Window Seals

...Something I will never take for granted ever again. Last night while Justin and I were walking home from our weekly English speaking practice night at a cafe (we call it 'Monglish' where anyone in the community can meet all of us PCVs for dinner or drinks and practice their English speaking skills informally--and make friends!), it was dark and chilly. We passed by an apartment building.

When I'm cold and outside at night--could be walking, or driving-- I like to see lights coming out of windows into the darkness and imagine a comfy warmness inside of it. I was doing this exact thing while passing by this apartment window last night. The curtains were shut, but light was protruding to the outside darkness and on the window seal were trinkets: vase, picture frame, small figurines.

It hit me kind of hard. It's something I don't have and miss having. Never again will I see a window seal as just a window seal. When I'm lucky enough to own a window seal I will use it to its full ability. It's so useful. I don't have shelves in my ger, no where to just set things and no windows and hardly any sunlight. I will make sure my dream home has window seals and sunlight to the max! I'm making quite a list of requirement for my dream home. I hope it's not too much to ask.

1st Day of School for the 2nd time

The opening ceremony. All 1,600 students come to the outside assembly.

The governor of Mandalgovi came to speak.

After the assembly all the students come inside to hear the President of Mongolia give a lesson on the 1st day of School (on the TV).

I feel like the 1st day of School was the beginning of the end. This is it. One. Last. School. Year. So, what are we going to do about it? Work. Play. Make memories. I have to say, going into it (days before the 1st day of school) I was at a low point. Coming back to a ger after the amazing life you can live in an apartment-- in addition to the condition our ger was in when we returned home to it, I was uneasy about doing this again. The uneasiness didn't last for long though-- something clicked and I had a change in gears. We make life as enjoyable or difficult as we want it to be. And I've made a decision that my life will be a good but challenging one!

It's so good to be back in my own kitchen. Or I guess I should say, it's so good to be able to use my own kitchen utensils and appliances again! I brought back an item from UB that will change my life here in Mandalgovi:

Meet Mr. I'm-going-to-make-your-life-so-awesome-this-year Blender.

Already I've found Cherry Compote and made it into a cherry pie filling. Made probably the best pie crust ever--using my blender (pie crust was my thing back in the states...I can't imagine it getting much better, but it did--oh so flaky with just the right amount of buttery and sweetness to it!).

I've been wanting a smoothie for a while, but ice is a very foreign concept to Mandalgovians. "Why would you want to drink something cold? And if you want it cold why don't you just put it outside?" So ice trays are not available, BUT bananas ARE readily available right now and awesome when frozen. So, next I found some Strawberry Compote and...BAM!



Strawberry & Banana Smoothie



Now if only bananas weren't $2 a pop I'd be doing this daily. Next on my list: Peanut Butter.

Right now it feels like we're living the dream life. We have so many American sitemates here to talk to and hang out with, we've received great packages this summer with amazing food, and it's still warm out so we're not constantly slaving over the stove/bagging coal/cleaning up coal dust, dung dust or dealing with frozen things. Life feels relatively easy. I mean, there are still ger chores that must happen (taking out the dirty water, getting clean water, sweeping up the sand that finds its way through the sides of the ger, etc.) but NOTHING compared to winter ger chores.

The warm weather has been messing with my mind though. It doesn't feel right to be here and not be cold. The other night (about 9:30) I was reading in bed when I had an urge to go to the bathroom. I could hear the wind blowing and my mind went to winter mode and started thinking 'you can hold it in for a while longer--maybe even through the rest of the night'--prolonging the long cold walk to the outhouse. Finally I couldn't hold it anymore and got up and prepped myself to go outdoors. I opened the ger door with my eyes squinting, ready...and....warmth. It was warm. It made me happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I am warm. Sad that it won't last for much longer. (And yes, I hold it in as looooong as possible in the winter-- there is no going to the outhouse if you 'think' you need to go...you only go when you HAVE to go.)

