mongolmanda

walking

2010-05-02T10:11:00.002+08:00

last weekend jimmy had an unfortunate run-in with the broken base of a lamp post in a parking lot. since i don't have my own car, and jimmy drives us both wherever we need to go, that means we were carless for a week. we walked a lot more than normal. i took the bus and the train to places i've never gone before. it was actually a really good week. it reminded me of being carless in mongolia and having to rely on my own two legs or public transportation to get around. there is a feeling of satisfaction that i savor when i haven't driven myself to my destination. he and i have both decided we need to walk more even when we get his car back. we'll start by walking to work in the mornings and then see where it takes us. :)

registry fun

2010-04-25T00:54:00.005+08:00

last night jimmy and i went to macy's for a "sip n scan" event. we got to start our registry there and they spoiled us with lots of goodies. we got snacks, gift cards, a red tote bag, and two champagne flutes - all just because we registered there during the event. i love being engaged and getting free things because people love to celebrate engagements. even if those people just happen to be the sales clerks at macy's.

where has my mind gone?

2010-04-20T04:51:00.001+08:00

i need to start blogging more regularly - even if it's just for me to read. i want to have my mind more engaged in what i do everyday. i want to notice the little interesting moments that make me feel like i'm truly living my life and not just surviving it until october.

engaged!

2010-03-12T05:17:00.003+08:00

jimmy and i are engaged! he proposed on march 1, 2010 at the grand lux cafe in downtown chicago. he surprised me after picking me up from Bible study by saying, "let's go do something fun."it was almost 10:30 by the time we got to the restaurant, so there were just a few other people there having late dinners or dessert. jimmy and i split a sandwich and then he started telling me about some of the events in his life that he considers major turning points. it all seemed pretty unremarkable, and i had convinced myself that he wouldn't propose that night, so i was totally relaxed and just enjoying the chance to do something spontaneous with him. then he told me to close my eyes and suddenly i was suspicious.

i sat with my eyes closed for what seemed an eternity and then he told me to open my eyes. "i've lost my train of thought" he said. by then, i was pretty sure that he was going to propose, and i practically ran to the bathroom to fix my hair a little bit and make sure i didn't look too tired at the end of a long day. hehe

when i came back, we talked a little bit more and then he told me to close my eyes again. this time i knew it must be "the moment", and i was trying so hard not to peek. :) he read me a letter i had given my dad for christmas about 10 years ago. in the letter i had given my dad a blank key and told him that it represented the key to my heart. someday when a man gave me that key, i would know he had my dad's blessing to marry me. jimmy told me to open my eyes, and then he gave me that blank key.

right after he gave me the key, our dessert arrived - with the open ring box on the tray with our creme brulee. i was totally surprised and jumped up to give him a kiss and hug. the super

amazing waitress said, "put on the ring. it's so sparkly!" and i told her that he hadn't asked me to marry him just yet. she left and he pulled out a letter of his own. he had written the sweetest letter about how much he loves me and how he can't wait to share his life with me and how Christ is and always will be the center of our relationship. when he finished his letter, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! of course i said YES and then he put the ring on my finger. the moment was pure bliss!!!!!

everyone in the restaurant started clapping and cheering for us and our waitress came over to take a picture while we still had the most ridiculously huge grins. everything about our engagement story was perfect. jimmy surprised me with his spontaneity and yet managed to have a beautiful letter prepared. he picked out the absolutely most dreamy ring and gave it to me in a fun way. by the time he proposed it was 11:30 so the restaurant was almost empty but there were still a few people there to share our excitement, and that was surprisingly fun. and of course, the best part is that i walked into the restaurant with a boyfriend and walked out with a fiance! :)

humidity

2010-02-06T00:49:00.004+08:00

i have several friends who are/were just vacationing in thailand. i've been looking at their gorgeous pictures on facebook and being so thankful that they are sharing their vacation with people like me who are not living somewhere sunny, hot, and humid.

i can definitely say that after growing up in kentucky and living in florida for three years, i'm a girl who loves humidity. most people think i'm crazy, but i love it when the air is so thick with moisture that it feels like a blanket on my skin when i step outside. as i've looked at my friends' pix, i've been able to imagine that feeling, and it makes me smile.

i've been contemplating buying a humidifier for my bedroom. maybe i should, and then i can turn it up full blast and look at the pictures again. hehe

near, far, wherever you are.....

