Christmas!!

Hey Guys!!

I'm a little late for Christmas, but Merry Christmas anyway!!  This past week has been filled with Christmas celebration.  My site mates and I have spent everyday since last friday together just watching Christmas movies.  It's been great!!  Although it isn't the same as being home, it's still good to have people to celebrate Christmas with (especially in a country that doesn't recognize Christmas Day as a holiday since they think Christmas is wrapped into New Year's celebrations).  We've taken all sorts of pictures since last week in preparation for Christmas.  In terms of the actual day,  I spent the entire night before awake and baking for my hashaa family and my teachers (I'm still in the apt, so it made it pretty easy).  The next day I woke up and delivered the cinnamon rolls I made to my family then went back to doll up to go to school (Since I had to make Christmas fun on my own, I decided to put on make up, straighten my hair, wear heels, wear a santa hat, and wear a christmas dress to help me along...everyone was shocked).  I brought in cookies, which disappeared.  Later on in the day,  my site mates and I continued our Christmas movie marathon and opened the stockings that one of my site mates' mom got for us.  It was awesome!!  Now here I am as everything is somewhat going back to normal.  Our school will be having a шинэ жил (Shine jil means new year) party on Saturday.  That will be the next exciting event.  Well, that's all for now!  I'll talk to you guys next week!

Because I brought 4 onesies to Mongolia (because why not?), we all had a onesie for a Christmas PJ photoshoot. 

More onesie madness!!

Pyramid!!

Our "formal" Christmas shot. Gotta love the props!

The cinnamon rolls I made for my hashaa family!!

I gave them the pretty middle pieces from the roll...these are the end pieces.

The 2 kinds of sugar cookies I brought to school for my teachers.  I made about 70 cookies (chocolate dipped and then i used a cinnamon sugar frosting with Christmas sprinkles on the other kind)!! 

Yum!

My school gave all the teachers gift bags like this one.  Super exciting!

Ahh Mongolia

So I don't have much for you guys this week either.  While in the big city I bought several goodies (Coconut oil....like a huge container, a new tie die winter coat....gorgeous, mozzarella cheese...because I need cheese in my life, coconut milk....because what is curry/most jamaican dishes without it, dried chili pepper....yay to pepper, a hair straightener....zelda is due for a trim, and my beloved christmas dress...fuzzy with reindeer on it), thus spending way more than I ever imagined I would while there. lol.    I got back to site at about 10 pm on Sunday to a frozen get (literally things I didn't think could freeze were frozen!!!).  When I got home, I was relieved but missed the convenience of city life (aka showering daily....like real showers, internet everywhere, not making fires, and, of course, the variety of food) and also the other volunteers.  It's still a little strange being back to site (between the rising prices, crazy students, and immense smog), but hey.  So it goes.  This week I switched with one of my site mates.  So I'm in an apartment this week.  Thats about it.  Talk to you guys later!!

Some of my Sukh 4 (Training Site) people.  Love them so much!!

Crashing the photo...because I can.

Some of the Sukhbaatar (Summer time people again) girls in the midst of a huge snowball fight during IST.  So much fun!!!

IST Fun Times

Since the last time we spoke, a lot and nothing at all happened.  I know that makes NO sense.  But it's the truth.  I spent the week (since Monday) in and out of training.  I did get to know my counterpart better, went swimming, and had a great snowball fight though.  I also got to see the other volunteers again (which is always great....especially since we won't see each other again until August).  That's basically been my entire week.  This is a super short post and I'm really sorry.  Now that I'm back in the city, I will do some minor shopping (I found a big ol bottle of coconut oil here that I need to buy!) then head back to site.  That's about it!  Talk to you all next week!!


PS:  Mangas had to be let go in the city because there was nowhere for her to stay (super sad huh?).  I'm pretty sad about that.  But there isn't much I can do because she's now gone (and I guess I don't have too much of a right to be sad since she wasn't my dog and I'm sure her owner is hurting too).  So that's one update, although a sad one.

Thanksgiving and Some

Hey Guys!