This is a beautiful site to me:



The fact that our ping (the little shed/entryway they put up in front of our ger to protect from wind getting in through the front door and also serve as storage for our fuel) is not up-- they only put it up during the winter season and remove it once it's warm. The fact that you can see the sun shining through the door. The fact that the the door is slightly open (and it's okay, because it's warm!). It's a beautiful site, for sure.

BTW, for those interested:

Goodbye Summer. I will miss you.



Flowers Justin picked for me on our 1st day in our apartment this summer.

 Summer has come and gone. Where did it go? I don’t even remember being warm anymore. There is a part of me that is excited for fall to return: apple pies, the taste of cinnamon, waking up for that hot cup of spiced anything, scarves (for style, not as a survival accessory, like during winter), and making fires for fun. But I just don't want to let go of the warmth just yet.

Justin and I made it back safely to Mandalgovi two days ago. We had an 8 hour off road bus ride that only stopped mysteriously a couple of times. One time it was to help another bus out because it had broken down. The drivers couldn’t fix that bus, so about 40 more people joined us on our bus the rest of the way. I felt bad for those who had to stand in the aisle for the next hour.



School starts on Thursday. Once it begins our downhill tread will also begin. We’ve made a lot of plans for this year-- we have a lot of projects up our sleeves-- and a lot of new site-mates to help us out! This will be a great year for Mandalgovi and its PCVs:  



Mandalgovi PCVs 2011

Over the summer (for the last 4 months) I have been living out of one small suitcase with about 5 different changes of clothes. It was really doable. There were times I wore my dirty clothes more than I should have before washing-- or people that had seen me in the same outfit every time we had a chance to meet-- but really it was nice to live free and on the go. We moved around a lot this summer, with our Asian Vacation/backpacking trip, training in Darkhan, staying UB, then finally our Mid Service Training (because, yes! We are half-way through our service!). When we got back to our ger though (a little more about that instant in a minute) I realized just how much I can live with out. Wait a sec, I remember saying this EXACT same thing one year ago when I was first moving into my ger. We came to Mongolia with 5 HUGE over-stuffed suitcases and I was feeling the satisfaction of living simply then….now fast forward to today and I’ve downsized to 1 medium sized suitcase and I feel content.

  

Now that I’ve reunited with all the rest of my stuff in my ger-- I feel overwhelmed. We have SO MUCH STUFF. Will I ever be able to live in housing bigger than 300 sq ft and not be overwhelmed by owning too much stuff??

So coming back to Mandalgovi was a little difficult-- as I knew it would be. After living in an apartment with plumbing and a hot shower for 4 months reverting back to a glorified tent and an outhouse isn’t easy. We got home to our ger in the evening and spent the entire night cleaning. A thick layer of sand (because the ger isn’t closed off, the sides are completely open to the world to let in wind, but also let in bugs, mice and layers of sand after layers of sand. So not only was I overwhelmed by how much STUFF we have, I was completely broken down by the mess that we returned to. I bit back the tears and got to work. A mouse had ruined the whole bottom shelf of food we had and left droppings and smelly pee everywhere. That was task #1 (get rid of mouse smell and mess), then I got some soapy water and tackled the dust/sand on every piece of furniture we own and worked my way down--finally shaking out/sweeping the rugs and hand scrubbing the floor with bleach. Clean ger: accomplished.



Open sides of the ger



Surprise! In our fridge-- yes, that's an animal ear you see.

 

You can't have a complete Mongolian Summer without a flat tire.



So I feel hip and savvy these days because my sister gave me a kindle for my birthday. What a life changing gadget that is! I’ve read over 15 books in the last month or so that I’ve had it. And it will definitely help me out with my goal for this winter (to not run out of reading material!). A couple of books I’d recommend on living a life simply are:

• Living the Savvy Life: The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Smart Spending and Rich Living by Melissa Tosetti
•  Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider

Now that I'm home in my ger I will be blogging more regularly. This summer I was always on the go, and Mongolia isn't a place covered in Wi-Fi (not yet anyway), so it was rather difficult to plump down at internet cafes or find some random place with an internet connection that they'd let me use.

Cheers to a new school year, new ideas, new projects, new recipes and new experiences! 

