Намрын дунд сар цас орсон.

Happy Halloween! Well my friends, it’s been a while. A whole two months passed since the last time I wrote. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. Let’s see if I can catch you up on the madness.

The first biggest event we had here in Umnugovi was the Gobi Marathon. Several PCVs came down for the marathon. It was also a quasi-family reunion between some PCVs, namely me, Jerome (my pseudo big brother), Kelbe (my pseudo cousin) and Jimmy (my other pseudo cousin). If I can remember right, 9 or 10 PCVs and a couple of the staff came down for the event. It was a good weekend for them to come down. During that Thursday and Friday, Dalanzadgad had a craft fair where herders and others came down to sell their goods. While there were some homemade cashmere products, the fair was mostly food based with people selling aral, airag, bislek, and other dairy based products. 

 The finish line of the Gobi Marathon

More after the break.

Сургуулийн шинэ жил

Much has passed since my last blog post during Mid-Center Days (MCD). I have left my host family’s house up in Sukhbaatar and have moved south to Даланзадгад /Dalanzadgad/ (that’s how Mongolians use parenthesis) in Өмнөговь /Umnugovi/ aimag. But let’s talk about Sukhbaatar for a bit.

Since MCD, I have experienced one of Mongolia’s biggest holidays: Naadam. Naadam is the celebration of the 3 manly sports: wrestling, archery and horseback riding. A note about horseback riding, the event is run for several kilometers as opposed to the 1 ¼ mile we are so used to seeing at the Kentucky Derby. As opposed to a sprint race this is a race of endurance. Since it is for several kilometers, you will only see a small section of the race if you watch it. So likewise, I only saw a small part and didn’t even realize it was the race. A tradition at Naadam is to eat as many huushuur /Хуушуур/ as humanly possible. Huushuur originates from Russia. I’ll include a huushuur recipe at the bottom and maybe a video on how to pinch the dough. Traditional Mongolian dress (a deel) is worn for this holiday.

Me and my Mongolian Host Family at Naadam. I am wearing a deel shirt..

More after the break.

Сайн байна уу? Би энх тайвны корпусийн сайн дурын ажилтан. Би ниигмиин ажилтан.

Hi! How are you? I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I am a social worker. (This is translation of the heading.)

I am at the half way point of PST or Pre Service Training. I have been living in Sukhbaatar (Сукбаатар: it's pronounced Sukh-bahter) in the Selenge (Сэлэнгэ) Aimag. I'm about 15 minutes south of the Russian border and it's subsequently the first stop on the Trans-Siberian Railroad as it enters into Mongolia (монгол). It's a beautiful city with 40,000 people. It's the second largest city (or a close third to Darkhan) while UB is the largest with 1.7 million. Unlike the rest of Mongolia fishing is big here with three rivers located nearby (and the fish are delicious though they need to work on their frying skills. I have successfully told them about double frying and they have since been double frying my food when it's fried. But I digress). 

Last Day at Home

Well it's almost here. Tonight is the last night I quasi sleep in my own bed. (The real one is in storage somewhere. The joy of being a vagabond.) I'm spending the night in Lexington tomorrow before I wake up bright and early in the morning and fly to San Fransisco at 7am. Well I guess its time to get everyone up to date.

In mid April, I was finally medically cleared. But that's not the end of the vaccinations. Once I get there, I will be given 5 more series of shots (Hep A, Hep B, Rabies, Typhoid, and Meningococcal) if I haven't received them already.

Staging for Mongolia will take place on May 29 in San Fransisco at the Parc 55 hotel. It will be an evening full of ice breakers and expectations. We will then leave the hotel at 5am the following morning for a flight that leaves at 11am... At least we get a 5 hr layover at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea before we get to Ulaanbaatar.

So once upon a time, I said I would post my resume and aspiration statements (what I had to send in once I accepted the invitation to join the Peace Corps). You'll find them after the break.

Appearance

Just wanted to let everyone know I will change the way the blog looks to make it look nicer when I get to Mongolia. I'm waiting to take some of my own pictures to add to the blog.

Stop your hollarin!

Alright. Alright. I'll start up a blog. Hope y'all are happy.

Looking back I should've started one on Johnston Atoll and kept it going as it would've helped me try to remember some stories. I did take a lot of pictures so that helps. You could pretty much live with me on the island through all those photos (but you wouldn't get that nice Hawaii tan). 

Well in case y'all didn't know, I did it again but I'm heading somewhere else. I'm heading to Mongolia (the country north of China and south of Russia. Ya I know you forgot there was a country there.) I'll be heading out May 29. I'll be working as a Peace Corps Volunteer working in Community Youth Development. Before you ask, no I don't know what that means. From what I can tell I'll figure that out when I get there (when they let me know exactly what I'm doing), but I can tell you I will be working with kids (duh) either directly or indirectly. I believe I will be working at a secondary school (high school) but again I won't know until I get there. 

Well I've started to make the rounds at various health clinics and will hopefully be done on Wednesday. Do you know how hard it is to find the polio vaccine? I have to go to a neighboring county's health department to get it. Thats after calling a couple doctors offices, the county-I'm-currently-living-in's health department, and various drug stores. Oh well. Hopefully that's that.

It seems to be customary to post aspiration statements, resumes, and an application timeline on these blogs so I'll post one at a later date. I guess keep following, there's hopefully more to come. Pictures will be posted either here or on facebook or both. Enjoy.