boxing day

it's now "boxing day" here in mongolia. for those of you who don't know boxing day, it's a canadian holiday on the 26th. when i was a kid i heard people talk about boxing day and thought they were talking about the sport. i couldn't ever figure out why there were no boxing matches on tv that day. then i realized that the boxing mentioned was more like "boxing up the christmas decorations". however, i can't imagine wanting to put away the decorations until at least after new year's day.

it's been a real treat for me to celebrate christmas here this year because i have loved ones in america who are celebrating half a day behind me. i was able to call my family on my christmas eve AND their christmas eve. and i talked to them on my christmas day AND their christmas day. i watched a christmas movie via skype with my boyfriend on my christmas day that was still his christmas eve. and today (still christmas for him) we just watched a marathon of "the office" christmas episodes. i'll celebrate christmas on sunday with my local fellowship here, and then on monday evening our ELI team will have another party. i'm really enjoying the chances to continue celebrating and remembering the beauty, glory, joy, and overwhelming LOVE that the Father shared with us when he gave us his SON.

christmas in mongolia

in case you are wondering how i spent my christmas day here, i'll give you a little overview. it was nothing like the way i usually spend christmas, but i was joyful and remembering the Reason even so. i woke up and called my family. they had sent a christmas package that i received last week. i hadn't open the individual presents, so i waited until i could be on the phone with them when i opened them. it was fun to be able to thank them immediately and wish them a merry christmas. my sisters gave me "a charlie brown christmas" on dvd, so i watched that later in the day when my friend, muugii, came over.

every thursday muugii comes to my house so we can read the Book together in mongolian. since yesterday was christmas, we read luke 2 and matthew 2. it's really fun for me to be able to read these two chapters in mongolian, because the story is so familiar to me that i understand almost everything i'm reading. :)

muugii had an exam at 1, so she left earlier than usual. i called jimmy on skype and we wished each other merry christmas and then watched "the polar express". we will see each other in about two weeks, so we'll exchange gifts then. :) when the movie was finished it was time to teach. i headed to school and had fun teaching my students a little bit about christmas. we sang "the twelve days of christmas" and i was able to tell them that the reason we exchange gifts at christmas is to remember the gift the Father gave to us. it's exciting that at this point in the year they understand me well enough that i think most of them really "got it". :)

i had to teach another class at 7:20, but i had enough time to go out for a bit. i bought myself a little christmas present and then decided to find something yummy to eat for dinner. there's a restaurant called "banana mala" that has always intrigued me because it claims to serve "malaysian, singapore, thai, and chinese food". i decided to check it out and was thrilled to have some delicious "tom yam" thai chicken soup. if i can't have turkey and all the trimmings with my family on christmas day, then thai food is definitely what i'd choose to have instead. :) here's a picture of me and a picture of my lovely dinner.

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thursday afternoon, second year, group 58 students. they seem pretty disinterested on thursdays but were a lot of fun at the party.

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only 3 students from my saturday morning, second year, group 60 class came to the party.

with 2-59

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i have class on monday nights with second year, group 59. here's about half of the class.

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only a few students from first year, group 58 came to the party. we have class on thursday nights.

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these are some of the girls in my first year, group 55 class. they are a lot of fun and we usually laugh all the way through our 1.5 hour lesson. :)

with class 1-57

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saturday night was the humanities university's new year's party. it was fun to be with the students outside of class. i've really missed being able to do that this semester, because we have night classes and most of the students are busy during the day. here i am with several of the students in my first year, group 57 class. i teach them on saturday afternoons, and they are one of my favorite groups.

