ice skating and skating with words

saturday night some friends and i went ice skating in our neighborhood. there are ice skating rinks set up all over the city, and it's about 80 cents to rent skates and use the ice for an hour. i learned yesterday that it isn't really possible to stay on the ice for a full hour without having my face get nearly covered with a thin layer of ice. there are little shacks by the rinks where a person gets skates and should also come in to warm up every 20 minutes or so. i've learned my lesson and will definitely take advantage of the little wood stove next time i go skating. my goal is to go once a week for the rest of the winter.

this morning i had to tell a friend that i won't be attending her cell group. the day and location of her meeting don't really work for my schedule. not to mention that she speaks no english, and i don't speak enough mongolian to really be a fully functioning member of her group. at first she seemed ok with it but then she started lecturing me. this was rather difficult for me to take on several levels. i felt like a person who was trying to ice skate for the first time and couldn't seem to find her balance. thankfully i was able to talk with another friend about the situation and was assured that i am free to make my own decisions and she shouldn't have been pressuring me. even so, i don't know how much of my sense of being out of balance was solely based on language and how much of it is just different personalities and cultures.

here's to skating all winter! hopefully i will skate more in the literal sense than in my communications with friends. :)

christmas pictures

this year was my second ever christmas away from my family. even so i was blessed to spend christmas with my friend melanie's family, and they are becoming more and more like family for me here. her kids are 3 of the most adorable kids i've ever seen, and their sweet playful personalities make them so much fun to spend time with. here are a few pictures for you to enjoy:

it's officially winter here

how can i be so sure that it is winter?

because my eyelashes froze on the way to school this morning!!!!!! as you can see my hair froze, too.

thanksgiving

i have so many reasons to be thankful this year. perhaps one of the biggest reasons is that i could spend the past two weeks with my family in kentucky. it was SUCH a blessing to celebrate my sister's wedding, thanksgiving, and early christmas with them. here are a few specific things i am thankful for from my trip to the states:

* lacey and john's wedding was on saturday the 17th. my flight arrived late on wednesday night the 14th, and i had been nervous about feeling the effects of the long plane ride and jet lag. before i left mongolia i asked several people to ask the Father to give me extra room on the way over, so i could stretch out a bit and hopefully get some rest. not only did he give me extra room on the way to kentucky, but he gave me extra room on the way back to mongolia as well! the extra 5 inches of "economy plus" make a huge difference. :)

*lacey and john's wedding day was beautiful. their relationship is a beautiful testimony of how the Father can bring two people together when their hearts are set on him. my sister was glowing all day, and i have rarely seen a groom who adores his bride more than my new brother loves my sister. :) here they are after the ceremony:


*our family has 5 girls and a baby brother. john's family has 5 boys and a baby sister. this made the choice of bridesmaids and groomsmen a no brainer. it was a joy to be in a wedding with my sisters. and i think there will never be a more beautiful and well-matched bridal party - if i do say so myself. you can decide for yourself though:


*our family lives about an hour north of nashville, tn. every year the opryland hotel there does an amazing christmas light display. it is a holiday season tradition for us to go and look at the lights. we were able to do it this year on the friday after thanksgiving. even though the lights are almost the same every year, i still love to see them. just like thanksgiving without turkey isn't quite thanksgiving, the christmas season without seeing the lights at the opryland hotel isn't quite christmas for me. i was so blessed to go with my family this year. here we are minus lacey and john. (they were probably on the beach in hawaii at the time we took this picture, so i doubt they really missed seeing the lights. hehe):

wha? wednesday? wedding?

can it really be that i am flying to america on wednesday and my younger sister is getting married on saturday??????
here are some things i'm looking forward to in the next 2 1/2 weeks - in no particular order.
*hugging my family
*kissing my family
*seeing lacey in her wedding dress and getting to be there for the big day
(ok those three are definitely the top things in the list, the rest are in no particular order)
*starbucks at the airport in beijing
*shopping in stores where there is more than one size of each piece of clothing
*zaxby's, pf chang's, and panera
*grass
*driving
*country music radio stations
*seeing extended family at the wedding
*barnes & noble
*slightly warmer weather
*THANKSGIVING DINNER WITH MY FAM (ok so this one should be one of the top of the list!)

now for a few things that i'll miss from mongolia.
*sunday morning fellowship and singing
*my kitten
*learning new ways to communicate everyday
*my teammates, fellow students, and teacher

fall back

mongolia chose not to do daylight savings time this year, so we didn't "fall back". however i'm suddenly wishing that i could fall back to about age 7. i remember my 7th birthday very clearly. i had a party in our yard and lots of my friends came. i wore a new dress and felt like a princess. all that mattered was making a good wish and blowing out the candles on my cake.

