I know I haven't posted in a while (make that a long while). Perhaps someday I'll start writing about Mongolia again, but for now life is all consuming. This blog served its purpose well for me, while writing from the frozen steppe, and now its job is to be a place where my memories are held until I'm ready to pick them up again and add to them. Until then, feel free to look about and read from the archives. -Mongol Mama

Tsagaan Sar Part II

In the years I lived in Mongolia, I only experienced Tsagaan Sar a couple of times since it often coincided with an annual conference I had to attend in Thailand. Thus, I'm not an authority on the holiday, merely an observer.

Tsagaan Sar is technically a three day holiday plus a "Tsagaan Sar" eve of sorts. From what I have heard the length of actual celebration is directly proportional to how urban/rural your location is. Thus, in UB your holiday might only last a couple days, in the deep countryside you might receive visitors for a week or a month. The official date for Tsagaan Sar is often chosen by the lamas based upon the lunar calendar. Some years they agree, and some years they don't and the President tries to resolve the issue. At any rate, it is hard to be certain of the correct dates until as little as a month beforehand.

Tsagaan Sar is the start of a new year and a special importance is placed on new things. One of my students once told me that it is common for families to try and purchase something new for their home. Also, if time and finances permit, new dels (traditional Mongolian clothing) will be sewn and worn for the celebration of Tsagaan Sar.



The grandpa in this picture is wearing an everyday sort of del. Some fancier ones are made of silk, or sometimes leather.

It seems that a large percentage of Mongolian women dislike this holiday because of the insane amount of preparation it requires. Because this holiday revolves around visiting and greeting friends and family, and because lots and lots of buuz (and salad) will be served, each family must be prepared.



Some families must make as many as 3000 buuz (which they prepare ahead of time and keep frozen on their balcony if the weather stays cold enough). The norm is probably between 500-1000 buuz per family. Also, when visitors come to your home, you give them small gifts: shampoo, socks, money, etc; this also requires advanced preparation. At each and every house you visit, you are expected to eat.



In addition to buuz and various salads, some families have a sheep back (boiled?) on the table for you to nibble on.



Also on the table is usually a carefully stacked pile of special "bread" as well as sugar cubes and candy. I have been told that the sweets place on it should be white. As evidenced by the two thermoses on the table, there is always plenty of milk tea to drink.

Амар байна уу?

Тодаи ис а биг Монголиан холидаи.

I thought about writing the whole (short) post phonetically in English using the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet, but I'll spare you. Although, on a side note, I think doing that would be great fun since usually I have to write Mongolian using English letters...

Anyway, Mongolians are currently celebrating their lunar new year called "Tsagaan Sar" which means White Moon/Month. It's a holiday that involves greeting others, particularly your elders, eating lots and lots of steamed meat dumplings, and asking if people are well and if their animals are fattening nicely. If you want to read more about it you can check out the wikipedia article Tsagaan Sar or my previous post on the topic... Er, maybe not. It seems I've never brought myself to blog about the wonderful and painful Tsagaan Sar holiday before. Hmm. I have thoughts to share on the topic, but no time at present. For now I'll simply tell you that the Wikipedia article is mostly correct. Maybe 92% right.

Other pictures to come later... when I find them... They seem to have not been put back on my computer after the Catastrophe of Christmas 2006. I'm a little behind here.

How Do You Feel About Cats?

I don't think it matters actually, whether you love them or hate them, either way this video will probably make you laugh. We came across it last night and were laughing so hard (crying, actually) that Tom got upset and started attacking... Poor cat has no sense of humor.

Enjoy!

I voted

Did you? I opted for the electronic voting booth, simply for the novelty of it after years of running around town in Mongolia, looking for a fax machine with international capabilities (since my absentee ballot always arrived so late)...

Halloween Continued...

While I didn't dress up this year, I did dress the cat up. It was highly entertaining to me to see Tom in his cow costume. He wasn't so amused, but he did like the warmth of it.

Halloween

Well, I didn't dress up this year--there is something about working a regular office job in the States that didn't inspire me to want to wear a costume all day. But I realized that I'd never posted pictures from one of the best Halloweens ever: two years ago when we had to dress up for our culture-teaching party at the college. K and I decided to be something along the lines of Russian Hip-hop Choreographers. The costumes were inspired by a chance viewing of the Russian version of "So You Think You Can Dance" and were great fun to pull together. Plus, after all the years of being called Russian, it was entertaining to try and intentionally look like an "Oros khun".

