Mongolian BBQ

As I've said before, when you think you're eating Mongolian in America, you're not. The author's a bit snarky, but he's spot on when it comes to three of the main food types and their composition:

Conquering Authentic Mongolian Barbecue-In Mongolia

I'm thankfully spared from the mutton onslaught because when in the presence of Mongols I eat"tsagaan khool" (literally, "white food"), vegetarian. And because the smell of cooking mutton is...distinct...even Bambuul doesn't eat it.

It's a hard life...

For a brief look at the difficulties of life in both the XθДθθ (countryside) and XOT (city).

In Pictures: Life in Mongolia

Khentii Province shares a border with Dornod to our West. Baganuur is just East of UB.

A Happy Ending

On Monday my last afternoon class was being given a test so I was able to leave school early and run errands before my night class at the library. I had to walk right past a pile of trash/carcass, nothing unusual in that. When I glanced over, I noticed three tiny puppies huddled together, shivering and left to die. Someone put these sweet baby girls in a goat carcass, wrapped it in a plastic tarp and dumped them. I just stood over them and cried. I knew if I walked away they would freeze to death in a matter of hours.

After calling and texting all the American and Korean volunteers, we were able to get a lama to come get the white and brown girl, pictured top right. I decided to take the other two girls home, absolutely unable to leave them, and figure the rest out later.

My site mate and I fed Snow White and Brindle Baby milk from a syringe. Yes, I named them. After about two hours, when I was sure they had warmed through, I gave them a very soapy bath to get rid of the goat smell and blood.

Snow White was adopted later Monday evening. Brindle Baby spent Monday night with us and was adopted early Tuesday afternoon. My 'faith' in humanity was shattered when I first stumbled upon the pups but was fully restored by the compassion and swift work of my site mates to help get these babies good homes.

Of all the cultural differences, the treatment of animals has been one of the hardest things for me to "get used to." Although we were fully warned about "round ups" and "pupsicles" it's one thing to hear about it and wholly another to face it. My site mate D said she thought those pups were dumped there for a reason, in a high-traffic area (rather than at the river or outside the ger district) where someone like me might find them. Her translator said he was thankful for foreigners because we show animals compassion. All three of these pups were adopted Mongolians; a sign of hope in that.

ШИНЭ ЖИЛ

Shin Jil (New Year) is the big winter holiday here in Mongolia. On Tuesday, I had the privilege of attending two Shin Jil parties, one hosted by my Access students, the other for my school's teachers.

Our MCs for the Access party.

Santa came to the New Year's party!

Our students singing "Jingle Bell Rock"

A very talented student playing the piano.

Our students are talented dancers too!

The best interpretation of "Little Red Riding Hood" I've ever seen.

Grandmother. "I want you." Hysterical!

The New Year's Tree at the restaurant my school's party was hosted at. Yes, it's a New Year's Tree, NOT a Christmas Tree. Seriously.

Santa #1

Santa #2

Adorable little Snow Ballerinas dancing for us.

Me, my Training Manager, and a teacher.

Me and the volleyball coach.

Me with some teachers.

Me and two of my CPs.

Me, my CP, and a teacher.

Me and the school's social worker.

Quick dance break for a picture!

Me with some teachers and admin staff.

Tuvshin and I doing the Mongol Walz.

A Very Mongol Christmas

Well my first Christmas in Mongolia is done. I celebrated the holiday at my apartment with my site-mates, complete with too much food and a Secret Santa gift exchange. I also got to Skype with my parents purely by (the most delightful) chance, and again with the whole family on Christmas Day (Central time). Of course I wish I had been home, but I'm so glad to have such great site-mates to spend holidays (and everything else!) with.

I must have been a very good girl! Look what Santa brought me! Thanks Mom & Dad, Mr. & Mrs. Ray and Crystal & Andy!

Deb, Zoloo, and Merrie.

M22s PCVs represent! Koty, me, John.

