another month down....time flies and it gets colder and colder...

September 1, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.
Today’s Quote: “Were back baby!!!” –Bender Bending Rodriguez

So after a summer schedule crammed with hot girls, Naadam festivals, long car rides, wild horses, marathons, and just about every factor that would keep me from being able to sit down each day and type up my comings and goings in this crazy little life of mine, I find myself here on the first day of school at the end of a long day and realize that the summer came to an end at the perfect time.
I yearn for my boredom and routine after a summer without any. Were all moved into the ger and life and therefore this blog will likely return to me talking about potatoes and annoying kids. Ah…life is good. By the by how cool was that last blog entry of mine? I seriously believe I have outdone myself on that one.
So today was the first day of school…again. It was strange to go through the opening ritual yet again. I got out my blue dress shirt, charged the camera and bright and early at 8am I arrived at my school….and waited for an hour while everyone late showed up. Totally saw it coming, and they gave me some airag to drink this time as well. Kick ass.
The ceremony a second time around was a lot more enjoyable. I understood everything that was being said this time and I knew what was coming up. This school operates a little different than the one at Ondortolge. That school gets both towns 10th and 11th graders while Bagkhangai takes all the kids from 1st-4th grade. I imagine it has to do with this school being centrally heated and better insulated or perhaps its just the way it is. Anyway that means that my English classes are going to have to be REALLY basic. Yet now that I think about it that could be an even better thing. Less pressure about tests and more time just trying to talk and speak. Heck the 1st-4th graders are the only ones who talk to me anyway in town…this could be really good.
So we did the ceremony and then the rest of the day is a “field day” so to speak and I was delegated the task of refereeing the soccer games. I really don’t know why they have this role. The kids make their own teams and call their own fouls. Actually the only time I made a ruling everyone got pissed at me so I spent the day basically watching bad soccer….worse ways to spend a nice day. Wont be able to waste a day outside like that for much longer.
The internet at the school is also top notch. Wireless and T1. Well, usually has internet anyways. Far faster and more reliable than the internet that was up about once a month for an hour or so on a single computer at about a 5kbps speed. Yea, its all relative.
My stores sell beans too…seriously if I learned how to make pizza I may never leave. Actually I will need to leave one final time before I consider myself finally “back” as next Monday I go to the wedding of my former sitemate Tripp. That’s gonna be a blast as ive never been to the Mongolian wedding, and apparently these things make all other Mongolian drinking habits look quite tame. Tuesday will be a little more sobering as I will be going to the dentist at long last. Not gonna like that I can tell. I never get out of a dentists office without some new cavities moving in. What the hell? I brush twice a day and I eat about a 1/10th as much candy as I used to. Common teeth! Well a necessary pain now to avoid other pain later. And you know, when better to go than hungover right? So I wrap those two events up and then return to my town where the next time ill probably shuffle around will be the consolidation drill we all do sometime in October.
Ive been like…here here… for over a year now. Egad!
Oh! One final thing I did today that will be just one of many new little chores I will take part in because I now live in a ger. I did a water run/sit. You see, as a ger resident I am required to get my water from a well. Yep, back to the 18th century for me! Well the well only operates at certain hours, and the whole community brought out there buckets and whatnot to get their ration of water. My 30 liter container paled in comparison to some of the drums I saw rolling around. It did involve an hour sitting around with the kids of my community (lugging water is a kid chore, kinda like mowing the lawn or something that doesn’t happen here) We made some great water container drum music and the scene of all of us in line for water will make a great picture the next time I remember to bring my camera.
Good times…day by day the days will unfold…WERE BACK BABY!


September 2, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.


Ah schools back. School is also easy. First week, no pressures, general introductions, things like that. The kids are definitely a fan of me and now that I have Mongolian on my tongue this is going to be SO much easier than last year. Its also easier because I have learned how to relax a little as compared to how I was feeling last year. Today I got bombarded for language clubs and I whipped those up like I had been expecting it all year (I had) The language clubs will inevitably die out as every English club I have ever had has before when people realize that just showing up does not instantly mean you learn to speak English….they are now the inexperienced ones. Tables turned indeed.
So there is construction workers just outside my school. They will be there for the remainder of my time here in Mongolia as they are constructing an additional school here in Bagkhangai. It will be done by the same Japanese grant that made the first one and will therefore be one of the best additions this town has had since the last one as well.
The teachers all asked me to go camping with them back in Terelj and I was majorly bummed to tell them all I was going to Tripps wedding and so I couldn’t go. Bummed out indeed. As always just too many things id like to be doing at the same time.
After school today I went out running yet again. I haven’t blogged about the last 4 days but ive run 3-5 miles each day now after a summer of almost no running at all after the marathon at the start of June. My legs may be reminding me that I have been negligent, but I am still up and about. Kicking ass in the running department with no more difficulty than if I had taken the weekend off. Gods I love my body!
I figure this habit of good food/exercise/rest will continue on until the cold kicks in sometime in October or so and then the “normal” pattern life shine will begin to wear off as do all things after so long, but right now lets just enjoy the basic and the simple. I am happy, and its not like I have to work to maintain this. Socrates talked about how humble people or impoverished people had found a most unique way. “Sparks no envy, free to any who wish it and only improves with neglect.” I may not be poor, but I get the idea and think its adaptable.


