And In This Week's News...

Hey guys!

So before I get to the promised pictures, let me give you a quick run down on this week.  Last Sunday, we had a registration day to prepare for practice teaching.  We had to recruit the students that we were to teach (and will be teaching until the beginning of August).  We ended up only getting 10...when we needed at least 20 (it's okay though, because on Tuesday when we actually had to start teaching, we ended up with over 40 students and each of the 2 classes had at least 20 students).  Later on that day, my family came back with 3 buckets full of strawberries (Mongolian strawberries are the size of blueberries...but they were soooo yumdelicious!).  I had so many strawberries that day (the next day they cooked them all to make jam and juice....so I'm glad I got my dose of fresh fruit!)

On Monday, we had our cross culture session where we listened to different genres of Mongolian music, learned the Mongolian waltz, and learned various toasts.  It was so awesome!!  The next events of my week were pretty much lumped into things that happened in the week....I can't actually remember what days there were....So I figure I will just list them.  Here goes:

1. We went to the market as a class one day, and a drunk guy grabbed me by the shoulders and started reaching in for a kiss!  I was so petrified that I didn't know what to do.  Thank goodness my LCF stepped in to save the day!  And as if that wasn't enough, later on in the week, another drunk guy pulled the same stunt and a friend had to save me....I have to figure out why that happened!  And twice in one week!
2. The girls in my group decided to get matching copper bangles to remember our time together in Sukhbaatar.  They are gorgeous (different designs, same width...it's great....and it will come in handy on those sad days when we can't see each other when we get to site...just look down at our wrists and remember the good times)!
3. We started practice teaching....enough said.  So many good and so much nervousness for me to handle!
4. My family got a puppy!  She is gorgeous!  Stay tuned in for a picture in the pic section of this post!

And lastly, and the hardest part of the week

    5.  One of my friend's in her group went through some emotional turmoil (family related things back home)  and was really torn up.  We ended up going to UB because she needed to go back to the states to handle it.  It was hard to see her struggle and know there wasn't much I can do, but I'm glad she got to go home and spend some time with family to deal with it with people who may be able to help her better so that she can come back and do her best!

So now that you've gotten the rundown on my week, here are the promised photos!  Enjoy and much love until next week!

The day we made buuz with our LCFs.  This is one of the guys making the meat buuz.

Me, my grandma, my cousin, and my youngest sister posing at a statue at Naadam.  Isn't my Emee (Mongolian for grandma) adorable!

My other cousin and I with the horse he was riding for Naadam.

Mongolian wrestling for Naadam.  Check them out!  And the winner of the country was from our aimag (Mongolian word which is similar to the concept of a province).

The lovely airag I talked about (yumm fermented mare's milk...although I wasn't a fan).

Sister 1 and sister 2 on our camping trip in Darkhan.  The older one is the one jumping into the water.

Me helping to make the fire and put on the pot for the night's food.

Me by the water with my huge bottle of OJ...and no shoes.

Me helping to stir the Suuteitsai (Mongolian milk tea).

My dad and my uncle wrestling....my dad won.

My dad on the guitar indulging in some musical entertainment that's safe for the whole family!

The horhog begins! (Click link for details...the recipe doesn't do the process justice, but look at the my picture and the definition and you can get a pretty solid idea of what it is).

My aunt and I doing a slow waltz...before I knew it was the waltz.

And last, but certainly not least,  here goes my puppy!!  Isn't she cute!!