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.