Scarves. Scarves. SCARVES.

Now I've done it. I've gone and bought another scarf. I want to show you my scarves. Here we go:

Too fast? OK IMA GONNA SHOW YOU ONE BY ONE.

This is part of my abnormally large Mongolian scarf collection.

This is the other half.

I have many kinds of scarves. Regular scarfs:

Why haven't I gotten my Hogwarts letter yet? (Seriously, this is a Ravenclaw scarf. Suck it, Hufflepuff!)

I would tell you where I got this one, but then I could have to kill you.  (It was free... found outside of the infamous FACE nightclub... probably a men's scarf. But I took it anyway because UB has taken too many pairs of gloves from me.)

Arguably my favorite scarf. I love the color.

Christmas present from my #1 sister :)

Mongolian sheep and camel wool scarf!

The only scarf that came with me initially from America.

Shawl-like scarves:

I got this one in Sunday Market in UB last Thanksgiving- apparently I'm really happy about it.

I got this one in Mars this past Thanksgiving- is there a trend here?

Hat and scarf sets:

I never wear the scarf (it came with the hat!), but you can tell by how dirty the hat is that I wear it ALL THE TIME.  Not pictured: the little pom-poms attached to the back of the hat.

And, my personal favorite of the moment, square scarves!!

This is the scarf that prompted this conversation. I got this in the market. Only $1.50!!

I got this one and the next one in UB. Only $3.50 each! 

Work it work it

Winter scarves:

I'M READY AGAIN FOR -40 TEMPS! This is actually supposed to be a summer shawl. Oh well.

Ok, not a scarf, but gaze upon my Mongolian rabbit (??) fur hat. Warm as hell.

And finally- a goat wool poncho type thing. Still trying to figure out where I can wear this.

Lastly!! Very big congrats to Melissa and Nick who got ENGAGED this weekend!! So freaking awesome! :D LOOK I found an old picture!!

D'awww :) Love you guys!

Can you shake it up, just once for me?

If you've never heard Gregory Alan Isakov, you should check him out. Excellent chill out music.

Anyway, what happened? Thanksgiving happened- in a blur. Lots of good times with friends. I made my amazing mashed potatoes again, and despite making something like 5 pounds of it, it was eaten so quickly I barely got any. And best thing to come out of Thanksgiving week: OLD BLAIN (sorry real not-old Blain!).

IST happened as well, which was pretty darn exhausting, I must say. I'm glad I was able to be a trainer, but I'm not sure how the summer people do it. Six weeks of that? Oy. It was nice finally getting to meet the new healthies for a longer period of time, and I got some good ideas for projects as well. Oh, and I totally had my camera the whole time but didn't use it. Bad bad bad Kate.

Speaking of projects, I have about 8-ish months left. How nuts is that? It feels so far away, yet at the same time it feels like I just got here. Katie L (fellow PCV, full-frame camera owner, and all around awesome person) made a good point in her blog- there's such thing as a "third quarter phenomenon" in which:

...I took a screenshot because it wouldn't let me copy and I was too lazy. Read the rest here. This completely explains the weird frustrations that I had a couple months ago. It's been better lately. I've been talking to other PCVs and I even had a chat with our country director, Ellen, about it. I'm glad to hear astronauts feel the same way... makes me feel a little more human.

So. I never did give ya'all a tour of my new place. Something about what I saw today made me want to:

SOMEONE had a little too much to drink and lost his head. This was in my hallway today.

 So anyway, here's the rest of my place:

My kitchen! My new place is a studio. This is possibly the cleanest it's been. There's also a bookshelf to the left.

Turn around, and it's my bed and my desk! Nice and cozy. I can now watch TV and cook dinner at the same time. MULTI-TASKING WHOO. Also, I have Christmas stuff up now.

Turn a little more, and here's my clothes area! (?)

My awesome runway carpet from the hospital, complete with mysterious black stain.

My... uh... coat and random stuff area. I have no more large room to hide all of it.

BATHROOM.

Hallway outside my place. Scary.

Door on the end of the hallway, to keep it nice and warm! How smart! Alas,  two problems: 1) I'm too tall for the door and 2) now the neighbor kids play in the hallway instead of outside.

Neighbor kids' doing? Kinda cute.

Someone's been drinking!

I'm now in the 3-8, WHAT UP NOW, 4TH BAG?!  

So have you ever wondered how our heating gets to our apartments? Wonder no more! They shovel coal into a large fire at all times of day and night. That's right- Titanic old school style. Those are steaming piles of coal bits. 

And here's my work! My commute is about 30 seconds, or I imagine 15 if I run. Also, that sand pile in the right-middle is currently where I get Mika's litter under the cover of night so people don't look at me weird. 

And one bonus picture from the Erdenet seminar I forgot to add:

Pharmacy for the WIN.

The new day dawns, and I'm practicing my purpose once again.

So here's my in-between week. Last week, big seminar. This week, home. Next week, big seminar. I'm leaving again Saturday for UB to be the Health trainer for IST (remember last year I brought Altansuvd?), and THANKSGIVING! I'm excited that next year I'll be with my family, but Thanksgiving here isn't a poor substitute. This will be the last time before COS (close of service) conference that we're all together, so we gotta make it count!

Long photo post! Whoops.

So last week, I traveled the most west I've been in Mongolia so far- to Erdenet. I've been preparing nursing skill presentations for Laura (a fellow M21) and Gracie (a new M22 healthie). I first had a stop in Ulaan Tolgoi (literally: red head) at Laura's soum and did a two day training for the hospital there:

Laura has the CUTEST most well behaved cat I've ever met. And BIG EYES! 

Practicing positioning with Gracie as my patient!

Laura (on the left), Gracie and I with the hospital employees. (Gracie's CP, Doogie, is the one with the black dress in the back- she was my amazing translator the whole week)

I had to take a picture of this. It just says "School". The school is named "School".

We're cold! 

Sunset in Ulaan Tolgoi.

Next it was onto Erdenet! Three days of nursing skill seminars. Tiring, but it was well worth it. We covered everything from nursing ethics to constipation. The nurses were really receptive and we had some awesome discussions. It was also really nice to see the M21s I've missed (Katie, Ryan and Ali!):

And it begins! There were over 60 nurses there. Dang.

View if you were sitting in the back.

SKIN LAYERS WHAT UP

I sometimes drifted to the back to speak just to make sure people were paying attention.

Oh yeah, we had dinner! Here's Ryan and Katie shelling the shrimp.

LETTUCE.

Finished result- salad (with "feta") and shrimp pasta and garlic bread (not pictured). Mmm.

YUMM.

Gracie poured a whole bottle of something on her computer, now the backlight doesn't work. Hilarity ensues whenever she wants to do anything on her computer.

BUNNY HUGZ

Ok, ok, back to the seminar. This woman speaking is the head of nursing in Erdenet, and is best friends with Tuya and Saraa (from the health department). Small country, eh?

The ER doc showed us all how NOT to transfer a patient (Gracie). Owch. 

Two person lift from a wheelchair. Not too bad!

You can see how nervous I am. We're practicing patient falls. This is pretty much how it ended up in my hospital, too.

Alright, I'll stop killing your bandwidth with my pictures.

OH WAIT HERE'S A NICE ONE:

Children's English play... comp...compet.... competition (gaaaahhhh)
But this one was cute. (And it won)