Surviving Mongolia

We have successfully completed one year of service. We have one year to go, and I am determined to make this the best year ever in Mongolia! We’ve been through it all in a course of 12 (now 13) months and we know what works and what doesn’t, what was worth it and what wasn’t, what was smart and what was stupid.

 

Some things that were worth it (or smart):

• Internet in the ger -- We debated about this for a while before getting it, but it has proven to be well worth the money spent!
• Eating well (also see ‘Eating well’ in the stupid column)-- Every night we cooked for hours to make our dinners delicious (everything has to be made from scratch), though we were exhausted and freezing (and sometimes not eating dinner until 10 o’clock at night) it was worth it. We made do with what foods we had available to us. And it made us happy.
• Weekly dinner nights with my sitemates-- This didn’t start until well into the school year, but it was awesome to be able to have a night where us PCVs could get together and just talk and hang. Good for your spirit.
• Weekly showers (in the warmer months)--During the winter it is too dang cold to leave your ger for anything other than work & getting food, so showering was not even considered. Also during the cold months you don’t get as dirty so you can go a few months without showering. But, during the warmer months when going to the shower house was an option it felt amazing to exfoliate and feel fresh.
• Candles--How could I survive without you!? Very worth stocking up on candles in UB (when the rare scented candle shows its face), and VERY thankful for those who have sent candles in their packages! This is the ultimate way to relax for me--since I don’t have my bathtub anymore.
• Time for TV (on the computer)-- We have some shows and movies on our hard drive. It was always a great way to feel connected back to the states and feel like you’re home for a couple of hours.

 

Stupid things (or things that didn’t work):

• Not having a full library of books-- I read through our 15 or so books we ‘stocked’ up for the winter. This is NOT enough.
• Not Eating Well-- Though we did what we could with what he had available to us, we didn’t use our resources in UB wisely. This year we will REALLY REALLY stock up on dried beans, oatmeal, canned tomatoes, spices, ketchup, mustard, drink mixes, brown sugar, syrup, other canned/dried goods and bring them back to Mandalgovi. We also appreciated all the packages we received over the last year to help us stock up on these yummy items we take very much for granted. I am not going through another winter feeling hungry.
• Allowing our fire fuel to run out-- there were a handful of days where we waited on our fuel suppler to supply us with fuel for our fire (them saying they will come ‘tomorrow‘, then ‘tomorrow‘ again and ‘tomorrow‘ again). Even though we gave them days, even weeks sometimes, notice we were still left cold and fuelless. This is NOT going to happen next year. It’s unacceptable to be without a fire in a tent in -40 degrees. So a minimum of 2 weeks notice, and a stern daily follow-up after until we receive our fuel is needed for next winter.
• Not hanging out with sitemates enough-- What were we thinking? We had 3 other PCVs in a 1 mile radius from us and we didn’t use each other to help keep each other more sane. It’s always good to have someone who knows what you’re going through, or to celebrate American Holidays, celebrate your successes with and collaborate community development ideas with. This year my sitemates will see A LOT of me, and maybe even be annoyed by me J
• Not using our space heater enough-- We thought we were being tough and hardcore the first couple month of real winter (November & December) and refused to use our space heater and lived off our fires. We thought we were being wusses by having to give in and use it. So it stayed under our bed during some of the coldest days in winter. Stupid. The heater isn’t there for emergencies, it’s there for survival!
• Not having a water supply-- There are times when our water bucket was low and the only water available to us was frozen, so we’d have to wait an hour to thaw what we did have before having any water to drink, cook with, clean with, etc. We really need to have a constant supply stashed away for days when water is not available. That was not smart.

We’ve survived a year in Mongolia in a ger. Now we know what it takes to make this next year even better.

 

The Pink Eyed Travelers

                                     

We made it safely back to Mongolia last Friday. Seoul was amazing. Justin and I fed ourselves at as many Western restaurants as possible. You can get Korean food in Mongolia like you can get Mexican food in Texas, so our priority was to eat what we'd miss most: McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin Robins. Our tummies were very happy. Seoul seems to be the most like America out of the three countries visited. Mostly because it has a lot of Western shopping and food chains. Everything was just familiar there. So, it was a nice way to end our journey-- to relax at 'home'.

