tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43330498489401518882024-02-02T01:59:53.528-08:00Of Steppes in MongoliaA blog for friends and family chronicling my adventures in Mongolia.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-17168911481990717022010-06-29T13:21:00.000-07:002010-06-29T13:21:44.448-07:00Steppe 12: a College Reunion and a New Friend and One Giant WTF MomentThe day after Jaisri's wedding, my dear friend from undergrad at Butler, Amy Willis, arrived in Mongolia for a week long visit to me! We hadn't seen each other in 2 years, but have always been the kind of friends that didn't spend every moment together, but when we were together, we always had a really special connection. No less so on the other side of the world after 2 years of separation! It was as though no time at all had passed. Amy has been in South Korea for the last 8 months teaching English, and when she heard I was going to be in her neck of the woods, she was determined to come visit me, and rearranged her schedule in order to do so. She was the sun and the relief in that last month of teaching which felt something like the throws of the black plague most of the time. <br />
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So she arrived in Darkhan, and we walked around and saw what there is to see. Then we spontaneously took the 7 hour midnight train (as opposed to the 4 hour bus ride) splitting a single bunk. We arrived early in the morning to UB, and made our way to the guesthouse where we picked up an overnight trip to Terelj, a national park just outside UB. We traveled with 4 Brits, a German, and another American. We stayed in tourist ger camp, where they cooked us what to me was evidently the tourist version of Mongolian food. That afternoon a boy took us riding, herding our lazy horses. Amy and I pulled out our teacher skills, and the 2 British guys who were our age followed suit, until we had the boy singing to us and teaching us Mongolian words and showing off his horsemanship. The following are only the pictures I took--Amy is a photography wiz so she's got oodles of amazing pictures, but I don't have the files yet so here's just a sampling...<br />
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After Terelj, we returned to the guesthouse and picked up a driver, a car, and a new companion, Meg. She was another American who originally traveled to Mongolia to visit a friend in the Peace Corps there, and then travel on to China... not many of her plans went through like she thought, but boy did we luck out having her along cause she rocked!<br />
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Our first night, in Kharkhorin... actually like my 4th night spent in that city, but this time, everything was green, snowless, and warm. Basicly I saw only one new place on this trip, but everything was transformed from the frigid, miserably brown and white winter, into green and budding spring, along with the miserable sandstorms that make Mongolians hate spring. There were baby animals evvverrrrywhere and cranes in pairs, often performing mating dances.<br />
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The above is the happy spring version of the steppe to the south west of the ancient capitol.<br />
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It was crazy windy!<br />
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Yaks!!<br />
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The waterfall melted!!<br />
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My awesome travel companions.<br />
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It snowed that morning!<br />
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So I got deathly ill that day, my stomach wanted to kill me. It was lovely. We spent one night at the waterfall and traveled through Khujirt to the Mini Gobi of which I only have one pic:<br />
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Because I was sick... so I slept the afternoon away. The other girls rode horses they had prepared for us through the sand with a crazy old man who apparently took a nap and wrote crazy pictures in the sand... The next morning he had a horse for me waiting, and so I did get to ride for a minute.<br />
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We headed back to UB after our stay in the mini Gobi, and by the time we reached UB I felt 10 times better. Meg, on the other hand, began to fall ill in a similar way I had been. By the time we got back to the Guesthouse, she collapsed on the bed, and Amy and I went out to get food and souvenirs, for ourselves and her. We successfully did some shopping and I arranged to meet Jizo later for dinner. When he finnaaally arrived, Amy and I ate some food, then went back to the guesthouse to check on Meg, before going somewhere else for Jizo to eat... Meg was gone from the guesthouse! She had been taken to the S.O.S. hospital in UB, because she had fallen terribly terribly sick. Jizo was awesome and took us to the hospital in his car, where we reunited with the poor girl, now doped up and feeling much better. We left with Jizo, got him some food, and all parted ways for our respective sleeping quarters.<br />
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The next morning, I took a walk around UB with another guest at the guesthouse, a Spanish guy named Alejandro. Saw a Buddhist temple in the city that's very beautiful and full of happy Mongolian children... Amy was sleeping, as she also wasn't feeling very well, but was recouped when I got back. We then went to a nice hotel where Meg had transfered and hung with her for a while. I also had a chance to see my friend Boorak while Amy and I ate lunch, as he had just been transfered to work in UB from Darkhan... Anyways, we basicly hung out with Meg all day, also saw Jizo at one point, before he headed back to Darkhan. I stayed the night and parted with Amy the next morning, then took the bus back to Darkhan in the afternoon. I spent the day with Meg, who had to cancel her China plans, and take a flight back to the States.<br />
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So that's a rather haphazard telling of that story... Amy has many many pics of it, hopefully I'll get them up here someday.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-10941277102461073872010-06-14T01:18:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:18:01.270-07:00Bayerteh Mini Mongol!The day has come at last... I'm about a month behind on my blog, but I'll have fun catching up once I'm home.<br />
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Tomorrow, my dear friend Jizo will drive me to the airport in Ulaanbaatar, and I will say "bayerteh" to Mongolia. My flight goes from UB to Beijing to Seoul to NYC to Burlington, VT. I'll be home in the evening on June 16.<br />
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Yesterday I spent with Jizo, witnessing a shaman ceremony. His older brother is a shaman, and came to visit the family because one of the aunts is sick. It was fascinating to see, I'll write more about it later. We had dinner at Jizo's grandmother's home, a meal of sheep innards... including the tube that leads to the butthole? Hmmmm it was tasty? :-P Today has been spent in goodbyes and preparations. Tonight I'll have dinner with Brigitte and Madeleine (explain later) and Jizo and Hiroshi (also explain later).<br />
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Headed home!ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-91247001548787448022010-06-04T07:40:00.000-07:002010-06-04T07:40:45.604-07:00Steppe 11: A jaunt in the countryside<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One weekend in May, Brigitte and I were invited to our coworker and friend, Tugsuu's parent's home in the countryside. The journey there was rather epic... partly because we decided not to sleep and ended up hanging out with a bunch of friends until our 2am train... We slept most of the ride north to Sukbaatar, a city on the border with Russia. Then we 4 (us girls and Tugsuu's son) into a small sedan with 4 other people, including the driver, and driven about 2 hours into nowhere on the crevassed gutters that indicated a traveled route. Finally we arrived at a lovely home, in a little hasha (the fenced in area of a family establishment), in a very very small town in the northern Steppe. We all spent our first hours there catching some sleep through the morning rain, then Tugsuu cooked us soup with dried meat, called borts. <br />
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Went on lots of walks in the peaceful countryside. This is a monument to Japanese soldiers who died in WWII... There was also a rather maimed Buddha who fell victim to my humor...<br />
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If I were an old woman in Mongolia... more later, internet cafe is closing.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-34261522744296067492010-06-04T07:10:00.000-07:002010-06-04T07:10:39.812-07:00Steppe 10: Spring brings celebrations!Soooo April went by quite fast, quite busy with all the jobs. It was also a relief to feel the breath-very strong, very forceful breath-of spring upon us after the long long cold.<br />
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There was still snow for a while though. Here is the city I've learned to call home:<br />
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My birthday did occur on April 23, as usual, even on the other side of the world! I had a birthday dinner with my 3 Swiss (Steven, Brigitte, Nadine), 2 of my Mongolian coworkers, Tugsuu and Nina, and my German coworker Andrea, my Turkish friend Boorak, my Mongolian friend Bulgaa ("B"), and my Peace Corps friend, Christiana.<br />
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The cake Steven, Boorak, and B fetched for me from the bakery.<br />
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None of us were very photogenic that night, but you get the idea. We dined on Chinese food. I brought a book and asked them to sign that they had been there for posterity... Each person wrote in a different language or two: Steven in Swiss-German, Nina in Russian, Tugsuu in Mongolian Script, B in Mongolian Cyrillic, Christiana in Italian, Boorak in Turkish, Kurdish, and Arabic, and Andrea "in English, with a German hand". Afterwards we parted ways with Tugsuu, Nina, and Andrea, and went to Baikal Pub for drinks with our Mongolian friend Ognii. He also had a big piece of cake with a candle waiting for me! A bottle of wine and a bottle of vodka later, we caught the grocery store just before it closed to restock our apartment, and headed home where my friend Jizo joined us. There are no pictures from that night for very good reasons, and though it held little sleep for any of us, it was extremely unforgettable!!<br />
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The next event of note was Jaisri's beautiful wedding!<br />
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The ceremony was Ba'hi, held in the restaurant of Jaisri's brother. This was the altar. The ceremony was mainly readings of Ba'hi prayers in Mongolian and English, with music as meditation and reflection, and presentation and signing of certificates. The bride and groom sat in these chairs for the ceremony, and then were considered married when they stood, holding hands and said, "We humbly submit our lives to the will of God."<br />
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Left to Right: Hitomi (Japanese), Nadine, Japanese-whose-name-I-will-try-to-remember-later, Jaisri the Bride in her post-ceremony kimono, me and Brigitte. We were essentially the bridal party.<br />
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Jaisri and Keichii and their family members who attended the ceremony in Mongolia. Jaisri's brother (first on the left) lives in Mongolia. Keichii's parents, (first lady on the left, last gentleman on the right) flew in for several days from Japan.<br />
