New Year's Party

New Year's is called Shin Jil in Mongolian. 'Shin' is 'new' and 'jil' is 'year'.
The hospital workers got all fancied up and we went to a nice restaurant, an English Pub called Green Corner.

Pretending to be artistic

My counterpart Solongo and me at our assigned table waiting for the shindig to start.

A view of the dancing floor and stage.

Father Winter, surrounded by his dancing girls, reading our names for our New Year's gift.

One of the games played. They taped a surgical glove box to the bum of a few people and placed a ping-pong ball in each box.
Then they turned on the music and the participants had to dance their ball out of their box.
This was absolutely hilarious.
This is also a picture of the winner!

A little dancing after the award ceremony.
Also a good picture to show how they dress for this party. It's formal!

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my Mongolians know how to have a good time!

Ger: Winter Ready

This week my hospital go my ger winter ready. How do make a cloth and stick tent winter ready you ask?
By adding a layer of felt (which supposedly already there) and burying the sides.

My yard dog running away from me ... as usual.

My first 5 bags of coal have been purchased for my warming needs!

Mid-Service Training

Mid-Service Training ended up being more like a reflection/prep rally conference. We went to a ger camp (not excited about that), then reflected on the past year for a day and a half, followed by looking forward to the next year and how you can make the most of it. I truly came out a bit hopeful.

It was fun to see my friends. I haven't seen most of them since Thanksgiving.

On our way back to Ulaanbaatar, we stopped at the largest statue of Chinggis Khan and had a group photo.

The 23rd Generation of Peace Corps Mongolia

Oh and I held an eagle too. That very large bird in the corner is a vulture.

Out With The Old and In With The New!

Summer is a time of no school, vacations, and lots of summer camps for the kiddos. Sounds nice and relaxing, right? It is, unless you're the Peace Corps Mongolia administration staff. You see their summer is full of stress and traveling and planning large meeting/trainings. Here's the run down:

On June 1st a plane full (46) of bright -eyed, eager to make a difference new PC/Mongolia trainees arrived. They implement a week of Orientation training before dropping them off at their new host family. On the 14th of June the first batch of M22 (I'm an M23) English teachers (TEFL) waved goodbye to Mongolia. Six days after that, the last batch of TEFLs said goodbye. This doesn't sound too horrible, but the English teachers are the largest sector in Mongolia, and there is an obscene amount of signatures and exit-interviews that are needed per volunteer. They suggest you arrive in UB 5 days prior to your flight home.

The first week of July was the Trainees' half-way training; a week long training. Then the national holiday of Naadam (think state fair). A week later the first batch of Non-TEFL (Health, Community Youth Development, Business Development) volunteers left. List leaves a few weeks to complete the final checks on the housing and agencies where the trainees will call home.

This brings us to tomorrow, Monday August 12th. Tomorrow all the trainees will say goodbye to they host families and will attend another week long training. The first day, tomorrow, will be a torturous day of training, because they all know at  5 p.m. they will be told where they are going to live for the next two years. It's a lovely announcement, it's called Site Announcements, where they go to this park that has a large cement map of Mongolia with all the provinces outlined, then they call each trainee by name and take them to the "exact" spot on the map that their new home is. It is fun to look around at where everyone is.

On Friday, August 17th the trainees will attend their Swearing In Ceremony, where they will become the 24th generation of Peace Corps Volunteers in Mongolia; a.k.a. M24s. On the 18th, the last batch of M22 Non-TEFLs will say goodbye.

From August 21st to 23rd the M23s (that's me) will be doing a 3-day Mid-Service Training. (I'll post about this later)

And that's the summer.

On the road again . . .

On a lovely day in mid-June, I received some information about a English test prep company wanting a native speaker to join them on a tour of 5 provinces in Mongolia, for free. Naturally I jumped on that opportunity. All I had to do was speak to the participants. No teaching what so ever. For those who don't know much about the Peace Corps, this is a pretty sweet deal.

On to the pictures . . .

Khuvsgol Lake (in the super north)

With Yak

Midnight shot (opened shutter for 60 sec)

A rainy horse ride to see . . . 

REINDEER! 

