The end.

This is it. This is the end of our Mongolian life. We've been back in the states for almost 2 months and time has flown.  People have said that when they return home the Mongolian adventure seems like a dream-- well for weeks and weeks after our return it was still very real. In fact, it still is very much real to me. It happened. It wasn't a dream.

So what have I been doing since I've been back? Well, I've gone to a few doctor's appointments: for the baby and for my lingering eye problems. The baby is doing well at 14 weeks and 5 days. It's the size of an orange! My baby belly is starting to show itself. More on Baby later. We've eaten everything we could get our hands on going to restaurant to restaurant, and having home cooked meals with friends and family. We've put oh, about 4,000 miles on my car going from South Dakota to Texas, to Virginia, back to Texas, then up and down and all around Texas. It's great to have this independence! We've applied for jobs as teachers all around the area. It's tough trying to find an open position in the middle of a semester. We hope our luck will grow starting in the second semester. And finally, I won't say this is the best part, but it's a part that made me feel most complete: Annie.

This is the abandoned kitty we found in the negative degree cold living under people's warm cars in the parking lot of our apartment in Idaho over 5 years ago. We nursed her back to health and she's been a part of the Newberry family since (in fact, she's sleeping in my lap as I type this). I was scared she wouldn't remember me when we returned home. But she was ecstatic and we fell right back into our old routines and friendship.

Okay, okay-- onto the baby. As I said, I'm 14 weeks and just started my 2nd trimester. We're both healthy and doing fine-- though the first trimester kept me grumpy, sick, nauseated and achy. Not fun. Sadly it started while we were in Mongolia, so I feel like I left Mongolia on a bad note. The smells were making me nauseous, the food was intolerable, and I just desperately wanted a warm bath. I had the munchies, but  munchies and Mongolia do not go together. Living in a village where only the essentials are available, you need to make all your meals from scratch-- there is no instant snack. And I was hurting for some pickles! So being on an empty stomach made my nausea worse (little did I know then). Also getting up to pee about 5 times a night is not ideal in the colder months, when you don't have a toilet to go to, or any plumbing/running water. I am in utter amazement when I think of the Mongolian women and them going through their pregnancies without modern conveniences.

Now that my nausea has subsided a little, I can now freely think of Mongolia and not get sick (I know that sounds horrible, but that was my last association with it). I look at the pictures and see all that we did while we there, the friends that we made and the memories that we will never forget. It was a time of our lives. And we left it to begin yet another adventure.

So, I say goodbye to Life as a Newberry: Mongolia.

And hello to Life as a Newberry: Parenthood!

Running with the Camels

While driving hours through the desert I wondered what these HUGE marks were, up close they are camel tracks. Not a place wasn't touched.

What an adventure of a weekend this past weekend was! Justin and I had been planning to run in the Gobi Marathon (half & 10k races) for several months now and last weekend was the much anticipated date. It wasn't just play though-- we worked our way down there and rewarded ourselves with the Gobi run (rewarded?).

It all started early Thursday morning. We made our last meal in the ger, packed all of our things and were out the door by 12:30pm on our way to the gas station. Why are we going to the gas station? Well, there isn't direct transportation to Dalanzagad (Southern Gobi Province Capital) so we basically had to hitch-hike a ride. We knew that the bus coming from UB to Dalanzagad was due at that gas station at around 2pm (but you're never sure of a time in Mongolia, so it's best to give  a few hours of leeway). So we sat and waited. And waited. And 4:30 comes around and no bus. Several other buses and cars had passed by, but none were going to Dalanzagad. We finally asked someone when the UB bus was coming and they told us it wasn't going to come. We were pretty upset we were sitting in 40 degree weather for hours. We were also a little nervous because we HAD to get down to Dalazagad. We were teaching at a Teacher's Seminar and needed a day of preparation. We called our teachers and other friends to ask them how we could get to Dalanzagad since the UB bus never came. No one knew. There isn't a lot of transportation between provinces here in Mongolia. Finally, someone let us know that another bus from UB should be arriving in Mandalgovi to get gas at around 10pm.

At 10pm we went back to the gas station and waited. And waited. This time the temperature is below freezing.

And the bus came! It came around 11:30pm. We ran up to the bus driver and asked if we could hitch a ride. He said, 'no'.

There is no way we were about to take a 'no'. He said he didn't have any seats available. We told him we needed to get to Dalazagad and that we'd sit in the aisle. He looked at us crazy, but said it was alright. So Justin asked how much it was and they guy said we didn't have to pay-- we're that crazy. So we got in and sat on our bags in the aisle of a bus for 6 hours. It was a really bumpy ride. That driver seemed to be hitting the hardest bumps and dips on purpose causing people to fly in the air (but I know that's just how the path is). We finally got to Dalazagad at 6am on Friday morning.

We arrived at a friend's apartment and slept for a few hours before getting to work on the seminar that we'd be presenting the next morning. Dalanzagad is notorious for power outages. They are unpredictable and only give the residents a few hours of electricity everyday. So we worked during the day and ate dinner by candlelight.

The seminar was a hit! I am so amazed at how well it went. There were about 20 participants who came from the Dalanzagad and other small villages (soums) around the province. We did work hard for it and I felt so satisfied. We did good work, the teachers learned a lot and wanted more. I'm in the processes of getting pictures of the seminar. I'll post those pictures soon.

Now, we worked hard for this-- but the time had finally come. The next day (Sunday) was the big race. We drove about 3 hours northeast of DZ and saw some spectacular views. The Gobi Marathon was taking place at the Flaming Cliffs. It was beautiful to drive! It was absolutely tough to run though. Think: SAND and hills.

There are more pictures to come. This was definitely a weekend I'll always remember. We hung out with our friends (Clifton, Joe, Rob & Ben), we prepared and presented an awesome seminar, we ran a race in the GOBI! and we traveled far too long. We work hard and play hard here in Mongolia.

A visit to the Gobi Desert-- Camels!

Ashlee & Scott Burt came to visit us down here in the Gobi for a few days. They have been here a year longer than we have and will be going back to America in about a month (Congrats to you!). They came down here for the Gobi experience. It was fun to have them here and be able to show them a little bit around the Gobi.

I told my teachers at school that some friends were coming down and wanted to see camels. Once I said that teacher after teacher came up to me 'My family lives only 30 kilometers away', 'My family lives int he countryside with many camels', 'My mother milks camels about 45 kilometers away', etc. I loved how eager they all were to help me. So, we piled in Erkham's (our hashaa father) car and set off to somewhere uncertain in the Gobi. We had two little girls with us 'leading the way' (as much as they could lead the way, there are no roads and herders are nomads moving a lot in the warmer months). We somehow got to where we wanted to go and got to see baby camels, big camels, baby goats, goats, and a weird sheep that just stared at us from the distance. I don't know what his problem was. I think we concluded that he was a retarded sheep-- because he did not move a muscle the whole time we were there. I found it amazing so I took a picture. But it was deleted on accident. Anyway, We were welcomed by an excited Emee (grandmother) with milk tea galore, some bortsik (fried dough) and some oodom (milk fat). I wish, now, that I would have gotten a picture with her.

Just stopping in the middle of nowhere: