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!)