Who needs workout videos?

I’ve discovered a new form of exercise that incorporates both weight lifting and aerobic exercise. It’s called “attempting to get air out of the radiator by draining water from it” and it lets you feel like you are actually doing something important as you work out. There are ten bars on the radiator in my bedroom, and the bottom 2/3rds of five of them have gone cold. A student told me that if I drained out several bucket fulls of water (or is it buckets full?) that the problem would be solved because the air that is stuck in there would be released. If only! So, three days in a row I tried this. The beauty of it is that I’m always warm afterwards, and my bedroom ends up about one degree warmer for the next hour. Plus, running a relay with yourself, hauling buckets of water to the bathroom to dump out builds both arm muscle and endurance. They are supposed to send a repairman today, who hopefully will fix the problem once and for all, but I’ve taken such a liking to my new exercise that I may just keep doing it…

Three things learned at Thanksgiving:

1. There are cows with windows (or portholes, if you prefer) in their sides. Really. The rumor is that they are for veterinary students—not only can they see the insides of the cow, but they can also reach in a touch them. Just imagine if they did the same thing for medical students!



2. “Women are the downfall of men,” stated one of our adolescent friends who was out for the weekend. By way of further clarifying the issue, he added, “Seriously!” So young, and already he’s got it all figured out.

3. Is it tryptophan or tryptopan? When you gather people for Thanksgiving that come from different families, backgrounds, and parts of the country, you are bound to have this discussion. We formed a truce by renaming it: Tryptofizzle (or tryptophizzle, if you prefer). It’s kind of catchy, and it describes exactly what you do after eating turkey—fizzle out and take a nap. (For those of you who really want to know—it’s tryptophan)

Happy Thanksgiving

I decided that Thanksgiving was the perfect time to start posting again, and since Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday (those of you needing a little practice with “th” pronunciation and those of you who can never remember when Thanksgiving really is, repeat after me: Thanksgiving is always on the fourth Thursday of the eleventh month.) I thought a Thursday Thirteen would also be appropriate. So here you go—Thirteen things that I’m thankful for here in Mongolia…
1. Snow on Monday and Wednesday this week, but not Tuesday. If it had snowed Tuesday I wouldn’t have been able to fly home from the aimag where I’d been teaching a seminar. This way I get the beauty of the snow without the messed up travel plans.
2. I’m thankful that I just had the opportunity to visit my friends and students in the town I used to live in.
3. My apartment, in spite of the over abundance of carpets (more than seven in the living room alone—on the walls, on the furniture, on the floor…) and despite the fact that the only thing coming out of the taps this time of year is liquid ice…which brings me to point number three.
4. I’m thankful for boil-coils and for hot water in the radiators. For those of you residing in countries and cities with hot tap water, I’d better acquaint you with boil-coils. They look like this and are basically an exposed heating coil. Not only do they heat your bath water to an acceptable temperature, but they also can give you an adrenaline rush as you flirt with electrocution (should you forget to unplug it before testing the water temperature).
5. The jar of peanut butter in my fridge and the Girl Scout cookies on my table. Yum! Plus, one can justify eating lots of foods like this in the winter in the name of “keeping warm”!
6. Layers of clothing and my cozy down coat… Even though the layers and coat make me feel decidedly unglamorous, they do keep me comfortably warm.
7. As much as I dislike the cold and the winter, I’m thankful for it because it makes things like spotting the first green blade of grass in May so very exciting.
8. I know I’ve talked about scotch tape before, but I just want to say again how much I use it! It works as an art supply, it works for fixing things, it works for putting up stuff in the classroom, it works for taping things to students foreheads, it works for picking up cat fur off the carpet… Yes, I am thankful for the abundance and cheapness of scotch in this country.
9. Students who are eager to learn are another thing I’m thankful for. I’ve had classes with people who didn’t really want to be there, and so I know how special it is that my students this year want to learn and are eager to participate.
10. Teammates and co-workers who have welcomed me and accepted me here in my new town. Not only that, but they like to have fun and can be silly. Case in point: the “occasion elephants”.
These lovely candle holders were given to two of my coworkers as gifts last year…and now we make sure that they show up at all of our special team occasions. Isn’t tradition great?
11. A playmate for Tom my cat: For five years, Tom was only ever in contact with people, and as a result developed a rather skewed view of himself. Here in our new place, he has two cats in close proximity that he can hang out with. He pretends that he hates playing with others, but then I see him get a gleam in his eye as he eggs his fellow felines on.
12. Good nights of sleep—with my down comforter. Self-explanatory.
13. Fun Thanksgiving celebrations with students, that of course includes the Thanksgiving tradition of gift giving. Our festivities were complete with the reading of Thanksgiving essays, a play, and lots and lots of yummy food.
13.5 Mongolian potato salad. Yum! (available in abundant quantities at the festivities mentioned in point 13.)

