May 3, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “G.M. Chrysler I cant afford that!” –Seymore Skinner
Well THAT was an anticlimactic weekend. I was planning on heading into UB after being away for a month. After nearly a year without the steady stream of internet I was planning to buy the internet modem card that my site mate has with the money I have been saving up from my bank account. After that I was going to drop in to the UB guesthouse for a night of fast paced Internet (relatively) and beer drinking and general carousing. Anticlimactic.
They place was sold out of modems, and so I proceeded to the guesthouse where the internet was down. To top it all off I didn’t get the salad dressing mix because of a mixup of time schedules and because it was the first of the month there was no booze sold in any store or restaurant in Mongolia…. So yea….shoulda just stayed put another week.
Next week I am going to try again for the Internet card. No overnight either. Just out and back. Were still not even completely certain the Internet cards work on a Macintosh computer either. Maybe this difficulty is doing me a favor in that I should continue on without internet, but no…if I can get it I will. The question remains if it is possible. My lack of frustration at all those things not coming to fruition I think has to do with learning how not to base your happiness in life on success of failure….or im just getting used to life in which things truly don’t always work out. Either way it’s a growing moment.
I got back to my apartment yesterday to see that the wind had blown my window open. Luckily it hadn’t rained or anything, but I needed to do a lot of dusting to get my place back in one piece. Now I find myself without the power of Google Earth and I need to think up something else to do with the school kids this week. I sort of want to save a film for the following week so maybe ill get some grammar lesson.
There was one nice thing I got out of the weekend. Some Irish guy I had never met accidently left one of his shirts at the guesthouse. It had been a month so it was free to a good home. Usually I am pretty selective about my clothes. They got to look generally grungy, but have both a practicality and simplicity to them. This shirt fit the bill. Grey, blue stripes not parallel or consistent along the shirt and it has three large buttons at the neck that have a white sheet going underneath it. It gives the illusion that I am one of those people who actually would wear layers of clothing but in fact its just one so it works out nicely. I am still wearing it today.
School was long today but probably my greatest team teaching experience to date. Moogi and I are getting a squad of 11th and 9th grade girls (the boys don’t even bother) for a sort of English competition happening in Nalikh at the end of the week. They needed some serious help, and that’s what we did. Moogi and I worked really well together, and at the end of the tutoring (it went on from 1pm to 7) I showed her with the schools internet how to look up other grammar subjects. It was the first time I really felt as though I had provided my counterpart with something other than alternative labor sources. Like this was something she could use long after I was gone to help others. That’s what we want in Peace Corps, and it took a LONG time but I finally hit home with something. Wasent even that big a win, but it was a win…nice.
Downside is that I came home too exhausted to run. Ill pick it up tomorrow, after I get a few more meals and sleep in me. Speaking of which, im off to bed. Night all.
May 4, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “Don’t bring an eel to a swordfish fight” –Sue Sezno
All this week I am at the school seriously working. Sunup to sundown training dedicated kids who are competing in an English competition to hone their English skills. They sit attentively and pay attention, and I suddenly after months and months of banging my head on a desk trying to get students to pay attention I suddenly find myself with my every wish. Throw in the weather and good gods it’s a bloody utopia around here!
It actually means I need to work now, but I am not complaining. Though I am prone to laziness I feel that the past nine months have proven to me what type of teacher I am. Some teach because they are good motivators, some teach because they like to be the law. I see that I am not that kind of teacher. I was a pain in the ass when I was a student, and I see now that outcasts and class clowns do NOT make good teachers when they get older no matter what Dead Poets Society would have you believe. No I am a good teacher to those who like to learn. Its more a partnership in learning something than it is me teaching. That makes the argument I that if I decide to become a teacher for life to work in some kind of community college. There I wouldn’t have to wear ties either….
I got invited to a teacher hang out at Mother Rock this weekend. It’s that place that I saw last summer and I am glad for the invite. I think the teachers are all looking forward to kicking back after the school year (technically we still have this month, but aside from the English teachers getting the kids ready for their English competition and the University entrance exams) every single teacher and student mentally is checked out to the point that I am pretty sure that they are just coming to school out of instinct. The hangout will be nice I think…and if anything it will get me outside a little bit more. As I switch schools some of the teachers I am not going to see all too often, and it will make as a good way to say some informal goodbyes.
My counterpart Moogi has decided that she’s too fat. As a result she has decided not to exercise, but instead to simply stop eating certain days of the week. Its now becoming a game of figuring out if Moogi is eating today based on how cranky she gets at school. I kept my opinion of her diet to myself. She should just do like I do and run till your legs fall off. Way healthier, but then again shell probably outlast me when I keel over from a heart attack on a marathon. That is funny the way life works out.
When the sun is out I can run in my running shorts and the wife beater. Still a tad cold but a thirty-minute run can be done in such gear. Life is good.
May 5, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of Miles: 4
Today’s Quote: “Having a job you love is a lot like cocaine. You do it a lot and you often forget to eat.”
CINCO DE MAYO!!!!! Well its not like you need an excuse to drink in this country but once again I have found one. No one knows about the holiday obviously so this will be a gringos only party of my site mate and me. Maybe well go crazy and do a power hour, by far my favorite of the drinking games ever devised.
Btw, about the quote. I don’t know why, but this week despite almost no difference except for longer hours has been the greatest week of teaching so far in my little under year of time in Mongolia. Everything seems to be clicking, and the ones we are teaching are demonstrating to me that yes there is an acre of students who will never again use English in their lives and so they see no reason to learn, but there are others in that acre. Ambitious one’s with a desire to learn, to grow, and to find out more about the big bright world out there. That’s what I’ve found this week, and I am glad it finally showed itself to me.
That and the warmer weather of course. I try to imagine myself back in early August when I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt loving the sheer dry heat that would be complimented by the light breeze. Were not there yet, but were getting the hang of it I think. The kids playing soccer outside are back in shorts… there game is as fast and cutthroat as it had been seven months ago before the epic winter kicked in… you know, Einstein really had something going with the whole time is relative thing.
I got some interesting news from my mom at home. My mom has an old friend that she is almost always hanging around with. They are your perfect odd couple. One is conservative and one liberal. One religious, one not, there’s other differences but seriously the two couldn’t be more different except they are both middle class, happy middle aged ladies who despite all the differences keep each other level, stable and happy. Perhaps one of my fondest memories of our two family moms was when we would go to church on Christmas Eve. One eve for some reason my body decided I needed to faint right during the whole “Peace” thing and I was dragged out of the church into the lobby and woke up staring at two doctors and a nurse (I will say, if your going to faint…do it in a Catholic church!)
So anyway, I asked my mom about how her friend was doing and for the first time I didn’t get a just “fine” response. It turns out that her friend is getting really involved with the whole “tea party” protesters and is really a part of the political process these days. My mom naturally finds this to be something she wants no part of and actively opposes and therefore their differences which they usually choose to simply ignore in favor of friendship are not quite as easy to overlook as before.
Now that friend of my mothers has really been one of the better things that’s happened to my mother in forever and as such any such circumstance that might damage their friendship might worry me, but then I thought it over and realized this is just a phase. The liberals are in charge, and for the past eight or so years the liberals were the ones who were sticking it to “the man” Heck even during the Clinton years in essence it was a conservative senate and house against this quirky guy from Arkansas who won because of Perot….
But now the liberals ARE the man… so now the great process is reversed with the liberals sitting high and mighty while the conservatives get to form the rallies and talk about how those in charge are screwing everything up. I say let them. I mean common my fellow liberals…do you remember what a stink we made back in 2000 and 2004 for that matter? It’s just their turn. So yea, not worrying all that much, true friendships transcend politics.
Taking myself out of the political theatre of America for a year has given me much to reflect on. I think I found out how important politics is. Politics is as important as you choose for it to be. Literally it is what you make of it. Out here, away from constant internet sources and newspapers and television telling me a thousand different ways to think I find a great deal of satisfaction in NOT knowing every last thing that is going on. On the other hand, this is in essence an exile and that if everyone followed in my example and withdrew from politics we would find ourselves at the mercy of the few willing to pursue politics.
I think having a lot of people with influence and vie for power to be a healthy thing. Keeps anyone from being too strong for too long. The founding fathers would probably been disappointed with a lot of the decisions we have made in our times (heck we elected a black guy for crying out loud!) but I think they’d pat themselves on the back when they realized their power structure still allows a man like G. W. to be president for eight years and then a black guy for (hopefully) the following eight.
Enough thinking….cinco de mayo…time to start drinking!
May 6, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “So what do you do when the power goes out? Me personally I sit in the dark….and I wait…and that’s it” –Joe Rogan
Power went out last night. Water too. Stayed that way until later this afternoon. So obviously Cinco de Mayo fell through. I spent my time reading my Mongolia tour book. And as can happen…I got an idea.
My biggest gripe about where I live is that im pretty much in the center of Mongolia. The Kazaks’ and those out east may disagree but Mongolia is pretty much a huge example of a city state. All roads lead to UB, and all commerce, business and power comes from this central point. So in September I will run a marathon down in the deep Gobi desert and the ultra marathon up at Hovsgul Lake will also give me time for some fishing and horseback riding. I had originally planned to trek out west at the start of the summer, but now I am realizing this leaves all of the east unexplored. Its where the old empire used to be stationed and is teeming with cool looking wildlife. More then that the east is a place that with my Mongolian and confidence I can pretty much do this by myself and don’t need to jump on board with another tour group. Not to say that if I spot any cute German girls I wont pull my horse up along side them…but you get the idea that I can take an off the beaten track trip (well….an even MORE off the beaten track. Mongolia is already pretty damn isolated even if you go by group.)