honest friends

i am so thankful for my friend muugii, because she really watches out for me and tells me things that i need to know to fit in a little better here. i have a school new year's party on saturday, and i was planning on wearing an asian style silk dress i have. i know that the key to new year's party style is wearing something as bright and shiny as possible, so i thought this dress would be perfect. unfortunately, it's not appropriate to wear this style of dress to a new year's party. apparently, they are only really stylish for graduation or tsagaan sar (lunar new year). i'm so glad muugii told me before i showed up to the party looking really silly. she also helped my look in my closet for something better. ironically, it's the dress that i wore for my graduation from wheaton college. hehe

food

this weekend i had the chance to go out to eat twice. there aren't a lot of restaurants here that i really like, and my budget doesn't afford much in the way of going out. but this weekend i enjoyed two lovely meals with friends.

friday night i met up with mandy, and we went to a place here called los bandidos. it's a restaurant that serves both mexican and indian food. we ordered nachos and some sort of chicken tikka indian dish. it's so fun to be able to have two yummy kinds of food in one meal. :)


sunday after church i went to a delicious restaurant called pizza della casa. they have nearly perfect pizza. it's the kind of pizza that i say "this is GOOD pizza" not merely "this is good pizza for mongolia." unfortunately there are some ingredients that are hard to get here, so sometimes i get excited about american food that i see on a menu and then am disappointed when it doesn't quite taste the same. the pizza here is anything but disappointing, and the atmosphere is great, too.


if anyone wants to come and visit me here in mongolia, you can be pretty much assured that i will take you to one or both of these restaurants. :)

mini christmas

i have two meanings for the title of this post. one is obviously because i have a small tree and the tiniest nativity scene i've ever seen. the other reason is because "minii" is the mongolian word for "my". so this is "my tiny christmas". hehe

thankful to be with mel's family

wednesday was mongolian independence day, so melanie and hetee had some friends over to make huushuur. huushuur is a traditional mongolian food made with meat inside dough that is fried until it's crunchy. here's a few pix of the process.






on thanksgiving day, we went to melanie's parents' house and had delicious chicken burgers and ice cream with heath bar chunks for dessert. YUMMY!


i love this picture of melanie and me. :)

train to darhan

i took the train to darhan on tuesday. i think muji was trying to tell me that he wanted to come, too. hehe


corrie is another teacher here with elic. we shared a sleeper car together. it was so great to not be traveling alone.


here is my bed on the train all ready for me sleep all the way to darhan......


...and then some. i was supposed to be wakened at 3am to get off the train in darhan. however, this is the sukhbaatar train station at 5am. no one on the train woke me up, so i slept through my stop and went all the way to the russian border! thankfully i was allowed to stay on the train and just return to darhan around 8am. unfortunately, my poor friend hetee was waiting for me at the train station in darhan for several hours. thankfully, he didn't make me feel too bad about it. perhaps it was his promise to get me back someday that made him so gracious this weekend. hmmm. :)


here is a stop between sukhbaatar and darhan. do you see the small building in the background on the left side of the picture? i think this is where people wait until they see the train coming, and then they have to hike up to the tracks in time to catch the train. do you see the man doing just that? i also saw a couple of people using a small sled to bring some sort of goods onto the train. i just thought to myself, "only in mongolia."

thanksgiving get away

i'm so thankful that i could take a short trip out of the city to celebrate thanksgiving. this is what it's starting to look like every morning when i wake up and take a peek out the window. it reminds me of spring in kentucky, except that instead of harmless fog, this is toxic smoke from coal burning stoves in the gers (traditional felt tents) that surround the city.