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A famous morin-khuur player played for them after the ceremony.<br />
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Khishigee and I<br />
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Brigitte and I<br />
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Jaisri, in her wedding dress though you still can't see it... and her new mother-in-law<br />
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Friends and colleagues from 19 School English Language Department.<br />
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Nina and I<br />
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The adorable flower girl and I<br />
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One of our coworkers at 19 School is a singer and performer in Mongolian traditional music. She came fully attired in traditional garb. <br />
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My crazy roomie, Steve, and Nadine<br />
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The Bride and hers and her husband's Japanese friends in kimonos<br />
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Boogi and I. She was very happy to have caught the bride's bouquet, and I was very happy to have avoided it. :-P<br />
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Many, many more pictures of delightful people, and descriptions of the ceremony, but I think they'll have to wait for another day.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-26537246409015553422010-05-30T23:30:00.000-07:002010-05-30T23:30:05.436-07:00"Gobi-ng Insane" A Tale of the Gobi, Part 5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After a night in Kharkhorin, we prepared to set out again...<br />
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A view of the ancient capitol's monastery, Erdene Zuu and the surrounding... nothingness!<br />
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On a hill overlooking the town, there is a new monument which they call the "Grave of the Khan". It has three giant maps like this one, showing the Mongol Empires. They don't actually know where Ghenggis was buried though so it's just symbolic. <br />
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A view of the town, from the "Grave". <br />
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Behind the monument, a river and a valley that I later discovered winds into the valley where the water fall is. We continued on that day to Tsetserleg, only a couple of hours away
on a pretty good road.<br />
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Beyond Tsetserleg there is this rock... which is in all the guide books and such, but surprisingly unimpressive when you see it in person... still kinda crazy and cool though.<br />
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A monastery of sorts, I believe, on the hill that towers over Tsetserleg (written in cyrillic on the sign).<br />
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The town from the top of the religious array... I love how Tsetserleg is just nestled in some steep hills... I don't have any pictures that do it justice.<br />
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Looking back the other way.<br />
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Us girls! Haha it began to snow...<br />
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Tales to tell, but I must get all these pictures up and perhaps I can add later... After Tseterleg, we headed West to Terkhin Tsagaan Nuur, the White Lake. We traveled on the half done road west, meant to unite the western aimags and UB... but after 10 years, it's not even half finished.<br />
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A once in a lifetime sighting of a family convoy moving their <i>ger</i> by oxen!!<br />
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Volcano! Really hard to take pictures of it...<br />
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The view of the lake from the volcano crater.<br />
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The lake and the guesthouse where we stayed........ (pumpin out the pictures...)<br />
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Finally, we returned to UB. Spent a couple of days there, but I'll put pics of UB up later, it's not so important. In conclusion of the Gobi trip, I have a picture above of some trinkets available at the UB black market, that I found quite amusing.<br />
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Now I can update everything that's happened in May, in these next 2 weeks before I come home again.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-14611141205979234372010-05-02T22:14:00.000-07:002010-05-02T22:14:45.352-07:00"Gobi-ng Insane" A Tale of the Gobi, Part 4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A yak!... anyways, we took a long and rather ardous 14 hour drive out of the Gobi, traveling from Omnogovi Aimag (Aimag is "state") through Ovorkhangai Aimag, finally into Arkhangai Aimag. The last hours of the day were spent slipping and sliding into completely empty mountains. The road was invisible, and our only hope was the occasional car coming the other way, each of whom our driver flagged down to ascertain teh correct route. FINALLY, around 9 (we had gotten up at around 5am) we reached Khujirt, where we stayed in a ger owned by relatives of Marik's.<br />
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Quite a cool experience, the ger was painted beautifully, and even had the carpet depicting some magnificence of their great Ghenggis Khan.<br />
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Cards are the ultimate companion of life in Mongolia, both at home and on the road.<br />
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It had been a loooong day.<br />
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Not uncommon sight. No, Marik isn't stuck, he's just trying to dig the car out. The white jeep saved our guts. Guess who it belongs to!?....<br />
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World Vision! Made us laugh.<br />
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Contemplating the first attraction in the ancient capitol city, Kharkhorin: The Penis Stone. Pointed so subtly at the mountain shaped like a vagina, in order to deter the monastery's monks from fornicating with the local woman. Legend has it, it worked.<br />
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The Ancient Monastery.<br />
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Blue is the Mongolian ... sort of very holy color. Yellow Buddhism was founded in Mongolia. </div>
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We broke into a museum? ... It was quite empty, notice the cases behind Steven.<br />
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Me and a turtle that once marked the cornerstone of a worldwide empire! <br />
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Anyways, As far as reading, I have finished the second in the Dark Tower Series, "The Drawing of the Three", and also a MAGNIFICENT Salmon Rushdie book, which was perfect to read here, "The Enchantress of Florence". Ended up this "Enchantress" Was part Mongol. Yeah so it is a book that marvelously weaves together myth and culture and tales of West and East... Just incredible.<br />
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Now I'm reading "The Stand" by Steven King, and "A Lucky Irish Lad" by Kevin O'Hara (the latter is a wonderful birthday present from my awesome sister.)<br />
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Also, for those of you who don't have facebook, I have acquired a Mongolian name, complements of a student. It is
ганцэцэг, pronounced "gahn-tseh-tsek". It means "steel" or "strong" flower. :) <br />
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Last and most importantly, I have accepted admission at Vermont Law School for the coming fall!! I've even got a roomate and an apartment already! Really looking forward to getting back to school.<br />
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That's all for now! Off to shoe shopping in the market for Jaisri's wedding. Oh yes, I have a del!ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-6575811832429315352010-04-29T22:46:00.000-07:002010-04-29T22:46:29.104-07:00"Gobi-ng Insane" A Tale of the Gobi, Part 2Well, it appears I've misplaced my memory stick... :((( But I was thinking of some things I hadn't written about that are pertinent to that last post.<br />
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Tsengel joined us kind of last minute. He works normally in a mine in the south, and the deal is they work for a couple of months, basicly wayyy over time, then they have a couple/several weeks off. So he was back in Darkhan the weekend we were leaving. Friday morning, he called me to see if we could have a lesson. I told him we were heading out for our trip in a couple of hours, so it was impossible. Later, as I was writing a few last emails and talking to Jose before leaving, he texted me: "If it's alright with you and your friends, I'd like to join you on your tour. I'm ready to leave." I checked with the others, and told him it was fine, but at that point we were leaving in 1 hour, and he'd of course have to pay... He was like, oh yeah that's fine... So he joined us! <br />
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This ended up being really nice. It meant Marik wasn't the only Mongolian who spoke English that we had with us (our driver spoke only a little German). That way, he could help interpret directions... among other things.<br />
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So the complication which made everything... a little crazy and more stressful and less rewarding than we had anticipated... was this:<br />
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As I may have mentioned, Marik is one of Steven and my neighbors, and him and Steven became friends through a boxing class. We hired him because he said he could take us on the trip for less money than the tour company, and he really wanted to show us his country. We thought that if we could trust him, this would be a really cool experience to be given a tour by a friend. We kind of forgot to think of whether he actually knew about the places. We also made the explicit choice to trust him, knowing he'd never organized a trip of this type for so many people. He had done it for one or two other foreigners, but these guys had lots of money, whereas our budget was super tight. Our choice to trust him obviously had its risks, and we felt we were prepared for that risk. He was very enthusiastic about assuring us that he could stay in budget and that he'd even pick up the extra if it got above the price, because the experience would be beneficial for him as a potential future job. We tried to itemize things out with him, but he was almost equally enthusiastic about not wanting to do that. This should have been a red flag, but we decided to go for it...<br />
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One more thing: from the first moment I met Marik, it was obvious to me that he was one of the most deeply convicted male chauvinists I've ever encountered. When he cooked and one of us girls offered to help, he tutored us in a manner that made it clear he considered our abilities and comprehension inferior. He said, "Womens must learn!" When he brought his daughter around at first, he obviously left her to be cared for by us girls when we were around. If his daughter was getting into something, or if we had finished eating and the table needed to be cleaned, he would immediately, commandingly call, "Ida! Nadine!" And expect us to address the problem. Nadine and I made a point of remedying the idea that we were around to care for his child, and in other areas, we made an effort to tolerate him, partly because he was Steven's friend.<br />