John and Kaede. John's making eggnog from scratch!

Food and gifts table. Where there's food, Bagii (John & Kaede's cat) is nearby.

The "pot-luck to share" food in the kitchen.

Our roasted suckling pig. We named it AMTTAЙ (amt-tai), which means "delicious" or "tasty."

Yes, I ate some of little Amttai. The me of six months ago doesn't even know what's going on anymore, although I still don't particularly like the taste of meat. Still sort of "Meh" about it...

John, on the other hand, loved little Amttai. Maybe a little too much...Hahaha!

My awesome Secret Santa gift: My very first Engrish shirt! Love it!

Zoloo hangin' by the tree.

John and Kaede ate too much.

My site-mate Koty slept over on Christmas. We watched "White Christmas" before bed, then made a great brunch for Christmas morning: Bacon, egg fried in bacon grease, oven baked hash browns, and American coffee!

Let It Snow!

In the spirit of the holidays, I asked my CPs if I could take a break from the mandates of the book and teach a holiday-themed lesson. Especially given the confusion between what exactly Christmas is vis a vis Shin Jil (New Year) and Tsagaan Sar (Lunar New Year). They enthusiastically agreed, and I enthusiastically began planning. All I can say now is be careful what you wish for...

Teaching my CPs about major world religions' holidays as well as a few other "American" holidays and observances. And yes, I did color-code holidays as religious, secular, and formerly religious but now observed as secular, courtesy of the multi-color white board markers Mom sent. баярлалаа Mom!

My CPs.

Teaching 11th graders the difference between Christmas, Shin Jil and Tsagaan Sar, as well as "Let It Snow!"

Same (simplified) lesson for the 5th grade English Club.

They were angels sitting through my terrible singing. Good thing I was able to let iTunes do most of the work!

If I have to write out and sing this dang song one more time my ears just might start to bleed. бaяpтaй, "Let It Snow!" We had a good run, but our time together is over.

IST

After three months at site, PC holds a training for PCVs and their CPs to help strengthen the work relationship, discuss cultural differences, and have some fun while bonding. For us TEFLers, IST was last week at a hotel about 2 hours outside UB.

The training got off to a crummy start as our flight was first delayed (multiple times) then cancelled. All of the East- and West-Siders who are fly sites (meaning the travel to UB is either too dangerous in winter or just too far by land) missed the first day of training, not even arriving to the resort until 11pm Monday. Our flight also got delayed on the way back, but luckily we got out the same day. Some West-Siders weren't so lucky. But the rest of IST was pretty awesome. We learned so much in the sessions, everything from grant writing to strategies for capacity building to classroom games & activities. Our evenings were free for us to do whatever with. Inevitably this meant drinking and dancing in the rooms, a favorite pastime of both cultures. We even taught some of the CPs games like Beer Pong and Flippy Cup. One evening I went snow-tubing with a few other PCVs; it was really fun until a giant rock decided it wanted to meet and greet my behind. The resulting bruise made sitting though sessions quite uncomfortable. Zuger. On the last evening we played bi-cultural trivia and then had a dance party in the dining room. Trivia was such a big hit we're already planning on doing it again at MST. All in all, it was a really great time, and I'm looking forward to implementing the things we learned in our work.

The view from the hotel. The gers are rent-able; luckily we weren't in 'em!

Ambassador Addleton giving a speech. I sat with him during lunch; very interesting man.

Playing beer pong. My CP is on the far right.

Language lesson.

Trivia night. I'm just to the left of center.

Dance pause for picture!

The conditions on the evening of 12.17.11 (aka: why I was so very glad to leave UB).

And what about Bambuul you ask? She got to have fun with Bagii and Spicy, her 4-legged site-mates at J&K's apartment. Big thanks to J&K for taking great care of her in my absence. I can't believe how much I missed my Bams. I've definitely got a bad case of puppy love. And I can't believe how much she grew: she's now able to jump onto our bed without my help!