So now that’s gonna happen this summer instead of going out west. There is a final reason why I am putting off the west, and this is where the whole ambition/masochism/insanity kicks in. The west may be cool but the problem is its not a unique brand of cool. Horseback riding is all doable along Hovsgul Nuur, and the east has all the hills and creatures to look at. There had to be something the west had that the rest of the country didn’t….eagles….they have EAGLES! Better still these aren’t prop pieces, they full on hunt grown wolves with these things. So I looked up in my book about those who go on hunting expeditions with their eagles. The whole, horse trekking through the countryside till they spot a fox way off and they let the bird fly… They only do it in one very isolated spot near the border with Russia/Kazakstan/China and they only do it in the dead of winter….
…oh this so has to be done! I will save the West for a winter break trip. It will actually require me to get a guide and all that and will cost enough but this is truly legendary. With that I will have ventured to every amazing corner of this country and can pat myself on the back for an amazing trek. And to think…all the M20’s are going back to boring old America this summer!
As for today, nothing new. More teaching and tutoring. Looking forward to my trip with the teachers out to mother rock on Sunday and will give the whole internet thing a final try on Saturday when Tripp does a UB run.
May 7, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “One log is not a fire. One person is not a family” –Mongolian saying
Well I ate like a king last night. A Mexican king no less!!! Armed with fajita materials and assisted by Tripp we cooked up some food with spice. Now that’s what im talking bout. Was a great feast, though I will say I am spoiling myself a great deal these days. Something tells me the summer is gonna be a lot like that. Something about the warm weather and the free time will likely lead to me spending quite a bit (relatively!) Im okay with that at this point though. For the feast I invited over my spices loving counterpart Moogi. She can be a real pain, but when everything’s said and done I am glad I got to spend a year here working with her.
School is winding down more and more. Gym can actually happen outside now and pretty much everyone is finding a way out of class to go outside. I haven’t the skill to stop them, and to be honest if I were not in formal clothes id be joining them. Their behavior in class is truly appalling. I have absolutely no control over them anymore, not that I ever really had all that much.
The good news is that if I take up teaching as a profession back in America I can rest assure that ill never have such little control over a class ever again. I think that’s what destroys good teachers. Universal education is a wonderful thing, but the problem is that you spend enough time getting kids to do the whole “Sit Down Shut Up” thing that you lose your will or desire to teach once you get five minutes. Frank McCourts much less famous but far better book “Teacher Man” is a good read if you want to grasp why teachers burn out.
The upshot is that today I made a friend. It started this morning when my toilet had slowly been leaking water down into my neighbor’s bathroom. As this happened they came up to inspect it and call the jijur. We started yakking and next thing I know I am invited for dinner tonight. That rocks. I think he was a little taken aback at just how much Monoglian I know. We hadn’t really interacted since when I first arrived here and my initial knowledge of Mongolian made conversations impossible. Not so much now obviously. That’s cool…given how my other neighbors have become a little more reclusive these days it might do me some good to have a few more to interact with.
Another really cool thing however happened though. Tripp wraps up in a month, and he owns an oven (he got it from Lief) regardless where he ends up his abode will have an oven and so he is giving it to me. Great guy that Tripp! This means I can make baked potatoes!!! Outstanding. Even better, I can also try to get enough materials to make some makeshift pizza or something like it. (chili ketchup for sauce works and then its just a matter of finding and keeping quantities of cheese from Mercury market in UB. Pretty much half the recipes in the cookbook don’t work unless you have an oven. Now the possibilities are….okay not endless but now its going to be that the types of foods are not available and not the means are not available. Like so many other things in life we replace one difficulty with another…but at least I can premake bake potatoes so for the first time I can premake food that I can consume to eat later at will. Yehaw. Ill get nice and fat out here in Mongolia after all.
Tomorrow I try again for the Internet card. Somehow I doubt itll happen, but you never know. If I have it ill start to look up some stuff for my trip out east next month. If I plan to do this without a tour group I will probably need a little more info on places and things to look at so the internet will help with all of that. If not I can always just wait until June and then use the Internet in UB…. Ill live if the Internet thing doesn’t happen.
May 8, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “Ill tell you why…its none of your damn business that’s why!” –Senor Chang
I have GOT to stop going to UB. Good news is that may actually now happen. I went alone to one of the two internet card providers in this country and found out that they don’t work on macs. The other says that connection to my town is iffy (they put up antenna for all the major cities in Mongolia which only amount to about thirty or so towns and my tiny town is 30 miles from the nearest big town, so its TECHNICALLY possible but I don’t want to buy this card and not have it work and I cant return it.
So next week (which I needed to go to UB anyway because I need to get in a meeker to the BBQ) I will go with Tripp and ask that if I buy the thing and it doesn’t work am I allowed to return it. They say yes, ill give it a try, they say no and im out of options. Ill live one way or another, but in anticipation of buying the thing I have taken out nearly a million tugriks from my bank account. Now I can put that money to my summer trips, but just having a million tugriks lying around can make one feel a little apprehensive.
I went to the state department store in search of salad dressing. Nothing. It’s the biggest damn supermarket in the country and they don’t have it. This means that I need to pay a visit to a very special market that ONLY has Western stuff to get it and that will run me up a fortune, but hey I got money now right!
I didn’t get any time on the internet in UB either because I couldn’t spend the night, as early tomorrow the teachers myself included all go hang out in the woods at a ger camp near something called “Mother Rock” In essence my UB experience was just all rush and absolutely nothing productive came from it.
…and then the screaming babies on the ride back. What the hell!?!?! Never having kids. Seriously I am going stateside and getting a vasectomy right after I take a shower. This screaming ball of snot and agony…how the hell do kids not go hoarse? I can’t make those sounds for more than five minutes. This kid was inches from my ear and the mom tried every trick in the book. Two and a half hours! Forget hoarse, how the hell did the kid stay hydrated?!?!?! Then they grow up and start punching each other in my classroom…good gods I am never having kids!
And now with gale force winds and the 40 degree Fahrenheit weather keeping me from enjoying the outside I sit in my room and really hope that Mongolia is burning out its cold and wind. This is getting to be a little too long to put up with without feeling some stress.
Final note: As if demonstrating that it always can get worse. It starts to snow again and the bbq hangout got canceled. Yea, now I really am just flat out angry. It’s the month of MAY!!!!!! Stop fracking snowing and warm up!
May 9, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “What is it with you and rape?!? No one’s raping anyone!” –Dexter
Two extremely anticlimactic weekends in a row. Should have stayed in UB. The extreme wind outside canceled the teacher trip to Mother Rock and so I find myself confined to my cold apartment room as my friends in the community all were much smarter and more informed and went and stayed in UB today.
Wind what the hell??? Its worse than it was a week and a half ago! It’s a bright sunny day and temperature wise we may even be at 50 degrees but relentless winds that simply never stop have been hammering my town for this entire weekend. No one is outside. Not one person. Even when we were in the middle of the snowstorms there had always been someone outside on some errand of some kind. Now we cant even go out to mother rock because of this stupid wind. The wind is actually strong enough that the temperature outside despite being 50 is actually below freezing, and when condensation falls it comes down as flakes. Snow in May and week long winds that make concrete groan. I know I wanted the rough stuff but COMMON!!!! It’s the merry fracking month of May! This is supposed to be that glorious month when you get to finally get some tan on your skin and you get to burn off your winter fats. I could use a little of both, and all in all I just need to get out of this bloody room, and I physically cant go outside today….ugh. I even have to wear my wool socks again….ITS MAY!!!!!
The only consolation is masochistic in nature. My counterpart told me she has NEVER had a year of weather like this in Mongolia. This is tough even by Mongolian standards, and while I may be bored out of my mind and a little physically uncomfortable from sleeping on floors in cold apartments with toilets that are leaking water down into my neighbors bathroom….yea im still in one piece. Go me…
On a slightly more chipper note, though the BBQ hangout got canceled I got another invite from those a little annoyed that the BBQ was canceled. Caitlin, a fellow M’20 who lives in the town of Arvairkheer (about 8 hours west of UB). She’s the one with the other blog that has a Tolkien quote for a title as well. “There and back again…” (while I admire the classics like that one and in all fairness its even more accurate as mine suggests I am wandering when in fact ive been confined to my room for the past six months I do stress that her quote is much more famous as it comes from a movie and mine is an offline Gandalf gave Frodo for advice since he was on his own…oh good gods I am such a geek and a girl sometimes!!!!) Anyways she invited me over to join the six or seven volunteers in some general hanging out. She also offered to make me Thai peanut chicken pasta, and instantly I was sold on the trip. Would also be nice to see her again, we haven’t crossed paths in about six months as she’s not a TEFL and therefore her schedule runs differently than mine.
So in essence instead of going a little to the east next Friday ill be going a little to the west. See people, but a slightly more calm version of it. That’ll be nice.