September 3, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

Teaching is fun! Granted its week 1. The kids are sitting down, shutting up and NOT hitting each other and my counterpart and I are both recharged and ready to teach but today I took the kids through a fun medley of “There are seven days in a week” and it all happened so easily. Ah…now that’s the kind of teaching I am aiming for all year. Maybe I work better with kids than teens. Teens need law, kids need inspiration. Something like that right? As I said, we class clowns of youth may make great teachers we make the absolute worst classroom managers.
Tomorrow I head into what I REALLY want to be the last trip I make to UB in a LONG time. I somehow doubt that my package from home will have arrived (if it has been sent) The good news is that my gaming experience has diversified significantly since I moved to Bagkhangai. One of the greatest video games ever created: Ultima VII: The Black Gate has a module that allows it to play on my mac WITH SOUND! I didn’t have that with even the best PC module. Score one for Mac geeks!
Still, either waiting to be shipped, sitting at PC office or lost in China somewhere out there is a video game with my name on it. Starcraft II. Better still with my new internet connection I could even play people like my brother Russell in it at some point. I love that. Were brotherly adult siblings and instead of talking with the newfound internet he and I will blast at one another with video games….Freud would have a field day he really would!
Its been a great week of getting back to the simple life. No booze, great undisturbed sleep, 5 mile daily runs…seriously so long as I get that run in I really can take anything life throws my way. Ill be off the running course for the next four days but ive been doing it for five in a row. Im sure ill get it back quicker when I return.
Hey btw, with this newfound internet I looked up a lot regarding blogs from PCV’s not in Mongolia. Next time i join PC (an option in a year btw) I am going to apply either for Eastern Europe or the Caribbean or Pacific Islands. I realized reading those how much I miss a real beach or food that is good and flavorful in all conditions. Those areas seem to have that (note: Once again be clear you don’t get to “pick” where your assigned when you join Peace Corps and this is a dream sequence were talking bout here…just checking)
Oh, final note. Its Friday, which means for the first time in over two months I have spent a full week back at my site. Which sucks because I have to leave tomorrow for the wedding. Seriously if a wedding was not involved I would find an excuse not to go. Its felt really good to be back. The five mile runs, the same bed each night. People I recognize and know, a job and I have even been sober for the last week as I am away from the Gem beer tent outside the state department store in UB. All last year during the school year, despite extreme boredom I did find a way somehow to not buy alcohol during the weekday and only drank when offered by someone else at a party or something. In my second year I hope to carry on that tradition, mostly because I just hate the taste of the stuff. How the hell did that happen?
My brother and Dad both like the stuff (usually with tonic or a chaser but still) my sister would drink it if she ever didn’t drink diet coke and my mom…come to think of it I literally have no memories or visions of my mother drinking anything except like wine on Thanksgiving. I am most certain she has but that’s weird I can remember everyone else in my family drinking like fish. Responsible fish but fish none the less! Anyways the point is that I am really the only person in my immediate family who I think really does not like Vodka at all under any circumstances (ill be sure to bring a few bottles of Chinngis home to my brother and father, that’s a couple gifts right off the list right there. Im thinking of getting my dad an eagle for a gift too. They only cost around $200,000 for a license and dad could use it to hunt rabbits or squirrels or whatever eats at his gardens veggies…whatcha think, good idea?) I figure Eric my stepfather could use a warbow (he can hang it above the Mac Plus) and mom gets whatever she tells me she wants from this country.

…Anyway im talking about alcohol…

So while sober on the week it is a Friday and so for the first time in a week I went to the shop to buy some booze. I came across an interesting discovery and revelation that I had yet to buy vodka in Bagkhangai and so I examined the shelf. The brand of vodka I have drank for the last year called “Erroll” (sorry I cant type in Cyrillic on this computer) has gone up 100 tugriks. This not only means that they are abusing the inflation, but they have also no longer a well rounded number for the price of vodka which had been the 4,500 Tugriks ($3.50 for 3/4th a liter of vodka, good gods this country of mine!) Well I looked to the right in this store and low and behold they actually had a choice of vodkas to pick from that were all mid shelf! So looking at the next price tag I saw that the new vodka I will be drinking is called “Terguun” I gave it a swig while watching a movie tonight and it tasted distinctly different. I don’t mean that I like it, actually it tasted quite awful as do all vodkas I drink taste like but it had a distinctly different flavor from the previous vodka. There not flavored, and since its vodka I am a little curious how that happens where it tastes different. I bet I could hike to the school, google this information and someone could give me a complete and logical explaination… or I could take a few more shots, forget what I had been thinking about and fall asleep! Ah, life is really really good.