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So. The first night, when we stayed in Mandalgov, he came to Steven and told him that we'd have to pay extra because of the hotel where we slept that night. This of course immediately set us worrying after his previous promises of staying in budget. We expected such set backs as longer days or full hotels, such as we had encountered that day, so we expected him to think of that as well. That night, Nadine and I tried to talk to him and tell him there was no way we were paying extra because he had promised, blah blah blah... He was obviously distressed and was obsessed with avoiding talking to us about it. Within the next couple of day, he also expected us to pay for our meals, which we had expressly said was included in our price, among other things. Finally Nadine and Steven spoke to him, and Nadine asked him to show us the receipts for the day's expenses after each day. We were concerned he was literally going to just hoard all our money and not spend it on the trip. He refused to show Nadine the receipts, saying it was impossible. After she left, completely frustrated and infuriated, he told Steven he wouldn't talk to the women about money because "Women are irrational..." among other things. In the end, he and Steven did discuss each cost at the end of the day; meticulously wrote everything down, for Steven. In this way, we did keep track of all the money that was spent. ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-74711645245837494472010-04-29T22:45:00.000-07:002010-04-29T22:45:09.886-07:00"Gobi-ng Insane" A Tale of the Gobi, Part 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A Ger in a small town in the middle of the Gobi. We passed through here on our drive south from Mandalgovi on the 3rd day out of Darkhan. <br />
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We stopped to ask for directions, and the boy who lived in the ger obligingly posed. At first, the concept of your driver and guide stopping to ask for directions is quite nerve wracking. However, this is apparently quite normal in Mongolia, since the roads are so... vague.<br />
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Day 4, finally arrived in Dalanzadgad, the capitol of the Gobi. ;) Our van wasn't the only one who needed a shower...<br />
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The Tree of the Gobi--this is apparently the oldest. Notice the specks of light? That's actually sand. Visibility was bad, as you can see behind.<br />
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I think this is part of the Altai Mountain range, just south of Dalanzadgad. We drove there for a little hike.<br />
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Love this picture.<br />
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Again asking for directions. As a result, a perfect picture of Mongolia.<br />
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Arrived in the mountains and hiked along a rough track covered by snow, into the hills.<br />
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The fellow tourists...<br />
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The would-be "guide"...<br />
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An outhouse. Yes.<br />
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Magnifique!!<br />
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Coming out of those mountains, the view to the South and West, I think.<br />
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Sunrise on the Gobi. Up early and headed North and West. <br />
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Can you imagine why we stopped?! haha and always glad for such an opportunity.<br />
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The rest of the family... the bare, dry scarring around the camel's hump is the family brand, claiming the camel as theirs. The sheep have blue horns for the same reason. The mountains beyond them are where we had gone hiking the day before.<br />
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Run home! The sun is up!<br />
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I <3 Camels.<br />
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A forest of the Gobi.<br />
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Shit happens to everyone. How many animals pooped here? (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist, there is just poop everywhere...)<br />
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Just beyond a small town built around a mine... "There's gold in these rocks!" So we stopped.<br />
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A desert of such amazing contrasts!<br />
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It's a baby camel!!<br />
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Brought a Cuban Don Pepin cigar, and smoked a bit of it on a lunch break, in the Gobi. It was delicious and epic!<br />
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A ger where we stopped... to ask for directions... and then discovered a big leak in the oil. So we were set here for a while. I played with an ADORABLE puppy for a while, then me and the other girls took a stroll up the hill to the ovoo...<br />
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The view from the ovoo. The vastness is just amazing.<br />
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There are bones everywhere. Also piles of dead animals. I don't have any pictures of them... <br />
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Inside the ger while waiting for our car to be fixed.<br />
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One of our cheerful hosts and Brigitte and Nadine.<br />
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The details of the gers are exquisite.<br />
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A log cabin, for dad. :)<br />
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A cliff where... apparently some Mongolians shot some Chinese over it, years ago, then some Chinese shot some Mongolians over it... so now the Mongolians remember it cause they died here... yeah. This is where we took our group picture. :-P<br />
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Mongolian horses!!<br />
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Ancient Mongol graves... LOL who knows, maybe one is the Great G. Khan himself.<br />
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Some famous Mongolian waterfalls... I can't remember what they're called... But it was very impressive.<br />
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So much more to tell, and the internet is cooperating for once! But I should get this posted before a catastrophic mystery kills this lovely internet connection.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-78700209672070597742010-04-13T21:43:00.000-07:002010-06-17T08:18:14.626-07:00"Gobi-ng Insane" A Tale of the Gobi, Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We set off for our vacation in this bus. Me, Steven, Nadine, and Brigitte, one of my Mongolian TOEFL students, Tsengel, our Mongolia-Khazak guide, Marik, and our Mongolian driver, Enkh.<br />
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Our traveling crew L-R back row: Marik, Steven, Nadine; L-R front row: Tsengel, me, Brigitte, and Enkhee.<br />
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We spent much of the trip in situations like this... "Getting stuck in ruts" was the theme of car travel... Helping others out, waiting for others to get out, getting help getting out, or waiting to get help getting out! To the left is Enkhee, our Mongolian driver, and the right is Marik, our Mongol-Khazak guide. Notice the yellow sash on the man on the right, pushing the car. He is in Mongolian dress and yellow is the traditional color for the sash. We got stuck at least 4 times in 12 hours of being on the road. <br />
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Driving south from Ulaanbaatar, this was the view once the typical steppe landscape gave way (see one of my earlier blogs for that view).<br />
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Mandalgovi, the Middle Gobi capitol... yeah, crazy! We stayed here for one night after around 12 hours of driving... sorry, bouncing and jostling over rough tracks absolutely gutted by the thawing and freezing abuse of spring. This is the hotel where we stayed, and our bus as we prepare to set out for the day:<br />
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As we made our way further south, the snow began to graudally disappear, and the vast emptiness of the desert began to swallow us up!<br />
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Haha... can you see the road? Sort of... those tracks... but where do they lead?! There is no sun in the sky! Somehow, the Mongolian instincts of our 3 Mongolian companions got us where we were going... By the way, each morning we were greeted by the van's single mix CD whose playlist began with "Cherry, Cherry Lady", "Mary's Boy Child" (yeah, the Christmas song), and some other Abba songs... I will remember later. <br />
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Herds of camels were sighted beginning as soon as we left Darkhan, and then, a few hours south of Mandalgov, we basicly drove through one! So we stopped for a photo shoot! These are not "wild" camels, because Mongolians say there are almost no wild camels. They are all owned by someone, set free to roam wild in the winter, and put to work under domestic supervision in the summer.<br />
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It was windy! (Nadine above, and to the right our dirty van, Marik, and Tsengel.)<br />
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Me!<br />
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The Gobi! Note, it's not sand, but gravel.<br />
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Me and camels... we're tight.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://usermap.mapdaze.com/ifmap.php?bid=678&aid=3" style="border: none; height: 327px; overflow: hidden; width: 312px;"></iframe>ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-33364689789303287532010-03-18T20:41:00.000-07:002010-06-17T08:12:16.727-07:00Steppe 9: into the GobiHeaded into the Gobi! Taking a Don Pepin cigar with me from the awesome package that arrived yesterday from Jose. It's going to be pretty epic... hope the spring winds bring me back again! ;)<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://usermap.mapdaze.com/ifmap.php?bid=678&aid=2" style="border: none; height: 327px; overflow: hidden; width: 312px;"></iframe>ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-85223197488036535722010-03-13T02:35:00.000-08:002010-03-13T02:35:16.061-08:00Steppe 8: Turkish Breakfast Delight and Professor NiningerWell the end of last weekend was quite satisfying. On Monday, Women's Day, Brigitte and I took a nice walk up on one of the little hills that divides Old and New Darkhan and took some pictures. I also had another session with Tsengel. Dinner, a movie... Good stuff.<br />
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The week of teaching went by well. Although every week presents new reminders of the very different kind of student you find here in Mongolia. It's really trying to have our Western ideas of teaching and expectations of the students and be teaching here in Mongolia. I had 9th graders this week say, "Teacher, sing songs, play games! Reading is boring!" I could've slapped the lot of them! Of course I didn't, but what kind of 14-15 year old in America would ever do that!? I told them straight up that they weren't going to improve their English playing games and singing songs at their age, and no matter if they <i>wanted to</i> or not, that's what I came here to do: improve their English. They'll probably all fail the test I've written for them this week, but I have done my job. After a certain point, you can't teach the old-dog-9th-grade-student a new trick of how to study, especially when there is a serious language and culture gap. Also when those standards aren't enforced in other classes. I suppose it is to be expected in an education system where medals are a dime a dozen (hahah almost literally) but grading and evaluation based on actual mastery is rare if present at all... good grades are more for the <i>appearance</i> of accomplishment than reflective of the actual fact of its presence. <br />