thankfulness

a rather funny thing can happen when you live in a new culture. it's possible to get a little fuzzy on aspects of your own culture that you thought were set in stone in your own mind... like the fact that american thanksgiving is always the FOURTH thursday of november. somehow this year i convinced myself that it was the THIRD thursday in november. :) i was so convinced, in fact, that i planned a "day late" thanksgiving party for one of my classes on friday, november 21. sheesh!
even though i felt rather silly when i realized the mental slip up i'd had, i've been thinking deeply about thankfulness for a few weeks longer than usual. obviously, i don't need the 4th thursday in november to make thankfulness a part of my life. it's been a good exercise for me to think about what i can be thankful for even now. so here is a list of some of the things i'm thankful for this year.
*a loving Father who provides all i need and then some
*a fabulous family in the states and the ability to talk to them regularly through skype
*an incredible boyfriend who supports me emotionally more than i ever dreamed
*dear friends in the states who love me and keep in touch so well
*my sweet muji and the sound of his contented purrs when he sits next to me
*the sense of being really listened to by the administration at the humanities college
*overall good health and being able to get my ankle checked out in thailand
*going to thailand in 45 days!!!!!!
*the privilege of teaching 250 students...so many lives i can shine His light on
*the chance to see the Father's healing and renewal in our sunday fellowship
*YOU for reading and lifting up my requests and supporting me in so many ways!

what are you thankful for? leave me a comment and let me know. :)

great surprise

last year as i was studying mongolian i read a kid's comic book series about a little girl named tsondooloi and her pet goat named tsundeelei. they are just about the cutest books ever, and i've bought two new ones since i finished language school. today i was shopping and saw the most exciting thing. not only have they released the 6th book in the series, but standing before me were tsondooloi and tsundeelei themselves. thankfully i had my camera with me! i seriously felt like a kid who is in disneyworld and sees mickey mouse walking around for the first time. hehe

my cute kitty

here are some recent pictures of muji. i know i'm partial, but i think he's the cutest cat ever. and since i've been spending even more time at home the past few weeks, i've been seeing more of him than usual. i hope you don't mind me sharing. :)

p.s. he is indeed hanging out in the tub in the second picture. he's a funny cat and actually loves water. the other day i was taking a bath when he came and sat on the edge of the tub and starting playing in the water. hehe

feeling a bit blah

i have been taking taxis everywhere for the past 2.5 weeks, and i'm not finding any improvement in my ankle. it's getting to the point now that i'm starting to feel a bit depressed about it. i don't go anywhere except class, team meetings, and church. i haven't even been able to get groceries because the store is really too far to walk but too close to take a taxi. i've decided today that i'll go between my classes, so that at least i'll be taxing from the school to the store, so it will make it more worthwhile to ride. hehe
there are a few reasons why the whole ankle thing is making me a bit depressed. obviously the pain itself is a big factor. what's really difficult is that i can't find any specific trigger, so i can feel fine one moment and then suddenly be twitching because it hurts so much. if i could at least pinpoint what causes the pain (ex, walking too much, wearing or not wearing the brace i have, walking up stairs, etc) then i could just try to cut out the offending activity and hope for improvement. instead i'm always a little bit on edge because i know that it could start to hurt in the middle of any activity.
another reason i feel sad is because there aren't really any good options here for treatment, so i feel helpless and afraid that waiting until thailand in january or the states in the summer might injure my tendons/ligaments even more. it's awful to feel like my living situation is possibly preventing me from finding a solution.
and then there's the "stuck in my house except for absolutely necessary excursions" factor. as it is, i feel like i can't really go out after dark because of the cold and safety issues. now i feel like i shouldn't leave my house during the day either. i'm getting a bit stir crazy, and i guess i can understand what it must be like for my cat to stay home all the time. hehe at least we have each other for company. :)
it always helps me to talk through whatever's bothering me, and i feel a tiny bit better just getting my frustrations off my chest. please pray for me after you read this. :)

only in mongolia

unitel is a cell phone provider here. i guess it's good to get cell phone service from a company that lenin clearly supports. (do note my tone of sarcasm here. hehe)


today i had a meeting at school and suddenly the teachers got up to look out the window. somewhere in this mass of men in black coats is the mongolian president.


the large building on the left is a new "minii delguur". this means "my store".
the building on the right is a new "tanii delguur". this means "your store". the real irony here is that the "your store" used to be a branch of "my store" until "my store" bought the bigger building and moved about 100 yards to the left.