2010-01-29T02:47:00.002+08:00

sheesh, my neighbor has played enrique iglesias's hero, shania twain's forever and for always, and now, you guessed it, celine dion is belting out that her heart will go on. i was trying to take a nice little afternoon nap, too. booohooo.

first time for everything

2010-01-23T00:54:00.002+08:00

yesterday was the first time i caught a student doing something in class i never really imagined i'd deal with. oh i've had sleepers, nose pickers, phone callers, sneaky text message senders. but yesterday, one student whipped out his nail clippers and started cutting away, right in class! i let him do it for about 30 seconds and then just looked right at him and said, "Mr. Q. Can you do that at home?" He nodded sheepishly and let the nail clippers that were hanging around his neck drop silently onto his shirt. He's been wearing those nail clippers for the past few weeks now. How come I never expected him to use them? hehehehe

il divo

2010-01-17T01:41:00.002+08:00

thanks to my friend sally, i know who i'm listening to. it's il divo, and it's driving me insane. actually, i can't decide which is worse, the stream of il divo italian opera or the interspersed celine dion. i am totally serious when i say that one of the first things i heard this morning was "my heart will go on". yikes!

new year, new goals

2010-01-15T06:14:00.004+08:00

i have no idea if anyone will read this, since it's been months since my last post, but lately i've been feeling the urge to have a place to catch some of the random thoughts and things i experience each day. today i'm overcome by the urge to tell someone, anyone, that my neighbor has LOUDLY played an opera version of mariah carey's "without you" at least once a day for the past week. how do i know it's this song, and that it's an opera version? well, she plays it so loudly that i can hear the first verse in english, and the rest of it in italian. i can't help but be reminded of this video and want to laugh while i listen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RgL2MKfWTo

30th birthday

2009-08-19T21:55:00.002+08:00

i will post pictures and details soon, but i just have to say THANK YOU jimmy, jaemey, nikki, rachel, stephanie, and yen for making my birthday special and memorable. i feel so loved and blessed to have you in my life!

5am airport

2009-07-24T22:18:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

these girls from church came to see me off at the airport. such sweeties!

lunch with friends

2009-07-24T22:17:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

after breakfast with muugii i joined oyuka (L) and mandy (R) for lunch at a fun place called "edelweiss". i wish i had known about it earlier, because i would have definitely eaten there a few times. it was no nice of these girls to take time out to see me before i left.

muugii

2009-07-24T22:15:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

muugii and i went out for breakfast and my favorite french cafe on my last morning in ub. oh how i miss muugii and those chocolate croissants!

in darhan

2009-07-24T22:14:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

i got to spend a few days in darhan with my dear friend melanie just before i left mongolia. it was so good to live a few hours away from her instead of halfway around the world now.

last sunday english class

2009-07-24T22:13:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

this was my second to last sunday in mongolia and the last sunday we had english class. i miss these girls so much!

farewell party

2009-07-24T22:10:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

i had a farewell party before i left mongolia. it was so good to have all my friends together in one place. here i am with some of the sweet girls from church.

hi

2009-06-28T21:49:00.001+08:00

i'm sooooooooo long overdue for a real post. i have LOTS to tell you about the last few weeks, but for now i'll just let you know that i'm safe in chicago, getting settled into my summer job, new apartment, and really loving all the opportunities for social interaction with old friends and my boyfriend. it's good to be back.

heading home

2009-06-04T21:19:00.002+08:00

hmmm, "home" is such a hard concept for me to personally define. i've lived quite a few places in the the last 10 years so home is definitely not just one place for me. i'm realizing more and more that home is about being with the people i love. so this weekend will most definitely be HOME for me. i'll be in kentucky with my whole family, and my boyfriend, and my kitty. (ok, so muji isn't a person, but i love him even so, and he's a bit of mongolia that i brought back with me. hehe)
i'm looking forward to lots of hugs and snuggle time with my sisters and brother. and i can't wait to just look out the windows of my parents' house and see their gorgeous green yard. oh how i have missed the sight of grass the last 2 years!

