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.

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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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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

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