Another Working Vacay

Sorry for the silence.  I was on a working vacay nearly all of August and just now am getting caught up on all I left behind (including puppy snuggles!).  Here's the latest photo evidence:

 I flew into UB on Friday, Aug 10 and got to Darkhan on Sun Aug 12.  It was good to see my friends who are scattered about the country!

Not sure what it is about toasty marshmallows, but they give me crazy eyes!

 For site announcements on Monday, I made a sign welcoming the M23s who would be joining us in Dornod/Choibalsan.  

 I remember the feelings of fear, nervousness and excitement as I stood over the map, waiting to hear my fate, one year ago.

 We got three new sitemates, Andrea, Sarah and Jeremy.

 Stephanie took a very close picture of my face that afternoon.

I did a training on Monday evening, then helped with site dinners on Tuesday.  The rest of the week I wrapped up some work I had been neglecting all summer in preparation for the upcoming school year. Friday afternoon was Swearing-In.  It was interesting watching it through one-year older, maybe a little bit wiser (?), eyes.

 Me with my new sitemate Andrea at Swearing-In.

 Me with my new sitemate Sarah at Swearing-In.

 Me with my new sitemate Jeremy at Swearing-In.

 Me and Gwen, my "hashaa sister," at Swearing-In.

 Chuka, Gwen, Me and Eej after Swearing-In.

 Before I left Darkhan on Friday afternoon (headed to UB for the big M23 welcoming party), Patrick snapped this shot of me dispensing some wisdom (?) to a newly minted volunteer.

PC rents out a bar/club for a big welcoming party for the new class of volunteers.  This is mostly for safety reasons, but also a great chance for many of the new volunteers to meet and hang out with the older classes before heading to site and getting to work.

Since UB is a money pit and my tugs go fast, I decided to take advantage of my extended time there and do some of the free or cheap touristy things I haven't yet had a chance to do.  First up was a long anticipated trip to the Museum of Natural History. 

 This is Tarbosaurus baatar.  Yep, he has a Mongol name cuz he's only found here and in the border area with China.  

 Couldn't take pictures in the dino hall, but Google Images to the rescue!

 This was definitely my favorite part of the museum.

 While one is permitted to take photos in the rest of the museum, it costs extra so I covertly took this picture of a stuffed loon and greebe.  Wonder how they got from MN to MN!?

 That evening we celebrated Caitlin's birthday at a French restaurant.  Hello spendy!  I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu so I could splurge on a bottle of imported French wine.  Worth.  Every. Tug.

 Then on Tuesday I got my Mongol tattoo.  I'd been wanting a tattoo to commemorate this experience for awhile and had been working on the design for some time.

 Ara lived in NYC and has been tattooing for over a decade.  He was great about maintaining sterile standards and talking me through the process.

 The finished product.  It says "Peace Corps Mongolia" in Mongolian language, written in the traditional Mongol script.

After completing my annual medical and dental (the whole reason I was in UB on the 20th & 21st), all us M22s headed south of UB to Terelj, the same beautiful park where we had IST.  The difference this time was...dun dun dun...we stayed in gers instead of the hotel!

 On Wednesday night we were allowed to take over the kitchen and make a Mexican buffet dinner.  It was great!  We even did a "Mexican Tsagaan Sar" before dinner, going ger to ger sampling different salsas or dips each ger group made (we made fruit salsa; yum!).

 Of course I had to taste it before serving!

 Here I am, sitting in a session, serious faced and ready to learn.

After three days of sessions (and even a 6am volleyball game!), it was time to head back to UB.  I was going to be staying through Tuesday as I had another training to conduct, but most of my friends left on Saturday or Sunday. 

 There was still one (free!) toursity thing I wanted to do, so Bryce and I grabbed the city bus on Saturday (25th) and headed to Zaisan, a monument dedicated to Mongolian-Russian friendship.  Yep, we climbed up there!

 Oh look, another tank. 

 Very serious looking military dudes.

 View of UB from about half-way up.

 Hello pollution.

 Keep climbing!

 Raise that power fist!

 Tiled mosaic inside the ring.

 Me and Bryce, at Zaisan with the UB sprawl behind us.

 So much development.

 There was an ovoo behind the monument.

 Love the stratigraphy on the craggy rocks.

 As we were walking to the next touristy spot, we stumbled on this park.  Basically, Dr. Lee started a hospital in UB, got some Rubles into Korea which helped thwart the Japanese, then was executed by a Russian at the age of 38.

 It was a very pretty, calm space within the city.

 A cool pavilion...

 ...Marred by the ever-present vodka.  :(

 Then we got to the giant golden Buddha.

 Bell on the grounds.

 Drum on the grounds.

On Monday I finished up the last of the trainings and got my things together to fly out on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, there weren't enough people booked on my flight so they cancelled it :( but luckily I was able to get out on Wednesday (29th) afternoon.

I got back with barely any time to spare before school started.  The first day of school is always Sept 1, but because that fell on a Saturday this year, only the Opening Ceremonies were conducted.  The first actual classes happened today (Monday Sept 3rd).

So here I am, in my office, waiting for a meeting to figure out my schedule for the academic year.  Since I teach the clubs and extra lessons, my lessons won't start for about another week, but I'll have all the prep work to get started on.  So here's to Year Two; let's do this!