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The interesting paradox is that there is one or perhaps a couple students in every class section that actually know how to be a good student. When Mongolians have ambition they know how to achieve, and boy do they achieve! Many are studying and living and working abroad. But it seems only with ambition do they learn the kind of respect that we, especially in America and Europe, expect. Of course, I think this is only about a partly correct observation from my culture to theirs, because I don't understand their language. Nevertheless, as an American teacher in a primary school, the way the students behave is extremely frusterating.<br />
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Yet here I am, writing tests for the end of the first term! It has indeed been a learning experience. Despite their pleas, I will continue to <i>try</i> to actually teach them English next term, but I will of course attempt some new approaches.<br />
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The end of this past week, despite the disappointment of students, was really nice. Thursday night, I got a text from one of the girls, named Hilal, who I met at the Turkish Food Festival last Sunday. She invited me and anyone I wanted to bring to a Turkish Breakfast early Friday morning with her and her students. Brigitte was the only one who could (hahah or wanted to wake up that early, *cough* Steven *cough*) join me, so we set off at 7am on Friday morning for the Turkish School. We were seated at a table in their dining hall and waited for the food to be served with two Mongolian students. They were 11th grade girls, enthusiastic about their English, and apparently entrenched in the stress of Mongolian pre-university/graduation exams. Hilal is a dormitory supervisor, like our friend Boorak, except of course in the femal dorm. By the way, Steven didn't just not want to wake up early, he was also being sensitive to the fact that since the school is Turkish, and thus run with Muslim principles and practices (all the food is prepared according to Muslim law.) As a Muslim himself, he knew the girls and boys are usually quite separate. So the breakfast was an little dorm activity that Hilal had organized. Our EXTREMELY delicious breakfast was prepared for us by the students, and then we ate together, and they had an opportunity to practice their English. The two girls we spoke with at first were absolutely lovely and quite bold in their speaking, even making really good jokes in English! Takes guts to make such jokes in a foreign language! They served us bread, crepes, jam, fresh butter, a milk and sugar mix, a nutella-cream mix, some sauteed peppers, home fries, and a "very Turkish" dish with peppers and I think eggs. We drank tea. The girls finally ran off to their class, then Hilal stayed and talked with us for a little longer before heading back to attend to her duties. She's a really lovely person, full of a lot of energy, practically running everywhere. She grew up in Turkey and this is her 2nd year in Mongolia. She told us her first year she was supervising 10th graders, who were quite easy, which was fortunate since she was learning Mongolian and transitioning to living there. This year, though, she has 11th graders, who are constantly encountering drama in their personal lives, and their education which is focused on these final tests. Brigitte and I are hoping to host a reciprocal breakfast in Swiss-American style sometime in the next few weeks...<br />
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Meanwhile, I have a new job or two... I will now be teaching 8 hours a week at Darkhan University. Monday I have 2 evening classes, each 2 hours long, one for first year students and one for second year students. Tuesday I the same, except both are for second year students. It's funny to think that at a University, I am paid less than $4 per hour! But what it makes in Tugrik is a welcome addition to my other salary.<br />
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Also, I have acquired a new piano student, who has been in intensive, but not individualized music classes. He will have lessons on Wednesday and Friday, each 1 hour long! He is quite able to find his way around the keyboard, and can play the primary theme of Fur Elise by heart. We'll work on reading music and technique. It's quite nice, because of my 4 piano students, they have about 3 different levels between them, which makes the lessons more interesting. They are also more interesting because it's much easier to teach music than English for me. I've had more experience, but also I guess it just comes more naturally. Plus any change is welcome, in the sense of variety and the sense of cash. ;) <i>Plus</i> the students who are taking piano are quite dedicated and focused. 3 of them I know are children of teachers, and the newest, my only boy, is a 3rd grader whose English is better than the 11th graders (Apparently he studied at an American school in UB.) Two of my students are preparing for a competition in April.<br />
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So this weekend is rather full, with writing tests and preparing for the end of school, as well as writing syllabi for the university students, and finally, getting ready to embark on my first tour of Mongolia! On Friday our two week spring vacation begins, and we will be taking an approximately 12 day tour of the Gobi Dessert and some of Central, and a little Western Mongolia! Mark is going to be our tour guide according to plan thus far, although we haven't signed a contract with our driver yet, so we may yet have to use a tour company. If we do have this driver, it will be great because he has over 20 years of driving experience. It's a bit of a risk taking this route, but will hopefully save money, and add a personal flavor to have our Mongolian friend giving the tour. Still, this trip will be kinda costly, so I'm hoping I'll have enough with all my extra working hours to still travel a little in June. Either way, this trip will certainly be worth it.<br />
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Meanwhile, that'll mean 2 weeks of no internet, so I've got to get calls in to home before and make sure people don't panic when I'm web-dead for 2 weeks. :-P Jose is home with his Grandmother in Puerto Rico for spring break, so it may be we go for 3 weeks without talking... first time since we met over a year ago! ;) So it'll be an adventure on a lot of levels LOL. <br />
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On Friday, as I was running around with tutoring and piano lessons and getting books from the University Library, I misplaced my amazing gloves that Nancy got me for Christmas (and which always get lots of complements, by the way, Nance.) I started to panic and get really sad, certain I had lost them. I double checked where I had been at the university, then returned to a shop where I had bought some juice and a snack for my busy afternoon. Since apparently the concept of "Lost and Found" is nonexistent here (according to several accounts, after people found keys and such important things) I assumed if I had lost my gloves, they were gone. But when I got to the shop, I mimed "glove" haha and the cashier produced my gloves immediately! I was very very happy.<br />
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Well I guess that's it for now. Many things to do, first dinner.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-66657203542351441012010-03-10T19:07:00.000-08:002010-03-13T01:43:40.441-08:00Steppe 7: An (Almost) All-American WeekendWe had a lovely four day weekend this past weekend, since Monday was Woman's Day. Friday there were things to do, but Saturday I lazed around the apartment and enjoyed the solitude, as Nadine and Steven took a short trip to UB for a German speaking Olympiad. I cleaned a little, baked some bread, read... And the bread was amazingly exciting since somehow it came out tasting like Mom's did when I was a kid... made me super happy. :) Mid-afternoon, I had my first speaking session with a guy named Tsengel. He is a few years older and has earned his degrees in business, now working in one of the coal and copper mines in the south. One of the teachers, Nina, is a friend of his and got the little job for me. He is preparing for the TOEFL because he wants to study business and English in America or Europe. Then he wants to return to Mongolia and build up businesses with the good practices he hopes to learn in the West. He loves to travel, and has been to every aimag in Mongolia except the 2 most Western ones. That is actually rare for a Mongolian, since the transportation system is not well developed, so the cost can be pretty high and of course traveling is very difficult in winter... Our classes are not only good for his English, but informative for me as far as Mongolia goes.<br />
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After meeting with him, I picked up Christine at the bus station. Christine is an American from Ann Arbor, MI, which has just arrived to teach (indefinite time) in UB. It was lovely to meet her and we had a lovely evening just talking about transition to Mongolian life and Mongolian teaching. Nadine and Steven returned home later that night, so we had a full apartment.<br />
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Sunday, we had a nice lazy morning, then Christine and I went to Old Darkhan, and shopped at the Black Market. Then we went to the Turkish School, where our friend Boorak had invited us to a Turkish Food Festival. The food was of course, delicious, and was a fundraiser so it was a good cause. We all took some food home with us for later enjoyment. The 3 Swiss ;) got there a little later. While there, we met and talked with several other foreigners (an American Peace-Corps, a British VSO, Turkish teachers...) so it was an altogether wonderfully interesting experience. After eating Christine and I scurried off to get her to the bus station. Then I napped a bit, and toted some coke and vodka over to the apartment of Stephanie and Ryan, a Peace Corps couple from Oregon. There I passed a long and wonderful evening with about 8 other American Peace Corps. It was a wonderful decompression from the intense focus of living in another culture. One of the guys made a "<i>That's what she said..."</i> joke and it made me so happy! I realized it had been 2 months since I'd heard/made one of those jokes! :-P We made make-shift burritos, played games, and talked until 4:30 in the morning! It was really lovely, and all of them were so nice! Apparently, Mongolia has the lowest retention rate of Peace Corps volunteers. For every "class" or whatever they call it, I believe they said 30% leave. I'm not surprised. It's very hard to live here.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-66877513292409850422010-03-04T22:18:00.000-08:002010-03-04T22:18:19.102-08:00Steppe 6Finished another book! The comic-book novel, "The Watchmen" by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. It was a really amazing story, and of course was better than the movie, which I *gasp* saw before I read it. It brings up many questions of existence and humanity and our struggles with our imperfections, confronting those questions in a fascinating light.<br />
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This week has gone well, and I seem to be under the growing illusion that discipline is actually effective. Made bread for the first time since I was a small child in the kitchen with mom, so that was fun and brought back a flood of memories as soon as I plunged my fists into the dough. This weekend Steven and Nadine are going to UB for a German Olympiad so I will have the apartment to myself for the first time, which will be rather exciting! Tomorrow another American who is living and working in UB (also through Anita) may come to visit me for a night or so.<br />
