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:

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I know, I know-- I'm posting too many weather reports on here-- But, it's just blowing my mind! It's like we hit a nice warm high of 70 degrees once in mid April and since then it's been downhill. I mean, it feels like freaking 14 degrees outside right now. Why did the weather even begin to get warmer in March in the first place if it was just going to go back down? The last couple of weeks have felt more like February than April-- and it's May! Needless to say, the sandstorms do not help whatsoever.

Well, I have a few more things I'd like to post, but school is beckoning me to make the trek in 38 mph wind.

"My Sister's baby was born!"

My sister had a baby boy! So I am yet again an Auntie. She had him late at night on April 26th Mongolian time. The next day I was so excited to tell my teachers. I teach an English & Methodology class to Primary teachers twice a week. I speak only English to them during the lesson, but at the end of each lesson I talk to them in Mongolian to see how they are, get updates about school gossip and tell them what's going on in my life, etc. Well at the end of this class I said, "Last night my sister's baby was born!" I only said it that way because I didn't know how to say, "My sister had a baby!" in Mongolian-- But that started a lot of confusion. My teachers were confused if my sister had the baby or my sister's baby had the baby. So we drew pictures on the board-- which caused even more confusion until the pictures became more detailed and there was a woman giving birth on our class chalkboard. It was all hilarious really! But, now I know how to say "My sister had a baby!"

Congratulations Nita & Chad & Madison and Happy birthday, Lincoln!

Unfortunately, I will have to miss the Royal Wedding. I'm sorry, William.

But the weather outside is just too bad for me to leave my royal ger. I poked my head out and this is what I saw:

Here's the weather report:

Things Spring in Mongolia has taught me:

Never put your lip gloss on before your walk to school. My once shiny lips were turned to sandpaper during the course of my 3 minute walk to school. No body likes sandy lips.

I love not having to make a fire! Clean hands, non-smoke-smelling clothes and hair and ultimately a dust & soot free ger!

Electricity is not always a part of daily life. It comes and it goes. Sometimes in the middle of making dinner.

Despite the wind, sandstorms, and occasional snow it is a heck of a lot better than winter.

Dogs have strong lungs. Now that it's warmer they've started to bark again and there are a couple dogs that every time they bark Justin and I look at each other in amazement. How does he bark so fast and continuously for so long without taking a breath? And what IS he barking at at 12am?

Going to the jorlon (outhouse) will never be a comfortable experience. In the winter all the human waste is frozen over so there is no smell...but the cold numbs your bum to the point of frost bite (not really, but it's dang cold!); I always held it in until the last minute because I just didn't want to go outside to go. BUT, now the weather provides a pleasant temperature, however the waste has unfrozen and the smell is...well, not good.

What a Whirlwind Spring is! (and our Asian Vacation Plans)

Read it and weep-- because I almost am.

This has been by far the sandiest day yet, and we've had some pretty dang sandy days. This sandstorm has been going on for two days straight. Tomorrow it's supposed to die down. I hope it does soon. I don't like being sandy. When I came home from school today I had a 'tumpin' bath. First I wash my face in the bowl of water, then I wash my hair. Well, after I was finished with those two things there was already a thin layer of sand at the bottom of the bowl. It's brutal out there right now.

Speaking of whirlwinds...Man, time has flown by. We've done so much in the past couple of weeks that I don't know where to start.

First of all, we had our 2nd Annual Spelling Bee. It was really fun to organize. All of the schools in my town competed (we have 5 schools). We even had a Spelling Bee for the teachers and they loved it! They all did a great job. We were really lucky that the Education Department funded our awards and certificates for the top 3 winners in every grade level. Next year they suggested that all the schools in our province be invited. I love that they had such a great time and want this competition to continue.

