I saw a CAT!!!...but no, not that kind :(

I just put a batch of vegan brownies (not because I'm vegan... I just don't have eggs or milk on me at the moment...but these brownies turn out just as marvelous as non-vegan ones) in the oven and thought I'd take some time to myself and breathe for a minute...which reminded me that I haven't blogged in a long time. So I'll blog while the brownies bake. I have 23 1/2 mins.

We're on school break right now. We've been off all week and we will either go back on Monday, April 4th or Wednesday, April 6th (I've heard different dates, so I'll play it by hear). I have a tendency to mope around and pull my hair out when I get dreadfully bored so I made a plan to stay busy this entire school break-- and I am doing well accomplishing this goal. I've gone to school everyday to tutor teachers and students. Besides that I've given myself some large projects to work on at home. One is boring (school related), but the other is planning our vacation time for this summer. This is no easy thing. We're planning a money budget and time budget and China is very anal about who comes in their country, how they come in and when they leave. So getting a Visa is on the agenda, but mostly I've been researching just how to do this while I'm in Mongolia. I've heard of a lot of people doing this so I know it's possible, but where'd they leave the instructions!? By searching on the internet, I've found a lot of my answers, but time will tell if I've gotten all this right. I'll keep you updated on this vacation process.

I looked on Weather.com 10 days ago and today (according to the 10 day forecast 10 days ago) was supposed to be in the 50's...this would have been the 1st time we'd hit 50 degrees. Now it is still freezing outside and no, not in the 50's. But the 10 day forecast forecasts that we will get in the 50's 10 days from now! I feel like Weather.com is playing games with me...shaking that carrot too far for me to reach. *sigh.

I went to the shower house for the 1st time since November (that tells you how much warmer it's gotten...all through winter I practically hibernated). I took some pictures on our 10 minute walk to the shower house.

Here is our hashaa. Our hashaa parent's house is with the green roof. You can barely see our ger roof to the left of their house.

We walk through a gas station on our way to the shower house. What we saw at the gas station surprised us. First of all, I've never seen a machine so big. Second, I NEVER expected that to be here in Mongolia. Justin says it's for the coal mining going on. They were HUGE!(PS. this was the 'cat' I was talking about...I still have yet to see a real kitty in our town. Makes me sad.)

This is inside our shower house.

Justin waiting impatiently for a shower. (We got there at 11:05-- it opens at 11-- but all the showers were already taken.)

This was inside my shower.

There. Now you know the intimates of my life.

Oh! The brownies are done.