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.