Leaving, on a jet plane...Part 2a

It's pretty much like Cherry said--they switched the time on us...so I won't bore you with all the details.

No, actually, I had written this post but wanted to save it and edit it and so, like an idiot, instead of hitting the Save as Draft button, I somehow exited without saving it and I just haven't felt like rewriting it yet. Sorry!

In other news, my charming and adorable nephew can now say "iguana" and "camel" and he knows the Mongolian word for mushroom. How's that for a 19 month old?

Leaving, on a jet plane...Part 1

Flying from point A to point B within Mongolia...

Procuring tickets and confirming flight times:

It all begins a couple weeks before leaving town when Danielle and I went to purchase our plane tickets, only to realize after walking across town that we didn't have our passports or even our worker cards, which are the necessary ID for foreigners to purchase plane tickets. I was working on finalizing my students' grades at that point so didn't have time to make another trip to the AeroMongolia office, which meant that Danielle had to go a second time alone. When Danielle went back they sold her the tickets but said we should check back with them to find out what time the plane would be flying (since they like to switch flight times around on a regular basis). The day before we were to leave, I stopped by the AeroMongolia office to ask about the time and they told me, "The plane will arrive here at 8am." So, knowing how often people are confused about flight times, I asked a couple follow-up questions to verify that I'd been told the right time. "What time will it be leaving UB?" "It will depart from UB at 7am." (Check) "What time will it leave from here?" "It should leave around 8:20am." (Check, check) "What time should I get to the airport?" "You should arrive at the airport at 6:30am." (Why anyone would go to the airport before the plane had actually departed from UB, I'm not sure...but they still like to tell us to get to the airport 2 hours early.) So, having asked about the time, and having had the answers to my follow up questions confirm the time they'd told me, I went home and told Danielle that the plane would fly around 8:20am and we set about finding a ride. Our former director and current coworker came over to take some pictures with us and they decided that they'd take us to the airport in the morning at 7am.

Traveling...

Some of you are awaiting eagerly the story of my rather insane exit from the countryside and, unfortunately, you'll just have to wait a little longer. Tonight I head to the States for a summer of family, Disneyland, and Danielle's wedding. Yesterday was my birthday (Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday Mongol Mama, happy birthday to me) and my family called (of course while I was out and about in UB which gave the general public some entertainment, I guess) and my friend Heather cooked me some yummy Mexican food, so all in all, it was a good birthday. The past week, I've been running around UB trying to get stuff done so I haven't had time to sit down and write the whole crazy exit story--I promise I'll post it at some point!

Sain suuj baigaarai!

Khuushuur-muushuur

One question that I get asked a lot by both Americans in the States, and by Mongolians, is about what I eat in Mongolia. Inevitably this is followed by, “Can you cook Mongolian food?” If you say yes, and then your Mongolian friends may ask you to help them cook some buuz or huushuur, or other such meat and dough dish, at which point, they’ll realize that you cook at about the level of a Mongolian seven year-old (because you lack the dough rolling and pinching skills that people here seem to be born with). Case in point: Phil’s Mongolia-shaped huushuur— which, although it looks nothing like a Mongolian’s huushuur, is great for teaching geography.(Key cities have been labled for your benefit.)


If you say no, that you can’t make Mongolian food, you cause your Mongolian friends to worry because they are likely to think that if you can’t make Mongolian food, you obviously can’t cook, which means that you must be starving! I’ve had to reassure many people that I can indeed cook noodles and soup and meat.

Anyone have dust allergies?

Just another Mongol morning...like none that I've ever seen before. Keep in mind that it is usually completely light here this time of year well before 6am.

8:30am

8:45am

9:00am

9:30am

The flying dust eased off but did continue until about 5:00pm.

Scotching

Well, the Scotching Fiends (see the original post about the Scotching Fiends ) have been at it again—scotching things, that is. Since we are moving (or rather, I’m moving within Mongolia, Danielle is moving to another continent) we spent the better part of the week packing boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff—mostly books. Boxes, as we all know (in Mongolia, anyway) require lots of scotch—in this case, 35 rolls. (Re)discovery of the week: you can get scotch cuts, like paper cuts.

Stay tuned for more from our last week here, also known as “Two Spoons, Two Mugs, and One Annoying Phone” (because nearly all our other possessions were sent to UB this morning) or “Sculpting with Empty Scotch Rolls” (our entertainment for the week)

Shoots & Leaves

I interrupt this blog post hiatus (resulting from grading, packing, and moving, among other things) to inform you that I saw the first leaves of spring today. Hooray! I saw the first shoots of grass a couple weeks ago (and accidentally startled Danielle quite badly because I was so excited) but today I saw the first honest-to-goodness leaves! This means that by the middle of the week all the trees around town should be a lovely, fresh, spring green. Yes, the end of the brown and grey season has arrived and it's so exciting!