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I have resolved to try to save money for traveling and not use the nice gym at the hotel. Instead I will try to use the school gym for a little running (around and around and around and around) and I have downloaded some yoga videos from YouTube to do at home. We'll see if I can stave off the increasing evidence of winter boredom dawdling around my middle... <br />
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Monday is Women's Day, a national holiday, which means no school! Whatever shall I do with myself!?... I tried to schedule a longer tutoring session on that day with a student I'm tutoring for the TOEFL, but he insisted I should rest. :-P<br />
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I am completely possessed of everything to finish my financial aid applications, just waiting for Mom and Dad to help me get them mailed back in the US. Such a good feeling! And maybe now I can cut down on my internet expenses. I have to always pay for internet when I am doing financial aid stuff because the secure internet and computers are only in certain internet cafes. The computer at school (on which I write my blog) is filled with nastyness and doesn't even have the firewall activated. So I can write, but shan't handle the financials here.<br />
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Feeling grateful this week that Mama's surgery went well! That among other things has made the missing my home peoples that much worse!ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-77508108367541172362010-02-28T02:00:00.000-08:002010-02-28T02:00:13.934-08:00Steppe 5Brigitte has arrived! We weren't sure if or when she would get here, but she finally arrived on Wednesday night. She has dived right into the speaking tests which we all have been busy administering since Wednesday. Unfortunately we all had to work a bit on Saturday, but Brigitte and my tests for the afternoon were cancelled, as the 11th graders are preparing for another exam in the coming week. Now after a longer week, straight on to preparations for this week. <br />
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Two students from our school have won first and second place in a district English speaking competition.<br />
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The challenge in teaching over the last couple of weeks has been discipline and sort of classroom etiquette The students have somehow been allowed to think that it's ok to behave rudely and loudly around foreign teachers... They have almost no respect for the foreign teachers as we teach, loudly talking, even mocking us during our instruction. It's hard to know what to do, since we can only communicate with them to a certain point. It's difficult to know when to attempt to put your foot down, and when to let things go--especially when you can't really know exactly what's happening in the class (since they're jabbering in Mongolian) in order to deal fairly with everyone. For the first couple of weeks it's not too bad, but finally I have decided to try to establish a certian etiquette that I expect from my classes. Otherwise, I don't feel that I'm able to teach in such a way that the school is getting their money's worth from me, or that I'm doing any kind of service to any student that even wants to learn. Part of this is also because whenever the Mongolian teachers are around, the students are stellar: silent, behaved, respectful. I know they understand how they SHOULD behave, so I need to make them understand those boundaries continue into my classroom. And sometimes, it's truly appalling, and basicly not a good habit to get into what these students do. In my<em> 11th grade</em> class, I had a student throwing things at another student! This is the graduating class in Mongolia, these students will be considered adults in just a couple of months. How do they think they're going to get along in the workplace if they can't even pretend to respect their foreign English teacher? No doubt they aren't thinking, and that's why I'm the teacher and they should behave in my class. <br />
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Of course, this is basicly an Olympian feat, without the medal and publicity--I'm pretty sure any teacher feels this way! But so far, whether it's true or an illusion I'm choosing to see, I think I am beginning to succeed in getting some order. <br />
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Last night, we had a lovely dinner at Jaisri and Brigitte's apartment, with Nadine, Steven, Khishigee, and Boogii, and of course Jaisri's Japanese fiancee, Keichi. Jaisri cooked curry (she is part Indian) and a traditional Malasian dish, Keichi cooked a meatloaf type meat dish and another Japanese noodle dish, and I brought rice. (:-P not my night to do the interesting cooking) Brigitte made a delicious cake for dessert. It was really a lovely time; nice to be all together and chatting outside of school. <br />
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Today the 3 Swiss ;) and I took a walk around New Darkhan and had lunch at Texas pub. No I will go home and prepare for classes tomorrow. I have been at the internet cafe which has wireless for personal laptops, updating a few things on my laptop.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-48267479386374886792010-02-26T00:48:00.000-08:002010-02-26T00:48:50.490-08:00Readings!One other thing that is absolutely cool about life in Mongolia is all the reading! The amount of books I've read --of my own choosing, of my own will-- in the last month has been more than those I read in the space of a year since I was in high school. Here's what I've read:<br />
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"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />
-The writing in this book is, of course, absolutely amazing. The story was epic.<br />
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"Invictus" by John Carlin<br />
-A really fascinating book about South Africa in the '90s, Nelson Mandela, their rugby obsessions, and their fight against apartheid. Inspiring what a difference Mandela made<br />
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"Gunslinger" by Stephen King<br />
-A really really awesome science fiction book (Jose's fav... studying up on the boyfriend :-P). Looking forward to Jose sending me the second book in the series (The Dark Tower series).<br />
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"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut<br />
-Amazingly powerful book. I must read more of his books!ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-49959022265884662202010-02-24T22:28:00.000-08:002010-02-24T22:28:28.691-08:00Steppe 4: All and SundryTeacher's Day was several weeks ago, but it was kind of a phenomenon so I'll write about it briefly.<br />
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The
date was February 12. Thursday and Friday, teachers had the option to
have students teach for them so they had the time off. On Friday
morning, the students gave presentations such as Thank Yous and awards
to favorite or otherwise noteable teachers. All the teachers were
dressed to the nines and each presentation was accompanied by a
dramatic recorded musical entrance, perfectly timed. The afternoon for
the teachers continued with more awards, ranging from district to
national. That evening, there was a teacher's party at the Texas Pub
(the "American Style" pub). I attended with Jaisri. We arrived early,
and were only allowed to enter the dining room when the bowl of candy
and the shot of vodka had been prepared for us, both of which we were
required to take. The evening was very pleasant, and at least made me familiar with the faces of my coworkers, although many of their names still escape me! The food was pretty good, the beef and its sauce obviously a tribute to American cuisine, and the vodka of course flowed freely. Most of the beginning of the evening was taking pictures and talking to anyone who wanted to speak English... Then moreeee awards ceremonies! (Complete with triumphant entrance music!) The awards ceremonies became interspersed with dancing, which was fun, especially with the other younger teachers. Towards the end of the evening, Jeezu (Jeezu is a Mongolian from Darkhan, who is the Japanese Teacher at our school. He earned a business degree at a Darkhan University at 18, and then studied in Japan for a degree in that...) offered to take me home in his (sweet) car, and on the way showed me around the town (see the pics of me and Buddha) which was lovely because it was night and snowing. Found out his birthday is the day before mine (and we are the same age) and since Steven's is May 4, and ours April 22-23, I think there will have to be an epic celebration.<br />
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So that was Teacher's Day.<br />
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The final greetings of Tsagaan Sar for me were Wednesday and Thursday of last week. Wednesday, we went to our school, and joined the other teachers in greeting first our Director, Delger, and then each other. And of course eating boz. This greeting ended with several wonderful toasts, given from eldest to youngest, at which the person toasting had to make a short speach and then sing a song. It was absolutely wonderful to sit back and hear the teachers raise their voices in several Mongolian folk songs. Mongolians love to sing, and the melodies are very haunting. Even though I can't understand the words, from the way they sing, the epic nature of the lyrics is often clear. It resembled a less rip-roaring version of a Shape-Note Sing, or a West Newbury Hymn Sing. :)<br />
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After we greeted Delger, Steven, Nadine, Boogii, two other younger men teachers, and I traveled to the outskirts of Old Darkhan with Hishigee to her home. There we feasted on her Tsagaan Sar spread, and met her daughter, and her two nieces. It was a sort of bonding experience with most of us younger teachers joking and talking into the evening, across language and culture, but all celebrating the Lunar New Year.<br />
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Thursday, I went with Andrea to Enkhtuya's (Enkhtuya is a Mongolian English teacher, one of the best teachers in Darkhan, and our Mongolian instructor) to great her. We passed that evening talking of many things and Andrea and Enkhtuya teaching me about Mongolian language and culture.<br />
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So all in all, the holiday concluded splendidly for me, it has been a really memorable experience.ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-41333527945788511692010-02-15T23:16:00.000-08:002010-02-15T23:16:25.548-08:00Tsagaan Sar !I think there are a couple of things that happened a week or so ago I need to write about,but while it's fresh in my mind I will write about the biggest holiday in Mongolia, which is happening right now...<br />
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Tsagaan Sar means "White Month" in Mongolian, and we know it as the Lunar or Chinese New Year. This year it is over Valentine's Day, which only some young people celebrate here. The actual holiday begins on the eve of the New Year, which was Saturday, the 13th. Close family and friends gather together and eat and greet each other. Sunday, there begins a cycle of visiting which lasts for up to 15 days! Family and friends gather from all over town, countryside, nation, and city to greet the elder persons of each household, and eat. We have no school this week, until Thursday, though some schools will begin on Wednesday. <br />