photo booth fun

2009-05-18T10:21:00.003+08:00

last night my dear muugii came over and we had a big laugh with some photo booth pictures. i really haven't laughed that hard in ages. oh how i love sharing a sense of humor with friends. :)

almost done

2009-05-15T23:23:00.002+08:00

packing is almost done as of friday night at 11:30. :) obviously i still have some clothes out because i'll be wearing them in the next two weeks. however, i think i'll be able to bring almost everything back with me. so far my suitcases are 3 and 5 kilos under weight. add the summer clothes and a few other odds and ends, and i should be about right weight wise! this is nothing short of miraculous! :)

more packing

2009-05-12T11:15:00.002+08:00

last night i attempted to fill both of my suitcases and weigh them. oh how i HATE the weight limits imposed by airlines! i can have two suitcases that weigh 50 pounds each for a total of 100 pounds. trying to shrink my life of the past 2 years into 100 pounds is proving to be more of a challenge than i had expected. since i originally planned to be in mongolia 4 years, i brought over a few things that would help me feel at home. now i'm having to face the possibility of leaving them behind and in some small way leaving behind that sense of home with them. how can i get so attached to such silly little things?

the more i think about moving to chicago and really settling there, the more it appeals to me. i long to have a place that i live in more than a few years so that i can "put down roots" there. i want to settle into a ch*rch and know that i will be there for a long time. i want to make friends and not feel the impending goodbye as soon as we meet. i didn't know how hard it would be for me to truly make friends here. i couldn't seem to shake the goodbye that would come in 4 years, and now it's coming after just two years. i have felt like that goodbye was a shadow on all my relationships here, and i hate it. now that i'm packing up my physical things and discovering that i'll have to say goodbye to some of them as well, it's almost becoming too much for me.

deep down i think one of the reasons i'm having a bit of a hard time right now is because of my financial situation. i'm coming back to the states because there aren't enough resources in my account. because i have had a low monthly allowance for the past 2 years, i'll be moving to chicago and trying to start over there with no savings. as i'm thinking of leaving things behind here, i'm realizing that i won't have the funds to replace them in the states. i feel like i'm being very wasteful to leave things behind when i don't have money to buy them again. constantly rebuilding a household seems like a very poor way to spend the funds Father has entrusted to me, and yet this is the task i'm facing. i brought over a few small kitchen appliances, and i'm questioning whether or not to bring them back with me. i've had a waffle iron for a few years and wonder if i should try to fit it in my suitcase or just leave it behind. what about the mini food processor i received as a gift just a couple of years ago? i would have left all of these things in storage at my parents' house if i had known i would be returning to the states right now.

and then there's the question of my clothes and shoes. i'm always very careful to only buy things on sale. in fact all of the clothes i have here now are items i bought on sale, at thrift stores, or had given to me. yet i feel terrible leaving clothes behind if they are still wearable. even if i only paid a few dollars for each item, i feel that it is worth more than that. once again i feel wasteful if i leave things behind that are still wearable. i can take comfort in knowing that there are friends here who will really appreciate the things i give them, but it's still hard for me.

i need to daily remind myself of psalm 34:10 - even strong young lions my grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lrd lack no good thing. he provided these good things for me before, and he can surprise me again if he chooses.
also i'll remember john 10:10 - I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. i want abundant life that isn't wrapped up in the "things" in my suitcase!

things i'll miss

2009-05-11T11:52:00.003+08:00

i've been packing up my physical things here in mongolia for a couple of weeks now. i like to get an early start when i am moving so that i can just enjoy being with people instead of being in a frenzy of packing and sorting in the last few days before i leave. i'm not always so good at packing up emotionally before i go, but this time i'm trying to be more intentional in that way. so here's to emotional "packing" and a list of a few of the things i'll miss about mongolia. i promise more lists to come. (this is for my own benefit more than anyone else's, so that i can look back at this blog later and remember good times. hehe)

i will miss:
*the smell of mutton that seeps into every piece of money and wafts from my wallet when i open it
*the fact that i can buy a piece of gum, weigh myself with an old scale, or choose just the right banana from a vendor on nearly every street corner if i want to
*the feeling of success i have when i can communicate exactly what i need from a shop clerk
*the view of fresh snow on the mountains in may followed the next day by perfect sunny weather
*cheap taxis everywhere
*the game my friend muugii plays when she comes over (covers the peephole on my door, so i can't see out, but i know it's her!)
*knowing that my friend melanie and her sweet family are just a few hours away
*singing in mongolian on sunday afternoons

dancing

2009-05-06T12:37:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

last sunday evening i went to a play with a few friends. while we were waiting for the play to start we found this ballroom with live music and dancing. one man asked me to dance, and how could i say no? :) clearly i have no idea what i am doing. hehe

graduation humanities university

2009-05-04T09:41:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

teachers during the graduation ceremony. l-r dogii, eegimaa, naraa, tseegii

chingiss khan

2009-05-04T09:37:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

this is the closest i've ever been allowed to this statue, so i was not going to pass up this photo opportunity.