Oh yea…mothers day today (im not smart or sentimental, its on my Fordham University calendar) probably should call up mom.
May 10, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of Miles: 4 fast ones
Today’s Quote: “The bureaucracy is expanding to met the needs of the expanding bureaucracy”
I hate new bosses. I don’t hate my specific new boss actually, in fact personally I rather like the guy. But new bosses all do the exact same thing. They take some specific characteristic of your work that works perfectly find and modify it so their new rule of power is looked upon like a change.
This is my long way around of complaining that my bosses have decided to require individual lesson plans instead of unit plans of Moogi’s work and my own. (i.e. I need to type up lessons for the two of us) Putting aside that we are two weeks away from finishing school and putting aside that no one in this school uses year plans, let alone the unit plans and definitely not lesson plans… Now I have to sit in the teachers lounge as everyone makes a huge racket and the crackly television plays “We are the World” over and over again like the song “The Circle of Life” did back in 1996 when I was on a driving trip around Hawaii as a teen. In essence its all just stressing me on something that SO does not deserve my time or attention, and its becoming so unnecessary that you cant even tell yourself “you don’t have anything else to do” to fix that. Bureaucracy is one thing; this is just making stuff up.
Got to call mom last night. She sounded all right which cheered me up a little. After complaining a lot in my past few blogs it was nice to get her take on a lot of my problems. Her solutions are always FAR more dramatic than anything I had planned, and so it reinstalls a touch of sanity in me. For instance after complaining about how many of the modem cards don’t work on a Macintosh my mom suggests that she purchase a $400 PC laptop and ship that to me, a notion I instantly shot down of course but that degree of overreaction gave me a little bit of an ego boost… I am not doing that badly, I just need to break through this rough patch.
My mom, who no doubt has told every single person within shouting distance about Peace Corps and Mongolia additionally has been telling me about this movie called “Babies” Come to think of it, shes has been telling me about this since the dawn of my time in Peace Corps service. Its apparently about three babies raised in three different cultures. Mom’s always too excited that one of the babies they document is from Mongolia that she has never bothered to tell me what other two nationalities the other kids are. Personally while I think it will be cool that Mongolia gets some publicity I fear that they reason they would have chosen Mongolia is so that they can show a kid raised in some form of “rustic” life. While indeed those born in small distant soums and the countryside do get a frontier type of upbringing the thing is that the majority of Mongolia does indeed have excellent hospitals and kids that just have a few culture unique growing up ceremonies such as a hair cutting ceremony and are otherwise just another batch of kids (despite the fact that Mongolia’s population growth is less than a precent). Still, after listening to my mom talk about this for over six months I figured it would be wise to place it on the blog. Anyone who reads this who doesn’t know my mother (all two of you) likely have internet and can google whatever this documentary is.
The wind died down today. I needed that more than anything. I needed to run, sweat, feel exhausted physically and all around tire myself. Wow, why the heck am I so cranky of late? This is not like me and when I think about it I don’t really have a whole lot to complain about.
I mean common me! Its Monday, not even a stressful day. For the first time in the near 11 months of service I cant wait for Friday to get here. It must be the idea of hanging with my fellow volunteers for a couple of days that makes me cheer on the weekend. Twenty days till summer vacation…Twenty days….ill even get some new neighbors around that time too.
Postscript: Immediately after writing this I went out to run. Wow….I REALLY did need that.
May 11, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia
Number of Miles: 4
Today’s Quote: “We are wolves in a world of sheep” –Temujin’s brother told him that after they wiped out the Koreans.
And that’s 11 months living in Mongolia. That’s eleven months of Peace Corps service. And so here I sit in my quaint little apartment for the last month actually and I realize that in a month I will be removed from my indoor plumbing and kitchens and be living in a round room filled with flies and new labor chores ive never had to do like chopping wood and gathering water from wells, all the while continuing to make approximately four or so dollars a day with two Masters Degrees and two years of professional administrative skills…WHO HAS A COOLER LIFE THAN ME!?!!?
But seriously I feel much better today, rather strange given that Tuesdays are usually one of my long ones. The weather turn around has given me exactly what I needed, the ability to go outside and move around. The chance to run my body exhausted and to tan my face in the sun. Mongolian weather is good at this tease like way of giving you one day of misery followed by a week of good days and then the other way around the next time. Well the timing could not have been better.
Mongolia is the living example of the concept of opposites. Mongolia teaches comfort by inflicting pain in almost all ways. All comforts are a blessing and a curse as are all difficulties. I know the pain that is to be hungry, and so my food tastes all the better. I know what it is to sleep on the floor now, and so I understand that a flat mattress is comfortable. I know what it is to be in a Zudd, so now I find luxury in 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I know what it is to be bored, so I know the joy that I can get from a phone call back to loved ones. Its like what I said a while ago: we don’t change, but if your willing to realize it we continuously gain relativity. I thank Mongolia for that, I used to think that our PC service was supposed to be about learning new teaching stratagems and bring them back to the states, but now I found something much more useful that will exist well past my time as a teacher.
So as for what happened today. Once again I was used by my counterparts as a source of a computer that actually works along with a work force that can be delegated the tasks that would otherwise be theirs to do. Once again, my ability to not get annoyed at this demonstrates just how adjusted I am to my life here in Mongolia. Nothing for it, and I will say that while the concept of being a free labor force insulting you sorta need to remember that as unglamorous as all this is…I AM a free labor source. I demonstrate work ethic and willingness to contribute to my community.
However, I do begin to understand how in the second year of service many a volunteer begins to raise the bar higher in terms of expectations of counterparts contribution to work materials. A friend of mine with a team teaching problem would not team teach if they did not plan the lesson in advance (wow…if I did that id only work five hours a week!) and some used like me as secretaries decree that they will only type up tests that they have a say in the making of. In essence using our mad computers and typing skills as a bonus to them willing to work with us in some form of teaching capacity, and not like I find myself today pretty much doing the bidding of my two counterparts….two or so weeks until school wraps…ill grow a pair for next year. Trying to change the system now would only rock the boat and not fix anything.
Wow I really am quite okay with this aren’t i? Must have to do with running!
May 12. 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of Miles: 4
Today’s Quote: “There trying to kill me…I get that a lot.” –Harry Dresden
I am feeling REALLY good for the past couple days. It’s the weather. They just turned off the wind and 20 degrees became 55 with a bright sunny sky. I felt the wonderful irritation of my skin tanning today. Nothing too severe, its just remarkable to feel such a foreign discomfort once again. The daily runs giving me a boatload less stress as well. Best of all, when you run like that the desire to drink drops. Been sober for this week and I think it had more to do with boredom and being stuck inside but whatever the reason or reasons everything just feels SO much better now. Come to think of it I cant recall the last time I was sober for a week. Its not so bad. Little more energy, little less stressed, little more bored….all relative of course. Probably a good sign that I recognize the pros and cons.
Four or five months of good weather await me. Good gods who needs to go to America when you got weather like this? Granted theres no beach, but really that’s just getting really picky.
I probably need to ask my boss what day exactly she wants me to move over to Bagkhangai. School is over in two weeks but after that is when things for the school and my bosses will actually start to get a little busy. They gotta roll out the red carpet for the M21’s and all the paperwork and details that go on with that. I got that marathon on the 5th, meaning I gotta head into town a few days earlier to cram down some calories as well as get my bib and stuff at registration. I imagine the final couple days of May would be ideal. I could move, put my stuff down, give everything in my ger a once over to make sure nothings not working or anything like that and then I would head in town for the race and be back in town in time to take snapshots of the noobs chugging down their first bowl of soutatsae… its strange you would think after a year of being in one of the most unorganized and poorly scheduled countries on the planet that I would have picked up that bad habbit. No worries, im sure another year will beat me into it.
Some PCV’s hit the near midway mark and despair at the idea that there only halfway through. Though I have some crummy days I can tell how good of a thing it is that I get to spend a second year in Mongolia. If I left now…just as I got used to my floor…just as I got used to meat….just as I got used to showering once a month….just as I learned how to speak a language that will be next to absolutely useless after I leave this country….if I were to leave now I would indeed be seriously bummed. This second year is gonna rock, I can feel it. No heavy booze and daily runs….i love the summer!
May 13, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
“This is not art, it is cottage porn.” –Lyla
Only a couple classes on Thursdays . I got to use the internet for five minutes today and found out something pretty cool. Starcraft 2 is coming out this summer. That’s pretty amazing actually. Not the game, I am sure the game will be fun but its just this is the first time ever that Blizzard Entertainment actually made a computer game and is gonna release it without taking three or four years to finally roll it off the assembly line. My computer is a couple years old, but it’s a Macbook Pro and I imagine it will be able to play the game. Something that will help to pass some of the quieter winter nights in seven or so months.
I found out today that a gang of the traditional Mongolian dancers in my town are leaving for Japan next week. I imagine its one of those “we pay for the tickets, you get to perform” type of setups because they are going on “tour” so to speak tearing up dance floors with the traditional male trio dance where they start off as a flying eagle, then a man on horseback and finally the gusting winds. They perform this pretty much every time we have a ceremony and its quite good, but after 212 performances its sort of just becomes a dance. I do though think this is a great opportunity for the teenage boys of my town. Heck, I’ve never even been to Japan!
