Thanksgiving

A little late, but after a two-week school break (one week between quarters, and another due to the local elections) and my trip to UB for Thanksgiving, I was crazy busy last week.  Turns out, doing no work means when it's time to get back to work, there's more work!  How that happens, I'll never know.  ;)

Here are a couple photos from my Thanksgiving in UB.  I flew in Thursday (Thanksgiving) evening just in time for dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant.  Friday I spent the morning shopping (all for the dog, none for me), then got my flu shot (the reason I got to fly; thanks PC!), then had dinner with M2 RPCV Joe.  The M1s (the very first PCVs in Mongolia) were all in UB; the M2s were the first to go to the hudoo and Joe was the very first to go to Choibalsan.  It was really cool to see his pictures and hear his stories.  Joe now works for the US Embassy, just starting a two-year assignment in UB.  Saturday morning I played football (we lost again, wah wah), then went to the big potluck.  No turkey this year, but still lots of good food and great to see everyone.  I was so exhausted after three days of go-go-go and massive meals that Saturday night I stayed at the hostel, watched The Santa Clause with a few other PCVs then went to sleep at about 9 (everyone else went Salsa dancing).  My flight was Sunday morning, had to be at the airport at 10:30, so there wasn't time for anything else.  It was nice to get home Sunday afternoon though, get my house cleaned, laundry done and lessons planned.  My sitemate Andrea watched Bams.  She sent email updates saying they were getting along like gangbusters; so great to hear since anytime I have to leave my baby I'm always worried about her.

Football Saturday morning

Catching up with friends at our Thanksgiving feast Saturday afternoon.

So now I'm back to the usual grind of school and side projects.  Still waiting to hear on my shelter grant.  Started planning my school's English/Christmas competition.  Got a GROSS of condoms from the local hospital for my World AIDS Day lesson.  Laughed hysterically with my 5th graders as they tried to say "hippopotamus."  Started a new English class for business professionals in the community: Jaki teaches from the book two days per week, then on Fridays I teach speaking using the topics in the book, not necessarily the book itself.  They can all read and write, and have enough of a vocabulary & understanding of grammar that they can express "to be" & likes/dislikes, so we're not really starting from scratch which is nice.  They all happen to be women (at least, that's all that came to my class) and are super energetic. I had them sing a song which turned out to be too simple for them (what a problem to have!) so we added some dance moves and they were totally into it.  Having such fun students will keep my motivation up too!