other teachers

2009-05-04T09:32:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

here are some of the other teachers. suvdaa in white, aagimaa in black, kirsty in green.

sisters

2009-05-04T09:16:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

after the ceremony with sisters nasaa and nyamka

in the square

2009-05-04T09:05:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

in sukhbaatar square with some of the students who graduated

the bus

2009-05-04T09:02:00.002+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

it says: graduate school 4th graduation. we all rode in 2 buses like this to the restaurant for dinner.

on the bus

2009-05-04T08:55:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

the students gave all the teachers these roses

graduation dinner

2009-05-04T08:51:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

with undraa. i loved her dress. :)

graduation dinner

2009-05-04T08:41:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

with uyanga, what a cutie!

graduation dinner

2009-05-04T08:40:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

with sisters tuya and onoo at the graduation dinner

mango juice house

2009-04-27T11:20:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

this is real fresh fruit brought in weekly from thailand and the philippines. i bought mangosteens to share with my teammates who had never tasted them before. what a fun treat in mongolia!

cafe amsterdam

2009-04-27T11:12:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

this place has really great sandwiches. the bread is perfectly chewy in the middle and has an amazing crunchy crust. mmmmm, mmmmmm.

ice cream sandwiches

2009-04-27T11:06:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

this is the first time i've seen ice cream sandwiches in mongolia. yummmyyyy!

spring picture

2009-04-27T11:03:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

my friend muugii and me on one of the first warm days of spring.

mongolia shabu

2009-04-27T11:02:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

we had our team meeting at a new hot pot restaurant near the elic office. it was fun to do something new for a change. and the best part is 3 people ate for a total of $9!

coffee empire

2009-04-27T10:57:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

this is a new coffee shop in ub that is the closest to an american style coffee shop i've seen yet. their caramel macchiato is delish!

decisions, decisions

2009-04-27T10:27:00.002+08:00

wow, sorry it's been a month since i last posted. i'm sure you are curious about what i'll be doing next school year, since i was undecided when i wrote last month. without further ado, here's the plan:

i'll be returning to the states and moving to chicago.

of course i am sad to leave mongolia after just 2 years, but i'm also excited about what lies ahead. my boyfriend lives in chicago, and i'm planning on finding an apartment near him. we are looking forward to seeing each other on a day to day basis in person instead of on skype. :)

i've sent my resume to a few places that need ESL teachers, so i'm hoping to hear from some of them soon. i think i'll check the online job postings every week until i return and hopefully i'll have some interviews lined up in chicago when i get back. it would be ideal if i could work enough hours for one company to survive financially, but i'm willing to teach a few hours for a few different companies if that's what it takes.

i have a little over a month here in mongolia, and i'm busy finishing up my teaching responsibilities, packing up my apartment, and trying to spend as much time with friends as possible. there are days when i feel panicked about everything to do and other days when i realize i just need to live in the moment and enjoy the time i have here. any of you who have moved to another country, surely know how i'm feeling! :)

well, one of those teaching duties is calling my name, so i'd better get to it. i have several writing assignments to grade, and they take a lot of time, which explains why i've been putting them off. hehe

feeling frozen

2009-03-26T19:59:00.002+08:00

no, not physically since it's starting to warm up here. rather i feel frozen mentally in a state of unknowing. on march 31st i'll have to decide what to do about next school year. right now i have two basic options. option 1 is to come back to mongolia for another year. option 2 is to return to the states and move to chicago to be near my boyfriend. i am realizing that if the decision were just up to me, i would have picked 2 long ago. but i feel like i need to wait a few more days to see if there is any major movement in my elic financial account that would be Father's way of telling me to stay in mongolia. as things stand right now, i have too much of a deficit to return. even so, i've been given the 31st as a deadline, so i feel like i need to wait until then to say for sure what i'll be doing this august. Father knows what i'll be doing, and i have to seek him. Will you join me in asking for his best?

elic website update

2009-03-19T23:17:00.001+08:00

Hello!
I have some exciting news about the ELIC website. It's recently been revamped and has two new features that might be interesting to you.
First, they've made a way that you can give a completely secure gift online. If you feel led to give to my account, here's the link:
http://www.elic.org/Content.aspx?content_id=131029&site_id=10332