We splurged and took 1st class on the bullet train from Pusan to Seoul. When I say we relaxed in Seoul, I mean we relaxed in Seoul. A 1st class train ride was a must!


Somewhere along our vacation Justin started getting pink eye (back in Beijing). I know how contagious pink eye is. Even though I tried not to, I, too got pink eye. I hate to think about how many others we infected along the way because we were in one public place after another.

Justin's pink eye came and went, though it was uncomfortable. However, I got mine our last day in Japan. That was 2 weeks ago today. I had it in one eye for the rest of the trip. When we touched down in UB I went straight to our Medical Officers. They informed me that we couldn't go back to Mandalgovi until both our eyes have cleared up (Justin still had traces of pink eye). So now, a week later we're still resting it up in UB. Justin's eye is completely better. I ended up getting pink eye in both my eyes and another bacterial infection in my original pink eye.

Good news is our Asian Vacation was a success (pink eye or no pink eye), AND we get a little R&R in UB while we fend off this infection. Next week: Madalgovi! It's been over a month since we've been in our ger. A glamorous month of flushing toilets, running hot water, showers, mattresses, friend and good food. Next, home sweet home.

Ready, set, go!

And we're off!

We've made our way to Sukhbaatar in Selenge, Mongolia. It is beautiful here! Justin and I took the train from UB- Sukhbaatar. We boarded at 9pm on Tuesday and got to Nadra's apartment at about 5am on Wednesday. Justin and I thought we'd brave 3rd class (even though we'd heard to avoid it). We figured since we are traveling together that it wouldn't be so bad with a partner. And it really wasn't bad. It wasn't comfortable by all means, but it wasn't bad and definitely worth the money we saved from not going on 1st or even 2nd class.

Here's a picture of the inside of 3rd class. There are seats for 8 people per compartment, but we only had 2 other people in our compartment.

There were 6 beds available in our compartment. I took a bottom bed while Justin bunked up top. He strapped himself in with the straps to make sure he didn't roll off the bed during the night.

The beds were just boards (what we were expecting), but no bedding whatsoever was provided (not what we were expecting). There wasn't any heat on and it was a very cold night. :(

But, we made it! And we're here! And it doesn't look like Mongolia to us. There are trees, and grass and actual houses! I've only seen a handful of gers. Which is opposite in Mandalgovi (you'd see thousands of gers, but a handful of houses). Since the town is very close to the Russian border the town has a lot of Russian influence. It is a really cute town.
Here are a couple pictures from Nadra's 5th floor apartment:

Here's Justin and Nadra. Justin was pretty excited to see some fish available at the local market.

Wrapping Up the School Year

All the schools in Mongolia start September 1st and end on June 1st. There are 2 and a half weeks of school left. But Justin and I are a little lucky and get to venture into UB tomorrow. It seems like this trip crept up on us-- yet couldn't get here fast enough!

It seems that we're leaving when we're just getting started. I feel like I have so many things that I am going to leave undone and waiting for me when we return. We'll come back to Mandalgovi on June 20th for a short couple weeks. Then the next time we come back won't be until the new school year starts (and we'll have some lucky new Volunteers at our site!). Wrapping up everything is difficult. Yesterday my 7th grade students (whom I LOVE) wanted so badly to talk to me (in English!) the whole class period because they knew they wouldn't see me for a while. I told them about all the traveling I was going to be doing (our lesson was about traveling) and tried to fit in as much of a lesson as I could-- but at the end they gathered around me and wanted a picture to be taken. I almost started tearing up after the picture when they, one by one, came up to me to say 'goodbye, see you next year!' Man, what will it be like a year from now when we are saying goodbye forever?

