What happened to March? I was reading a news article on CNN that was dated March 17, 2011 and I thought, "they have a typo, because it hasn't gotten to March 17, 2011 yet". Then I looked at the date on my watch and it said April 4th. I just can't believe it.
This past school break was the best school break by far. I was so good at keeping busy. Even though it was a school break I went to school everyday the 1st week (it was a 2 week break) and worked about 7 hours a day on a school project. It felt good to keep busy. The 2nd week of the break we had our PCV friends come visit us in our ger. I don't know why they spent the time and money and awful van rides to come to our small Gobi town (I guess they like us or something.)-- but I made sure they had good food and good times (I hope they think so, too).
One of the nights we invited a Mongolian fortune teller into our ger. She used beads to tell us our fortunes. After our fortunes had been read we were able to ask her questions--Here it is, a once in a lifetime opportunity to ask a Mongolian fortune teller any question I want and my mind goes completely blank. I asked the stupid unoriginal questions like, "when am I going to die?", "how am I going to die?", "who will die first, me or Justin?", then I asked, "will my daughters be as cute as yours?". She had brought her little 3 year old daughter with her. She was adorable! So, here's my fortune:
She told me I was a very emotional person, that I have many moods. Also said that I am stubborn when it comes to decision making. She said I will live a good and happy life. I will be healthy all of my life. In three years she said I will have my first child, a girl. Then after that I will have boy, then another girl. She said I'll live to be 85 and Justin will live to be 83, and that I'll die peacefully and naturally. When I asked her if my daughters will be as cute as hers she answered, "cuter". :) Justin wasn't interested in getting his fortune read, but the fortune teller did say to me that she knows he is an exceptionally good husband, he works hard and has a strong mind.
On a different day, we took a walk outside of town to an old Mongolian cemetery. I don't know how many graves there were, maybe 50? Maybe more. Not all of the graves were marked. But there were some graves with impressive headstones. One grave had even been dug up and had been opened. The bones still remained. Kinda spooky.
On a lighter note, the day was a beautiful day and there was a flock of sheep and goats roaming around. It was neat to see a herder close by tending to their flock.
Here are some pictures of my town, Mandalgovi:
This is of a woman cleaning out her stove pipe. She is putting rocks and sand in the pipe and will roll it on the ground to clean out all the soot. Justin has done this to our stove just recently.
This is a picture of someone's hashaa door (the door to enter their proptery/their yard) and it has "nohoi toi" which literally translates as "dog with" or what we read it as "beware of dog".
Finally, this is a picture of Justin and our friend Rob, who lives even further into the Gobi. You can read more about his Mongolian adventures here. This is what a regular neighborhood looks like (motorcycle and all).
Now, to update from my last post. The biscotti was amazing! Everyone who ever craves biscotti because there isn't such a thing available for them to buy-- or you want to save money-- or you just want to think you're the best baker in the world has GOT to use this recipe. You can change all the fillings with what you desire, but it's just fine as it is. I used walnuts, chocolate chunks, orange zest and pomegranate craisins as my filler this time. Next time I hope to find pistachios. Mmm!
First we had to get crackin' walnuts:
And last, but definitely not least. I made Sticky Toffee Pudding. Yep. I nailed it. Here is the recipe that I used: Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake. I was really scared that it was going to turn out as a 'cake' like the name suggests, but nope, it was a bread pudding type 'cake'. Loved it! And so did Rob. :)
1 comment:
I'm sure your friends enjoyed their visit to you tremendously and I imagined they were amazed at your culinary talents ! Love your stories and your pics, love YOU !
Post a Comment