Warp speed

This is the point in my blog where I should have had several posts about the post-Ecuador part of my summer, but quite frankly it was busy and full and I lots to do other than blog... such as hanging with my new niece


Visiting Georgia



Going to my high-school friend's wedding as well as planning my own



And, of course, helping build and then playing in a sandbox with my favorite little guy.

Ahh, summer in a nutshell...

Something new...

A Random Assortment...

Olympics: There was actually a Mongolian news crew present at the 2006 Olympics in Italy. In fact, there were probably more Mongolians present there to report on the events rather than participate in the sports. This time around the Mongolian athletes didn’t do so well (in the biathlon, I think, or maybe it was cross-country skiing), but we’ll be back in ’08 with some excellent wrestlers, I’m sure! Back to the news crew… It was really fun to see them interview athletes in both Russian and English (of course it was then loosely dubbed over in Mongolian). I particularly enjoyed the commentary about various athletes because it gave me lots of practice with numbers—height, weight, birthday, etc.

Olympics (academic): Not a big fan. I may or may not delve more into this topic at a later date. At present I need to finish writing a test for the (secondary school) English Olympics, which will be held this coming week in my town.

Nephews: Maybe I’m biased, but I really think that my nephew is actually getting cuter as he ages—and he was a cute baby to start with! I cannot wait to hang out with the monkey this summer.


Milk: I find it strange that in the land of meat and dairy products I had to go to seven stores today before I found milk. Seven!

Lights and Leakage: I finally replaced light bulbs and put the light fixtures in our bathroom back in place today. New year’s morning we’d woken up to find water dripping out of the light fixtures that are in the drop ceiling in our bathroom. This time it wasn’t even the result of the people upstairs flooding their bathroom—rather it was due to warm weather and melting snow. On January first. In Mongolia. (Have I mentioned that the weather has been strange this year?) Unfortunately, the people who live below us are also having light fixture issues. It seems to be a yearly occurrence that while we are in Thailand, our apartment will have some plumbing issue and will flood the apartment below us. Last year our kitchen sink decided to back up and over flow—even though it hadn’t been used in a month. This year a pipe in our bathroom decided to develop a hole and become a geyser. Needless to say, the people downstairs don’t like us much—even though none of the water leakage has actually been our fault.

A Public Service Announcement

I have the cutest, sweetest nephew in the whole entire world. Like a good auntie, I firmly believe in cornering innocent bystanders and showing them pictures of the kid. It seems that after a mere eight months of Tommy's life, I have more pictures of him than of my whole childhood; now the only questions is how to get all those pictures back to Mongolia while keeping my suitcases within the airline weight limits. Perhaps I should forgo some of the extra clothing items I was planning on taking. Who really needs long underwear in -30 degree weather, anyway?

And now, a few words to the kid: Thomas, you are sweet and fun and cuddly and adorable. Just because Auntie is going away for a while doesn't mean she doesn't love you. True, I will miss your first steps, your first words, and your first birthday, but I made it for your first Christmas and your first teeth; I was your first evening babysitter--your parents went to a Giants game for your Daddy's birthday. Even though I don't get to see you most of the year, in the summer I get to spend lots of time with you! Plus, I give you bragging rights--how many other kids will be able to say that they know where Mongolia is, much less that they have an aunt who lives there. Monkey, I love you so much--don't you ever forget it!

Progress

Well, in the past few days I have figured out how to post photos (although there is room for improvement in this area) and how to occasionally change the color of fonts--exciting stuff, I know. Next week you might be lucky enough to find even more improvements since I'll be spending the week with my nephew, sister and brother-in-law; one of whom is the star of a blog, one of whom picks the photos for the blog, and one of whom has figured out most of the backroads to blogging and whose knowledge I plan to draw from. Stay tuned.