Lessons are sort of over as far as school goes. Doesn’t mean the kids are out of control, quite the opposite in fact. Actually for the past couple days the kids have been seated quietly in their desks with their heads down pouring over their books frantically studying. On the first day I just sat there, afraid to move that whatever I would do would somehow undo this utopia. Then I realized why the kids were behaving as such.
If there is one word I could use to summarize the behavior of almost all Mongolians I know it would be pragmatism. They are grounded, calm, collected, logical individuals who are not easily fooled or manipulated. I personally like it a great deal, and I think a healthy dose of pragmatism can be a healthy thing. I think it may explain why a great number of Mongolians are either not religious, or if they are religious are extremely loosely tied to their faith where restrictions to lifestyles are mostly ignored or overlooked (such as the Red Monks of Buddhism, or the Islamic Mongols to the west who drink as much vodka as the rest of us.)
It does of course come with drawbacks. It can lead to limited imaginative flights of fancy and so creativity can sometimes be difficult to come by. Also if they do not see any time in the future when they will need to speak English they wont bother to learn it. Yet pragmatism does mean that when an examination is coming up where their scores will be known throughout their community it means the week before they button down the hatches and really get into the studying spirit.
Its so strange to see the degree of maturity kids can suddenly display after months of screwing around. All the tests are grammar based so there is no real need for me or even my counterpart to help. It all grammar! There’s lines to memorize and there memorizing it. They have become masters of what I perceive to be an imperfect system…no wonder its so hard to introduce a different style here.
So were not really learning in school anymore, just cramming. Still, the kids are doing the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. There sitting down and shutting up…I may cry.
So here’s a funny thing. On average I got a real shower in about once a month. Worry not, I soak up the grime collecting zones of my body more often then that but I really only get a hot water shower at a UB guesthouse in only one or two times a month tops. (the past two weeks I’ve never actually spent a full day there so I haven’t showered since April.) There was an initial period at the beginning where this was uncomfortable, but now I tell ya I actually have begun to enjoy the effect dirtiness can have on me. Without washing all the dirt, dust and grime that gets caked into my hair after a run my hair has a natural spikiness to it. Seriously I am around 6’5 because of my hair now. Also without the daily dose of showers I have a much greater sense of awareness about my body and how I feel. Showers desensitize us, but living in more Spartan conditions gives me a sense of real feeling.
After 11 months of this I do wonder to myself how will I ever be able to go back to it all. Showering everyday. Wearing something new everyday. Every type of food I could ever want to eat. No meat, no vodka, no windstorms that make it impossible to walk and living in a place where I am completely understood all the time. Sleeping on a mattress that I really like….THAT is really going to take some getting used to. Maybe ill get one of those bed setups where I don’t have a bed frame and just sleep on the ground.
When I first arrived here Mongolia seemed so new and interesting. Now Mongolia is the norm and everything about the way my life was before I got here seems so weird to me. Well…at the very least I have another year to come to terms with that, and afterwards nothing is really stopping me from leaving Mongolia anyway.
Ger news: I asked my boss if she knew a specific time that I would be moving to Bagkhangai. I am in no hurry but I found out that the next batch of Peace Corps Volunteers are coming a week earlier than we did (and they get to stage in San Francisco! I wish that had happened to us so I could have said goodbye to my stepfather in person) And while its not a requirement it would in fact be nice to be already moved in before the noobs arrive. When I spoke to my principal boss she obviously didn’t fully understand me but all I got as a definite was the month of June. I tried to explain the marathon and the eastern vacation would have me in various locations but I am not going to worry about it. Now that its warm enough out my balcony hammock swing is the most comfortable place in all of Mongolia.
Meanwhile, I am really getting revved up for my trip out to Arvaikheer tomorrow. Caitlin and I have been texting back and forth this week. You know how some people get along because they just are able to communicate well with one another? Well Caitlin and I have really good texting repore. That type of thing where we convey in two words what would usually take thirty if we were just talking and would lose all its wittiness were we to use so many words. This is going to be just what I needed. It will give me the charge to get through the final couple of weeks of school on my own too as my counterpart will be taking off to go get trained to be a Mongolian teacher for the new bloods showing up in under a month. Good gods in a month it will have been more than a year. That’s just flat out spooky. Days last forever, weeks flash by, months can feel like an eternity but after eleven months if you had to ask me if I was asleep back in America a week ago I couldn’t really tell you. Five star on the whole “time is relative” thing Einstein.
Caitlin claims to be the master of the game of Uno. Never has a challenge been issued to someone looking for a match so badly as I. Best part about meeting up with Caitlin is that this will allow blog readers to get to read the comparisons and contrasts of two of the more frequent blog recorders serving as M20’s. Better pack up, good times lie ahead.
May 14, 2010. Dragon Bus Terminal, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Today’s Theme Song: “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson
Well, this is an original spot for a blog entry. There are several bus stations in UB that service the country. I live to the east of UB and so I go to the black market, close to the bus station hub for the East. For the road west….well I have never been this way obviously. So I went to the Dragon Bus Station that handles traffic going west, such as me en route to Arvikheer. The trip to the bus station was not fun. I got one of those cab drivers determined to be an asshole. He kept pretending not to understand me so that he could change the price of the trip out here. It infuriated me on several levels. Money of course, also the manipulation, but I think what really gets me pissed is that he is calling my language skills into question…and that asshole understood me (wow I never swear)
So now im three hours early for a seven or so hour bus ride out to Caitlin’s town. I will say this about busses, while travel of this sort is never comfortable its loads and loads more comfortable than the meekers that I take to go back and forth from where I live. At this station are the jeep/buses that make the three day trek to the distant Hovd and Bayan-Olgii locals as well. I like the build of those jeeps, they look like they could (and have) withstood a nuclear fallout and they are designed to take a LOT of abuse. They have almost no shocks and riding in them is a bone crunching stress test that would test the will of anyone. Good luck and may the force be with them!
I meanwhile am just passing the time with books, music and blog entries. Caitlin told me this sometimes becomes somewhat of a party bus, but given the people currently here I somehow doubt that. Wont bother me one way or another, but as I said this is a long trip.
…2 hours later. Still waiting at the bus station. A few ladies and a dude in commando pants are currently occupying the bus. If this is anything like the meekers they will remain empty for another 59 minutes and then suddenly like were stuffing a clown car in a country without clown makeup will rush the bus and an otherwise completely comfortable setup will be trashed with loud and drunk people. This isn’t a complaint by the way, and after 11 months I have even begun to get into the spirit of it (figuratively, I NEVER drink while traveling for safety concerns) but still its strange to be so certain of what’s to come. Fifty-nine minutes to scheduled departure, we should play betting games about when buses actually leave…
May 16, 2010. Arvaikheer, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “He uses more swastikas than the history channel!!!!” – Lewis Black
…sorry I didn’t add more on after that en route bus blog. As the bus loaded up I didn’t want to demonstrate to a bus full of Mongolians that I possess a top notch laptop computer. So the bus ride sort of took forever. My bus driver was a bit of a coward and wouldn’t run over a patch of dirt without stopping and getting out of the bus to look at the dirt.
This winters zudd really ripped up the roads, so a huge bus spent a lot of its time bouncing up and down the dirt countryside as the concrete was all torn to shreds. I got into the town at 9pm. Pitch dark, never been here, and Caitlin is not there at the bus. Luckily I got her on the phone and after five minutes we united and I found myself in a karaoke bar. Five minutes after that I found myself singing “Play That Funky Music White Boy” at the top of my lungs. Caitlin later took me back to her ger and I fell asleep on her floor.
May 18, 2010. The backup cargo station, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “EEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” –the kid sitting next to me. Hes a foot tall and has been making that noise without pause for over 2 hours.
Babies what the hell? Once is to be expected. Twice? Sure. Three? Yea all right. Four? Well that’s my luck I guess…but EVERY DAMN TIME???? COMMON!!!!! So today sort of all fell to hell. Its Tuesday, and of course I had been expecting to go back on Monday as I’ve never really been in UB on the weekdays as I am usually teaching. Before I got into a cab for the meeker back to my town I went to a unique supermarket and bought a couple of things. The first being a couple bottles of salad dressing. Its been a LONG time, but at last salads have come to Mongolia. I also bought a bottle of hot sauce for my counterpart Moogi. Part gift, also part apology for not being here at school today. Given what came next I would have given a significant sum to have made it back yesterday.
The cab driver was an asshole. Nothing for it, but he really was. Wouldn’t charge by the kilometer, overcharged me, and he drove me to the black market where the meekers usually meet knowing full well that it was Tuesday and that the market was closed. This meant that the meeker to Bagkhangai would not be coming to the black market but instead was on the other side of town. So now the asshole gets to double his rate to double back. That’s just money, and while yes it’s the principal of the thing that doesn’t bother me all that much.