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The visiting routine is that the visitors arrive at the house, and greet the elders by sort of lightly grasping each others arms, parallel hand to elbow, younger person's arms on the bottom, elder on the top. greeting sounds like "Amor Ben-noh" but I have no idea how they would spell it really, and not sure exactly what it means, other than a greeting. :-P You must greet the elders before you remove your hat or jacket, if it is a formal meeting. If the guests are close family or very close friends, they greet with blue silk or wool scarves and give the elders money. If not, there is no gift from visitor to host. Next, the guests are seated and fed an absolutely rediculously abundant amount of food. <br />
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The same dishes are served at each home. There is a bowl of rice, upon which are pile traditional sweet breads in a careful puzzle-like stack, and topped with Mongolian dried dairy products of various types, and sweets such as sugar cubes and candy. This stack will stay put for around 7 days of visiting, then they will begin to eat the bread. If the elders who are visited are middle aged, they will have cooked the chest of a cow or sheep; if the elders are older, they have the back and tail of the cow or sheep. Each guest is first served a modest slice of that meat, which also sets on the table, completely intact (not carved). There are various plates of salads, mostly of potato, salami, and carrot with mayonnaise, and then rice with raisins. There will also be plates of sliced salami and sliced pickles. These you eat first, and are often expected to put a considerable dent in the 3 or 4 dishes they set in front of you. The eating is semi-communal, depending. It seems the less prosperous homes serve one dish and one or two utensils, with which many people are expected to partake. The more prosperous houses serve individual dishes and silverware. However, this observation may be wrong... It could be varying observance of tradition, or some such thing, I didn't visit enough houses to know. With the salads, you are served the Mongolian milk tea, which is very good, and a welcome and speedy warm-up after the chilly outdoors. There is then juice, which is often of a kind made from a native Mongolian berry, which has fat! The juice is a light orange, and really delicious! Sometimes you are served a fermented version of this juice, which is alcoholic and tastes a little like hard cider. Depending on the household, you may or may not be served vodka, and that may be before or after the "botss" (spelling wrong, just the sound) which are the sort of "main course". If you are served vodka, it is in a shot glass, and you must toast the elder, who initiates the toast, and either pretend to sip or take the shot. If you take the shot, they will inevitably refill you and toast again. The frequency depends on the household and the guests who are visiting along with you. Finally, you are served up to 50 "botss" which are small, look a little like pot-stickers, but rounder. They are filled with meat, which may or may not have been cooked with onions or some mild spice, and may or may not be mostly fat which takes FOREVER to chew!! The meat is wrapped and "pinched" at the top in a dough that resembles dumpling or, again, pot stickers. In some households, they set 30 "botss" in front of a couple of guests (Steven and myself) and expect us to eat every single one... at only one house! Needless to say, whether you take the shot of vodka or not may have quite a lot to do with how many houses and how many "botss" you have met with in the recent past... sometimes a shot or two of vodka is the only thing that enables you to remain polite and chow down on another "botss". It's not the most capitol of crimes, but they defintiely insist very very strongly that you EAT EAT EAT! Fortunately, I find the food very good. ;)<br />
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Finally, when you feel as if you have eaten them out of house and home, or rather that they have stuffed you and are perhaps preparing to take you out back and fatten you up for the next holiday... The host presents you with a gift. It may be a handful of candy, or a box of chocolates and a souvenir of sorts. Then you leave. Take take take, leave. I have to just do what my Mongolian friends tell me, and trust if they are decieving me at least they will have a good laugh... because it's so completely contrary to everything my New England Tradition has taught me. You don't even wait for the host to eat! They don't usually! They just watch! And you are served by younger relatives who are laboring all day in the kitchen. On the other hand, it is a remarkeable who of generosity and hospitality, that the hosts obviously take pleasure from. They thank you for visiting them, and the process of greeting is quite important, especially for older people, and among family. <br />
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I visited 4 homes on Sunday: 3 with Steven and his friend Mark, who lives a couple floors above us in our building. We greeted Mark's parentsin Mark's home, served by his wife and of course entertained by Amka, his 2 year old daughter. Then with him, his wife, and Amka, we visited his wife's father, and his wife's brother. They lived on the outskirts of Old Darkhan, in very small homes built on the sides of the hills, with small dirt courtyards for each one or two homes. The toilets are outside, in outhouses... I think they expect me to be more surprised by that. ;) Last on Sunday, we visited the home of Saraa, the director of our language department at school. She lives in Old Darkhan also, in an apartment. Her sons (who we teach) were also there, and they greeted us and we talked for a while. On Monday We visited Mark and Steven's friend Jack (I have written about him before) at his mother's house, also on the outskirts of Old Darkhan. At his house, we were not served vodka, because it has been only 2 years since his father passed away, and no alcohol is served until 3 years after. Later that day, Steven and I went to the Turkish School, which is the best school in the area, and visited another friend of Steven's, Boohrak (sp?!) who is Turkish, and is a dorm supervisor there. (He has been living in Mongolia for 4 years, and speaks Turkish, Kurdish, English, Mongolian, Azarian (Azerbaijain), and I think a couple other languages... he's 21.) Nadine joined us there and we hung out and talked over coffee in his apartment. Then we recieved an invitation to another home, of one of our fellow Mongolian English teachers. So we took Boohrak along (although he can't eat the Mongolian food because he is Muslim, we knew this friend has travelled much and would understand), and we headed to Boogii's! We had a lovely time there, and then returned home, where we spent the evening with Jack and Mark and some cards and vodka. It definitely feels like a holiday. :-P Today(Tuesday) I visited the grandmother of one of my students (11th grade, named Monkhoo) who invited me to greet her. We visited her home, on the outskirts of Old Darkhan as well, with several other family members. They have a large house, and apparently his grandmother (a really wonderful spunky lady) owns a company that as far as I could tell processes coal or some other type of fuel. Tomorrow I will visit my friend Hishigee, to greet her parents, and then all the teachers from our school will go to our school where we will greet our director, Delger. <br />
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And all of that visiting is the lite foreigner's version. Monkhoo told me he had visited 8 homes yesterday! Mark told us that often 60-80 people will visit one home per day. <br />
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So the holiday will last a day or so more, then we have work on Thursday. Friday and Saturday, although I usually have them off, will be spent administering some English Speaking Tests... Meanwhile I have emerged from the abyss of no internet that the holiday brought on. ;) And I'm thinking I will have no appetite, and no need to eat for several weeks...ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-76484716488207549142010-02-09T21:12:00.000-08:002010-02-09T21:12:46.753-08:00More pictures!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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3 new friends and co-workers in the English Department, at Teacher's Day Celebrations: Jaisri (Malasian), Hishigee (Mongolian), and Boogii (Mongolian). It should be noted I only know the nicknames of the Mongolians I can't pronounce their real names! :-P</div>
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Other teachers from our school. This is our gym, too, obviously. The lady in the Blue is Saraa, who is the director of my Dept. </div>
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Later that night at the teacher's party... Jaisri and I.</div>
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And another colleague from the English Dept, Nina (Mongolian).</div>
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Foreign Language Teachers! Andrea (German), Enkhtuya (Mongolian, me, and Boogii.</div>
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My friend Hishigee performing! Hammer Dulcimer! I can't remember what they call it. </div>
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Another new friend, Jeezu, took me to see the "God's Mountain" in Darkhan, where there are Buddhist prayer wheels and statues. It was beautiful in the snow... and very cold! </div>
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Me and Buddha are tight. </div>
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New Dakhan City beyond.</div>
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The view of Ulaanbaatar, capitol city of Mongolia from my incoming China Air flight. </div>
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My first Mongolian bus station... This picture makes it appear more organized and clean than it felt!</div>
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Sunset oveUB from the apartment where I stayed my first night. </div>
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Again, in the morning... haze. ;)</div>
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The bus ride to Darkhan... ponies!!!</div>
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I have many pictures from the ride... these will suffice for now. </div>
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From the small entryway in my apartment, left to right: Front door, toilet, shower, kitchen; Steven's room/the living room, and my room. More pictures at some point when things are clean and organized. </div>
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The view from the kitchen window. That is what our building looks like too.</div>
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The views from my bedroom window. The green doors house the cars. They must be kept inside or they won't start up again. </div>
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<br />ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-21413134804216261662010-02-08T21:46:00.001-08:002010-02-08T21:46:49.750-08:00woops...SO the end of that story is I was 15 minutes late for Mongolian class... Which would be very Mongolian of me, except I called to tell them I'd be late. Many times Mongolians will be very late and not call.<br />
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So I am beginning to learn the Mongolian alphabet! It's quite hard!<br />