So I hope your Thanksgiving was PHENOMENAL!  I had quite an interesting Thanksgiving weekend.  After I last wrote, I went to school to play volleyball (started out as volleyball and then became basketball...but still very fun).  Then on Saturday, we had a culture showcase (lots of dancing and singing...had to leave early to do some tutoring) and later on in the day, my site mates and I had a Thanksgiving celebration.  It was great (pictures to follow)!!! My Sunday continued with more tutoring and Thanksgiving leftovers (one can never have too much mashed potatoes!!).  This week is practically whizzing on by.  I had classes as usual on Monday and Tuesday, then on Wednesday a teacher didn't show up so I had to teach a class other than the one I usually taught (which means I taught 1 hour instead of 2...maybe I was a little happier than I should've been) and then the entire school went out to the mountains for a fun day/exercise time.  After that, I went home to eat lunch then went back to school for my second class.  What did I find?  A mostly empty school!!!  All the teachers were gone and the halls were quiet!!  I didn't even have a warning!  So I went home and packed.  For what, you ask?  To go to UB!  In Service Training (IST) starts on Monday (but I had to come in earlier) so here I am preparing to see everyone after 3 months (and to learn, of course....)!!!!!  After an 8 hour bus ride, I arrived and then spent the next forever trying to find the guest house I'm to stay in (maybe it wasn't that long...but it felt much longer with my luggage).  When I got to the guest house, I met a nice French couple who were touring around Mongolia (and will be going to my aimag next!! woo hoo).  We had dinner and later on I went to watch a movie in town.  The movie was also a get together for people around the world who like to travel (and it was a chance to meet people they could possibly stay with if they went to their country).  It was a wonderful evening spent talking about Mongolian language, jobs, and teaching.  So I began my days in UB phenomenally.  Well, that's been it this week.  I'll be back next week with more info!  Enjoy the pictures and Happy December!

The little ones at the culture show.  Aren't they adorbs???

More little ones doing a traditional Mongolian dance

Cutest little waltz to "Once Upon a December"

Little pop stars in training (from young to old students...they all do this dance.  I have to figure out this song)

Cute little Salsa number (the poor girl later had a Janet Jackson Superbowl moment...twice.  Felt so bad for her!)

One of my little 5th graders singing!

More pop star dancing. Can't have too much of it, eh?

The ladies of our site (including little miss Mangas)

I somehow managed to burn myself on the stove pipe while checking on the gravy...here I am "nursing" my wound.

Our Thanksgiving dinner!  We had lemon garlic chicken, carrots, mashed potatoes, pumpkin bread, a huge salad (missing), garlic bread, stuffing, and gravy.  It was soooo good!!

The day after Thanksgiving.  Mangas ate everything in sight and got sick.  So she got a bath.  Look at those big, beautiful brown eyes!!  If only she was as sweet and innocent as she looks!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey Guys!

Back, as promised.  The past few days have been pretty uneventful (except for the person who tried to steal me on Tuesday...it's always something).  I thought about doing a "What I'm thankful for" post, but decided against it.  So I'm here to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I am thankful for all you guys who read my blog though.  See you next week with much more info!!

Sorry...again

Hey Wonderful People!!

Sorry I'm late again!  My school hasn't had internet in about 2 weeks (according to my counterpart, the school hasn't paid their bill...*sigh*).  I'm currently at a cafe using internet.  So let me quickly go through what i've missed (if it's not back by thursday....Thanksgiving....I will be back here to do a post....guaranteed).

So in the news:

1. I went on a hike (mission) with my site mate to find the river by our home...after about 2 hours, we found some streams and wetlands....no river (maybe next time).

Me and Mangas on the walk

"Meditation"...check out that view!!

1. I saw my puppy not only last Monday, but this Monday too.  I said her name and she ran to me...it made me so happy!!
2. Then it all went downhill....I was sick from Tuesday night to Saturday morning (too much pain, not enough energy, and too many trips to the squatter......I have never been that sick before and never want to be that sick again.....and I couldn't eat for all those days.  Wow is all I have to say)
3. In the last day of my sickness (when I could actually stand to do anything), I decided to start watching How I Met Your Mother.  I'm now almost done with season 3.....such a shame.
4. As I'm in the cafe typing this blog post,  I met a really nice older French man and we had a nice talk about life and what different people value in life.  It was great to talk to a stranger and foreigner who just restores hope that there are people who want to do good things for others.

Well...That's all the festivities of my past week and a half!  I won't have much to tell you on Thursday, but I'll stop by just to update you!  Bye for now!

A week in bullet points

Hi Guys!!

So sorry that I haven't been here in a while.  I had no internet last week, and thus couldn't post.  So here I am to post what's happened in the past week....in bulleted paragraphs.  Here goes!