I get to the cargo station. Some might see the black market and call what they see as madness. I respectfully disagree because once again, I have relativity. This cargo station is basically where every store owner in a hundred miles drops in every few weeks either in a meeker or in their own cars to grab the essentials and common items. It’s a third the size of the black market, and three times as busy. Madness would be an understatement. Luckily I have gotten the hang of the language and though id never used this station before after three failed attempts from drunk/bored drivers I finally got someone to point me to where the Bagkhangai meeker was. I got in the meeker, and was welcomed by a wall of screaming. I mean blood curdling. You’d swear they are waterboarding the kid he is whining so much. Nothing is even wrong! Usually I wouldn’t pull out my laptop in public, but I am seated in the meeker that is going to my town and it allows me to distract myself in some way. He’s not paused screaming since I got in here. I imagine we got another hour sitting here before we even start moving, then its another three or so hours banging down a road to Bagkhangai. I swear to the Sky Father himself that if I get home alive I will never leave my town EVER again. The trip out west was amazing, but for a distance of 300-400 miles I have never been on such a march of death type transport in my life. Make the bad buses stop!!!
May 19, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of Miles: 3
Today’s Theme Song: -“The Peace Corps! Seriously!!! THE $^#%@*! PEACE CORPS!!!!!” –Lewis Black
I must have been a little more tired than I thought. The kid made sleeping an impossibility on the meeker ride back and a complication at my place kept me up and socializing the minute I got home for an hour so when my room was finally cleared out I just fell unconscious, but I feel its time I caught my journal/blog up with previous events.
So when last I left us it was a Friday night and I had finally made it to Arvaikheer. You know, aside from day trips to Nalikh during training, Arvaikheer is the only other town I’ve been in with a population over 5000 people aside from Ulaanbaatar. It was a curious sensation. First off, when I woke up on Saturday I had awoken to recall a lot of the catch up I had gotten from actively socializing with the members of this Aimag center. There was a LOT I had not known. As it is gossip I treat it as such and there was even some about me that I shot down that no one would believe me about, but once again its both Peace Corps and gossip so there’s nothing for it except to say that its my story and I am staying with it.
When I left Caitlin’s ger that morning I found myself in the middle of a full on town/city! I live in an apartment that if you turn right instead of left your instantly into the countryside with the nearest human made thing being the air force base miles away. Caitilin lives in a town five times my size with no building bigger that three or so stories. Needless to say (I hate when I put that down because obviously I am gonna say it anyway) the town is a little more spread out. It was not a particularly sunny weekend for Mongolia, but even so the town is still rather pretty. Surrounded by big hills and mountains (something I’ve sort of missed) and on a major road line of Mongolia, the town is both progressive while quaint at the same time.
Case in point about the progressiveness would be the vegetarian restaurant that exists in the town. It was very tasty, even if I just ordered vegetarian tsuivan. Funny still, the café seems to be run by someone who is a fan of some person on television called “the Grand Master” or some other regal title. Its this middle aged woman who talks about extremely vague and nondescript difficulties we have in life and how she needs not encounter them as she lives a stable life. Her monologue is translated into 15 dialogs, and an apparent past time of the PCV’s living in this town (there’s five or so, plus a few living in soums a few hours away) is to find the language on the screen aside from English that they understand and to sing along with the Grand Master. Obviously, lunch was fun!
One thing the aimag centers and the capitals have that I don’t back in Bagkhangai is people who are black. Wow, that sounds really weird to type but its kinda true. In the M20 group we had 69 volunteers and while we were diverse in terms of ancestry we didn’t have a single black person. When you don’t see anyone who is black for a long period of time after attending/living in some of the most diverse schools and places in America it really can just hit you that you forgot what it is to see someone who is black. The bigger cities also have Western volunteers who are not Peace Corps or American. Almost every European nation has their own version of the Peace Corps or some type of volunteer program where you take your skills and attempt to help out. To my knowledge I am the only Teacher Trainer who lives in a town instead of one of the cities, and while I definitely prefer my setup after living in it for a year I will say that if there is one thing that the cities have an edge on is the number of fellow volunteers you get to hang out with.
Most of the time though I spent was back in Caitlin’s ger. She is a fellow volunteer who gets a kick out of living in a ger, and so she had nothing but encouragement and interesting things to say when I told her about my upcoming ger move. Watching her in action doing chores and what not was an important lesson. Gers are fun… but its because you make them fun I think. As I had spent a night in a ger during the dead of winter, it was important to be in one during the spring as well, as more lessons awaited me. You see, in the winter there’s nothing for it. Its cold no matter where you are, but in the winter when its -30 outside you can put a fire in your ger and get that winter lodge feel of sitting around comfortably in a set of thermal underwear. In a ger at night its freezing but if you put on thermal underwear you roast, but if you try to sleep in boxers you freeze. Granted, I was also sleeping on the floor, but it was important to note that a ger doesn’t get all easy the minute the snow melts.
Coincidently, and very amusingly, the owner of said ger has a unique background prior to Peace Corps service. She is a French speaker and comes from the great state of South Dakota. We both remarked about how when we were interviewing with the Peace Corps they ask two questions in a row “Where do you see yourself working?” The next question is “Are you willing to go wherever you are needed?” I loved that, first of all because in the first question I answered “wherever I can be of assistance I will go” but also because it’s the REAL question. It’s the question where they find out if your interested in helping or if your interested in living somewhere specific. Anyways, back to Caitlin…
I come from the state where and inch of snow cancels school, and South Dakota is like Mongolia except they block their engines rather than start fires under their cars to defrost them in the winter. You would think that if my tolerance to the cold is strong that she could live in an icebox, but its not that way at all. She put on (and im not making this up) thermal tops and bottoms, thermal socks, sweater, sweatpants, a -20 sleeping bag and a blanket atop of the sleeping bag! I was sleeping on the floor with a blanket and my Nintendo pajama pants and a pair of boxers (cold but doing alright) There was something so funny about all of that but I just couldn’t think of how to say it without either it not being funny or insulting someone so I just giggled myself to bed at night.
Id like to tell you that the weekend was spent expanding my horizons, but in essence it was a weekend of laptops. We had files to exchange and youtube videos to show one another. Every Peace Corps volunteer at this aimag seemed to have internet access on their laptops (slow but still) and so they all seemed not only FAR more informed about current events than I was but also they had resources for their professions that I did not have. Of course, all this was forgotten when I was told that Lewis Black had plugged the Peace Corps in one of his more recent rants about Glenn Beck. As I have pledged so many times before, if I ever find a way to get internet in my town on my Mac I will do so.
Food was what motivated me to this as well. I ate French Toast, and Thai Spicy Peanut pasta. FOOD OF THE GODS! Caitlin said she was glad a guy had dropped in because it meant when she had leftovers that they would be instantly eaten, which of course they were. I have got to get married one day, though Ill probably fall in love with a girl who doesn’t cook either and we will need to live in New York so that we don’t starve to death!
And so indeed we spent the weekend paying way too much for good food and yakking with one another about our woes and playing killer games of Uno (I am 4 for 6 games) It really was heavenly, especially because this was a pack of PCV’s I haven’t had the pleasure of hanging out in over six months. Wow, time really is moving along. Most interesting to note were the varying attitudes of many of my fellow M20’s. Some seemed rather sedate and grunted. Others were like me and seemed to have some particular days of hardship and difficulty while at a whole were euphoric about what they were doing and that we have yet another year to work here. A select few also seemed ready to mark the passage of time by carving notches into the wall of the number of days remaining. The weekend as a whole allowed me to recharge and reenergize, and though I spent a fortune in food and transportation (more on that in a minute) I am glad I went.
Sunday night a hailstorm broke out. We were at the veggie place and when we saw a flash of lightning outside we figured if we hurried we would beat the storm back. When we stepped outside we found we were in the middle of a hailstorm. Seriously full on, hurts your face, BB gun sized pellets and lightning so close that it lit everything up in every direction all the way to the distant mountains. So we spent five minutes walking in this stuff, and Caitlin seemed no fan of the lightning so during that time I picked some really random topic and just started talking to her. I have never been afraid of lightning and while I have had a close call here and there in my life I know how unlikely the odds are of getting hit…but on a night like that and after nearly 10 months since id last seen lightning it reintroduced itself with a passion! We are about to enter the summer months, and spring is finally here! Go Mongolia!
So to leave on Monday I had to be up at the crack of dawn. The bus station had moved from the center of town to the far corner of town. This happened literally overnight. Thank crikes I had bought my ticket a day early to find this out. So I got to the bus and loaded in. I will say that in terms of comfort while the road may be longer these bus riders have it way too cozy! How does a bus with over 40 seats not have a single crying baby? Noones carrying huge crates of things or live livestock with them either!
The distance was long though and while the trip was enjoyable, the bus arrived late. Realizing I couldn’t make it to the meeker back to Bagkhangai in time, I just was going to have to stay in UB overnight. The Dragon Bus Station is on the far west of UB. Though the walk back to the center of town is pretty easy as its just one long road. So as punishment for myself for getting overcharged from a cab last time and due to the fact I was restless and I needed some exercise I walked it. Turns out it was around 10 kilometers and I was carrying all my gear…. Stern punishment! I got back to the guesthouse and a shower later I was using internet high speed style. Caught up with the family and I got a pizza to top off my already broadened palate. I was instructed by my sitemate Tripp where I could buy Salad Dressing and I did so. Some French and California type dressing. They didn’t have any Italian, but a year without salads doesn’t make you picky. I also bought hot sauce, as a gift for my counterpart Moogi and an apology for being a day late.