Here's a funny story to go along with this. Each of the PCVs in my town helped create word lists for certain grade levels. One of Justin's grade levels was 9th grade. We started each Spelling Bee with simple words (to build confidence in the students). When Justin was making his list (a week or so before the Spelling Bee) he asked if he should put the word 'rubber' on the list. I know we have non-American English speakers that read this blog and to you this doesn't seem funny-- because in all other English speaking countries a rubber is an eraser. But to us Americans, a rubber is a condom. And we are immature Americans. We teach from British ESL Books, so the students learn that a rubber is an eraser (not a condom), so to them this word is quite normal. I told Justin that it was his list and he could put whatever words he wanted on it. Okay, let's fast-forward to the day of the Spelling Bee. Justin is the 'reader' and I am sitting next to him being the 2nd judge. My student comes to the podium and Justin says 'Please spell rubber'. A smile broke out and I tried so hard to stifle a giggle, which made Justin giggle and we had to pause the Bee for about 1 minute or so until our immature minds were able to settle down. It was a little embarrassing, but funny at the same time. Here's a picture of the 'rubber' moment.

These are the 7th grade Spelling Bee participants:

7th grade winners:

All Student winners:

Megan and I passing out awards:

My teachers waiting for the Teacher's Spelling Bee to begin:

Well, Justin and I have about a month and a week until our big Asian vacation. I tell you, it has been the HARDEST thing to put together. We love to travel, but it can be so expensive. So, it's important to find ways to save money while traveling. We're not doing any tours (we don't like them, plus they are pretty expensive), so I've had to research the cities, the histories, the tourist spots myself online and how to go about seeing everything we want to see without being part of a long, expensive tour group. Which has proven to be difficult because we're working with three different languages/currencies. I typed the master plan out and have saved all the important websites. So if you are ever wanting to vacation in Japan, China or South Korea and don't want to waste money on an inclusive vacation package, let me know and I will give all of this information to you-- it was so dang difficult to find everything I needed online (and in English!).

Here's our plan:
We want to take the Tran-Siberian train from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing. We'll stay 4 days in Beijing, see all the major sites (including the Great Wall-- we will actually be going through the Great Wall on our train ride from Mongolia to China-- which is a 30 hour ride!--, but we want to see it again up close and personal). Then we're off to Tokyo via airplane. We'll stay a couple days in Tokyo, then take the speed train to Fukuoka, Japan where we will stay a day, then take the Ferry to South Korea. We'll have a day on the beach in Busan, South Korea, then venture on the speed train to Seoul. This is our relaxing point. I want to go to spa after spa and shop and maybe go to a theme park, and hike. After about 4 days in South Korea we are back on our way to Ulaanbaatar via plane.

If that's confusing to follow, here's a map that gives you a visual. I think I should get into the Travel Agent business! It was hours of work, and I mean HOURS. But, I did enjoy it and now everything is ready for us. There won't be anything to stress about on our great Asian Vacation!

"...Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks"

Forrest Gump is my all time favorite movie. That tape (yes, in 2000 VCRs were still the top media players) remained in my TV/VCR combo for an entire summer on replay. I listened to it when I was brushing my teeth, I listened to it while I was talking on the phone, I even fell asleep to it most nights. I don't know why I did it--I'm weird I guess. But I'm sure I've seen it over 100 times, seriously. So, it's not difficult for me to think up quotes from the movie that are related to my life.

For instance, "I guess sometimes there just aren't enough rocks."

How perfect is this quote for Mongolia?! When we first arrived in Mongolia we were told to always carry rocks with us in our pockets or have some in our purse/bags so we could always be prepared. 'For what', you may ask?
Dogs.

Now, on my way to school (or anywhere outside of my hashaa) I have to walk by this mean black dog. I see him everyday. I've seen him everyday for about 7 months now and he's still not too friendly with me. The picture above is my rock pile that I take 3 rocks out of everyday as I slip through our hashaa door and into the mean black dog's hashaa. Sometimes I throw rocks at him, sometimes I don't-- it all depends on how feisty he's feeling that day-- if he decides to run after me or not. Then everyday when I walk back through his hashaa and into mine I throw my rocks back in my rock pile to use for the next day.

Well recently I've been noticing my rocks disappearing. My pile has gone from about 20 to about 5. What's going to happen when my rock pile runs out? More importantly who's found my stash??

Today was a great end to a great and relaxing weekend. It was rather chilly this weekend and very windy. I was able to get some school work done (I'm actually supposed to be working on it right now and finishing up, but found myself catching up on Shine and piddling around on my blog). Justin just made a great all wood fire (I love that smell!!!-- as opposed to dung fires), I have a pearberry candle glowing, my warm fleece jumper zipped up tight and a hot cup of pineapple tea. Now, I suppose it's time to get back to work.

