It's already November, we've been driving all night

Frustrated today. Not really sure what the exact issue is, really. I think it started yesterday when I didn’t have power at my apartment. It really wouldn’t have been a big deal, except for the fact that it was probably the 4th time that week that it had happened. I think it’s the “locus of control” thing we talked about during training- I have a lot less control over a number of factors than I did in the US, and I think my apartment I feel is something I CAN control, at least in the way of taking care of it, so when it's something seemingly simple as electricity, it makes me frustrated. The weekend was so incredibly busy which was just as busy as the week before and so I only got a few hours to myself on Sunday to unwind. So anyway, at lunch yesterday I kept dropping things, which made me even more a little peeved. My Monday english class went well, however, and when I’m working I don’t bring my personal problems in with me… Mr. Moore would be so proud. After work I fully expected to have my power back on since the REST OF MY BUILDING had it… but nope (I was so excited too because I could see from the street that everything was lit up). Something had died. After some calls, my landlord came over, but since he (and I) didn’t have a key to the electric box outside my apartment, I was SOL. Todd was nice enough to bring me some candles… and so I had a romantic dinner of apples and peanut butter with my cat, while reading a book by candle light.

The English language has also been somewhat of an issue lately. Maybe not having to do with the english language, but I’m noticing that a lot more people are calling me Russian. They think I don’t understand, but it’s almost laughable when a group of old men (it’s always the older men too) stare as they walk by and say “orse-hun” (Russian person) under their breath. Sigh. I CAN understand you… heeelloooo. I usually don’t take the time to correct them, because I should, but usually by the time I’ve heard them, I’m already walking past them. I suppose that’s ok anyway… Russians have very nice European style clothing, which I’m severely lacking (go go sneakers ahoy!), so if they want to believe that, whatever. It’s because I’m white… isn’t it? ISN’T IT?! (hah) Also, this town isn’t that big and volunteers have been here for quite some time… you’d think the rumor mill would have run its course and they would have known I’m American. I can forgive the soum-ers though. There are lots of people coming from all over the province all the time so they probably have no idea who I am or why there’s some random white chick chillin’ with the doctors and nurses. My favorite part is usually when they pass my office door, look in, do a double take, walk by again slower, and sometimes stand in the doorway. So usually I smile and say ‘sain bain oo’ (how are you?), but then they have the look on their face like I have two heads. Ah, and that is the life of a PCV Mongolia… thank goodness for my counterparts and my coworkers in the hospital. They are completely awesome and I don't know if I could much without their motivation and patience.

Oh, one more funny story about the staring thing- sometimes I just like to stare right back. But usually this ends with me breaking the staring contest because I think it’s rude to stare. Welp. Once I was walking back home and this little boy was walking near me and staring straight up at me, while walking. So what happened next? Oh course he almost face planted, but he just tripped hardcore and then kept on walking, looking forward that time. Also, once a kid at the store was staring at me with his mouth wide open, the kind of thing I only thought I saw in the movies. But alas, a fly could have landed in there and he wouldn’t have noticed. Then he got knocked over by another shopper because it was rush hour. Moral of the story kids- only stare if you know you’re not going to get the crap knocked out of you.

Attendance for my English classes has lessoned much as of late. A little disheartening? Maybe. This is pretty typical of any English class, or so I’ve been told. Those people who are there towards the end are the troopers, the actual people who want to stick it out, be patient with my (new) teaching methods, and learn English. So, I’m teaching for them. Also, sometimes the schedule of the class impedes them coming… sometimes doctors and nurses come during their work time and have to go back to the unit if a patient comes.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m learning two languages- Mongolian AND English. Seriously, English sucks. It is an awful language that doesn’t make any sense at all, and the rules are ridiculous, and there’s too many exceptions and slang and idioms (and I didn’t even know what the heck that was until I got here). I have a lot of respect for my students because that is a lot to take in (Mongolian is so vastly different in structure and words… there are twice as many English words as there are Mongolian). So needless to say I’ve been learning what all the tenses are, etc while making my lessons. I’m hoping after this main class is over (I’ll still have my other classes and tutoring), I’ll be able to work on what I really want to with my counterparts and what they want to improve. After my site visit, it sounded like that was what they wanted to do too.

