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.

whirlwind

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

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

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

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?

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

viz garcan okhduud

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

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

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

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

zaisan monument

laura and i at the zaisan monument overlooking ub. it's a great place to go to get a view of the whole city.

countdowns

i have begun counting down to the three most exciting things that are coming up for me.
1. my dear friend laura's visit here....she'll be here on may 13th.
2. my last day of mongolian language lessons....june 3.
3. my flight to the states for the summer....june 12. :)

here's the problem with countdowns though; it's hard to feel content here in the meantime. and the last couple of months have been pretty tough anyway.

there's been a lot going on in my mind lately about relationships and the fact that currently almost everyone i care about lives on the other side of the world. there is a mongolian phrase that has been entering my thoughts along with all this relationship stuff.
"dotnii naiz" it basically means an intimate, comfortable, be totally yourself with kind of friend. i don't have anyone like that here in ub, and it's been a pretty lonely year. i am longing for a "dotnii naiz" here in mongolia. and counting down until i get to spend time with my "dotnii naizuud" (that's the plural) in america this summer!