September 8, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

I tell ya, am I ever gonna get to spend a full week in my soum ever again? The trip to UB was one both of chores and of fun…and a touch of toothache.
So I get in to UB and head to my usual guesthouse on Saturday. Not bad, except they don’t have hot water. Getting a little tired of this and my hairs getting a little too bushy not to wash it on at least a monthly basis (relax, it get soaked when I live at my site)
I text around and find a guesthouse that a lot of PCV’s frequent that even has rooms for the beds so me and Esther could spend a few nights without everyone else around. I book the place down for Sunday Monday and Tuesday. Then I do some chores like buying a mouse for my computer (ive come into some new video games) and I did a load of laundry. The rest of Saturday was what I always do in Mongolia, alcohol, friends, and American Burgers and Fries.
That last one needs some explaining, and needs to be experienced to be believed. So eight of so months ago an American (of Mongolian ancestry) was growing up in Northern Virginia. Wait for it…he attended ROBINSON HIGH SCHOOL!!!! I obviously didn’t know this about him until recently, but the minute we met it was apparent that our accents were that (white boy with an international audience and teachers) type sound. When I later told him that I was a teacher at that school he reacted as all students would in that situation “Get the hell out of my place!” (joke folks)
He had a dream… and I gotta say his was a little more practical and useful than some other peoples dreams (myself included) He came back to Mongolia and set up shop near the center of town selling fries and burgers. Not burgers like all other tourist restaurants though. He buys his beef from cows raised by a Canadian in Hovsgul and gets charged accordingly for getting the meat that actually makes an American burger taste like a burger. Though he was open in the spring it was not until this summer that we PCV’s have really invaded the place. So every time you drop in you inevitably meet other volunteers and the usual fun ensues.
Sunday I moved over to the other guesthouse, and as the guesthouse is a block from the state department store where all the beer tents used to be I was saddened to see that they were in the process of being dismantled. Summer is indeed reached its end. Esther though made for a decent distraction, and we spent Sunday doing the catch up thing and eating and drinking incessantly.
Monday was Tripps wedding. I had coordinated that Esther, I and a fellow volunteer named Lindsay would take a cab out together, and when we arrived a short and fast talking host walked us into the ballroom where the party was taking place. The layout is what you expect in a Mongolian wedding. Bride and groom up front, and the closest members of each of their families branching off from them. We walk in…and theres no other gringos in the room…and the chair next to Tripp is empty. I figured id be quickly seated at some distant sattelite table with a view of the bathroom, instead I sat directly next to Tripp, looking quite snazzy in my getup btw.
The wedding was going great until the best man (whose me! Tripp told me NONE of this) had to give a speech. What the hell? I don’t have enough elegant Mongolian for this. Now luckily Tripps bride Mongontuya translated and I quickly retreated to English. It was your typical. “I met the two of you, you were an instant match, I can think of noone better together” (obvious paraphrasing) Then I finished on this “I wish you both good health, a long time together, and of course many children.” She translated this and everyone goes into a gasp.
Mentally I ran down the list of ways in which you can jinx or curse a Mongolian, and could think of nothing. Two hours later I find out FOR THE FIRST TIME that Mongontuya is three months pregnant…and yes it is INSANE bad luck to wish someone a happy child while she is still expecting. You don’t even really talk about a pregnant woman once shes knocked up. I looked over at Tripp menacingly and he had his typical smile and composure of a man of extreme competence looking at a man sorely lacking in this. Ah Tripp…worry not, id never harm a man on his wedding day, even one as sinister as you for setting this up.
I forgot my camera but Esther had hers and gave me her pictures. The pictures don’t do this justice, you sorta just gotta be a part of this to understand. BTW: for a few moments Tripp divulged the cost of a wedding as swanky as his in Mongolian. An eloping in Vegas with an Elvis impersonator costs five times as much! Score one for marrying out of country.
The next day we nursed our hangovers…actually no I didn’t. At 8:00am I had my dentist visit. They hadn’t bothered to contact me about it all summer (a quote from our med guy Paul: “Let me take care of that”) but the minute I did they made an appointment for Tuesday and so they went to work. I hate dentists. I could brush and floss until the world ran out of string and I would still get cavities. Weak teeth and a love for sugar I suppose. Nothing in my mouth hurt, but I knew after a year there was no way I was getting out of that office free. She shuffled around and found the guilty teeth. Two of em side to side. She also took a look at my old fillings a lot and made a lot of barking noises at the woman taking notes behind me. Teeth wise I have a high tolerance for pain so while it sucked I just sat there while she drilled and patched away. Couple hours later she was done, and my teeth had that annoying -your still numb but under the numbness you still feel the pain thing. She finally revealed she wanted to see me two more times. She wanted to replace four of my old fillings. Gods I love dentists. So the next time they can fit me in is the following Friday and Saturday. Oh wee! More UB time.
The afternoon I do my med exam with Paul our doc. It was pretty damn comical:
“Do you drink?”
“Only to excess sir!”
“Real funny Starbuck.” (he knew the Battlestar Galactica quote)
Others followed but you sorta had to be there to get the back and forth of it. Anyways he finishes his line of questions and just sorta looks at me bored and goes: “So how do you feel?” I tell him fine and so he offers to test me for anything I want. Quite different from the American health care system huh? Basically he said after giving me a brisk physical that if I want tests for anything that wouldn’t show up from that he could, but he put me down near the nonexistent percentage for most of them. I asked if he would make the same offer at my Close of Service and when he said yes I agreed he didn’t need to do any specific testing. Healthy living, genetic lineage and neurotic mothers have given me the armor to survive and thrive in the rough world.
So it was a long medical day and on Wednsday I could finally return to site. I was bringing back something from Peace Corps office that I had been waiting for. My package from my mother had arrived, and inside. Starcraft II!!!!!! Obviously the rest of my night is booked so excuse me…. Fun days in UB…and im back in less than a week for more drilling and scraping. You know at some point this school year id love to teach.


September 9th, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

So here is a funny thing. I sorta looked around at all the things in my yard today. While I moved here in the middle of July logistically ive spent only three or so weeks in this ger. My ger sorta sits in the middle of it and in typical Haasha fashion there is a small summer shack where my haasha family sleeps and lives and an outhouse near the right corner. A few oil drums for garbage and that’s it.
Yet today I was playing with the puppies. My hashaa family has a dog who just gave birth to nine puppies. I am looking into a period of time when I can inquire if for a year I can keep one for a pet. One of the little pups runs over to a pile of scrap metal near the outhouse. I had seen this stuff day in and day out but like all rusting metal in the countryside it just sorta blends in. I pulled one of the piece up to get to where the dog was…and realized just what this was a scrap piece of.
I should have known these were somewhere. We are on the remains of an air force base after all and while you can fly your fighters back theres just gonna be way too many things that they cant take away. But I realized right then and there what I was holding. I was holding a bomb. Not explosives, but the outer shell of an honest to Joseph Smith bomb that gets dropped from planes high high above. I imagine it was simply them removing the valuable explosives bit and just not being willing to drag the heavy casing back with them.
They even had the stabilizing propeller in the back and all. So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. In my yard, next to the outhouse…I have a half dozen or so bombs just laying around. What do you all have? A rake? HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Oh yea, class was fine today. Good students…good school year…bombs in my yard.

Late night addition: Moogi just sent me a text about something happening tomorrow. Your not gonna believe this…I wont even believe this till I see it either.