I suppose that covers things for now. My mind is kind of mush at the moment. I need to make more lists, because I hate feeling like I have a billion things to do and I therefore get too stressed about it. Hm. Peace and love and deuces ya’all. :)

Dance, dance

Quickie post, I uploaded a video of one of the dances I saw at the children's concert. They were AWESOME! There were some kids playing instruments and singing, too, so I'll try to upload those as well as my internet allows.

And then there were pictures...

Another busy end to the week. Friday night was Alex's birthday, and so we had a party over his place, complete with awesome chocolate cake made by Julie. Saturday I had class per usual, and after a little downtime, did my laundry at Todd's, dragged my crap back to my place, then everyone was treated for dinner by the heads of the english club that we're teaching for. OH and it... kind of snowed. A dusting, I suppose. Sarah texted me this morning and she said that it had snowed in Dariganga (the soum about 5 hours from us in our province). It's getting steadily colder, even though a couple days this week it was too warm for my coat, so I got to wear just my fuzzy fleeces. ^^

Today we're having our site visits... at time of writing, it sounds like they haven't gotten here yet. At 8 tonight, I'm going to the children's play at the theater which my Mongolian tutor's kids are in. I'm pretty geeked because Mongolian kids are adorable and I love Mongolian dances and songs.

Enough of my chatter... onto the pictures...

My hospital got me a lab coat! It is seriously a kick-ass lab coat. It's one of those old school nursing ones with the high collar and the buttons down the side. AND it came with a nursing hat. I never got a nursing hat in nursing school, so I feel like I'm compensating or something. It fit awesome, except that I have a busty chest so it wouldn't button around that area... so that sucks. We're gonna get it tailored though. :)

Suvdaa making me pose for pictures...

A freaking awesome nursing hat!!

 Also, people have been wanting pictures of my town (whoops, have been kinda bad about that), so here we go! And some videos too!

 This is the back side of the hospital, newly paved. My coworker's son was admitted for a while for low blood sugar (he's fine! he's back to his perky 12-year old self), and this was the view outside his room.

So, on my walk home... this is outside the main part of the hospital. Also newly paved!

 The main door, and just inside is the emergency room to the right.

The way back to my apartment. This is right across from the hospital, and it's a one way road... a little scary for people walking! Also, the road is really hard to walk on in high heels, by the way. I don't know how people do it.

MAN HOLE! A couple of those on my walk. Don't wanna fall down those things! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... lalalala...

Some new apartment buildings... 

Sukhbaatar Square!

Government building...

The main stretch... the square on the upper right!

Sukhbaatar himself!

Our huge TV screen that was playing really strange 80's music and videos at that time. Hm. The song right before this one I swear was that Meat Loaf song, "I'd do anything for love". Freakin love this country.

My apartment building! Next to the photo store!

My balcony is the one with the missing windows... not too safe. At least it has a roof!

My door to my building. :)

My apartment building to the right, and the other buildings... it's like a big rectangle of old buildings.

So I attempted to upload some videos, but my internet sucks so it's taking forever. So I'm gonna try to put them on youtube and see if that goes faster. Hold on tight for that!

And at the time of this writing, I just came back from the children's concert. Mongolians are amazing in the fact that even the 1st graders can sing on pitch all the time. All the acts were awesome, and I took some cool videos for that too.

Work tomorrow with site visits, hoorah! (As I taught Dava's class) - Deuces ya'all! 

It's hard to live the life you choose

Blog post, so long overdue. I'm sorry... it's been a crazy busy month. It's mid October already! I've been here almost 5 months, which is crazy to think about. I've been getting a lot of the "do you miss home" question from the Mongolians, and how can I answer no? It's definitely the longest I've been away from home (even in college I managed to make it home once every couple months), but I think I've been fairing well for the most part. There's been good and bad days, as you all can imagine.