I have a meeting with Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education (the head honchos of Education in Mongolia) on Friday morning in UB. Then on Monday Justin and I will be buying our ticket to Beijing and going to the Chinese Embassy for our visa application. It takes a total of 4 days to get our Chinese Visa. Then we have a few days before our Training of Trainers (since Justin and I will both be trainers for the new Peace Corps Volunteers this summer), we will visit our friend, Nadra, in Selenge. Selenge is straight north of us, and very close to the Russian border. I hear it's a drastic change of scenery from the Gobi. They have trees, I hear. :)

Finishing with TOT (Training of Trainers) Justin and I will be waiting at Chinggis Airport on June 4th for those new M22's coming in fresh from America! It's really weird to think I was in their shoes one year ago.

Straight from the Airport Justin and I will head to the train station and be on our great Asian Adventure!

So, here's to one more night using a jorlon (outhouse), washing my hair in a bucket, cleaning sand out of my ears (literally) and sleeping in a sleeping bag! We'll be in a real bed, with toilets, showers(...I don't even know which I am more excited about anymore. It used to be the good food in UB, but now I think the toilet is trumping over it all.).

And just one more snapshot of our weather for today... It's just geting worse and worse, man. It feels like 8 outside on May 11th! We've been getting hit by sandstorm after sandstorm. It's not fun. They don't have sandstorms up north! Goodbye Gobi Desert weather! Khongor Guesthouse here we come!

***Edited: Khongor Guesthouse once again has let us down. They're full and don't have beds available...so we're off to our second Guesthouse choice! UB Guesthouse!***

Flat Stanley

I had another visitor come to my ger yesterday. Flat Stanley! For those of you who aren't familiar with the book or the project check it out here. It's pretty cool. I wish I would have done something like this with my students back in the states.

Basically, Stanley is a character from a book. The 'project' is to find all the benefits of being completely flat (he was flattened by a board in the book). So one of the major and most popular benefits is that it is a lot cheaper for him to travel. And now the project turns into something similar as the traveling gnome. So, a friend of my sister's sent Flat Stanley to Mongolia to visit me.

Here are some pictures of his visit:
This was Stanley when he got to my ger last night.

Here's Stanley standing next to Chingis Khan and other Traditional Mongolian art. He had to change his clothing, because it's a bit colder here in Mongolia-- also the clothing is to show the students back in America a little bit more about the Mongolian culture. He is wearing a dell (Mongolian traditional clothing).

Stanley got a little bored and wanted to take advantage of this ridiculously warm spring weather we're having right now and made some friends at the play ground by my school.
.

Finally, we made it to school. I think these girls had a crush on him.

This was a really cute project. I hope Stanley makes it back to his class in America soon.

I found my dream home!

...and no it isn't a ger, nor is it in Mongolia (though that ger is a pretty shwanky ger!). If you know me then you know I am passionate about teaching. But if you know me WELL then you know how passionate I am about design. I have been an HGTV follower since I was in grade school. I have been dreaming of my dream home since I can't even remember. (Actually I remember very distinctly in 6th grade making a 6 page blueprint of my dream home... I still have it somewhere in a box in South Dakota.) I would LOVE to build my own home, but I just can't see myself doing that if there are perfectly good houses already built. I don't want to contribute to America's over-building. My dream now is to find a nice small run-down cottage with character somewhere and fix it up completely! I would customize every inch. I have saved pages and pages of fabrics I will want to use someday, paint colors, fixtures, furniture, etc.

Well, if you haven't found out by now-- PCVs have a lot of time on their hands. We do good work here. We're there for our teachers, our counter-parts, our students, we put in a lot of work and detail to lesson plans and activities, we mingle with co-workers after school hours to build relationships, we delegate assignments, and do many different assigments ourselves-- yet we still have time to kill. We don't have a tv, but we have plenty of books and the internet. So in our free time we are usually doing one or the other. And in my free time on the internet, I house hunt and research design. Yesterday I came across a real gem. I don't think I'll be able to find a house better than this one in a small town in north Texas. It's a got all the character I could dream of, including being a state historical marker. I doubt it will be on the market in another year and half for me to steal--but it gives me something to dream about. When I run long distances I keep my mind busy by designing homes. I find myself doing that here at night to help me fall asleep. We all have our obsessions. Mine is owning my perfect home.