September 10, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

Last night was going so well. I had just finished typing the blog. I had the great photos of the bombs, a good cup of milk tea with the haasha family and I was locked in a battle of Starcraft II. It was all going so utterly well.
Then at 9pm I get a text from Moogi. “Josh, do you run in ultramarathon?” I obviously thought back to what I assumed was this countries only ultramarathon which is at Lake Hovsgul in July and so I said no I missed it. She replies “No the ultramarathon in Bagkhangai.”
What’s this? They plan on having an ultramarathon in this town? Seriously? Granted I had not been as active of a runner this summer given my beer and vacation habits but I figured with a month or two I could probably at least run a regular marathon. I say hellz yes and ask for the date.
….
…
…”tomorrow morning”…
…
…
I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!!
How in the hell did Moogi wait until the night before to tell me this town had any races planned let alone an ultramarathon? The race is practically in 10 hours now!!!!
Well, im in I guess.
I run to my cupboard and start craming every piece of protein I can find down my throat. I also drink a liter and a half of water with a Vitamin C enhancement pack as well.
I haven’t run past ten miles in over two months! I ran lightly the last two weeks, but were not even talking my standard marathon either!!! I spent that night really stretching out, knowing I would need to walk this and that if my muscles weren’t limber enough I was in for a curl up.
I got to sleep quickly but far too soon it was time to get up and stretch and drink again. I took the shuttle to Ondortolge where the race was starting, and was taken aback by just how many people were running. There were over a 100 people running the ultramarathon. That’s twice the amount that ran the UB marathon! The course lengths were as followed. You could run the 3km run, which a lot of my town and even students did. The next length was 50km. That’s 8km more than a regular marathon. (its over 30 miles!) and the final “ultramarathon” was 100k. I probably shoulda played it safe and just sprinted the 3k….but im afraid you guys by now probably know my policy about half assed things.
I signed up for the 50km. After the summer and the lack of prep time I knew I didn’t stand a chance running 100km in one day. The town did its usual horse violin/girl dancing performances before the race set off. I took a few quick photos. I told Moogi she could have my computer if I die when I handed her my cell phone and keys. She grinned a little too widely when she said “OK!” and I suddenly then recalled that Moogi had left me in the dark about this for so very long. Id complain more but by the time I could stretch a little more someone fired off a rocket and the race was on.
I am writing all of this fast, but its not even because I am in a rush, but that the time up to the race happened in the blink of an eye to me. Usually when I run marathons it’s the months/day leading up to the marathon that last forever. Then the actual 4-5 hours or running time breezes right by (especially because of the training preparing me for the race too!) With this it was all one thing after another.
The overwhelming majority of the people who had on running bibs seemed to be signed up to run 100km. The degree of “in shapeness” varied considerably. Some people looked like walking muscles, and others were middle aged mothers who were smoking prior to the start of the race. As the race went on matters would clarify. The people who orchestrated this race were from UB. You could tell the pack runners because that’s what they did…ran in a pack. It was 20 or so guys, definitely military. They weren’t running out and back like us either. They were just going to run from here all the way to Sukbaatar Square in the center of UB (about 100km away) very practical using our town as a starting grid huh? For the non military or the 50k runners it was an out and back course. Saved on water stations I suppose.
We started the run with the Mongolians all blazing a trail. I was the only foreigner running the 50k or 100k in this race. Actually I was the only non-Mongolian here period (check out the starting line photo…everywhere I go in Asia I always stand out like a tree among flowers!) Better still, I was the only LOCAL who was running one of the ultramarathons! How cool is that, im a foreigner, but im the local boy….gods I love Peace Corps, and gods I love this country.
So the running track went the way I hoped it would. It ran on the path I used to train for the marathon back in June. The problem is they screwed up the math of kilometers. Every 2 kilometers on the main road is a counter of how far you are from Sukbaatar Square in UB. Their count of how many kilometers we had run were WAY off…and they weren’t shorting up their screw up either. I am pretty sure we ran over 60 kilometers to finish the race.
Well the first half of the marathon was basically me trailing further and further behind the bulk of the runners. I recognized the people running though. They may have been strong, like almost all Mongolians I know but they had never run long distances before. I imagine they thought strength would bring them through. Strength is a wonderful thing, but to those of us who have run five marathons can tell you that strength will only take you as far as your stamina can.
I may have been behind everyone in the first 25 kilometers, but by the time it was the turnaround point I could see the Mongolians dropping. Some were trying to stretch their woefully overworked muscles (all that strength huh…) but others had truly just lay flat on the road waiting for a medic. My jog may have been pathetic in the beginning, but I was the only one I could see still jogging after 30 kilometers (the people truly in shape running the 100km were well out of site by that point)
I was aware of just how few of the people with 100km bibs were not even going to finish 50km let alone 100km. I had forgotten the degree to which Mongolians can be overly ambitious. No matter to me, but as I reached the 40km water station I was starting to hurt. I had dropped to a walk 5km earlier and while relatively I hadn’t worked out much this summer id been in shape long and hard enough that while I didn’t have a specific pain my whole body was hurting. My feet were particularly tired of pounding pavement.
With the big open expanse of Mongolia as our backdrop and it never really appearing to change all that much there were periods of time where I believed I may be reenacting that scene from the “Tripplettes of Bellville” where a machine has been developed to watch as I trot along while others bet upon which kilometer it is I drop dead from. Running can give you a dry sense of humor I suppose.
At 40km this is usually the conclusion of a conventional marathon. On this day though I have another 10k to go. Ive run 5 marathons before and never once did I finish a race and think (boy another 10k would rock right now!) but that’s what had to be done. The last 10k went beyond pain to more dangerous things. My body was past just giving me pain indicators and was at the point where it starts to change my anatomy. Its sorta like your brain and body going “okay I am no longer sending you warning signs that your stressing yourself too far. Instead what you will see differently is going to be so that you stay alive while you finish doing whatever the hell this is!”
I felt it when I picked up a cup of water to drink. My hands felt a little numb, and on a more serious note when I looked at my hands I swore they were four times thicker than they usually are. My fingers and whole hands were clubbing up. Additionally came the eyesight flashes. While there are not a lot of cars driving on the road I did start to see the world in different tinges for long stretches of time. I remember the colors purple and blue specifically. Finally despite only walking during the last 5 kilometers the top of my chest was starting to feel like it was being squeezed. It meant that my lungs were giving up too. In essence I am pretty sure that if I were not under 30, not as well exercised over the past 5 years or trying to run any farther than the 50/60kilometers I had run today I probably would have given myself a heart attack, but luckily as I staggered the final few kilometers across the air force base I reached the finish line.
I just ran an ultramarathon of over 30 miles….That was pretty damn ninja!
No medals (they give 4 year olds medals in this country for competing in English competitions when they cant speak English!) but I got the running big which shows I run 50km and I got a shirt saying it was in Bagkhangai that we ran the ultramarthon man. So I guess I could now label myself 5 time marathon man and one time ultramarathoner…but I think well just add it to the other marathons and make me 6 time marathon man! JOSH JACOBS
Seriously, they teach you when you join Peace Corps to be ready for anything this job throws at ya….didnt see that one.