random street graffitti

election and the internet

even though i use the internet every day, i'm still sometimes amazed by how quickly i can get information here in mongolia. i'm able to keep up with the american election coverage online, and my boyfriend and i are doing skype video chat, so i can actually hear the live reports on american tv. i'm so thankful and blessed to be able to stay connected with technology.

mystery solved

there has been an ever-increasing foul stench emanating from my kitchen for the past week. i bleached every available surface and still the stench grew. on thursday a handyman came and attempted to fix something under the kitchen sink, but still the stench grew. it had gotten to the point of being so unbearable that i could barely stand to be in the kitchen long enough to boil water. i was determined to have someone come and fix it for good tomorrow.

today i had some girls over and they wanted to help me do the dishes. i told them i didn't want them in the kitchen because i was embarrassed of the odor. they said that they smelled it today and had noticed it last week, too. we all guessed that it was coming from the fridge, and they suggested we pull the fridge away from the wall to see if we could find anything. we all nearly gagged when we got a whiff of the exhaust from the back. we unscrewed something at the bottom of the fridge but couldn't find the source of the smell.

i planned on calling someone in the morning to come look at it. so i decided to clean out my fridge tonight so that there would be no way that the smell was coming from food in the fridge. it's a good thing i did! not only did i find the problem, i fixed it, too! apparently some chicken blood from a package of chicken i had thawed in the fridge had dripped down a drain hole in the back of the fridge. i poured some bleach down the hole, and voila!!! the foul, or should i say fowl (hehe) smell disappeared!

fun with my blog

thanks so my friend sarah, i just discovered all sorts of ways to have fun with my blog layout. what could be better than some bling, and a picture of my cat? hehe

a week of feeling weak

this whole "immobilization" thing is rather tricky when i don't have a car and have to walk everywhere. what makes it so tricky is how stubborn i am. i want to just say that the 10 minutes it takes me to walk each way to school isn't going to damage my ankle any more. but then i realize i'm just being stubborn, prideful, and rather foolish. it takes every bit of humility i have to take a taxi instead. i hate taking a taxi when it's less than a kilometer for me to walk and traffic is so bad that it isn't even any faster to go by car. i hate looking like some sort of lazy, spoiled american who would rather pay to sit in a car than walk a short distance. i hate it that i'm not getting any exercise. i hate it that i feel trapped in my house except for necessary outings. and i just hate feeling so weak. but i remember the promise that HIS strength is make perfect in my weakness. i know that he is using this time of limited mobility to teach me - not sure just what the lessons will be, but i'm trusting Him.

all's well that ends well

this week was a bit unusual for me. i spent thursday afternoon at the hospital here. don't get freaked out. it wasn't an emergency. i've been having increasingly bad pain in my ankle since last spring. i was hoping i could wait it out until thailand in january and have it checked out there, but it became absolutely unbearable. i had heard good things about a new, private, korean run hospital, so that's where i went. it was a surprisingly pleasant experience, and thankfully i got a diagnosis. unfortunately the diagnosis wasn't good. i have an old fracture that has been causing inflammation in my tendons and ligaments. the doctor doesn't seem to think that i'll ever have 100% recovery because i waited so long to have it treated. however, he suggested i wear a brace and try to be as immobile as possible for a few weeks. he said that i could hope for a decrease in pain with this treatment.

the tricky part is trying to be immobile when i don't have a car and i have to teach all week. usually i walk back and forth to school a total of 8 times per week. i'm going to try to cut that down to 5 times and hope that helps. i'm also going to just force myself to sit more while i'm teaching. i prefer to be up and about checking on students as they work, but for the next few weeks i'll have to cut that down significantly.

so to explain the title of this post...i had a kind of crazy week but classes this afternoon went really, really well, so i'm happy - even with a bad leg!

