mongolian birthday party

my birthday was on saturday. i celebrated with some of my new teammates. here we are:

mongolian culture show

several members of my team attended a mongolian culture show on friday night. here are a few pictures of the dancers and singers. mongolians are very proud of their traditional music, so it is great to see young people continuing to learn the old songs. and i love fashion, so it was fun for me to see all the costumes. maybe someday i get an outfit like the girls in the orchestra. :)

where am i?

is this really mongolia? these apartments totally remind me of florida with their tiled roofs and mini yards.


lest you disbelieve that the former apartments really are in mongolia, just look at these horses in the middle of the city. if you look to the far right background you can see the tile roofed apartments.

shopping

shopping is going well. i'm beginning to feel a lot more settled. still have a few more things to get, but overall it's going well. i am really liking my teammates and look forward to working with them.
here are a few pix of my apartment:

in mongolia

i arrived in ulaanbaatar (ub) earlier today. i went on an unpacking "rampage" and got as settled into my apartment as i can until i can go shopping and pick up some more things. i'll take pix as soon as i can and upload them here when i get a chance. the really good news is that i should be able to have high speed internet in my apartment, but the not so good news is that i don't know when that will actually happen. let's hope sooner rather than later. :)
love and miss you all!
~amanda