On the road in Arkhangi Province (I think)

floating lanterns

Waiting while the vans were unstuck

White Lake
It's near a volcano so those pointy rocks are lava rocks that people have stacked to make those pilers.

The Grand Canyon of Mongolia

Taikhar Chuluu in Arkhangi Province
If you can throw a rock up and over this thing you get either good luck or good health. I can't remember

Erdenezuu Monastery

Angry clouds

Yes, this is a picture of the picture I bought of me holding an eagle

Kids are so naughty

Orkhon River Valley National Park

There is suppose to be a waterfall
I centered it. Just look straight ahead.

More naughty kids at the waterfall

The black dots are horses and yaks
Also at the waterfall

This is not a stream. It is actually a raging river. I guess the angle is odd.

South Gobi

We went to the same sand dunes that I went to with my sister.

Guess who got their hair cut ...

Gathering 'drinking' water. This well had tiny shrimp-looking things in it.

Sand sledding

The camels we rode in on, literally.
A few of us went to a near by ger camp and ran into a herder and rode the camels back to camp.

My favorite picture of the trip.

On the same sand we stood on together a few months before.
Okay, not the exact same sand, because the wind blows a lot there.

Sunset at the sand dune

After a two day drive, we arrived in Ulaanbaatar.

Ulaanbaatar's T.Bataar Exhibit in Sukhbaatar Square

Shortest version ever of the T. Bataar exhibit: 
The "U.S." stole this nearly complete t-rex skeleton from Mongolia's South Gobi in a year I can't remember. Then tried to auction it off to the highest bidder in a very nice NY Auction House in a year not as far in the past as the one I can't remember. There was a restraining order involved. As in every true conquering hero story, that restraining order was ignored and he was sold, pending verification he was not actually Mongolian. After lots of paper work, signatures, official stamps, and political looking pictures taken with a poster size verification certificate, T. Bataar was crated up and shipped home. Welcome home T. Bataar!


And thus ends my road trip through 5 provinces of Mongolia. 

P.S. There are not pictures from all 5 provinces, so here they are: Bulgan, Khuvsgul, Arkhangi, Uvurkhangi, and Umnugobi

Who Is That Adorable Person?

It's Kyra! Yep, my darling sister came to visit me, and for bonus points it was over my birthday!

She flew into Ulaanbaatar (U.B.) and we were able to witness the one day a year there is no driving from 10-5. Here's a pic from when we were strolling down the busiest street in U.B.

We spent Easter in the Terejl National Park just outside U.B. visiting the largest statue of Chinggis Khan and riding a horse.

We went to the Mongolian National Museum and then to dinner with my friends. On April 4th we started our Gobi Tour to Omnogobi a.k.a. South Gobi.

Our Russian Chariot

Cooking lunch in the van because it was so cold outside.

We stopped to help the truck that carried these cows out of the mud.

Flaming Cliffs in Bayanzag. Where dinosaur fossils and eggs were.

More Flaming Cliffs

Mongolian 2 humped Bactrian Camel herd

Our two amigos, Kyra, me, and our guide.

Part of the Khongor Sand Dunes

Khongor Sand Dunes

Khongor Sand Dunes

Eagle Valley
When it's not iced over, there is a giant waterfall right there.

Eagle Valley was cold.

Morning kisses
The herders rounded up the babies and the mamas stayed nearby. 

Looks a bit like home doesn't it?
I can't remember the name of this.

Herd of horse on the way back to Ulaanbaatar

We returned to U.B. on April 10th and took the overnight train to my town. We spent the day there and took the night train to Beijing, China.

A few pictures from Beijing, China.

A little country side from the train.

View of Beijing from the Drum Tower.

The Drum Tower
(there is also a Bell Tower)

Confucius statue and me at the Confucius Temple

Confucius Temple

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest
at The Temple of Heaven Park

Inside the Forbidden Palace Museum.

One of many ornate throne rooms in the Forbidden Palace

Dagoba in Beihai Park. 

Also Beihai Park Dagoba

Great Wall of China
Mutianyu Section

Great Wall of China
Mutianyu Section

The East entrance of the Summer Palace
looks like somewhere else I've been ... 

Tower of Buddhist Incense
at the Summer Palace

And then Kyra and I parted ways. I am SO glad she came!