fast forward to my life today. i just had one of the most painful conversations of my life with a friend here. earlier today i was challenged to be "the bucket" in the Father's well. basically i need to realize that he has all the resources i need for life and ministry, and i am only able to scoop them up and use them for the good of those around me. a few hours ago i was wishing someone else was nearby with their bucket to pour it over me. what resources did i need? courage, grace, mercy, love, gentleness, patience, humility, forgiveness, and more love - because it is the best resource of all.

i am challenged to look for the people around me who need a good wash with the Father's resources.

peek-a-boo

muji disappeared on me this morning and this is where i found him.

muji's water fountain

muji's favorite spot

can you see that this cat is the perfect pet for me? he loves alistair (my computer) almost as much as i do. hehe

g12 conference

this weekend was probably the best one i've had since i got to mongolia. i traveled to darhan with my teammate, andrea. darhan is my old hometown in mongolia, so it was a relief to be there and know exactly where to find things. darhan has about a tenth of the population of ub, so it is also very peaceful there. the lack of people also means a lack of pollution, so i could actually breathe this weekend. :)
all of those things aside though, it was the g12 (ch. small group) conference that made this the best weekend yet. i was able to sing with hundreds of mongolian brothers and sisters - there is nothing sweeter to me than joining them as we praise our father.

here's a video of us singing. do you recognize the song? it's been translated into mongolian but the first two words of the chorus are in english. can you hear us sing "rain down"? :)


next to singing, the highlight of the weekend was building relationships that help me feel more like i belong to a family here. a few weeks ago i was invited to a g12, and the girls were so sweet. a few of them were at the conference and invited to have dinner with them on friday night. here we are at "santain cafe". it's a favorite of students in darhan, and i used to eat here when i lived in darhan 5 years ago. :)

new places and people

yesterday was the kind of saturday that makes life in a city so much
fun. my teammate, andrea, and i went for a walk to a part of the
city neither of us had ever explored before. we were looking for a
russian market that apparently doesn't exist any more, but it was a
beautiful day and we enjoyed people watching along the way. we
stopped at a few places on the way that seemed interesting - one of
the nicest hotels in town, the mongolian ministry of defense, a
fabulous cooking store, etc. it felt good to be able to wander and
have nowhere i HAD to be.

then we decided to sit for a while in the big square in the middle of
town. not long after we parked ourselves, a 6th grade class
descended upon us to practice their english. we were surrounded by
smiling, laughing kids who asked us where we were from, if we had
husbands or kids, and most importantly if we knew kobe bryant (the
basketball player) or anyone in hollywood. hehehe they reminded my
why i fell in love with mongolia in the first place. the kids here
are so much fun, and i can't resist those sweet smiles.

next we stopped for "coffee" and a look through the mongolian lonely
planet guidebook to plan future weekend adventures. then it was off
to a restaurant called "millie's espresso" that is a popular place
for foreigners. andrea and i were going to meet a girl that i had
just met through facebook. i never cease to be amazed when social
networking websites like that actually result in a face to face
meeting - even though it's never happened before for me.

anyway, in typical mongolian fashion, millie's was closed by 7 on
saturday night. sheesh, didn't they know that us 3 foreigners wanted
to meet and eat there? haha so we decided to meet at another place
called "ub delicatessen" that is also popular with foreigners. now
for those of you who don't know much about traditional mongolian
food, i'll give you one word that sums it all up: MUTTON. there is a
reason why a few places are more popular with us foreigners than
others. no mutton on the menu. :)

we all enjoyed our non-mutton meals and the chance to connect with
someone new. andrea and i had a good time walking home and
experiencing the city with the faint glow of a few streetlights. it
felt good to spend the whole day outside of my apartment. i need to
have more days like that where i make myself a part of the city.
here's to more adventures!

my new living room

i got a couch and a bookshelf and did a bit more decorating, so here's what my place looks like now. i would have never chosen this couch in the states, but for what the other choices are here, i think i got a good one. :) i saw a similar one at the market with tiger print on the back - just to give you an idea. hehe

ps notice my pig placemats in the first picture. don't they make you smile? :)

big burger

fast food is making it's way to mongolia. doesn't that picture in the middle look strangely familiar?
not that this place called "big burger" is exactly like a similiar restaurant in the states. the newest additions to the menu were "noodle soup with egg or noodle soup with shrimp" :)

my view this morning

ah yes, october in mongolia. where the first snow happens before the first week has passed. a couple of days ago i was wearing a tank top. this morning i saw snow on the rooftops when i woke up.

who needs a hat?

in case i find that my head needs a little extra heat in the winter i know now what to do.