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

Old Favorites

It’s snowing again and the grey weather is interfering with my ability to write, so I thought we could do a look back at some of my earlier posts.

You might be in Mongolia if…1-10: and 11-20: Self-explanatory.

Scotch: Not the drink. The tape. It even includes a song!

I’m Not Russian: Living here I often get mistaken for a Russian—which wouldn’t be so bad if I actually spoke Russian!

Concerning an Outhouse and a Pig: A traumatic event—but I survived so at least you know there is a happy ending.

Mr. Dogs & Me: Brushing shoulders with the Mongolian stars—or, rather, dancing foolishly in front of them.

More on music

So I learned the other week that a music group I like broke up several months ago. Here in Mongolia, you get exposed to a very strange mix of music. Sadly enough, one of the things Mongolia has done is introduce me to the international pop and hip-hop music scene…Yes, in all honesty, I actually like some of that fluffy music now. Smash!, this group I like, was a Russian duo that sang in English, but also had one French song. They were a relatively new group, and had been around about two years, I think. A few weeks ago I noticed that only one of the guys was appearing in a live performance that happened to be on TV; this set me wondering what had happened to the other guy. Let me tell you, trying to find information in English about a Russian group is near impossible! They had a website that had info in English but that hasn’t been updated since December 2004. The little other news you can find in English is quite sketchy and not fit to be read. Finally I found something that said they’d broken up. Why, I don’t know. It seems that one guy has kept the name Smash! and the other guy is now singing under his own name. It’s sad, because they always looked like they were having fun singing together. Another one bites the dust…

On Not Being Russian and Other Such Stuff

Well, since I think my blog readership is now up to a whopping five people (besides myself) I thought it was time for another post.

Mongolia and Russia used to be very good friends and still like each other fairly well; in fact, Mongolia was the second communist country in the world. Many changes occurred in Mongolia due to Russian influence and input; the alphabet was changed, architecture and cities became drastically different, the educational system, governmental structure, and military were all greatly altered. Because of this close relationship, all Mongolia school children studied Russian; I’m not certain, but I believe that until recently, Russian was the official second language of Mongolia.

Up until the late 1980’s there were many Russians living and working here in Mongolia. Since most Mongolians knew Russian, there was little need for the Russians to learn Mongolian. And, since for several decades Russians accounted for 99.9% of the foreigners in Mongolia, it is often assumed that I am Russian because I don’t have a small Mongolian nose or dark hair. “Is she Russian or English?” I hear people asking each other as I walk through the market (that I’ve been walking through once a week for the past four years). Groups of school children will greet me by saying, “Hello” and then they'll say, “Ooh, I said hello to that Russian woman…” and occasionally one of their friends will reply, “She isn’t Russian.” Taxi drivers will start talking to me in Russian and will continue trying to talk to me in Russian even after I tell them, in Mongolian, that I don’t speak Russian. Shopkeepers will occasionally answer my queries in Russian, which can lead to utter confusion for all parties. This is all fine except that I don’t actually speak Russian. My spoken vocabulary is limited to: Yes, no, what’s your name? My name is ______. I am American, tea with milk please, thank you, let’s go, 404, Happy New Year, I don’t know, and (ironically enough) I understand.

I thought that I’d help people out a bit by telling them, in Mongolian, that I’m not Russian so as to eliminate some communication problems. Enter the “I’m not Russian” shirts… should you, too, have this problem, you can purchase the shirts at Mongol Mama at Cafepress.