on the run coffee

mongolia is a country that seems to be just beginning to adopt the concept of going to a cafe for the mere purpose of chatting with friends and sipping something hot. i get the sense that for most mongolians eating is more about practicality than socializing. or maybe i just haven't made friends who like to go out to restaurants. hehe

anyway, one of the aspects of american life that i miss the most is being able to go to a cafe and just sit for hours either reading or talking with friends. there are a few places in ub that make this possible but most of them are expensive or not really cozy enough to make me want to spend any amount of time there. in the past few weeks however i have found 2 places that i would actually want to return to with a friend. one of these is called "cafe amsterdam", and it was filled with foreigners (not so great) but it was also filled with light from many windows (super great) and serves a fantastic panini (amazing). if you ever come to visit me in mongolia, i will definitely take you to eat and chill out here.

the other such place is called "on the run coffee". it's a cafe attached to a big hotel, and it was quiet and cozy. my friend muugii had gone there before and told me about it. we decided to check it out last thursday, and i'm so glad we did. the walls are painted a deep orange color and we sat in dark red, comfy chairs. the light was dim and warm, and i felt like i could sit there for hours. unfortunately i had a class to teach at 4:00, but at least i know i can return some other time. here's a picture of muugii enjoying the peace and quiet.


ps. i got a new wallet after we had coffee :)

a bump in the road

this week someone stole my wallet, my bible, and a large roll of packing tape from my purse... while i was in the school office! i was in the same room and someone had the nerve to take it when i turned my back. thankfully everything in my wallet can be replaced pretty easily and i didn't have much money in it. i think for me the worst part is just knowing that someone at the school did it when i was in the room! i have always said that if anyone ever steals my bible they obviously need to read it more than i do, so now i guess it's actually come true. please ask that whoever took it will read it and get to know the Author.

friday night

thursday's classes went really well. i'm so relieved that even my lowest level students were able to accomplish the main objectives of the lesson. it gives me hope for the rest of the year. if thursday's class had bombed, i think i might be afraid of slowly pulling out all my hair in the next few months. hehe

in other news, i had a great day off. i spent the morning watching a movie and chatting with my boyfriend. then i ran some errands and did some shopping. i scored a pair of really great earrings, and i'll probably wear them tomorrow. :)


tonight i came home and made some delicious borscht for dinner. for those of you who might not know what i'm talking about, it's a vegetable soup made with beets. mine happens to be a glorious purplish, red color. i used a mini-food processor to chop up all the vegetables into tiny pieces. this made my soup a really uniform texture and so fun to put a whole spoonful into my mouth.


and as always muji is ridiculously adorable and irresistible. i love seeing this face everyday.

week 3

this week has been a lot better than last. my students and i have spent a lot more time laughing together, and i've been seeing a lot fewer blank stares when i ask them a question. tonight i meet with the group of students who have the lowest level of english though, so i might take back my previous statement in a few hours. hehe

second week of teaching

i've completed my second week of teaching at the humanities college, and i must say that i feel a bit frustrated with how things are going. i have 9 different groups of students that i only see once per week. so even though i've already been teaching for 2 weeks, i've only seen each group of students twice. normally i feel like we can begin to have some routine together after about 3 classes, and normally this happens within the first week of teaching.
instead i'm beginning week 3 of classes and still feeling somewhat disorganized. today (friday) is my only completely free day per week, so i'm hoping to get some rest and to get a few things more organized for teaching. please ask that i can soon feel more settled and that i can build relationships with my more than 200 students.

horhog with the duffer family

on monday my team and i had our weekly meeting in a special location. the duffer family has bought some land on the outskirts of ub, and they are in the process of building a house there. some friends of theirs are living a ger on the property right now and serving as the "manach" which basically means security guard. we went to the duffers' place and this lovely couple made "horhog" for us for dinner. horhog is kind of the equivalent of real mongolian barbeque.