Okay, now excuse me I need to eat 500grams of protein and sleep 50 years. I imagine tomorrow ill be so sore ill never again stand up.


September 11, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

Well, it hurts. Just not the type of pain I had in mind. Yesterday, with less than a days notice I ran 50 kilometers. I got a plastic bib and a t-shirt for my trouble. Totally worth it! Upon waking up I looked over my feet to check for any blisters that have grown. None did. Too many years of running have calloused my feet. I remember the six months in the Spring of 2004 when I was finally getting into shape for the first time in my life. Running in sneakers, 50 pounds overweight, new at it. My toes each night were teeming with blisters. Now luckily with the proper shoes and a good tie they almost never blister, and so the only pain from my feet was a minor ache.
It was my thighs that stung so much. I imagined it came from too much exertion, but as I inspected closely I realized the pain wasent coming from muscle, it came from the skin. Running all day in essentially a speedo in the Mongolian sun had exposed my pale upper thighs, and now they REALLY burned. That was my greatest pain after a 50/60k run…sunburn. If it didn’t hurt so much id laugh harder. I got some more burn on my neck and back too, but I think it’s the legs that will take the pain for the next few days. Luckily the race was on a Saturday so I have the weekend to recuperate. I think in one of my bags there is probably IB profin.


September 12, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

Im still trying to type in that I live in Ondortolge every time I title a blog date. Not that it matters as I hardly am ever not at this town or at Ulaanbaatar, but still you get the idea. Today the sunburn pain receeded and instead I just find myself all around sore. I am finding it cooler and cooler with each passing second that I was capable of running over 50 kilometers without even a sufficient buildup of training. Go me.
BTW: I forgot to put down yesterday that I have now been in the Peace Corps for 15 months. G.M. Chrysler!!!! Longest I was ever out of the country before this was less than half a year on a beach and at a Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. Nothing half assed, that I most certainly can stress!
The ger is still working out great. The early part of September this year is bringing back flash memories of last year where this was the calm before the storm. I was still clean, full of zeal, and the weather was still merciful. Its all coming back, and I am well aware of that, its just amusing how much more confidence you have in life after living somewhere for a year.
I spent the day finishing the Human campaign on Starcraft II and then reading my Star Wars Book. I liked it, and it broke the mold of the previous books set 40 years AFTER A New Hope Now this series which goes on about the Old Republic is set four thousand years BEFORE A New Hope happened. New people and characters, new philosophies and when I envision these people I don’t have to imagine what Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford would look like when he is 70.
In another years time, I will have a metric ton of books that I don’t want to bother with lugging back to the states. Most will be out in paperback by that time anyway. Some M22 or M21 who bribes me well enough is going to come across this cache at the Peace Corps library next summer and think they died and went to Sci-Fi heaven. Good books they are too. Problem is I only really have one final book coming out for me. It’s Vortex and it comes out in December, and the next book in the series wont be out until I conclude my time in Peace Corps. Wow, having a series to follow really does make the months roll by.
School is back up tomorrow, but as I don’t teach on Tuesday or Wednesday and I leave for more dentist work on Thursday and Friday I will say that this week is pretty damn slow like the last one was as well. Its sorta like the swine flu break of last fall, only a little earlier and instead it’s a series of badly timed appointments.
Im off to bed, life is so cool is it not?


September 13, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

Okay, so hear me out on this one. Back on December 31, 2009 I made a promise to myself. I swore up and down that for one lousy year of my life I was NOT going to worry about anything that happened further down the road. That I would spend a year where here and now was all there was.
Its been nine or so months and ive done that. Its been wonderful to have so little to concern myself over. Its scary and freightening to have been away from steady news sources so long and so often that I would once a month find out what new politicians were dead and what new reform bills had been passed. Yet it also has been empowering to realize that I know exactly as much as I truly need to know. It’s the power of freedom ladies and gentlemen, and I have been exploring the sensation for a while now.
I still haven’t broken my promise, but today with the internet at my command I went to the Peace Corps website and came across something I had long forgotten about. One thing that Peace Corps volunteers have as a perk after service is the option to apply to a number of fellowships at colleges and universities across the states. Some masters, some even doctorates in things like Public Policy. Its an application for a fellowship which means that if I wanted to pick back up where I had left life behind in the Spring of 2009 then I need to have gathered the appropriate materials and have applied by Jan. 1, 2011. That’s three or so months away.
Whatcha think everyone? I have two masters degrees, one in Education and one in Modern European History. Would a doctorate in something like Public Policy be up my street? Think about it. First off, ….Dr. Jacobs. We already got a few non medicine doctoral holders in my family already. Be nice to fit in to that group. If I sorta buried myself in school and work I could probably have the doctorate by the time I reach 35, giving me more than enough time to then apply it to a career.
A doctorate in something like Public Policy coupled with the previous Higher Education/Residential Life experience and spooled in the teaching I have done would probably set me up for good with some type of high advancement job in volunteer work organizations. Spend my autumn years just working and helping till age finally catches up to me.
…it sounds like an amazing life.
I could do it you know… with my degrees, my health, my lack of debt, my ability to adapt to pretty much any enviorment you put me in I could be one of the best administrators of a US government assistance organization out there…


Is that the one I want?
Do I want to go to that Kibbutz in Israel?
Do I want to go back into Residential Life at Higher Education?
Do I want to just teach?
Do I want to search out community colleges to teach at?
Do I want to join the Peace Corps again?
Do I just want to keep traveling the world, finding out that if theres no end to the world then I should try to explore all of it that I can?
…its that scene in the book Traitor. I can think until the end of time and it will do nothing. I have to choose and act don’t i?

You cant go into exile forever can you?
You can go, be in it, even enjoy it for quite a while, but sooner or later life catches up to you and you have to answer your own question…
Who am i?