The PET Journal

For fun I thought I'd put a copy of the Practical English Teaching (PET) Journal up on my blog. It's a journal that is put out for Mongolian English teachers. I spent much of the last two years working on the design, layout, and editing of the PET. This edition here is supposed to be published early this fall.

There are a few issues with this online edition, the most noticeable being that shadows were made quite dark. If you wish to see this full-sized, please select "open publication" beneath the picture.

Enjoy!

Get your own - Open publication

Odds and Ends...

First things first: We managed to find fresh lemongrass and galangal (Siamese ginger). Yay!

What have we been doing besides hunting for Thai produce? We've been doing a little renovation on our soon-to-be home:

Before

Now

There is plenty more work to be done, but at least we've made some visible progress. We are both job hunting though, and the actual procuring of employment might slow the apartment progress... until then, it's full steam ahead!

Wedding pictures... Finally

Thanks for your patience, y'all. Thanks to Phil's uncle and aunt for sending us the pics they took. If anyone else has pictures, pretty please can we have them?

Me

Phil and I

The wedding party

The ceremony

My girls

It was so special to have them all together! (L to R) Kathryn was my teammate for two years, Liz is my sister, Danielle was my teammate and roommate for three years, Heather is a friend of mine from college

A Bit of Culture Shock...

The chances are that this year will be fraught with episodes, small and large, of reverse culture shock. It's pretty much a given when you've spent seven years living and working in a foreign, very foreign, country. It's unpredictable and wily and likely to sneak up on you in the middle of a conversation or in the aisles of your local grocery store. In fact, it's such a devious and insidious thing that you usually don't realize what is causing your confusion/watering eyes/sharp response/fill in the blank...

Case in point: Yesterday I was at the store. Exciting, eh? I wanted to find some seasonings for cooking, particularly for making Thai food. I have to tell you something shocking: it was easier to do this in MONGOLIA. That's right; here, in the USA (the "land of plenty" as people sometimes say) the only thing I found was "Thai seasoning" which, when I turned it over to read the ingredients, claimed to be made mostly of "chili peppers & other seasonings". How is one to know if it contains the Thai staples of Kaffir lime, lemon grass, or galangal? What exactly is Thai about "& other seasonings", and why do I have to pay $5 to find out? I just wanted some comfort food in the form of Tom Ka Gai (chicken and coconut soup). Anyway... it wasn't exactly rational of me to be upset at the seasonings aisle, but I was. Blame it on culture shock.

Maybe I should try to make some Mongolian tsuivan instead. Fewer seasonings involved. Now I'll cheer up and post some wedding pictures.

Reliving my past

In the past I've blogged about how living in Mongolia changed my music tastes. One of my favorite groups was a Russian duo, now split, called Smash. I was looking around on You Tube and found some of their songs. To liven up your day, I'm posting them for you.


"Belle" is the first song of theirs that I heard.


Classic Smash

Thing #7

What's not to love about these fruit and food posters you find in most kitchens?

A word from the cat:

Tom said he wanted in on the posting action--especially since I hadn't done a new post in at least a week... I was out of commission for a couple days because of my back, and then after that I was packing up and moving, and now I'm in a state of living limbo for the next month or so.

Tom says: I'm going to miss my Russian cat grass--a plant all my own that I'm supposed to eat. Right now I'm missing Sarah. Since I was unable to get along with her friend's cat, I've been sent to live with Phil for a while. It's cool to have the male bonding time and all (we watch TV shows that Sarah would never let me watch), but I worry that Sarah isn't keeping her face as clean as when I wash it for her.

Thing # 6

For graduation, the girls decided that they wanted to go to a photo studio where you dress up. It was actually fun. I am disappointed though, that I didn't get any fake hair like the other two teachers. Anyway, I'll miss crazy schemes like this...

Thing #5

I'll miss being invited to friends' homes for birthday parties where I (or my teammates and I) are the party... This is from our friends' one-year old daughter's birthday. Isn't she adorable!

Thing #4

I'll miss the sense of accomplishment I get from fixing the toilet with nothing but a (green) paper clip...

Thing #3

It's fun to buy butter by the kilo in a plastic bag... but what's even more fun is asking to taste it first. Rancid butter is a no-no!

The Shop

In case you haven't checked it out lately, there are a couple new designs over at the Mongol Mama Shop. Stop by and have a look.

Thing #2

I'll miss having a hot bath be such an event! Really, when the water comes out of the tap icy cold, and you have to heat the tub overnight, a hot bath is truly something special.