1. I helped out with a Halloween party at another school in my area.  It was great!!  The students sang, danced, and did skits.  Then I explained the history of Halloween, did a spelling bee, and picked the best costume (There were a few good ones, but the other teachers narrowed it down.  I picked this kid with AMAZING skeleton face paint.  It was so good.  If I had another choice, I would've totally picked the kid with the homemade Scream mask)
2. I had a week off from school.  I spent it reading, sleeping, and working out.  I also did some minor english tutoring.  However, being home meant that I had no internet (since the internet I had in my ger decided to give up on me....time for my modem).
3. I bought a new coat and new boots...I'm ready for the winter!  Or so I hope...
4. I finished Insanity!!  Woo hoo!   The results weren't as drastic as I thought they would be, but it's fine...I'll revisit it in March (now I'm doing a mix of Insane Abs from Insanity, self workouts, and Zumba fitness....yay for exercise!!).
5. I witnessed a sheep being slaughtered on Saturday.  I felt so bad for the little guy!  I walked out and saw him tied to the truck in our yard and instantly thought "let me say hi, because I won't see him again".  About 20 minutes later,  I was leaving my ger and got to witness the whole thing.  The way it's done is that a small incision is mad in the stomach then the person reaches in and yanks the heart.  I watched for about 3 minutes while the poor fellow twitched and cried until he died.  Then the guy started cutting the ankles off and I decided that I couldn't watch anymore (first and last time I ever want to see an animal slaughtered....eek).
6. I went hiking with my site mates on Saturday.  It was freezing and windy but so cool!!  I fell about 100 times and froze my fingers off (literally... I couldn't feel or move them.  We made a fire along the way and it wouldn't even defrost my hands... I later called the Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO) and she said I may have gotten slight frostbite that damaged but didn't kill my nerves.  She said now that this has happened, I'm more susceptible to it happening again....just my luck huh?  I was wondering why I couldn't feel some of my fingers days after...)

An OBOO with a horse head on top...we weren't too sure why the horse head.

A ton of horses just randomly as we were hiking

Group picture....of course I fell as soon as soon as the camera went off

Group picture take 2...Success

And I fell again.  The dog just walked over me (that dog is my site mate's dog  her name is no longer чихэр.  It is now мангас, which is Mongolian for monster...aptly named as she's going through her biting phase...faces are not exempt from her wrath).

The fire we made...in it's beginning phases (it was no master fire...since it was so windy...but it got going a little more)

Attempting to warm my hands.

Again trying to warm my hands...there goes my site mate with the pup!

Well,  that's about my week!!  Not much to boast about.  I'm trying to figure out how to make my own cheese (preferably mozzarella, but I can't find rennet or citric acid here...so we'll have to figure that out) and my own resistance bands (can't find those suckers either).  If you have any suggestions, let me know!!  See you guys next post!!

Break Week Cooking Adventures!

So on Monday (Chinggis Khan's birthday and the first day of winter),  I made some pea soup and hard dough bread.  It was delicious.  It took forever to make, but it was totally worth it.  So here are some pics!!  See you again on Thursday!

The long awaited struggle week.

So this past week has been quite the roller coaster.  I thought that I could keep off the bad times forever (I mean, there seemed to be something good to match every "bad" occurrence I had).  But this week, that wasn't the case.  It seemed that stress just took over everything in me this week.  So last week I got a dog (didn't mention it because I had a feeling something would happen...and yes, I did ask permission to keep her).  After having this gorgeous 2 month old puppy for a week (buying a ton of stuff for her, waking up in the middle of the night to take her out, training her....and she even got potty trained in a week),  I was told at the end of the week that I had to get rid of her.  In Mongolia, that means put her outside to die (there are no shelters, so animals are just outside if they have no owner).  So of course I had to put her out and then I spent much of Friday and Saturday crying (I've always wanted a dog and when I finally get one, I had to get rid of her...to die in the cold).  In addition to that,  it seems that my patience is running VERY thin with my counterparts (thank goodness break is next week).  I've always been the person to not be able to say no when people ask me for things (or say no jokingly but do it anyway).  At work, this translates to my counterparts always giving me their work to do (thus adding stress to my life) and me doing it because I "don't want to be mean".   This has been so since about week 2.   But I have been allowing it....until this week that is.  I kept getting frustrated, and, therefore, learned to say no to some things.  The problem with this, is that I waited too long to start doing it, so the smallest requests made me agitated.  Peace Corps warned us about these low points, but of course I thought that it would never happen.  Silly me.  I'm making it through with lots of chocolate though.