….AAAUUGGGHH!!!! This is why I promised myself I wouldn’t think about this until 2011. But still I need some advice. Ill enquire with some of the people I often seek council from. Ill also make a trip to the Country Director we now have. We met at MST, and she seemed to have a lot of sagely advice on people at crossroads.
…oh yea, the rest of the day went fine. I think ill start lightly trying to jog again tomorrow. A good three days rest with plenty of Orange Juice has done me very well.


September 14, 2010

Out of boredom and egotism I have submitted myself for consideration as the Volunteer of the Month award thing the newsletter is advertising. Better still it brought to my attention that they are looking for videos on a Peace Corps competition about my “My Piece of the Peace Corps” and naturally I have gone straight to work on that as well. Unlike the Volunteer of the Month award thing, I could actually win money if the video does well. It’s a rather exciting start to a second year I will say!
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are weird schedule days for me. You see, the 10th and 11th graders this year are on an experimental program where they are sent to Ondortolge to study with the other graders as theres only a handful of them here. As a result I only teach little kids this year. So just to review last year I worked pretty much as a TEFL and now as I work only with little kids I am technically a PT Primary Teacher. I would like it kept fresh in everyones minds that I technically still am a Teacher Trainer! Ill let you know when I do something about that.
Anyways so theres Tuesday and Wednesday where I technically have no English classes in my school, so I help out an old counterpart from Ondortolge Bayarcahn who is actually a Russian teacher. Kinda quiet and by the book old school type teacher. She teaches Russian to 4th graders in my school. Ive been assigned on these two days to assist her. Trouble is like last year our team teaching method to her is “you teach 20 minutes, then I will teach 20 minutes” I pick my battles in Mongolia and getting her to move on this is pretty far down my list, so on these days I just try to be present in the school and help out where needed.
Out of boredom today I watched a few clips of Entourage on youtube. I hadn’t ever really watched this show but unless you live in a cave its easy enough to know what its about. One guys famous and you follow the life of him and his buddies living the impossibly high life in LA. Now at first this seemed innocent enough, but something told me this was a weird setup. Not as in it wouldn’t be good. HBO doesn’t make series that don’t last or aren’t popular after all. Instead I just felt as though I should be mocking something specific about this show. I watched a little more and I felt like I was eerily close to some horrible, horrible truth. Finally I am watching the four of them at some outdoor restaurant wearing four very different styles of clothes that would make GQ proud and drinking beers and complaining about an obscure topic like anal sex and the four men find that each of them is at a different viewpoint and stage of that in their lives and we spend the next 22 minutes watching them all grow a little on the subject. Thank gods I was alone when I came to this mind shattering revelation.


I AM WATCHING SEX AND THE CITY FOR MEN!!!!! Seriously men have been watching this show for seven years? Its Sex in the City for crying out loud! Geeze…thank goodness my internet out here is still too spotty to get enough television.
By the by, I have been reading more of the bible of late. It sorta slipped by after the early parts of summer but ive been getting through a little each night. I gotta say though, after you get past the historical sections of the bible it starts to get into a pretty damn dry book. All about how to live your life and a lot less cool battles and death….i dunno if I am gonna finish this after all. I think the middle chapters of the bible are sorta like the Simalarion of Lord of the Rings books. Unless you are an impressive fan of the all around genre this part just feels like your waiting for the good stuff to pick back up.
If I assess correctly a lot of the Evangelicals use those obscure middle books to quote obscure and out of context lines in their various protests. You rarely see a protester at a rally holding a sign with a Leviticus X:XX on it do you? No its always more a new testament thing.
Light day, think ill go for some jogging.


September 15, 2010. Bagkhangai, Mongolia.

A few days ago I skyped with my mom. She was all praise about this blog (amusing given how its probably her and 10 or so other people who read it) but she said she particularly liked when I used pictures. She then paraphrased that my sister enjoyed this too because “There is no way we are just going to look at 5000 photos of Mongolia from your computer when you get back”
Eloquent as always my sister is. Worry not though. With my minor in IT and a Macintonsh laptop I have at my disposal the means of making montage movies! Montage movies are a particular genre. Before the time of video editing these things were only made by professionals that would make things like promos for movies and television shows. Nowadays however pretty much any loser with a laptop, a movie and song they love and a lot of spare time can make one.
Back to the photos. Well I have in the past made montage movies of my time at the Bagkhangai school year and worry not I will take the brightest and the coolest of my Peace Corps photos and turn them into a cool montage movie clip that will be around ten minutes long. Go me! So worry not sis, youll see the highlight reel.
Lets see…some Mongolian related stuff.
Today me and my Haasha father did a little maintenance work on my ger. My ger is brand spanking new, but the thing is that the ger belongs to the school. They haven’t really been in need of my ger so its sat in storage from what I gather for a good four or so years before I finally asked for its use and they rolled it out. Therefore a lot of the straps and whatnot are new in terms that the dye on the straps is coming right off but at the same time the straps are a little frail and some of them have snapped from nothing other than being wound around a ger for a few weeks. With the help of my dad we patched that right up. My door entrance however requires a tad more finesse. It was a crummy door from the first day. I decided to admire the design rather that realize the part near the hinges was all splintered. Ive used elbow grease to get it to fit into place but today when opening it the hinge finally just snapped off. This requires a little more skill to fix than even my father can provide so I find myself trying to pull up my “broke” vocabulary when talking to my boss at the school.
Im sure they will fix it eventually, and the door still can lock shut. I take my laptop with me when I usually leave anyway.


September 19, 2010. The bus headed back to UB, Mongolia.