Second, they've added lots of pictures from current ELIC teachers. Here's the link to the pictures of Mongolia where you'll see one of me with some other teachers on New Year's Eve. :)
http://www.elic.org/Photo.aspx?site_id=10332&photo_id=146954

I hope you are having a good week. Thanks to all of you who are lifting me up as I seek the Father's best for next school year.
Love,
Amanda

life with an infant

2009-03-18T08:32:00.002+08:00

....or something like it.
every once in a while my cat, muji, decides that he wants to spend his night in much the same way a human infant spends the night - not sleeping. unfortunately last night was one of those nights and this morning hasn't proved any better. i went to bed just after 12 and was still awake an hour later because he was playing with something on my bed, chewing on my plants, and knocking things off the tops of my bookshelves. i finally grabbed him and pulled him in bed with me under the covers. he made his way down to my feet and sat there purring for a few minutes before making his way back out into wild freedom. it's times like that when i wish i had a bedroom instead of a one room apartment, since there is no where i can put him where he won't disturb me on nights like that. the part that is the most annoying though is that he woke up before 7 this morning in much the same mood and he's still chasing things all over the house with only intermittent breaks to come and play next to me on the bed. it's lucky for him that he's so cute or else he might have had a cold night on the balcony! :)

urgent update

2009-03-10T13:53:00.002+08:00

i sent this email out earlier today and thought i'd also post it here for those of you who aren't on my email list.

Hello Friends,
How are you? Is spring starting to reawaken the life inside you the way it is reawakening me here in Mongolia? Today I went out without my heavy winter boots and coat and loved how much easier it was to walk without that extra weight. :)

Unfortunately, I've been carrying around some other weight on my shoulders for a while and it doesn't seem to be lightening with spring's approach. My ELIC financial account has had a large deficit for a few months now, but i just kept trying to tell myself not to worry about it. I've always had faith that if the Father wants me here in Mongolia, He'll provide everything I need in order to do the work He's called me to. It's such a privilege to serve Him here by investing in students' lives, being part of the local fellowship, and shining his light wherever I go. It would be a joy to be able to serve here again next fall, but now it's looking like that might not be a possibility.

My ELIC account has had a growing deficit throughout this school year, and I haven't focused on that very much in my communication with you. I was trusting that the Father knew about the deficit and would provide for it in his timing. It seems that the time has come now for me to specifically tell you about it. In fact, if my account balance hasn't risen significantly by March 31st, ELIC leaders and I will have to seriously look at me not being able to return to teach in August.

Please join me in lifting up my financial account and the decisions I'll have to be making in the next few weeks. Here are some specifics to lift up:
1. My account has a current deficit of close to $9,2000. This deficit needs to be much closer to $0 before March 31st if I'm able to consider coming back to Mongolia in August.

2. Next fall I'll have the opportunity to be part of a new teaching program that I'm really excited about. This program will give me the chance to invest in a whole new batch of students - secondary school English teachers. Isn't it exciting to consider that the truth and love I share with my students would then be passed on to their own students?

3. I'm seeking the Father's will and asking that He will make it very clear to me and everyone else - including you. I know He's going to provide my needs, if He wants me in Mongolia. If He's leading you to help provide some of these needs and you want to send a gift to my account, my number is Y62 and the address is:
(if you want the address, send me a message, and i'll get it to you. i don't think i should post it here on the web.)

Thanks so much for all the ways you've supported and encouraged me here. I have felt your love and care daily.
Trusting Him,
Amanda

saved by the...

2009-03-03T10:00:00.002+08:00

lack of electricity

yesterday i had to teach two evening classes but i really wasn't feeling well. i had the beginnings of a head cold that was making me feel kind of dizzy and hitting me with random nose runniness. all i wanted was to come home early instead of teaching. just a few minutes into the first class, the electricity went out at school. we worked until it was too dark to see, and then i went home. it's it amazing how the Father takes care of me even in such an unexpected way. :)

tiny muji

2009-03-01T12:15:00.001+08:00

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Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

i found this old video of muji when he was just a little kitten. he was so cute i just can't resist sharing it with you. :)

tsagaan sar

2009-02-25T22:47:00.006+08:00

today was the first day of the mongolian lunar new year. here it's called "tsagaan sar" which means "white moon". it's a three day holiday when people visit family and honor their elders. i had the privilege of going to my friend's grandma's today. we ate mongolian potato salad, mongolian meat dumplings, and some roasted sheep meat. tsagaan sar is usually a time when people are forced to eat dumpling after dumpling after dumpling. thankfully today there were many people visiting at the same time, so i was able to get away with only one dumpling. it was tasty, but i'm still thankful it was only one. :)

here's the roasted sheep rump sitting on the table.