the first step for making horhog is gathering several large river rocks and making sure they are clean. next put the rocks in a stove until they get really hot. this step can be a little dangerous because the rocks can explode if they get too hot. two of the rocks actually did this on monday. thankfully they were inside a sturdy metal stove when it happened and no one was nearby.

once the rocks are sufficiently hot, they go into a large metal jug and then comes the meat and maybe some vegetables. the jug is sealed tightly and the meat is cooked by the heat from the rocks and the pressure in the jug. i've been told that sometimes the pressure becomes so high that the lid on the jug can explode. thankfully this did NOT happen on monday. :)


i'm not sure just how long the meat needs to cook in the jug, but my guess is at least an hour or so. once it's done, the lid is carefully opened and the cook tastes some of the juices that have cooked out of the meat. on monday, the cook decided that is wasn't salty enough, so she added a big handful of salt to the jug and resealed it. then came a sort of tricky part. two guys had to grab the hot jug by the handles and try to shake it up and down to get the salt distributed through everything. once this was done, it was time for us to all drink some of the broth from the meat.

everyone got a small bowl of broth and drank it before we dove into the meat. horhog is definitely a hands on meal. mongolians say that before you actually eat the meat you should first take one of the hot rocks and toss it back and forth in your hands. this is said to be good for your kidneys. i find that it's just too hard on my hands, and i've never managed to actually do it without dropping the rock and just waiting for it to cool off. monday was no exception. :)

after attempting to toss the hot rock, it's time to eat the meat. monday's horhog was a bit unusual because it was a mixture of beef and mutton. i definitely prefer beef, and i was able to get several chunks of beef and no chunks of mutton. every time i eat horhog i sort of feel like a cavewoman. the meat is usually still on the bone or full of fatty chunks that i have to somehow separate from the parts that i want to eat. i end up sort of gnawing on it and ripping at it with my very greasy hands. it's not something i'd want to do for every meal, but it's fun every now and then. (although i still can't bring myself to eat those huge turkey legs they sell at fairs and amusement parks in the states. hehe)


i think horhog is the kind of meal that could potentially last a long time. people usually sit around and eat chunk after chunk of meat until an entire sheep has been consumed. unfortunately for me, i had to rush away on monday because i had to teach a class in the evening. it was fun to get away from the city for the afternoon and have a bit of a real countryside experience with my team.

muji cuteness

muji has a little chute that he likes to play in, and it was next to his water bowl. i came into the living room to see this. hehe

teaching begins

saturday marked my first day as a teacher at the humanities college. i had 3 classes and felt both wiped out and invigorated by the end of the day. i really, really, really love teaching english and am so incredibly blessed to be doing what i love in a country i have grown to love.
here's a few thoughts about what my life is looking like these days:
* i don't have any classes that begin before 4pm. i am not really a morning person, so it's awesome to be able to have a few hours to wake up. when i have time to linger over breakfast and coffee it feels luxurious no matter what the rest of the day holds.
*i've met 4 of my 9 classes, and so far it seems like they will be a great bunch of students. when it's all said and done, i'll probably have around 250 students.
*the other teachers at the school seem nice and good to work with. i'm most impressed by their level of english speaking ability. it's a comforting thought to me that the students are learning from these very skilled women.
*it will take a little while for my feet to get used to wearing heels again. i think i'll leave my heels at the school and do my actual walking back and forth in my comfy maryjanes.
*i'm noticing a significant increase in my mental energy level this year. being able to come back to a familiar place instead of having to completely start over again has done wonders for my mental and emotional well-being.
*things on sundays are going well. it's awesome to see how the Father has brought healing and new life to our fellowship. i'm excited to see what he has in store for us.

wannabe

thanks to melanie i know that i am not a nerd. phew!

things that make life good

earlier this week i think i had a little bit of food poisoning. even though it was miserable to have to run to the bathroom all night, i kept thinking about how thankful i am that i live in a great apartment and didn't have to run to an outhouse all night. being thankful for my bathroom, led me to think of other things i'm thankful for this week.