You know, in all fairness I only post one or two entries a month, but now that I calculate that my average blog entry is over 20 pages long this really does have the potential being made into a book when I get back to America. “Three Shots of Vodka” Just remember blog readers, you got to read this book for free! Think about that.
So something happened after I finished that journal entry on Wednesday night. My computer died. Not froze, not the chimes of death. I mean that I pushed the button, the “CHIME!!!” rang and all I got to see was a black screen. I tried a projector and that didn’t display things either.
This meant one of three things had happened. The least likely was the most hopeful. I had put my monitor to sleep accidently and didn’t know how to activate it. The second being that the video card had fried itself and that I was no longer going to be able to use this computer, but if I ever brought this computer to a Mac store they could probably salvage my files. The third being that my hard drive fried itself, and that meant that I had just lost every digital photo I have ever taken along with my music and video files I have created. Those are naturally in order of preference as well.
Strangely, I didn’t panic. I just sorta sat quietly in my ger Wednesday night realizing just how imbued I had been to my computer. Go figure! Well it meant I could read more and write. I even broke out my old journal that I keep notes in as well. Good for me!
So on Thursday I take the bus into UB. Your usual ride in of bump and bump in a crowded bus. I remember when bus rides and commutes in America felt so long. Mongolia will make me a very tempered individual! We get in and I head to the only computer guys I trust in UB. I doubted my computer could be fixed but maybe I could get my hard drive data and then have another computer shipped in.
We spent around four hours on it. The dude working there had as much computer expertise as me, but he did have a tiny screwdriver so unlike me he could take off the motherboard. When he opened it I expected to find the video card that would be scorched in some place where it had burnt out. Instead I saw the hard drive and motherboard looking perfectly fine. This gave me my first spark of hope. He did what I would have done next in this situation and basically pulled the video card off the motherboard and then snapped it back in. When he did that, the test boot brought up the screen!
He tightened everything back together and charged me 60,000 tugriks to basically do what I could have done if I owned a tiny screwdriver. Not complaining, merely pointing out to those that say the IT profession is overcrowded that its pretty damn useful job trait to have!
The computer runs okay, though the internal fans are now continuously running at full speed and will not rest when the computer is not being taxed. Its not loud, just something new I wish hadn’t taken place. Again, my computer works, not going to whine THAT much.
I also instantly pulled out my external hard drive and moved 30GB worth of photos from the last six years and backed them up in case my computer ever falls apart again. Phew! If I could only be so luckily in everything that I do.
So I filled out some Peace Corps paperwork that day as well and said hi to a few volunteers I hadn’t seen in a while. Were all quite a social bunch. I also got to see Esther again. Esther is leaving pretty soon and while this UB trip was Dentist inspired I was rather glad to see her one more time, especially given that this weekend was her birthday. Cant celebrate that alone can she?
Friday morning was dentist stuff. The woman who works at that office knows her stuff that’s for sure, but how “good” can a dentist really be? Few hours prodding and drilling. Nothing for it, I like Coke and it sure beats the endgame pain. Ow ow and all that. She wants to talk to you when shes got six instruments hanging out from it, all that good stuff.
I spent the afternoon convalescing. Esther had some paper work to do. That evening she calls me up and asks if I want to take an overnight ger camp she used to work at and they would bring me back for my next dentist appointment Saturday morning. I will say I encountered for the first time in my life the experience where after being invited out to the countryside to split a ger and drink booze I went “well…I got to get up early and I have a denti…hey hey hey!!!! A hot girl just invited you out to the countryside for some partying moron! Pack your bag and get moving. My first memorable old guy moment. Just a slip!
She spent the evening talking to the people she had been volunteer working with and all that and I sorta just kept quiet. The ger camp was only 30km out of town and I knew the area as being only a few km from Zuunmod. The camp was only seven or so gers buried deep in a hill pass, kinda out of the way and not the advertising type. You go here to work, not vacation. Made for a nice place to sleep for a night.
The 6am wakeup call was no fun for sure though. They got me back to the town pretty quick though. I hadn’t been on the roads in UB at that hour. Even in front of Sukbaatar Square in the center of UB (and therefore the center of the country) there was only one police car and nothing else! Pretty damn cool.
The dentist that followed wasent. Actually I was still half asleep as she drilled away so I sorta was able to zone out. By noon I had finally replaced all my expiring fillings and to my knowledge my teeth were now in working order. Lets keep it that way teeth shall we?!
I also on that day posted my video submission for the “My Piece of the Peace Corps” project. Everyone go on youtube and look that up so you can vote for it (unless you don’t like it then screw you!) A final nigh was spent with Esther and a dinner at the spiciest Chinese restaurant in UB took place. That was a great thing to do and I can tell I am going to miss her. Havent really missed anyone in a long long time…its kinda strange to have that missing feeling again.
So that brings us up to speed on the latest UB run. Ill give my 3rd liver to Sky Father if he doesn’t make me have to come back for a period of time! Can I just stay in my quaint little inexpensive town and relax for more than the span of a week???
Phew…


September 20, 2010. Bagakhangai, Mongolia.

Well back at the site. The internet is all screwy today, which I hope is just a tempermental thing secluded to today. Classes are back to their usual fun selves. I don’t really have a particularly challenging day like I did last year, or when I was a high school history teacher. This year the school year is pretty lax. They just don’t use me for the higher up grades because they have pretty much assessed that ill try to get the kids to talk instead of write…and that just wont do. So they stick me in the classroom with the little kids and let me play the clown all I want. Id be offended if I didn’t think this setup suited everyone.
Life is winding down as the cold weather approaches. My family has built their own winter ger about five feet away from mine, and though they still sleep in the summer house its only a matter of time before they take refuge in the more heating designed ger. Running requires the long pants and coats now as well. When you don’t live in the city, the winter becomes a period of time where you can put down your summer labors and relax some. Though I didn’t exactly have labors in the summer I was definitely FAR more active this summer than I had been in the spring and winter before it. I don’t miss summer per say, but I definitely realize that living in a ger will require me to get my body in the mood for some cold as hell weather!
So with no internet and classes done im sort of passing the time in the teachers lounge chatting and looking over at the wireless device trying to will it to work. I figure after work ill forego running and replace it with the exercise of lugging 30 liters of water over to my ger so I can boil up a round of potatoes and spend the evening trying to type up some survey information I can use for the documentary I am trying to prepare for when PC Mongolia turns 20. Just another day in Mongolia!


September 21, 2010. Bagakhangai, Mongolia.