The next morning was recorded in my previous entry of crying babies and overpriced taxis and crazy markets. When I finally did get back to town I had Moogi and 2 school custodians at my school wanting to try to fix my still leaking sink. They spent an hour before deciding just to cement the leaking pipe and turned off my water. It was when I finally got everyone out of my room that I realized how tired I was. I saw on my watch it was only 5pm, but I didn’t stand a chance. I fell into sleep at long last back on my own rock hard floor. We imbue, some more than others. The things we interact with on a frequent basis become a part of us, even to the point that we can tell the difference between the uncomfortable feeling of our own floor rather than that of our friends. I lay down and felt as though I hadn’t slept in a million years.
I awoke to the setting sun for an hour before once again going deep into sleep, and when I awoke I saw that it was 8am and I had saved myself from missing school as I had forgotten to set an alarm. So now I find myself on my busy day without a whole lot of teaching going on because we are giving the kids the end of the year tests and its all reminding me that while I don’t know if I have a home anymore I sure as hell missed the towns of Bagkhangai and Ondortolge. Ill stick around for a couple of weeks…take it a little easy on the money.
And so we find ourselves here today. Normal life seems so foreign, and yet throughout the day ive felt myself calm little by little as I found myself not moving from one place to another or going to things I haven’t to before. The key to enjoying your work I think comes from having a hobby (like traveling) that you like to do while doing it and yet at the very end you find yourself glad to be going back to work.
“Work” though is pretty much over. The state required tests are being given and its too nice outside for the students to be bothered to come in from the outside today. After all, we graduated three weeks ago! Still, I find a way to put myself to use among my counterparts and in interacting more with my community. Its also the first day ill be able to run in a while (though the 10K walk a couple days ago definitely helped!) and I am spulging one time only to actually try and construct a salad to eat for dinner tonight.
Ah, Life…
May 20, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of Miles:
Today’s Quote: “You know those guitars that are like…double guitars???” -Otto
This is a first. I am writing a blog entry in the school canteen. Usually I don’t like to flaunt my computer this much, but the school is half empty now that kids don’t come here unless they need to take the state tests. I just checked my tab at the canteen and I have just enough credit to feed me into the next week. Its very obvious that I am the only one in their books in the black and not the red. Debt is a finicky thing to a culture used to sharing much… but I like to demonstrate the American quality of keeping everything above the boards…okay its not a trait by all Americans but a paranoid man like myself would not do well with debt, so this works for me.
The salad yesterday was amazing. Sure I had to use cabbage instead of lettuce but after nearly a year without any salads I think I have forgotten the taste of lettuce anyway. Its full of fiber, the dressing gives it taste, and its my first real American cuisine venture not counting the fajitas that my sitemate helped throw together. All in all I consider that to be a good thing.
Moogi’s taking the rest of the week off, and she’s not here next week either. I don’t blame her because like I said kids only come to school if there bored of the outside, and that’s going to take all summer to happen. I sit in the class and do what I can without a unit plan or even a plan of any kind at all. I intend to get a nice long run in this afternoon to keep my legs stressed by not hurting.
Foods here…
May 21, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of Miles: 4
Today’s Quote: “I can feel it! My soul, it’s really there…kinda stings” –Spike
Today while running along the road I noticed a great numbered of uniformed police officers along the main road. Occasionally for no reason at all the cops in town like to play dress up and what not but as I was returning from my run towards Ondortolge I was getting waved at by a cop 500 or so yards in the distance. I thought it was just a friend wave but then as I got closer the waving got frantic. I looked around and saw three cars coming up the road, and they meant business. It was a police van up front followed by those SUV’s that they take statesmen around in.
I figured they didn’t want me along the side of the road, joggers much be some kind of security threat! Didn’t know who it was but I imagine they are a diplomat from some USSR country here to talk about the ole Air Force Base and whatnot. That was rather amusing to watch in action. While the diplomat or whoever was in the culture center I played with some of the kids on the playground as well. The little things…
Also, Australians! Cool Australians too! Come to think of it, has anyone not met an Australian who wasent cool? It must be like Germany where Germany does indeed have some geeks and losers but only the liberals and the cool ones travel the world and so they are the ones I most commonly meet. Heck my first European kiss was with an Australian. Six years older than me too when I was 23 and she was 29! Relax, I have no Mrs. Robinson thing especially now that I am 29 myself and am just about as old as Mrs. Robinson!
Well these were two guys on bikes. They had heard that there was an abandoned Air Force base nearby UB and with top notch bikes they blazed a trail to our town and spent last night on the base. I got to meet the two of them and exchange e-mails. As usual they found what I was doing to be cool and I thought they were rocking it out as well. What a limitless number of amazing ways we can live out our lives.
They certainly were a town hit, it made me feel rather outdated. They had a crowd with them wherever they went while I just march along in the beautiful sun. Gotta do some running today, its just too damn beautiful not to. Speaking of new…
The new batch of Peace Corps volunteers touch down on June 5th. That’s two or so weeks away. Its difficult to imagine that it has almost been a year that I have lived in Mongolia. I know I boast my traveling record but that’s all it ever was…traveling. Before Mongolia the longest I had ever been outside the United States was five months when I went to SE Asia in the fall of 2006. The rest of my travel has been a month long at most and always involved the same. Some exotic place with either good food or good beaches and many museums to look at old things. Mongolia has been none of those things, and I have lived here for a year. And now I find myself with a little more than a year of service remaining and I realize just how little time that actually seems.
So there’s around 70-80 people back in America right now, closing down bank accounts and selling their cars. Some parents are supporting them, some are trying to talk them out of it. Some are getting cold feet, others are getting waiting fever. Some are buying wool socks, and some are on some final vacation to Germany or the Carribean and finally some are probably driving down to North Carolina to see their married best friends new baby while others are getting to see a cousins wedding that will make them cry about how Peace Corps is another reminder of what’s to come, and what is being left behind.
This is the part where I would usually give some kind of advice to the noobs and attempt to demonstrate both my usefulness and wisdom, but no matter what I say the advice would be unique to me. We all have different things to prepare for, and while I can think of more productive things to do with your final days than others the real thing I suggest is not to give yourself more than a final week to prepare. Go ahead and start to put stuff aside your thinking of taking to Peace Corps service and all that but really the longer you drag out your packing and preparing the more stressed out your going to be. My mom put up with me being rather cranky the final few days.
Last thing to do? Take each of your family members (by that I mean bloodline and those you consider family) and go see either a really cheesy or happy movie (I saw “Up” with my mom) or go to some mall food court and talk to each other. NOT about the Peace Corps. Talk about the weather, about the movie you watched, just talk. I miss a lot about the states, but the only thing that’s really irreplaceable is going to be the personal conversations you have with those you love and those who love you. Aside from that do whatever it is you feel like doing. Also, be sure everyone knows where all your stuff is and whose in charge of it…so you know in case you need something sent to you or whatnot and do your best to try to explain to your family why this is what you want to do, trust me your probably not gonna have a good reason but it helps to just say it.
Oh yea, if your flying to staging out of Washing D.C. I would recommend you triple check if you are flying out of Dulles International Airport or if your flying out of Regan International Airport. You certainly don’t want to send your mother flying you across the freeway from one wrong airport to another at 5 in the morning the day of your staging…not that I know anything about that btw!
Free final tip though: Since you all get to stage in San Francisco, I would recommend this if your there a day early. Early in the morning a woman ships off from the Warf called “Wacky Jacky” She hunts with tourists for Atlantic Salmon in San Francisco Bay. I did it eight years ago, and had the time of my life. Or don’t…you know your call and all that.
May 22, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of miles: 3
Today’s Theme Song: That throne room song from Episode IV that looks and sounds shockingly like the Nuremberg Rally. It’s a good running song
Mongolian wind blows. Hehe…wow I cant believe it took me almost a year living here to make that joke but there it is. It’s around 65 degrees outside but for some reason the wind is just going all out once again. I unwisely went for a run and barely made it 3. If it blows like that I seriously doubt my finish time as running directly into the stuff is just impossible. You feel like you pressing a stone wall or something. It’s just not giving way at all.
So here is today’s observation. I had it while running but I was not able to think about it as much today as the wind kept distracting me. I used to think when I first got here that a lot about Mongolia was not more violent, but it definitely had a lot of acts in it that I didn’t think existed in America. Slaughtering of sheep for dinner, fighting fellow students in class, alcohol consumption, and so on. I still feel all these things do exist in Mongolia, but instead of calling it violent, I think I should change the wording to “honest.”
The best example I can think of would be Caitlin’s cat. My fellow M20 owns a cat named Bill. When she moved in last summer she asked if anyone in the community had a cat or kitten and was interested in giving one over to her. You should be aware that Mongolians on an almost universal level LOATHE cats. A handful use em to kill mice, but the Mongolian word for cat is “moohae” (sounds the exact same as the Mongolian word bad) But anyway, about a week later a neighbor brought her a cat and said “here is your cat” Caitlin wanted to be sure the baby kitten had spent enough time with the mother before separating them and suggested that the kitten spend two more weeks with the mother. Caitlin was then informed very nonchalantly “my mother has already drowned the rest of the kittens in a bucket and if you don’t take her today its going to happen to her as well” Caitlin naturally took the kitten right then and there.