Despite the stress, there have been some shining moments of the week:

1. The Halloween party last weekend for the students at school 1.  Although the turnout wasn't the greatest, the students that came had A LOT of fun.
2. We (my site mates and I) had a hang out evening with a few of our Mongolian friends after the Halloween party.  It was so much fun to just sit and talk to them about random things.
3. We had an English Per For Mance (yes....that's how they put up the sign) at my school.  The students did presentations, dances, poems and sang songs.  It was phenomenal.  There were also some purely comedic moments (like the little girls doing a dance series and Candy Shop...yes, the 50 cent one...making an appearance in the song series).
4. My podcasts....they make my life all the time!
5. Talking through my problems with my friends from America...I love my friends.
6. Playing volleyball with my site mate's coworkers last night....it was wonderful.
7. The English class the foreign language teachers taught together about sports today.  That jeopardy game got intense!

That's it for this week.  Talk to you guys next week!!

So I named the puppy эмээ (Mongolian for grandma) but pronounced it Emi.  I decided on that name because the day I got her, she would pee every time she stood up.  She's the one in the back.  The puppy in front is чихэр (Mongolian for candy).  She is my site mate's puppy (and my puppy's sister).

Emee's first bath (I really miss the little terror!)

Mongolian Hospitality

So it seems my blog is slowly turning into a food appreciation blog (will stop soon....cooking new things is just so fun!!!).  The only new thing I made this week are these red bean burgers (vegan if anyone wanted to know):

 This week I also ordered a Kindle (yay!).  So now I will be reading my life away!  On Saturday, I discovered a new supermarket (just built) in my town...it was awesome!!! They had soy milk and pizza flavored pringles (these are HUGE deals....if only they had peanut butter and block cheese).

Now I will talk about the title of this blog post.  So Mongolians have this thing where no matter who walks into their homes (whether or not they expected them), they will treat them like royalty.  This week on my way home from work, I bumped into a teacher from my school (who I had never spoken to before) and she just invited me to come home with her.  I got to her home and she fed me enough for a family....literally.  She not only made me tea, but bought all sorts of goods for me to eat (bread, moloko, Mongolian "nutella", eggs, etc).  After the tea, I got a glass of seabuckthorn juice, followed by a cup of milk tea (all while stuffing me with moloko on bread or "nutella" on bread).   And because that wasn't enough, she also made me kimbop made with eggs, pickled veggies, and rice (it was great, but again....so much food).  I really appreciated this gesture (although I had to wobble home afterwards).  This is one of the many awesome things about Mongolia:  no matter who you are people are always hospitable when you enter their homes.

Well that's about it for this week.  Had a bout of sickness yesterday, but now I'm back in commission!

Sidenote:  Today my little brother turns 10!!!  I can't believe he's so old!!  Happy Birthday Pipsqueak!!!

Me and my friend, Urtaa, eating the bean burgers (we also had spring rolls with this)

Сонин юу байна? юмгүй (What's the news? There is nothing)

This week was preeetttty boring. Lol.  I just did the regular go to school and come home (and cook of course).  I spent a lot of time this week looking up recipes (mostly Jamaican....to see what I can make with the resources I have here.  I wish I had some cornmeal and scotch bonnet...then I could really do some damage!) and downloading books (Thinking I should get a Kindle so I don't have to read on my computer).  I started Month 2 of Insanity (and yes, it is, in fact, kicking my butt) on Sunday, also.  Outside of that, I've just been really tired and busy with work.  Now to spend time figuring out how I can get cumin, tumeric, cornmeal, scotch bonnet seeds (so I can just grow it and have an endless supply of scotch bonnet!), and a Kindle here!  Here are some pictures from this week!  Ta ta for now!!

Me with my pails to carry water (they was empty at this point)

Made escovitch fish this week (not the same without scotch bonnet pepper)

Frying it up (made brown stew fish out of these two the next day)!

The tail...my favorite part!

Made some cabbage and carrots to eat with it

Dinner is served!!

Made sweet and sour chicken (from scratch).  This is at my site mate's apartment

Our dinner!

My counterpart made me this nifty little thing!  It's so i can hold hot things.  How cute!

Thanks to Photobooth, this picture is backward.  But I gave the students a choice of what song they wanted to translate to Mongolian.  They chose "Never Say Never" by Bieber.  So here it is!

The class that translated the Bieber song (I look rough...but it's okay)!

Today for lunch...

I decided to get cabbage and carrots and glass noodles...

and made spring rolls!!

Of course they weren't complete without sweet chili sauce.