Today is my sister's birthday! I hope you have a great day, Dora!

Quick Thoughts and Stories

by Justin

Stories

Dune

We ran out of water this week. Normally, when we run out of water it's no thang, we just go next door, fill up our 20 gallon osny sow (Mongolian for water container in transliterated Mongolian)and we're back in business. However, due to a string of events beyond our control, we were without water for roughly 36 hours. It all began on Tuesday when our haasha mother told Ashlie she was going to UB for the weekend. Irrelevant you are saying to yourself, but wait, I remember from jr. high English this is called foreshadowing. Then, on Tuesday night Ashlie said she was tired and didn't really feel like doing dishes. Hurray I thought, no dishes means I don't have to get water tonight. I would just get it in the morning. But by the time I got up, our haasha mother was gone to UB and her husband was at work. So morning turned to afternoon and afternoon turned to evening, but still no EB (I am trying to keep him anonymous because our blog has a really big following here in Mandalgovi). Here's where the UB trip becomes important. Normally, both of them would be home by that time on a Wednesday night. But because she was gone to UB, EB did as many husbands do when the wife is away, he went out with the boys. He returned late that night, clearly under the influence, and loudly shouted "Yagat!?" (why?!) Not really sure what this was in reference to, but it is slightly humorous. So I thought, well I'll catch him in the morning. But he was up and at 'em pretty early considering the previous evening's outing and was again gone in the morning. So we sat there, trying to conserve every drop of moisture. We ate the only things that we could make without water. PB and J and grilled cheese sandwiches. FOOLS! The salty peanut butter gave me an insatiable thirst, but alas there was nothing to drink. I layed on the bed tossing back and forth. I kept imagining I was a character from the book Dune (it's a sci-fi book about this planet with very little water where the people have to wear suits that prevent their bodies from losing water for any of you non-nerds reading this). I thought I was going to die. My mind raced. What if he is gone to the countryside? What if he isn't coming back? What will we do? We're doomed I tell ya, DOOMED! Then Ashlie suggested we just go buy some bottled water. Oooohhh yeah, that's why I'm married. So we did, we made dinner, then we rehydrated. Then EB came home and we refilled. The end.

Pigs

There is a family of pigs in our town. The only pigs I've ever seen in Mongolia. The piglets have recently come of age and have begun roaming the town like their parents. The other day I was walking home from school and I saw the little piglets foraging near the playground by our house. I don't know why, but an urge came over me. Maybe it is the lack of pork products in my diet, maybe it is my inner child, maybe an inner sadist, but for whatever reason I had an urge. I stopped and looked around for possible witnesses. Seeing no one in the vicinity, I began walking towards the little swine. Slowly at first, stealthily even. I crept nearer and nearer. My stride lengthened, my pace quickened. Before I knew it I was chasing them across the alley, listening to them squeal as they ran away with evil delight. They ran across the playground and I stopped. Smirking and smiling with satisfaction, I began to stroll back towards my ger. As I walked by an apartment building, I heard a quick tapping at a window. I looked up and saw nothing. I looked back down and resumed walking. I heard the tapping again. I looked up and saw a child of maybe 5 or 6 or 7 looking down at me from his apartment window. My instant reaction was that he, like many of the children, just wanted to say hello to the American, so I waved. But he did not smile, or wave back. He just stared at me, with blank, expressionless eyes. Oh no, I thought, he saw what I did. He saw me chase the pigs. I began to walk faster in my shame, still looking back over my shoulder. Then as I was about to turn the corner, I saw him hold up his index and middle fingers in front of his eyes. He had seen me and was letting me know it. I'm not sure what exactly it was he saying to me, but the combination of his expression and gestures made me think he was saying, "We don't take kindly to foreign, pig-chasing scum 'round 'ere. Watch your ass." I will no longer chase pigs, or livestock of any sort in Mongolia.