this is called "ul boov" and it's a stack of bread like things called "boov". it has sugar cubes, nuts, mongolian butter stuff, and cheese curds on it. families put this on their table for the 3 days of tsagaan sar, and the number of layers shows how respected the family is. (at least that's how my mongolian teacher explained it to me, but it's very possible that i'm missing part of the explanation) it's always an odd number of layers. i thought that no one eats any of the sugar or nuts until after the 3 days of the holiday, but today some of the kids were allowed to eat things. i have a feeling the exception was just because they are so cute. :)

conference time

2009-02-20T13:10:00.004+08:00

i asked you to be thinking of me and my fellow teachers during our conference. thanks so much for lifting us up. it was a great time of singing together, hearing 2 guests teach us from the Word, and spending time with other teachers. i didn't hear of anyone getting food poisoning, so thanks for thinking about us in that way.

this is my fabulous teammate aleta with me at the hotel where we have our conference.

the hotel is the tall white hotel directly behind the smaller white hotel with the green roof. the conference hotel is about 2 steps away from the chiang mai night bazaar and 2 blocks from the most delicious banana roti in town. :)

the hotel has an open air terrace on the fourth floor where we had dinner every evening. i loved watching the sunset over the mountains as i finished my dessert.

on my last day in thailand i went to starbucks and discovered this - a coffee jelly frappucino. it's a very, very good thing that i didn't know about it earlier in my time there or else i would have probably wanted one every day!

first few days in chiang mai

2009-02-20T12:55:00.003+08:00

we took a rather luxurious bus from bangkok to chiang mai. chiang mai is about 9 hours north of bangkok, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery from our perch on the top level of the bus.

there's a peaceful little cafe called the bird's next near the guesthouse where we stayed. they had fresh yogurt, homemade muesli, and fresh fruit for breakfast. yummy! i just had to take a picture because it's so beautiful.

in many parts of asia "squatty potties" are the norm, so i guess some people have been confused with western style toilets. haha

scenes of bangkok

2009-02-20T12:48:00.003+08:00

the grand palace in bangkok. my sisters said this looks like it could be in disneyworld. i think they have a good point. :)

i have some amazing news about my ankle. i only have a partially torn ligament, and it doesn't need surgery. :) instead i just did a week of physical therapy at an incredible hospital in bangkok. these are the pants i had to wear every day during the therapy sessions.

i love all the bright colors of bangkok traffic.

bangkok, january 09

2009-02-20T12:14:00.005+08:00

i apologize for such a long delay since my last post. i kind of left you hanging and you may be wondering if i made it back from thailand. :) well i'm happy to say that i made it back and had a fabulous time. i took a couple hundred pictures, but i'll just share a few of them with you here.

here is my boyfriend, jim, and me in seoul, korea. he lives in chicago, so we don't get to see each other during the semester. but...he was able to take a few weeks off work to meet me in thailand, and we were really happy to see each other. we both had a long layover in seoul, so we went into the city for the day.

this is my favorite teashop in seoul. i have always gone there when i've been in seoul, and it was a real treat to go there with jimmy. :)

going to thailand

2009-01-08T00:38:00.002+08:00

tomorrow evening i will get on a plane headed to thailand. first i'll stop for the night in seoul, korea. i decided to use my frequent flier miles to book at room at a nice hotel near the airport. last year korean air put me up in this same hotel for free and it was one of the best nights of sleep i had all year. even though my bed here is great, i'm looking forward to that lovely soft bed there.

but that's not what i'm looking forward to the most. i'm looking forward to friday at 6am when jimmy's plane arrives in seoul!!!! i'll be waiting for him at the airport and we'll spend the day in korea together before getting on separate planes (sheesh, how annoying. haha) to reach our next destination - bangkok, thailand.

i'm looking forward to the next month but there is also some nervousness for me. on monday, january 12, i'll be seeing an orthopedic surgeon about my ankle. i have a pretty strong feeling that i'll have to have surgery to repair the damage from an old fracture and constant walking in mongolia. please be thinking about me and asking that the doctors i see will have wisdom in knowing the best course of action.

ok, one other thing to be thinking of with me is our conference from jan 28-feb 5. there will be a lot of opportunities for us teachers to hear from the Father, and i'm asking that we will all be ready to hear from him. also there is always a lot of food poisoning and other illnesses that seem to affect a good percentage of the teachers. please ask that we will all be healthy and have safe travels. thanks!

well, i'm headed to bed now and in some ways it feels like i'm a kid on christmas eve. :) i'll write again after i return from my adventures.

boxing day

2008-12-26T14:13:00.001+08:00

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

2008-12-26T13:25:00.003+08:00

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.

