Monday, November 22, 2010

Thanks for Giving!

Hello all! I quick update on life here in my small soum. The snow has started and it creates a beautiful layer of shimmery white all over the town as well as extremely slippery streets. Its not uncommon for me to slip or/and stumble across as I try to get to my destination of choice. I always hope no one sees me but they do every time. (humph) In other news I have (finally) found the disco club! Yes, that's right, in this small, sleepy, middle of no where town is a beautiful, fog machine, disco- ball, laser lighting, disco bar. The dance floor even lights up! I was shocked when me and my sitemate stumbled into it as it looked dinky on the outside so I expected it to look ruin down and sleazy on the inside. Yet it was not so at all! They play a mixture of techno and Mongolian music and I always leave smelling of cigarettes but its a lot of fun nonetheless.

On another note, the cold is slowly getting more and more cold and my apartment is freezing! It heats up a bit when I cook but I often worry about how it will hold up once it gets in the negatives. However, my landlord promised to give me a big heater to help in those cold winter months so that eases my anxiety a bit. The coldest months in Mongolia are December, January, February and despite the fact that I already think its cold, Mongolians simply shrug their shoulders when I ask them if they think its cold now and say “This is zugeer (not a problem); the winter months are the worst.” Sigh.

But on a happier note I will soon embark to Ulaanbataar (UB) which is the capital of Mongolia, to meet up with my amazing Peace Corps friends to celebrate Thanksgiving together and I simply cannot wait! Going to UB is a treat in itself, even though it is extremely expensive and will be really cold, because it has all the good food and better quality clothes. But on top of all that, I will get to be with my very much missed friends so I couldn't be happier about going. Also, the way Peace Corps celebrates Thanksgiving is quite cute; its potluck style so everyone makes a big dish and brings it to a hall that Peace Corps rents out. PC also provide the turkey and I was even surprised that they found turkeys here in Mongolia. What will I be making you ask? Well, since I am a master at cooking, I have decided to go with the very complex dish of mashed potatoes (I am not looking forward to peeling all those potatoes! Oiy! It will remind me of Chanukah tho) Well that's all for now my friends! I hope all is well in the States and I miss ya'll a whole lot!

Happy Halloween!!! (A bit late I know)

One of the strange things about not being in America, is realizing that most of the world doesn't know about American Holidays, like the most recent one Halloween. What's even stranger is when you have to explain it. I recently taught one of my classes about Halloween, and as I reflected about it, its a damn weird holiday! I remember how odd I felt saying: "Well, we dress up as demons, witches, or super heros and knock on people's doors and ask for candy..." whaaaaat. I definitely felt weird explaining it to these Mongolian students. But they said it sounded like fun! So my fellow Mongolian English teacher decided to throw a Halloween party for 18 7th graders and asked if I could help. Heck yes! I couldn't wait to see how a culture ,who has never seen Halloween, would interpret it.

The first thing I saw when I walked into the dimly lit music room was the most spectacular costumes I would ever expect to see! Mind you there are no costumes stores or anything of the sort but these 7th graders looked like scary little demons! All the girls teased their hair to the max, one boy found a scary mask, and all of the children painted their faces with white, black and red. The energy of the students was bursting with excitement as they were all running around; some staring at themselves in the huge mirror making scary faces, others helping their fellow demon-classemates make their hair bigger or faces scarier with more paint.

My fellow Mongolian English teacher ,Sogii, and I planned some fun Halloween games last minuet including bobbing for apples, a screaming contest, a costume contest, telling scary stories and teaching them the Micheal Jackson “Thriller” dance ( or what I could remember of it). It was one of the most memorable and fun times I have had with my students. I will post some pictures and even the video of the students doing the thriller dance on my facebook soon!