The Shower House

Today was, in weather terminology, shitty. The increased frequency of "shitty" days this time of year is in direct correlation with the general negativity with which the climate of Mongolia is viewed. This also happens to be, as you faithful followers of the blog already know, my favorite day of the week. Shower day! So, Ashlie and I went through our morning rituals, bundled up, and headed for the shower house. We walked, heads down into a stiff Arctic wind blowing about 30 mph. It must have been into negative double digits with the wind chill. We walked silently, but resolutely into the beast, knowing that steamy, liquidy, cleansing salvation lay but a mere 10 minutes away. We made it. Strode triumphantly to the front door, pulled and... son of a bitch. Locked. About that time a Mongolian woman walked up to the door and pulled on the handle (because apparently we humble, simple Americans were standing in the cold because we are unfamiliar with the concept of, you know, pulling on the handle). She then looked at a paper taped to the window and said, "Arone nigen dzock" (11:00). I looked at my phone. 10:30. Damn. So we stood there, backs against the wall, waiting for the propietor of the establishment when up walked another young woman. I was familiar with this particular woman. She proceeded to talk to us rapidly in Mongolian and pick hairs off of our jackets, button our buttons, and dusts off our backs. In the midst of the grooming process, she noticed an orange tag stuck to Ashlie's shoe laces. This was no ordinary orange tag though. This was a tag that was put on Ashlie's shoe in March when we ran our marathon. A tag that says 'I am no mere mortal, but a demi-god who has ran 26.2 miles.' However, and understandably, Mongolians are unfamiliar with this concept. She pointed at it and said, "Mohai." (ugly). Ashlie said under her breath, "Please don't tear it off." At which point the woman bent down and tore it off. Ashlie then said, "Please don't throw it away." At which point, as if mockingly on cue, the woman threw it away. The woman then continued on with her conversation, but Ashlie never took her eye off of it. Soon after another woman drove up and distracted the talkative young lady, Ashlie took off running across the dirt parking lot and victoriously picked the little tag out of a tumbleweed. Disaster averted, athletic immortality resurrected.

Quick thoughts

*People in Mongolia walk noticably faster during the winter.

*Don't grab onto your metal out-house handle in the winter with wet hands.

*For unexplained reasons watching steam come off of my bodily functions while using the restroom has become a reasonable substitute for reading magazines.

That is all.

Just a Dream

Last night I had the pleasure of dreaming a marvelous dream! I was walking down the glossy (so glossy you could see your reflection), tiled aisle of Wal-Mart. I remember saying 'Oh, it is so clean! Everything is in order! I know where everything is!' Then I actually looked at the shelves and they contained only the food available here in Mongolia. Same ol' root vegetables, rice, noodles, dairy products...Regardless of what that dream Wal-Mart had in stock, I was happy to be there still. Then some zombie started chasing me and the dream went on...


Anyway, Justin is totally right about dairy products here. If there isn't a picture on it, I don't buy it. It can say the word cow all it wants, but if there is no picture-- no deal. He mentioned buying some sausage (called 'heyam' in Mongolian) that had the words saying it was made from pig...and there were actually cartoon pictures of pigs on the label--but once opened we realized that it very well might have been pig, but it was not a part of a pig we were going to eat & expired at that! The meat was black. Probably blood and intestines. Dzolzig got a good meal that night. BTW, Justin didn't mention that the yogurt his school director gave us was expired--by two months. I use it in my baking--just mix a little bit with water and make a milk substitute from it.

Speaking of baking. I made some pretty yummy rolls last night from scratch. It was a perfect Saturday. No school sports competitions going on, no unexpected yard chores, no real work--just my Community English class that Justin helps me teach. We made our way to the class (it was 10:45am, snowy and dreary-- so perfect for Justin, he loves it) and none of my students showed up-- so we went home, put on a huge pot of vegetable soup, had a fire going and I made my rolls. Then we just ate soup and rolls open bar all day long. It was nice and toasty and cozy. Justin made the yummy soup. It was delicious.