2-58

2008-12-23T10:25:00.001+08:00

IMG_3967
Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

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

2-60

2008-12-23T10:23:00.001+08:00

IMG_3964
Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

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

with 2-59

2008-12-23T10:22:00.001+08:00

IMG_3961
Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

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

with 1-58

2008-12-23T10:21:00.001+08:00

IMG_3958
Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

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

with 1-55

2008-12-23T10:18:00.001+08:00

IMG_3957
Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

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

2008-12-23T10:14:00.001+08:00

IMG_3956
Originally uploaded by mongolmanda

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

2008-12-18T13:33:00.004+08:00

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

2008-12-09T10:52:00.006+08:00

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

2008-12-05T14:15:00.004+08:00

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

2008-11-28T23:02:00.008+08:00

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

2008-11-28T22:39:00.010+08:00

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

2008-11-28T22:30:00.004+08:00

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

2008-11-23T11:30:00.002+08:00

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

2008-11-16T19:53:00.003+08:00

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

2008-11-14T11:30:00.005+08:00

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

2008-11-11T12:00:00.003+08:00

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

2008-11-07T21:33:00.005+08:00

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

2008-11-05T11:04:00.002+08:00

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

2008-11-02T21:24:00.002+08:00

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

2008-11-02T18:01:00.001+08:00

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

2008-10-30T23:00:00.002+08:00

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

2008-10-25T22:47:00.002+08:00

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

2008-10-21T11:44:00.003+08:00

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

2008-10-11T20:02:00.002+08:00

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

2008-10-03T21:06:00.004+08:00

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

2008-10-02T14:55:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-26T11:25:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-24T09:51:00.004+08:00

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

2008-09-22T10:30:00.004+08:00

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

2008-09-15T22:44:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-12T09:29:00.000+08:00

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

things that make life good

2008-09-10T10:30:00.005+08:00

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

2008-09-07T20:40:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-07T12:17:00.003+08:00

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

2008-09-05T13:20:00.002+08:00

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

2008-09-04T11:50:00.003+08:00

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

2008-09-02T15:35:00.004+08:00

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.

whirlwind

2008-07-04T03:28:00.002+08:00

i've been back in the states for a couple of weeks now and i've already been in 5 states. on monday i'll hit the road with my family to tick off a few more. while i do love road trips and the ability to just hop in a car and drive for hours across the country on smoothly paved roads, it will be nice to have a couple of weeks in one place after i return from this trip. when i was growing up, my family would drive from kentucky to alberta almost every summer. that's where my mom's side of the family lives, so it was our one chance every year to connect with them. i have very fond memories of both the drive up there and the good times we would have once we arrived.

this year we are going to colorado where my parents have bought a parcel of land and are in the process of building a small cabin. my brother's memories of summer road trips will be completely different from mine. my sisters and i had to entertain ourselves with looking for license plates that had all the letters of the alphabet or by counting how many red cars we passed in one minute. wylie entertains himself by watching dvd's on the small tv in the back of our truck. i had my gramma's house well stocked with candy and gramma sized hugs to look forward to at the end of the journey. wylie has the camper trailer my family left behind on their trip to colorado last october. while our experiences are vastly different, there is one thing we share - amazing parents who know how important it is to make memories together as a family. i love my family and am so blessed to be able to share this summer with them!

shopping

2008-06-07T09:37:00.002+08:00

shopping is one of my favorite ways to spend my free time. i don't actually buy much when i shop. in the states i just love to go to stores like anthropologie and smell all their delicious soaps and touch their super soft clothes. i think for me "shopping" is a way to get out of my house, surround myself with people, and imagine new possibilities - even if the possibility is as simple as new hand soap for my bathroom.

here in mongolia, shopping isn't the same kind of mindless pleasure filled with sweet scents and soft fabrics. instead, it's a rather conscious exercise in both language and culture practice. and it's more like a scavenger hunt than anything else.