Earth Day 2011

I just had a teachers meeting where I brought up some activities for the school to do in order to participate in Earth Day. I printed out some activities from the internet and handed them out for my teachers to look over. Then I started my convincing spiel. And blabbed on for a good few minutes because I really wanted to convince them to participate. I went on about how important it is not to litter and what can happen when there is too much litter, etc. When I finished I asked what they thought and one of my teachers said, "Don't worry, Ashlie. Ok, our school does many things in the April to clean earth." It seems that every Saturday in April is dedicated to picking up trash around the town to beautify Mandalgovi. Also, she said that two trees are planted every year in April by the gardening club students. Man, I feel like I've got it easy at my school. I seriously have one of the best school in Mongolia, I'm sure.

I missed last Saturday's picking up trash...but I'm going to be prepared this Saturday! I wonder why they didn't tell me about it??

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.

The Mongolian Fortune Teller

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.

I'm not the herder. Here's the herder:

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. :)

Spring, Spring, Spring, Spring, Spring!!

This has been an awesome break. I can't tell you how happy I feel. The warmer the days get the more my zombie-ways melt. I didn't even realize how stuck in a rut I was. Man, I didn't even know. It's as if I literally am finally waking up. It feels amazing! I have energy and purpose! If only this picture was true:

But, looking at it makes me happy anyway.

Our break isn't even over yet. Some of our PCV friends from the south Gobi, from northern Mongolia, and central Mongolia are coming to stay with us for the weekend. It will be so nice to see them and hang out(in the sunshine!). I want to bake everything for them. I think we'll have biscuits and gravy, oatmeal raisin cookies, some spring biscotti (I'm attempting to make the biscotti for the first time today. I am a little nervous, but it looks oh-so-good!), and whatever else they love. Food is very important to us PCVs, I wish you could sit and listen to our conversations about all the foods we miss and what'd we do if we got to eat it again. Or, when we make something amazing and are eating it for the first time-- that's a funny sight to those who take all the little amazing foods of America for granted.

Here's my biscotti recipe that I will be attempting:

Here's the link to the allrecipe's recipe for Spring Biscotti


By the way, if ANYONE knows how to make Sticky Toffee Pudding, PLEASE, let me know how. I've been looking up recipe after recipe online and I just don't see one that I can fully trust. I need your help on this.

What I'd do for spring...

My mom sent me a sleeping bag liner that has saved my life. Our sleeping bags are really good sleeping bags (claim to be warm up to -15), but I'm a naturally cold person so one sleeping bag at 20 degrees is just not enough. The sleeping bag liner has done wonders!...until I thought it was warm enough to not use it anymore. I tried to convince myself that it's only getting 30 degrees in our ger at night, it's not THAT cold. It should be spring weather, warming up, right?

Nah, the other night I was awake through most of the night because my feet were ice cold and they just wouldn't warm up. I was thinking about all the nuisances that warmer weather brings such as dogs barking the ENTIRE night, spiders and beetles and flies in the ger, sweating, etc. and how I'd take all those bothers and hug them right now.

I'll never complain about the heat again. I promise.

So I've been hibernating all winter...really, it's true. My school is literally a 2 minute walk from my ger (if that even) and all winter long I have been a robot/zombie waking up, trekking to school with my hood on and head down, doing my thing, and trekking back home, where I was still a zombie-slave to imediately making a fire, thawing out a bit, making dinner (which takes a couple hours) then folding myself back up in my sleeping back for another 12 hours of warmth. (Justin was the strong one, grocery shopping every week and running errands.) It was kind of miserable, now that I think about it. But 3 days ago I had an awakening. And I feel free! I went grocery shopping yesterday and was chipper. I had a nice conversation with the ladies at the market and I felt rejuvenated. Since Justin's been the one getting the groceries we haven't had a lot of fruit in our diet (not that there is much selection...just clementines or apples), but yesterday when I came home with my bag of goodies it was like christmas! I bought some yogurt (I was scared to try, because it was already expired, but I needed it so badly), raisins and an asian pear that Justin and I shared (they are kinda expensive to buy more than one at a time). This is a good time to be in Mongolia!

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.