At first you may think that this is an example of the more brutal Mongolian life, but to those of you in far more sedate America I can assure you that’s happening there too, you personally just aren’t doing it. When dogs and cats have babies in America the excess go to the pound. Naturally owners are sought after but in the end a good number of animals are being put down, we just have enough bodies that it becomes someone’s job to do it. It’s the same way with meat in America. Farms are just huge and therefore the majority of us don’t personally slaughter animals like happens in Mongolia. I can assure you however you’re not innocent just because you don’t see it.
The violence between kids is almost never angry fighting and when I think of the backstabbing and backbiting that takes place in American schools I personally find the anger and animosity in America to be an example of one thing that external conflict in Mongolia absolves.
Mongolia is really not that different from America…its just more obvious and honest about itself.
May 23, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “Steve Allen doesn’t write that much!” –Cornfed
A most wasted day. A gale from the north kept the temperature outside both cold and also uncomfortable as the wind prevented play. I awoke early after falling asleep early last night and I found myself with a long day without really anything at all going on. Most Mongolians I had known went to UB this weekend so socializing was kinda out as well.
Nice feature about living in a foreign country though. When all else fails, theres always a Mongolian lesson to do. I broke back out the book I had been given by Peace Corps a year ago and sorta reminisced. It was not a challenging session and mostly I looked back on all the things I didn’t know last year but knew now. I don’t think we spend enough time realizing just how productive we are sometime. Just how much we learn and take in even when not in a classroom. Life in it of itself is an amazing lesson.
Still, the majority of my day is boring. I turned back on my TV for the first time in over a month as well. Without the biathlon my television has lost all its appeal to me. I also threw together my final lesson plans for the week. Though most of my classes are empty all of my English classes and clubs finish this week, meaning that an already pretty relaxed schedule is about to get even more relaxed. A year of teaching in Mongolia…ill gather my thoughts on that as the week comes to an end.
The rest of the day ive been throwing together Imovie projects that I cant post as they are just far too nerdy and though personally I have no such delusions about them I just cant bring myself to make my nerdiness so public.
May 24, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Number of Miles: 3 really good ones, read about em in the blog
Today’s Quote: “When I give money to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no money, they call me a communist.” – Betty Ford
Almost ten or so months ago a fellow PCV who is a really great guy and ten times the PCV I am named Nathan made an observation. His observation is that in Mongolia you start to notice very specific things in Mongolian society that you can relate to very obscure television and culture things from Americas past. His greatest example was that it was perfectly common for people to be walking around in the boots Jim Carrey was wearing in Aspen in the movie “Dumb and Dumber” (you see? Picked up on that huh?) Obviously you can’t share these types of hilarious observations with anyone when you live in a town with only one other American who you only see about once a week or once every other week. So I settle for typing it down for a laugh and to keep myself sane.
Today while running I had a great cultural observation reference. When I went for my run today I had actually planned ahead and eaten BEFORE I went out to run. Most days if there is no food at the canteen I don’t eat until 6 or so at night, and running without a whole lot of strength can be daunting. While running a fellow student came up on a bike and rode slowly directly behind me and encouraging me on the whole way. Though his shouts were in Mongolian I realized that this brought me back to the NES video game Mike Tysons Punch Out. If your almost 30 like me, this was the game that the teenagers of your neighborhood played while you as a seven year old watched. Theres a scene in the video game where after beating a league champ you get to see a cutscene where Mac is running in what looks like Brooklyn as a fat black guy on a bike cheers you on who is supposed to be your coach. Granted it was a kid and not a fat black guy, but for some reason I could hear the monotone NES theme song as I ran during today. I think the lack of stimulation that happens in Peace Corps allows you to make these connections and to laugh your ass off at them so well.
The run itself rocked. I could have done more but I am keeping myself at 3 and 4 miles a day and instead running faster. That way on race day when I run a slower pace my body is less stressed and the previous 20 miler gives you enough balance between speed and distance to get you over the finish line. Running, the highlight of my day. Not a bad thing too btw.
I arrived in this town only one week before the school year began. Not counting the quarter breaks and the swine flu I never really have seen this town without the school up and running. We got a lot of bodies here! That’s my way of saying that pretty much no one is in school today and the majority of the things I am doing are just babysitting those willing to endure school this final week. Moogis not here because of training, and all around its just really quiet these days. Running is a good way to spend my time though, so I do that.
Right after getting salad dressing, my town runs out of peppers and tomatoes, so now I find myself without salad again. I figure that will give me good cause to not drink these next two weeks and then to go to Mercury Market and buy a metric ton of the salad ingredients that I need. Of course, once I move to the ger I may or may not have a refrigerator, and if I don’t I obviously cant store salad stuff anymore. How ultimately ironic that would be huh?
Though saving up or not, its pretty obvious that I need to lay off the booze for the next couple weeks. The marathon is twelve days away. The PDF file they have for a brochure I am hoping has a mistake on it. According to it the race starts at 10:30 and ends at 2:30pm. That means we only have four hours to run the marathon. I cant believe that to be true for several reasons. First off as an international marathon, it must adhere to the idea that not all of us are sprinters and some run a 10 minute mile, meaning we need four and a half hours to wrap one of these races up. The second being that if they start the race that late in the day they will be holding up traffic forever, and there is a part of the race where we have to directly cross Peace Avenue, arguably the busiest road in all of Mongolia.
I figure I will head to UB on the 1st or 2nd of June. Itll give me two or so days to cram as much food down my throat as well and enough time to sit down with MobiCom and find out once and for all if I will be getting internet. Here is hoping. You know I should probably go into the black market and get the tent as well while I am in town. I haven’t spent a period of time in UB since April. Its funny how even when bored a good amount of time can sorta slip by you.
May 25, 2010 Ondortolge, Mongolia
Today’s Quote: “It is merely the hope of all sentient beings that we believe the dead are beyond pain or suffering. Only the dead will ever know that for certain” –Vergere
Well, that was an interesting day. No classes today, its time to prepare for the fire drill. It must be a throwback to the USSR days when every countryman was expected to be ready to answer the call to arms against the invaders or something. Every single person who has any kind of occupation whatsoever put on their work gear. The labor department put on hard hats. In all my time here I have never seen a single person don a hard hat ever! The firemen were in full attire including a couple guys who wore those flame suits that make you look like some kind of cosmonaut. The cops had on their riot gear. Doctors wore lab coats and the social workers wore their matching brown jackets. We all met in front of the government center for the fire drill.
As I stood at the front (they want the tallest up front for some reason) I had plenty of time to think and all I could wonder was what they exactly expected to catch on fire anyway. We don’t have any trees, the buildings are all made of concrete, the interior has no central gas of any kind and the only thing remotely flammable in the whole town is the gas station about a hundred yards from anything else. So yea, what would have been a call to arms 30 years ago is now them doing a drill for some imaginary 4 alarm fire. Now in all fairness when you have a rather boring day that parade style gathering of everyone is the most exciting thing to be doing, but it still is pretty ridiculous what we prepare for. Another example of one of those “formalities” that I will not encounter once I conclude my Peace Corps service.
I am a little curious as to how numerous this marathon will be. I have run in both big and small marathons before. The biggest I ran was probably Philadelphia, where I ran alongside around five thousand or so other marathoners. The least numerous one I ever ran was in Phuket, Thailand where it was me and about 20 other runner in the marathon. Today as a precaution I called up the UB guesthouse to be sure that I would have a bed reserved for the marathon day (the UB guesthouse is literally a hundred yards from the starting/finish line so I figured they would book up quickly) the dude at the guesthouse didn’t even know a marathon was going on! So even if its called an international race I gotta wonder, just how many of us are doing this?
I haven’t a doubt that the 10K and the 5K fun runs will be packed. I know of three or so fellow M20’s who will be running the 5K in fact. Even half marathons are not impossible to do if you can run for an hour without stopping. Its once your on your feet for two or more hours that your body relies on you having made yourself press on in the past time and time again. Now even with their mild excess of weight Mongolians are rather in shape individuals, but signup for the race is over a hundred dollars. That’s a LOT of money in Mongolia. How the heck many people are running in this?
I have already written my name in Cyrillic on the front of my running shirt and put “The Peace Corps M20” on the back, but I am hoping not to be the only gringo crazy enough to run this marathon. I am not a fast runner either, so I have often enjoyed the crowd of runners who hid how it took me a little while to finish a race. Nah…don’t listen to me, this is just me finding something to worry about. Ill wager 300 people will run the Marathon, and a couple thousand will do the 5/10K’s.
I just realized I am reaching the end of the month of May and haven’t posted since the packing list at the very beginning. The good weather, the trip out west and a lot of other factors seemed to have really made May speed by. The ending of the month has been much better than the beginning but really that’s just me being picky. The sun is shining, the temp is warm and I feel amazing. Life is good.
May 26, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
“Because I had mine out while I was looking at yours…” –Don’t Ask
People not as big of a Tolkein fan as I am have often commented that the ending to the Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King was far too drawn out. I’ll spare us the argument of how it was the greatest ending I ever saw (except that they cut the unhappy goodbye between Arwen and her father) but I think today I understand how one too many goodbyes makes for an anticlimactic ending. School is over… and noone had bothered to tell me.