case in point, i needed light bulbs for my kitchen. i bought one at a housing goods store, but it was too big for the light fixture. i went back to the store yesterday, but it was closed. so i went to the store next door, but they didn't have the right size of light bulbs. today i need to do a lot of shopping for gifts and stuff like that. i don't want to be carrying around two small, fragile lightbulbs all day, so this morning i woke up trying to figure out the best way to go about actually buying the bulbs and getting them to my house. this is shopping in mongolia. not sweet scents and soft fabric, but how to get light bulbs for my kitchen. hehe

phew

2008-06-03T21:57:00.002+08:00

today was my last official mongolian lesson at the "life center". while i'm certainly no where near having this difficult language mastered, it does feel good to have completed one full year of language study. i had no text book and no curriculum, so every day was full of possibilities. i learned how to talk about the every day events that make my life here what it is. i also learned how to tell some stories from my past. most of all i think i learned how to really listen and understand what made my teachers tick. and because my teachers are mongolians who lived through both communism and the current democracy, i got a lot of insight into what makes mongolia tick. some things i learned have broken my heart and almost broken my ability to trust anyone. other things have made me smile and reminded me how much we all need each other and can learn from each other. all in all, it was a productive year of study, and i know that it will serve me well in the years to come.

i will be leaving for a much needed summer break in just a few days, but i want to take some time now to think about what i'll miss about mongolia when i'm gone for 2.5 months.
1. being able to kiss my kitten, muji, any time i want
2. yummy chinese food every wednesday with team meetings
3. an almost constant supply of sunshine
4. friends like jen, mandy, muugii, and mel
5. my peaceful little apartment that feels like my own haven

and things i'm looking forward to in the states.
1. being able to kiss my siblings any time i want.
2. yummy food every where i turn
3. an almost constant supply of laughter provided by my little brother
4. friends like julia, jimmy, laura, yen, rachel, jaemey, sarah g, mandy, samara, shamira, kibibi, barbara, and everyone else i hope to see
5. my family's peaceful home in the country

laura's visit

2008-05-27T16:57:00.002+08:00

what a great time laura and i had while she was here! pictures follow this post, so you can skip to those if you want and then come back and read some more. :)

the Father's timing in my life is so perfect, and he brought laura to me exactly when i needed her. my first year in mongolia was a lot harder and lonelier than i had anticipated. the events in recent months at my local fellowship have rocked my world in ways i couldn't have imagined were possible. there have been a small number of people who have helped me process it all, and laura is one of them.

laura is a friend who isn't afraid to ask tough, deep questions, and doesn't let me get away with surface-y answers. her visit to me in mongolia, just a few weeks before i return to the states for the summer, was just what i needed. she helped me think about my experiences here and sort through the good, the bad, and the ugly. being able to do that in person is something i definitely don't take for granted. being able to do that before i'm bombarded with life in the states is a blessing beyond anything i deserve!

and of course, we just had a good time together. :) laura brought over several movies that i've been wanting to watch for a while, and it was awesome to sit on my bed and watch them together. we spent one night in the countryside in a ger and a couple of nights in darhan at my friends' house. we walked around, shopped, ate, laughed, and drank lots of coffee. i can't even express how refreshing it was to have her here, to share some of my life with her, and to introduce her to some of my favorite people here. the Father is so good to me, and i'm thankful for the friendship he gave us with each other.

and now for a few pictures...

mongolian princesses?

2008-05-27T16:56:00.003+08:00

i convinced laura to get pictures taken wearing traditional mongolian costumes. i think the results are pretty hysterical.

viz garcan okhduud

2008-05-27T16:53:00.002+08:00

these girls are going to spend 3 months in virginia this summer through a program called interexchange. i helped them practice for their visa interview, and they had just gotten their visas this day. as you can see they are pretty excited. :)

haircuts

2008-05-27T16:52:00.004+08:00

laura and i both got our hair cut at a salon here. less than $7 each and i think we look pretty good. we ate yummy chicken for lunch afterward.

pink cafe

2008-05-27T16:49:00.002+08:00

one of the great things about having a friend visit is that it gives me a reason to eat out and not look like a weirdo for eating alone. this cafe is almost entirely pink and red. this picture was taken using a setting that only picked up those two colors, so you can see what i mean. :)

ger camp

2008-05-27T16:43:00.003+08:00

we spent one night in the countryside. it was quite an adventure. we stayed with a real countryside family and ate meals in their ger with animals coming in and out. laura's bed broke in the middle of the night and we tried to build a fire, but ended up nearly choking on smoke. needless to say, i'm a city girl at heart and prefer a life where i don't need to make my own fire to keep warm. hehe