him or something. We were sure to tease her about it. We laughed a lot and joked about the movie I watched last weekend. They’ve seen also, but it still took them a minute to realise that I was messing with them. Since their Mongolian is a million times better than mine, they soon turned the tables on me. I didn’t mind. It was pretty funny.

April 16, 2009

Since I don’t get to take care of my chores on the weekends now, I spent time today doing them. After washing all of last night’s dishes, I did some laundry. I still haven’t taken the winterisation stuff from my windows and balcony doors, so my clothes are spread throughout my living room to dry. I think I’ll be able to open them soon, so that’ll be nice. It will dry my clothes faster, too. I’ll just have to watch for any dust storms that might happen. It would suck to wash them and then submit them to that.

I hope you are good. Write when you can.