<br />ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-10046914754281089182010-02-08T21:41:00.000-08:002010-02-08T21:41:38.910-08:00Steppe 3Since my last post, things have been starting to acquire a routine at last. That means my exoticism as a blond, blue-eyed English speaking teacher has definitely waned, so I've been challenged a lot more by loud and crazy class rooms-from the 2nd graders to the 11th graders. Unfortunately, foreign teachers normally give them a lot of leeway, plus, they can't really fail the classes since the schools are all in competition, and thus never really give a student below a B. So it's hard to earn their respect and attention. As I am now in the middle of my 3rd week of teaching, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, plus I'm actually able to prepare for classes. I am trying to put a lot into these classes, despite the majority of the students almost certainly won't. Otherwise, laziness and boredom have never been something I do well with... Especially on the other side of the world from Jose and Home! Since it is winter, travel on the weekend is difficult because the weather and transportation aren't really reliable. But I am finding plenty to do, and am very excited about the fact I actually have a little time to read for the first time since my early teens.<br />
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Haha, I just had to correct myself because I accidentally typed "exciting" instead of "excited" which is a mistake many Mongolians make when speaking English. Jack came by one night after a few drinks with his friends, and he kept saying "I am very exciting! I am very exciting!" LOL I had to restrain myself from saying, "Yes, you are!"<br />
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<br /><b>Piano Students and Mongolian Time</b><br />
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I have acquired 2 piano students! One has been playing for 6 years and the other for 2. They are both in their early teens, and live in the same "district" as I do, but a taxi ride away. Their mother is a social studies teacher at the school where I teach, and she made contact with me through one of the German teachers, as she speaks German, but not English. This happened on one very busy afternoon last week, and the mother insisted I should come over to her apartment if I had a moment to see her piano and the girls and their music. As it turned out, I accidentally scheduled to meet her 30 minutes before the foreign teachers had scheduled to have class in the Mongolian language (we had scheduled and rescheduled said class SEVERAL times over the first 2 weeks, so it wasn't so terrible that I had forgotten.) So I crossed my fingers that she didn't live too far away (since I couldn't really communicate with her) and we set out for her apartment. Of course I became concerned when we got in the taxi, but figured it couldn't take too long... Well, it wouldn't have taken long, if the taxi hadn't taken a round about way through several side streets to drop off the other random people that were crammed in the backseat, AND then stopped for gas... finally we arrived at the apartment building, and climbed to the top apartment. We removed our shoes and I was carefully prevented from putting my bags on the floor, since that is NEVER done here! I had the girls play for me (we'd already met they are in my classes) and we talked about times and prices for lessons. We have been instructed to charge between 3,000-5,000 T for private lessons, so I have set 4,000 T for an hour long lesson. That converts to less than $4 per hour, where I get $24 per hour in the US. Yet this is expensive here, and I'm grateful to have the extra salary. <br />
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So I will have the first piano lesson tomorrow! I have permission to hold it at the school if I need to, but I think I will try to have it at the apartment as much as possible since the piano there will I think turn out to be better.<br />
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Must off to class! More later...ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-33483931184324586722010-01-29T22:33:00.000-08:002010-01-29T22:33:10.958-08:00Steppe 2: First Week of Teaching<div style="color: #990000; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
So! Long blog last time, I'll try to keep this one shorter. ;)</div>
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Sunday, the day after I arrived, I made pancakes for Steven and I for breakfast, and then he showed me around Darkhan for a good part of the day. There are markets nearby us, in New Darkhan, and a black market in Old Darkhan. The shopping centers basicly look like large warehouses with sort of cubicles arranged by product. Meat is in a cold room, with up to 30 butchers trying to sell... there are cuts on the tables and whole sheep strung up behind. There is one place I can buy chicken. There are some veggies available like mushrooms, onions, potatoes, carrots and cabbage. There is also eggplant but it's quite expensive. The dollar goes quite a way, but I am going to technically be living on a Mongolian salary. Living here reminds me of camping-anything that is not essential is too much. I have a couple towels, but no shower curtain, and cereal is too expensive on my salary so I am finding other things to eat for breakfast. Steven has lovely family in Switzerland and America who send him boxes with snacks, which have been lovely to have as I transition to this new way of life. ;) Also, just as I brought Green Mountain Coffee with me, he has brought coffee from Switzerland. But, our electric water pot is broken, so we heat our water now on the stove. When shopping and going online, the shops are not always open even though their hours indicate they should be. I have already found my favorite internet cafe, which is owned by one of the German teachers from my school and her husband. It is quite nice inside, and the teacher and her husband are very sweet! Just now she has brought me coffee, gratis! As it is Saturday, I am surrounded by young boys who are gaming. Gaming is as big here as it is in America. </div>
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So I have started cooking mutton, which is an adventure... It must cook for a long time to get to a consistency that is not exhausting to eat. ;) It's quite chewy. The taste pervades everything, since it is pretty much the only meat available... so I made a stew the other day and put in LOTS of curry and garlic.</div>
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I still do not have enough shelves for my clothes, I'm not quite sure when that will be resolved... we shall see. In the meantime, i am living out of my bags, and must be very careful to keep them closed or Peek-A will pee in them. Already I am having to wash several shirts who have fallen victim. </div>
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I started teaching on Monday. The head of the English department, Saraa, told me that Mongolian-English teachers would subsitute for me until I felt ready. This was only the case in a few classes, later on. In the first 2 classes, the teachers walked in, told me where the students were at, and sat in the back waiting for me to teach! Quite an adventure. So far, the students are interesting and fun, of course, it's the first week. It's hard to figure out where to begin with them sometimes, especially the more advanced students, and the middle school and late elementary grades. The younger ones are easier... And yes, I have 2nd grade, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, 7th grade, 9th and 11 th grade, then speaking club (preparing for a sort of English Speaking Olympics) for 10th and 11th grade. Me and the Swiss are teaching pronunciation and vocab and speaking, in complement to the Mongolian teachers who teach grammer. That means we only see a class once or twice a week. I have 18 hours of classes per week. Not counting when the Mongolian teachers ask me to come speak to their class, since I am one of only 2 native English speakers there--the other is Douglas, who is British. So it has been quite a challenge trying to pick up in the classes where they left off last term... and trying to communicate when I don't know how much English they know. </div>
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The second graders are sooooo cute!! They want to try to speak to me and are so enthusiastic... they come up to me and pull my shirt and say "Teacher!"... then get a confused, extremely focused, semi-constipated look on their faces as they begin to realize they can't tell me what they want to say in English... then explode in a torrent of Mongolian! I smile and nod. At the end of one class in the 9th grade, one of the boys who was in the front row said, in a rather awed voice, "Teacher, your eyes!... they're so... big... and... blue!" hahaha A+ on the vocab. ;) In one of my third grade classes I have a half American student, and in another, a boy whose mother is a German teacher and the librarian. They both know enough English to be more advanced than their Mongolian peers, a fact which I realized when they would eagerly shout out the answers to my questions, but the other Mongolian students in their classes knew not at all. In 3rd grade, I have so far been able to integrate the American into helping me teach, and he has been the model of cooperation. in the 5th grade, with the German, it is more challenging, because he is only a little better than the others. </div>
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The other teachers are very nice! I have made a couple of friends--one, who is a little older than me, has invite me to come to visit her mother for the big holiday on February 14 (the Chinese New Year... it is a holiday throughout Asia). Also, her mother sells the <i>del</i> which is the national Mongolian dress... she said she could sew me one! Steven has acquired several Mongolian friends, who stop by often to chat. They don't call, they just knock and then come in and then commences the epic communication snarl which is a few words of Mongolian, many jumbled words of English, and lots of gestures and drawing pictures. ;) One of his friends, who calls himself Jack (many have "English names") has agreed with his friends in the countryside to invite us out to their ger (pronounced <i>gare</i>, the Mongolian word for yurt) for a real Mongolian meal. He asked us if we would like to eat sheep or goat or camel or horse?! We said we will eat anything. Then we may also ride out to the mountains and shoot targets on another day! It is lovely to meet these people and I feel as though I have the opportunity to become well acquainted with their culture, for which I am very grateful!</div>
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Steven and I are beginning quite a nice routine-we begin most days around the same time, have coffee and walk to school, which is not even a 2 minute walk away. In the evenings, he does the dishes and I cook dinner, then after dinner we watch MTV or HBO or the BBC or Euro News or some Australian Channel (The only channels in English) or perhaps a movie on one of our computers, and we play chess and play with Peek-A. Nadine and Steven both work out at the gym frequently, and have been lovely about inviting me... so I went on Friday. It is an alright gym, although the other Mongolians working out there love to stare at us, especially Nadine and I. Nadine has light brown hair and light skin, and though Steven definitely doesn't look Mongolian, he has Indian(India) heritage so he has dark hair and skin. Apparently the Mongolians often think he is a Turk or Afghani. </div>
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Nadine's brother (a little older than her) is visiting while he waits for his work visa. He is also here for teaching English in a different village south of UB, also through Anita. He was living in Moscow studying Russian, and then Kirgistan teaching in a school for the disabled. We 4 went to a volleyball game this morning, of Japanese parents and teachers. Tonight we will eat dinner together at Nadine's and then perhaps go clubbing with the Peace Corps people whom I have yet to meet. </div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So the first week has gone quite well. I am enjoying the adventure and looking forward to getting to know new friends better, getting to know the community better, and traveling. Of course there is much more I could tell now, but I will leave that for another blog. I will try to post pictures soon!</span>ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-13409634276434002902010-01-24T02:03:00.000-08:002010-06-17T08:08:15.540-07:00Steppe 1I'm Here! It was a really really really long trip... but I have finally landed in my hom efor hte next 5 months. Here's the low down on the journey here and the state of things:<br />