While classes have dragged on school has pretty much been over since the first of May when we had the graduation ceremony. That was Sam and Frodo having the “…here at the end of all things” moment. But then it moved on as we had the state sponsored tests to prepare for. We completed the last of those at the end of last week. That was probably the whole “…my friends, you bow to no one” scene. After that Moogi left to train to be a PC trainer and school was left to me. So we hit the “Hobbits go home and Sam gets married so stop thinking he has a thing for Frodo you pervs!” scene.
Finally we reach today where after teaching a class of five kids who showed up Monday and Tuesday no classes as we had the fire drill today I sat in my classroom through 3 empty ones before I found the Training Manager and found out that the final week of school has had its plug pulled. And at last we reach the “Ship sailing off and “Well I’m back” “ scene. Yea…anticlimactic. Still, not all that bad. A year of teaching. I learned as much as I gave out, and all around I am glad I got the experience of teaching in this town. Go me!
I have not eaten ice cream in over ten months, but as I had passed two fellow teachers who were chomping down on some I found myself drawn to a delguur where I indulged on a chocolaty treat. I sat just outside the ger pavilion of the main town square at six thirty in the evening. The sun was so bright out it may as well have been two in the afternoon, but the day at this hour had that glorious feel of the final moments before the night approaches. The warm dry air was everywhere. Kids played with the twirling foxtail I had given them, and were working to master new methods of throwing the sock in various directions. The teachers at my side all asked if the toy was mine and I said yes and described a foxtail. They complimented my Mongolian as the kids ran around.
It all felt like America suddenly. I flashed back to Montmorency Drive and the large neighborhood that gathered in the summer to socialize. Kids playing in the street, parents chaperoning and watching. There were so many problems and difficulties going on but on that particular moment sitting in the park with an ice cream on a warm late May evening it all didn’t seem to matter. I never appreciated days like this as a kid, but now it all just feels like I finally understand how good certain things in life are.
I am definitely going to miss certain parts of Ondortolge. The main town center and the indoor plumbing for start obviously but after a good portion of a year spent working and living somewhere I guess I have imbued once again to the place. Another place I don’t know if I would call home, but a place where I am glad to have lived.
May 27, 2010 Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “Swegin!!!” –Mr. Wu
Well I had a pretty free schedule BEFORE school got boarded up for the summer. Now I really got time! I took the day and walked to Bagkhangai to look around. With it being the summer now I am no longer running from one semi warm building to another and for the first time I saw the major differences between the two towns. The apartments truly do change everything. They block views and confine people. Their build is uniquely Russian and very unMongolian if I do say so myself. Instead I see Mongolian towns as sprawling. The ger districts of UB are a good example. 2000 people can live in the space of 100 yards if they have apartments but Bagkhangai has a smaller population and yet the town is much more spread out. Each family takes up a space and as a result the town doesn’t feel quite as stuffy as Ondortolge does.
Gave back my classroom key today too. That’s it for school… With little else to do I began to put some odds and ends into boxes for my eventual (though I don’t know when exactly) move. I kept all the care package boxes my family has sent me and its pretty cool how little I have actually gathered during my year or so here. Including kitchen stuff, all my stuff fits into the 5 or so small boxes and the two bags that I originally brought. Even when I look at the stuff I have 99% of it I could really do without if push came to shove. I like that. Though it is probably not a good sign to be so uninterested in possessing large numbers of things. In a little more than a year I will have to go back at some point to my mothers house, and in the corner of her basement is a pile of boxes with yet more stuff. I think I am really going to throw as much of it as I can out. I like the feel of not having. Its freedom…
…I will probably go to UB this weekend and when I get back if they haven’t picked a day for me to move I am probably going to just insist. I would like to be moved in before the M21’s arrive and I got a Marathon to run next week too. Ger’s coming up.
May 29, 2010. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “Nah I like dating fat women, I like to think your just three skinny chicks in one.” –Part of Gary Busey’s comedy routine
Ah UB. Home of pizza, beer, internet and PCV’s I haven’t seen in six months. Nothing really to report. Just me eating a lot and spending my time at Nayras. Go Me! Everytime I get my stomach full though and my hair clean I do start counting the minutes until I get to go back to my town. How sweet.
May 30, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Today’s Theme Song: Nightclub music that’s quite ear bleeding and designed to speed up your bodys movement after pumping it full of alcohol
It was a good night last night. Reunion of more fellow M20’s and all that. It was the first time I got to see and speak to a large number of M20’s who do their service in the city of UB. Me and fellow soum dweller Levi were talking as 3 of the ladies wore dresses and txtd into their blackberries while we sat there in wife beaters and jeans that I have not cleaned in over four months and yea…there was definintely a city girl/country boy vibe going on.
Ill say this for city girls though, they know how to enjoy the finer things in life. Apparently they have befriended a local business owner who used to live in America and created an expatriates nightclub that he was pretty much opening for the first time and we were all invited.
My track record of nightclub is extremely sparce, and I think that does me a favor because then when I do go I am usually in good company. We arrived at the nightclub and we were the only ones there. It was a nightclub that night exclusively for Peace Corps volunteers. We rock!
Lots of dancing and cool stuff. I got myself intoxicated enough so that I would be willing to actually dance some and all around I got to have another great night among fellow volunteers.
Though I don’t really have a whole lot to do I headed back to my town today in essence to wait for my boss to tell me what day exactly I am moving. Ill be in town till Thursday. I gotta behave myself and stuff my face with calories for the next few days so I am in shape for the race. Wish me luck.
June 1, 2010. Ondortolgle, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “It ends when we’ve won…” –A government official talking about Rendition
Well, that’s it for May. Another beautiful day in Mongolia for now. Without school and being unable to go very long distances for the next week I have resigned myself to sunbathing and cleaning up some of the last bits of garbage from my apartment. Not sure when I move but if I know my Mongolian by now they will likely just show up with a car to move my stuff one morning and I don’t want to leave my place that big of a mess. Though i did see a flyer advertising my apartment for sale in the community. From what I gather my room had been vacant for years before I had gotten here.
Running didn’t go so well today. In the final week before a race I run three or so times about a minute faster then I would run at a marathon pace, the idea being it doesn’t stress or tear muscle because its only 3 miles but then when I jog a slower pace on race day it feels much easier than the stuff I did earlier in the week (theres a lot of trickery in running a marathon!) Today though without much wind I was really…winded. I finished alright it just felt like I should be doing a lot better then that. Mustive been because I hadn’t eaten much the day before. This is why I go to UB 2 days earlier to carb up and what not as well. So long as the race track is open 5 hours I will finish this race, I just hope that typo really is a typo about when the race starts. Well ill know for sure on Friday.
Ger Update: My principal has been in the midst of arranging my wood/coal power compensation for my next place to live, which explains why they haven’t told me to move yet. You see while I don’t have a radiator where I move and the vast sums of money it takes to provide this luxury in the winter and the fact that someone who would be living in a ger gets to live there, coal and wood are no cheap orders either. Peace Corps is naturally a little busy these days given that in three days staging takes place for the M21’s in Mongolia and so I will likely now move to my site AFTER the M21s arrive on the 5th of June but before they are sent to their sites for training. (though I am not a part of the training I imagine they will undergo the similar few days in Zuunmod getting calibrated and learn how to say “bi maahand dortay” (I like meat) even if its not true.) Moogi, who has a much stronger grasp of English and Mongolian than my counterpart has decided to help out with some of the more complex parts of the conversation with Peace Corps. I am wisely staying out of it and will simply move when ordered.
My apartment is perfectly fine for right now, though its finally even warm enough at night that I sleep in my silk sleeping bag I bought from Vietnam for a dollar instead of under my blanket. I wonder if I will be allowed to bring the giant pink blanket they provided for me. I had a lot of warm nights under that thing. Time for some hedonism and lounging. This life rocks.
June 2, 2010. Ondortolge, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “Ill ask Exar Nur the next time we go out drinking.” –Kyle Kataran
Bad dreams. Must have to do with the warm weather. Its great being warm out because unlike when I was in Thailand for four or so months there is no humidity in this county. Its just a general dose of heat coupled with a breeze that keeps it civil as well as a dryness that sucks the sweat away. Actually the breeze by a American standard would still probably be considered quite strong, but like I said we don’t change we simply gain more relativity. After months of wind so strong I crawled from one building to another I can honestly say that this wind is nothing but a light breeze.
Tomorrow the M21’s go to staging, meaning by the time I post this they will already be en route to San Francisco. Nervous yet? Intimidated? Homesick? I was two of the three before I came. The good news is that those two you get over as time goes on. The third I still don’t really feel but that from what I gather from those more prone to this do indeed say its one of the harder things to get past.
I hope you did something fun before you came here. Go to a waterpark or skydive or some other odd form of entertainment that does not exist here. Eat so much hummus you guys. Seriously drown in the stuff. Put on ten pounds in fruit before you get here. Especially the granny smith apples that feel like they would crack your teeth for taking a bite out of them. Your in for a lot of meat or if your actually gonna try to remain a vegetarian here be ready to eat 5000 pounds of potatoes and crummy pasta.
Aside from that ill see you all at the airport on Saturday night. Look for the “Be intimidated…I Was!” sign. Don’t worry, its just the rest of your life!
Packing up my bag for some travel to UB tomorrow. Lets get this Marathon thing done, I could use a beer which I cant drink until I finish this marathon.
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