So about a month ago Justin winterized our ger. In order for a ger to be ready for winter two layers of felt should be put on the ger, then a skirt needs to be placed around the bottom on the outside, then dirt needs to cover the skirt (to cover holes/cracks) and a ping is attached(a small detachable room that connects to the door of the ger, it is used to store fuels, a freezer, and to block as much wind as possible from coming inside the ger). We still do not have our ping up-- but I'm sure it will come soon, as the weather is dropping rather quickly.




So now that our ger is toasty, it keeps the warmth in pretty well. If you build an awesome fire your ger can get over 100 degrees inside!

Justin is outside of our ger trying to show the immense difference in temperature between outside our ger and the inside. Inside it is over 100 degrees, outside it is in the teens. His breath is showing, but my flash couldn't catch it.

Here's a picture of me doing laundry in our toasty ger. We've mastered making fires, now we need to master regulating a comfortable temperature-- because our ger is either 40 degrees or 100.


And finally, just some random pics of the Newberry Ger. I found another use for our indoor clothes line-- holiday decorations! (Oh! we learned last weekend that we can't really put our clothes on the outside line anymore-- they froze stiff. It was hilarious. You could hold our towels completely horizontal. Justin wanted to play sword fights...well that's nothing new.)


I went to one of the markets and found these adorable thingies. They are the cutest Cutie Pies I have ever seen. I love holiday clementines! I was surprised to be seeing ANY type of citrus-- I bought a kilo and eat about 6 a day. :)


I know I'm rambling, but just one more thing. I've learned that when I am not busy I tend to be more selfish. I think about what I could have been doing in the states, what Justin and I could have had, how normal our lives could be....I day dream. I think most people are like that. Usually we are too busy to think about ourselves because we are helping/serving others (and I think that's the way it should be). There is a quote that I have to repeat to myself when my attitude falls short of a serving attitude. "Forget yourself and get to work." told to Gordon B. Hinckley by his father--Bryant S. Hinckley. That quote seemed to straighten Gordon right up. I chose to come to Mongolia to help teach. And I don't regret coming here. But you know, the grass is always greener. One day I'll wake up in my later years and think all of this time in Mongolia was just a dream. But before that times come-- I will live it up here!

I just can't win.

So read my post before this first (if you haven't already). For the past couple of hours I have been in one of the toughest fights of my life. Ashlie vs. the wind. First of all, it is cold outside. COLD. Without a fire in our ger it would be in the 40's inside. But, because the wind blew away one of our windows we had to close our flap to keep the warm air in and the sand out. (A flap is a THICK blanket that covers all of the windows (to keep out sand during sandstorms, rain, water, etc.) And when the flap is closed you cannot have a fire, because the blanket touches the stove pipe (and if you had a fire, the blanket could catch fire from touching the hot stove pipe).

In this photo you can see our missing window, the duct tape, the flap and the stove pipe:



Well I had an ingenious idea to cover the window with cardboard and duct tape it. That way I can open the flap a little (enough so it's not touching the stove) and start a fire since it's FREEZING in here. So I did. After about 45 mins of bliss, the fire was dying down, so I put a small piece of cardboard on top of the coals and blew on it so the fire would start up again. At the same time as me blowing, a wind came down the pipe and got the fire aflaming! The flames came out of the grate and onto my face! The flame fringed my hair on the left side of my face. MY HAIR HAS BEEN BURNED OFF!

What do you do with fringed hair? I've already tried to comb out the frizzies, then splattered some hair conditioner on????



That's not the end of it. Then suddenly the cardboard that was covering the window got sucked out the window and also blew away. Now I have a hot fire that is still going, but just wasting coal because I'm not feeling any warmth with a window open. One more thing. The ash tray at the bottom of the stove wasn't cleaned out before I made this fire. So now every time a gust of wind comes down the chimney (about every 30 seconds) ashes scatter out of the grate. So my cold ger is sandy, windy, and ashy and there isn't anything I can do about it until the wind stops and we can replace that window. Oh, and the side of my head looks ridiculous. I'd like to go home now and lick my wounds please. Mongolia was fun for a little while, but today it is too hard to handle... Or just let me curl up somewhere so I can go to bed at 3pm and not wake up for a while until I'm back in a warm clean ger without wind. I hate you, wind.