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<i>Warnings: Sorry for the really long sentences!!! I'm just trying to get all of this down and posted. </i><br />
<i>Sorry this is soooo long! I've sectioned it off a bit so you can skim. :) </i><br />
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<i> </i><b>Wednesday/Thursday, January 20/21st</b><br />
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So woke up prodigiously early with the lovely family and we hit the road at 3am to get to Burlington Airport for a 5:40am flight. There is a sad fact of extremely bad packing on my part which I'm going to skim over... let's just say it wasted some time and money packing and repacking throughout the boardings and disembarkings of planes. Anywaayyyss, I finally boarded the plane to Dulles Int'l Airport in Washington, D.C.<br />
<b> </b>Extremely frusterating situation #2 (baggage was #1), the lady who checked me into the Burlington flight had become distraught when the computer was asking her if I had a visa because she was silly and ignorant. I didn't have a visa, because I didn't need one. She was worried about the airlines getting fined "millions" for letting me check in without a visa. But since I was going to miss the flight, she checked me in only for hte flight to D.C., where I would have to collect my bags and re-check-in. Once I got to Dulles, of course, Korean Air knew the ropes and checked me in without a glitch. God bless them. <br />
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HOWEVER, Korean Air also did not remember to order perfect weather fo rme so that I could fly into Seoul on time. So my flight to Seoul was delayed 3 hours. So they booked me for a new flight to Beijing out of Seoul. I finally get on the flight to Seoul, and spend 14 + tedious hours between two sweet ladies, watching movies and trying to sleep, and eating delicious Korean food at the allotted times. Finally arrived in Seoul--LATE AGAIN. Hooray. And the next flight to Beijing? The next morning at 8:45am. So I got a free hotel room at the Hyatt and free dinner and breakfast. All of this worked out because my flight from Beijing to UB (UB: Ulaanbaatar, Capitol city of Mongolia) I had <i>originally</i> booked 15 hours after my <i>original</i> flight to Beijing. So the fact I had an almost 12 hour layover in Seoul, with amenities, was in fact a Sweet Deal compared to a 15 hour layover in the Beijing Airport, without amenities. Anyways, I slept and ate well in Seoul.<br />
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<b>Friday, January 22nd</b><br />
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Free breakfast and shuttle to the airport, security check, and on my way to Beijing by 8:45am. Once I arrived in Beijing, I was all in a panic because it was 11:45am or so and my flight for UB left at 12:55. So I collected my bags, went through numerous security checks, and found the shuttle to the correct terminal--after asking exactly 1 million people where I needed to go LOL. So I'm panicking about missing my flight, and the shuttle bus driver is absolutely dtermined to squeeze as many people and baggage as possible onto his shuttle bus. We waited what seemed to me an age until everyone was crammed on. Then we get on the road. Only to stop at the next terminal and squeeze even more people on! Then we return to said road. Now I learn an important lesson about the Beijing airport: it's fucking HUGE. I'm pretty sure it took us about 20 minutes to take the HIGHWAY around to the next terminal (These 20 minutes seemed to me like an hour. ) Finally I arrive in Terminal 3--I think this is the "Turtle Shell" Terminal, the largest in the world. Naturally, I'm lost. Especially because Air China has way too many check-in desks and each has a specific designation. My watch is telling me it's 12:55. So I rush an innocent China Air check-in clerk and beg to be checked in. China Air check-in clerk seems to be quite unconcerned and assures me I will make the flight. I'm mystified, but I get checked-in and then proceed to attack several security lines which lie between me and my last flight... I reach a pinnacle of despari when I realize I must board a train shuttle to get to the departure gate! (Are you paying attention? A shuttle bus, now a train shuttle...) As the train shuttle runs on for a seemingly endless time, I finally turn to a nice Chinese person next to me and ask for the time? It's 11:55. An hour earlier than I thought: I had my watch set to Seoul time. Thank you, God, but that was a horrible joke. So I finally get to the departure gate, from which I take YET ANOTHER shuttle bus... to the plane. Short flight, great views, terrible food.<br />
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Finally, I landed in Mongolia! They didn't want to let me through cause I didn't have my address or a phone number, but eventually I got through. Tuya was waiting for me (Tuya and Amartuvhsin: Wonderful Mongolians who have been taking care of the Mongolian side of arrangements for my working and living in Mongolia), and after loading her care with my atrocious luggage and exchanging some money, we hit the road. Two plans were considered and eventually discarded for the last leg of my journey, the 3 hour drive north to Darkhan. The first involved taking a bus immediately and the second plan became for me to spend the night in UB and drive to Darkhan Saturday morning. After a dinner of Mongolian pizza, (...) Tuya dropped me off at an empty apartment for the night.<br />
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Thus, my first night in UB, Mongolia: alone in a quite nice 6th floor apartment, in my sleeping bag on a sofa, with a lovely view of the city. Was actually quite lovely! Mostly because I was too exhausted to care about being alone in the middle of a new city and a new country where almost no one speaks English!<br />
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As far as what UB was like, it was full of cars which don't appear to have any traffic rules, and a variety of buildings, many of which are lefover from Communist days, when Soviet influence was heavy. The air is thick with smoke from the many fires and factories. The pavement is rough and many of the homes are arranged in "suburbs" on bare dirt. Of course, it's winter right now, so perhaps it is greener in the summers. The people are wonderful! They are friendly and pleasant, despite the fact they love to stare at foreigners; it is a very friendly stare. UB is nestled in a slping valley crowned by a ring of the clustered peaks that break up the steppes throughout the country.<br />
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<b>Saturday, January 23rd</b><br />
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<b>The next morning I was up at dawn with jet lag, and a couple hours later, Amartuvshin picked me up and took me for some water, breakfast, and put me on the bus to Darkhan! The bus was a MARVELOUS adventure! I got placed in the far back of the bus (the only, rather conspicuous white, blond, blue eyed person) on elevated seats, from which I had a WICKED view of the countryside (and an acute feeling fo rhte speed and insanity of Mongolian driving!!). And countryside it most certainly is!! Once the suburbs of UB dissipate, the steppes are absolutely amazing! They are broken up by clusters of peaks, as I mentioned in describing UB, and the peaks are mostly comparahble to the hills and mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, as far as I can tell, espeically in the central regions, as far as height goes, not shape. These clustered mountains are quite provacative against hte expansive steppes. Everything is frosted with snow, which has been blown smooth by the wind, and in many places trampled down to the remnants of the grass by the grazing livestock. As the bus drove north, there were more peaks clustered together and they grew higher. The road (yes, singular, there's only one paved road that goes directly norht from UB, through Darkhan, to Russia) passes by many small villages as well as ger (also known as yurts) camps. Herds of sheep, cows, and horses are seen often, especially farther north. One of the most beautiful scenes: the traditionally dressed Mongol men and women riding the ponies, herding more ponies, or sheep, or cows. </b><br />
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<b>The bus ride was about 3.5 hrs long, and I knew when we had reached Darkhan, because of a conspicuous 16 story apartment building, which used to be the tallest in Mongolia. Saraa, the head of hte English Department at Darkhan School #19 picked me up, and took me to the apartment where I'll be living...</b><br />
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<b>The Beginnings of My Life in Darkhan</b><br />
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<b>I am living in a 3 room apartment. My flatmate is a Swiss guy named Steve, from Zurich. He's been here since the beginning of school. Both he and Nadine, another teacher from Switzaerland, were at the apartment to greet me yesterday and both are absolutely lovely! They have been giving me tips on living among the Mongols and teaching the children. They are both quite close to my age, and speak amazing English, of course. Nadine lives a couple of buildings away. The schools is also a few few buildings away. </b><br />
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<b>The building I live in was also built in the Communist period--it's ugly as sin, and any degredation that doesn't have to do with proper fuction has been allowed to happen without repari... But it is pretty tight, hot water is plentiful and heat is, thus far, quite satisfactory. Our apartment, since it has revolving inhabitants, is not quite as nicely repaired as the apartments of Mongolians who live here permanently. The toilet is flushed with a wire sticking up from the basin, and the sink in the bathroom is held up by a wire! But it's all quite exciting and adventuresome! Steven has been eating out quite a lot cause he doesn't like to cook, and can't very well, but it appears we will have a great arrangement: I want to cook and save money, and he loves to clean, which I don't. </b><br />
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<b>And we have a third roomate: Peek-A-Boo, the Mongolian kitty! She's an orange tiger cate Steven took in as a kitten. Apparnetly Mongolians are not fond of cats once they are grown, so they are mostly out on the streets. Peek-A-Boo is absolutely lovely! She <i>loves</i> to play and talk, and will be quite wecome company throughout the quiet and cold. :) </b><br />
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<b>Must return to the apartment, Steven is coming back from boxing class and we only have one key... more later.</b><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://usermap.mapdaze.com/ifmap.php?bid=678&aid=1" style="border: none; height: 327px; overflow: hidden; width: 312px;"></iframe>ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4333049848940151888.post-5303120876573255012010-01-18T15:57:00.000-08:002010-01-18T15:57:12.620-08:00the day after tomorrow!Packing like CRAZY! Almost done I think... Caught halfway between horror and excitement! Especially with all that is still to be done regarding law school, and all that is unknown about where and what and how and everything about living and teaching in Mongolia. Ach!<br />
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So I'm back to packing... Insane to think that one week from today, I'll have finished my first day of work, on the other side of the world!ida<@http://www.blogger.com/profile/13804886734668348208noreply@blogger.com0