muji is the sweetest cat ever. he follows me everywhere and purrs contentedly whenever i pet him. how can i resist this cute face?


mongolian hair and my white american hair are two very different textures. finding a hairdresser who knows what to do with my slightly curly, thin, fine hair is a challenge. thankfully i've met the answer to that challenge in the person of batmonkh. he's cut my hair twice now and both times it's been just what i wanted. this isn't the greatest picture but you get the idea.


this morning i discovered this lovely pink flower growing from one of my plants. if that's not enough to make me smile, i don't know what is. :)

yummy

i've visited korea a few times and always love the custard filled little corn shaped cakes that are sold at bus stops and in the subway. i admit that sometimes i even dream about eating them here in mongolia.

today my dream came true! a korean department store here now has a little stand that makes the warm, delicious, cream-filled goodies. yum, yum!

saturday

yesterday my team and i went to a place called "gachuurt" to visit the gravesite of aleta's mom. her mom, lola, spent the last year here in mongolia and passed away this summer. aleta brought her here to be cared for because she had dementia and was not being well cared for in the states. it was inspiring to be here and see how lola's life touched so many people even when she often had no idea what was going on. she is one of the few foreigners, if not the only, buried in this cemetery. her tombstone really stands out for two reasons. the first is obviously her name, written in english among a crowd of mongolian names. what makes her tombstone the most unique, however, is what is below her name, written in mongolian:

J said, i am the resurrection and the life. whoever believes in me will not die but have eternal life. from the bible.

the majority of the mongolians who visit the cemetery have never read this verse and may not even know who J is or what the Bible is. however, i imagine that their curiosity over lola's grave must pique their interest. i didn't know lola before she came to mongolia, but aleta has told many stories of how her mom lived her whole life in love with J. even in her death, she continues to proclaim his glory. she is an inspiration to me, and i hope to you, too!

teaching schedule

yesterday i got my teaching schedule for this first semester. i had been told that i would just teach on tuesday, thursday, and saturday, but i had a feeling that was too good to be true......i was right.
here's my schedule:

monday: 7:20-8:50pm
tuesday: 4-5:30pm
wednesday: 4-5:30pm
thursday: 4-5:30, 5:40-7:10, 7:20-8:50 all pm
friday: off
saturday: 10-11:30am, 2-3:30pm, 3:40-5:10pm

it's a really good thing that the school is within 10 minutes walking distance, so those days when i have only one class won't be too bad. it will be good for me to have to get out of the house almost every day, because in the winter it would be easy to become like a hermit instead. hehe

things that have been making me smile

i'm borrowing a great idea from my friend melanie. she often lists things that make her smile, and i have a lot to smile about in the last few days. here goes what is hopefully the first of many such lists. :)

1. skype video chats

2. waking up to the sight of muji outside my window

3. letting muji in and hearing his contended purrs when i pet him

4. spontaneous dinners with brownies for dessert

5. a new curtain rod installed last night

6. my own version of "bircher muesli" for breakfast

7. catching the hot water just in time for a shower

8. knowing my first day of teaching is september 13

9. 4 fluffy pillows on my bed

10. 2 new plants bought from ladies selling them on the side of the street

and just for fun, here's a picture of muji

back in mongolia

i'm back in my apartment with the internet finally connected again. it's funny to think that i have better internet access in mongolia than i did in the states this summer!
here's a few picture highlights from the past couple of months.

i went to a great concert in chicago. i love live music and miss being able to go to concerts here in mongolia.


i got to visit my best friend from college. it was great to meet her sweet daughter.


i got to spend time with friends i made while in graduate school at wheaton. i love being able to pick up as if we saw each other last week.


my family is building a cabin in colorado. i got to take a road trip out there with them and enjoy a mountain hike.


for the first time since i turned 18, i had the chance to be with my family on my birthday. my mom had this cake made for me the day before when i shared about mongolia at their church.