Getting cold. Getting cold a lot faster than it did last year. Was not like this until October. Even in a ger without a stove its still to me not all that bad. Just a good blanket and your body heat handles the rest. I imagine when my family moves into their ger and sets up their stove ill ask for mine as well. The cold has at least gotten all those annoying spiders out of my ger at least too.
Though cold one thing the Fall season is still bringing is the rain. Now lucky for me my ger was covered head to toe in a rain proof tarp that actually did its job well. In another months time it wont rain again for over six months and once they add a few layers of insulation to my ger I imagine a light little crackle of coal will heat the whole ger quite nicely.
Peace Corps ger inhabitants are faced with a preference choice. Keeping oneself okay at night always brings about difficulties. Do you make a huge fire before bet and let it crackle out at night? Do you prep a fire the night before, shiver through the night and then light it up in the morning? Do you do some other pattern of your own? This is what I need to decide on pretty soon, because each one will require a differing amount of coal.


September 23, 2010. Bagakhangai, Mongolia.

Forgot to post something yesterday. In all fairness that may begin to happen more often. After all that happened over the summer and all the stupid UB runs I had to make the past month ive been really looking forward into getting some face time in with my town, and for the first time in a while ive been here now more than a week. I have no real interest in making a UB run anytime soon either.
Nope, its just a few easy classes of teaching followed by a good long run in the afternoon followed by hanging out with some members of my community and then a few video games and maybe a round or two of alcohol (gods dammit I HATE vodka!!!)
The ger is working out well. I have still kept my fire stove out of my ger for the time being. Though cold at night I actually enjoy it and it gives my room a lot of space and a little more time before the coal starts to make its mark all over the place.
I should probably spend this weekend making the questionnares for the documentary I am trying to throw together. Wont take long, and be good to get a ball rolling.


September 24, 2010. Bagakhangai, Mongolia.

Its strange how easy it can be to forget things. Like last year, its FIELD DAY! That wonderful time where the two schools meet at the field and we duel in games of wrestling, tug of war and general running.
I was having a particularly lazy day, so I didn’t feel like joining in like I usually would, but I did know that I could fall into the default role of cameraman. I will say the games were your expected amount of just getting the kids to run around and all that good stuff, but something weird happened. I finally got to run back into a lot of the kids from Ondortolge that I had taught last year. A lot of them had spent the summer out in the countryside helping out when the work in the summer kicks in. We had met again for the first time in over four months and egads! Those kids grew. Like GREW grew. It’s the first time in my life that I have taught for more than one year in any singular location (it’s a long story, im not THAT bad of a teacher) so I never actually saw my students through the years. It was sorta fun to reminisce with the kids, especially now that my Mongolian has sharpened. Good walk down memory lane.
Will say this as well, it may have been a walk down memory lane but its definitely not the same temp as last September. Last September I walked to Field days in shorts and a t-shirt. Today I was dressed in a thick longsleeve and sweatpants. It’s a good omen. It means the cold is gonna spread itself out this year. Way easier to deal with I imagine and just in time for my ger living….right???
This is gonna sound weird I know. I just moved into my ger. I love it with a passion. The uniqueness of it coupled with the idea that it still exists because even after Millenia of use it is still the easiest and most efficient way to live in this part of the world. Anyways I realized that though I have only been here about a month and I have another 9 or more months to reside in this room that I am typing from I seem to realize something so very very true. When I move out, I am truly gonna miss living like this. From 1 bedroom apartments in the Bronx to bungalos in Thailand all the way down to my Mom’s basement, I definitely have had some diverse homes, or maybe not homes but places where ive hung my hat.
The ger though…I tell you you can look at all the photos you want and you can listen to everyones blogs till the end of time but all that pales in comparison when you find yourself actually residing in a ger itself. One that’s not a hotel or Ger Camp type, but the ones where the things inside are the things you own and use. Your own unique taste goes into its layout, its style, and the way it all feels. We imbue, and when all you have is one room with no corners you get the idea of just how imbued you can become.
Cool…


September 25, 2010. Bagakhangai, Mongolia.

I just read in the news that Kathleen Heigl gave 1 million dollars over to animal shelters so animals would not have to be euthanized as much. She seems to think the euthanizing that takes place in American shelters is sorta barbaric….
Mrs. Heigl…would you like to know what they do to unwanted animals here. Better still, would you like to know HOW as well?
Its all relative…it really really is.


September 26, 2010. Bagakhangai, Mongolia.

I really really hate vodka. That’s all I got to say about that.
So I had a bit of a flashback last night. I thought back to the time I was in Southeast Asia. I was sleeping in a bungaloo with a legion or so of English soldiers on vacation and one Canadian guy named Jonathan. One day we had gone over to a nearby beach that was not one of the bigger ones and as we stood waist deep in the crystal clear warm waters I remember Jonathan running by me shouting “Just think, we could all have jobs right now!”
That trip to Asia had come right after I had had one of those most stressful years of my life. I was 25 years old and I had GREY hair from all the stress. As I heard him shout that I remember just how blissful I felt. Of course, because I went to Asia I lost the love of my life…but at the time I didn’t know that. Ignorance is bliss as well.
Next time I join Peace Corps I am gonna try and REALLY request a country with an ocean. The cold, the endless meat I can easily take. Hell I can even choke down the vodka often enough. Its just the lack of water. It takes a toll.
This is my way of whining that I miss the ocean today more than usual.


September 28, 2010. Bagakhangai, Mongolia.

Well, I noticed punching in todays date that I have gone through yet another month. I guess that means its time to punch up a new blog entry. This one is obviously not nearly as epic as the last one was. Sue me, it cant all be a vacation. Yesterday some ladies came over to put the final touches on my ger. We installed the stove in the center of the ger and then wrapped up the ger one final time and put a layer of sand down around the edges to cut back on the breeze. It’s a complete ger now.
Still not making fires yet. Not cold enough for that now and there will be plenty of time for that later. Oh…I caught the mouse. It had napped in my garbage can (plastic bag) and so I was able to expel it from my ger. I imagine it being the clever little thing that it is he will be back shortly.


Life trickles on, and its good to be nice and stuck in Bagakhangai for a sustained period of time!