I can see this entry is going to be hard to do, since I did a crappy job of writing down what I have been doing. Poops. Honestly, it's hard to describe what my experiences are like... as I think I said before, there's something that happens everyday that bluntly reminds me that I'm in a totally different culture than my own. Most of the time those moments are so amazing to me.

Working at the hospital has been really great lately. I've been busy making my lessons, and in between and I have pretty lengthy conversations with my coworkers, Suvdaa and Tuya:

Coolest nurses in Mongolia.

This week has been a lot of talk about the differences between my old hospital and our hospital. Break rooms, med rooms, (I had an old coworker take pics for me), salaries, amount of doctors and nurses, etc. Our hospital has a lot of things going for it, for sure. There are so many good ideas, so much construction already going on, and lots of room for improvement that Suvdaa has already identified. I'll be working on a mini proposal this week to possibly get some respiratory equipment/ventilators and/or trainers to come to our hospital to train about them, thanks to Travis' mom (the volunteer who was here before me) who is part of a respiratory group. I'll let you know how it all goes. :)

Lately, I've been doing a lot of english teaching. I know you're saying "Katie... you're a nurse, what the hell!" but hear me out! That's what they want, I will give it to them. Most days actually it's a lot of fun. I've been teaching some english songs (one woman wants me to teach some Beyonce!). Saturdays and Mondays are my hospital english class, Tuesdays are Dava's class, on Mondays and Wednesdays I have tutoring with people, and Thursdays and Saturdays are the community english class. Yes... that means my only full day off is Sunday! This week I was really pooped so I decided this would be my day to myself. I had to turn down a couple people for lunches, etc but I think I deserve some reflection time. I did spend this morning on a 4 hour skype call with my dearest friends from home. :) That was really nice, thanks guys. :)

'

Ohhhh yummy food stuffs... holy crap mac and cheese!!

I got "the" package from my mom this week... with my lab coat! I started doing some observing in the surgery unit this week. Since I don't have scrub pants (pretty sure I tossed those old things when I left my old hospital), I sacrificed a pair of my pajama pants. I wish I had brought my camera that day (I got a new P&S, thanks mum!)... I looked a little hilarious, but cool- white and blue checkered pants, MSU nursing lab coat, my coworker's scrub hat and my black shoes from the black market in UB.

Also, big shout out to MSU for beating Michigan last week. Sorry mom!

Pictures!

 Poker night with the MTBA! ...also with a 3D Where's Waldo? puzzle

...Nema playing with my camera...

Mr. Potter, Satan, and Princess (Nema, Alex and Chimgee)... we didn't play poker that night, but fun with hearts instead. I still get your chips next time, Todd.

 My community English class! Enee is the first on the left, and she's one of the university english teachers. She translates my english babbling!

 Some of my students from the hospital!

MIKA! Who looks a lot like...

Pippin!! This picture on the camera cracked me the hell up... he looks terribly pissed to be having his picture taken.

 Homework assignment for you guys... what am I gonna be for Halloween?? Ahh maybe crazy cat lady? Also, I've put up a list of cool stuff you guys could send me. :) Love you all!

They made a statue of us and put it on a mountain top...

I had the strangest thoughts when I was walking back to work after lunch today. I somehow had a train of thought that was about the future, and what was going to happen, or if it would happen. And then I suddenly felt lost, like a small child, like those ideas I was thinking about were so far ahead in the future that I couldn’t possibly be that old yet. I then thought about what I had already accomplished in my life (which, sure, it seems like quite a bit I suppose), but that I really have much more and I have no clue how I am going to fit it all in. And then I felt depressed.

Blame it on the sad British pop I was listening to.

Speaking of which, I’ve given that 500 Days of Summer movie another try, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was initially. I like playing it in the background for the music. I hate to say it (Ellen will yell), but Regina Spektor is slowly crawling to a predominate place on my playlist.

At the time of writing, I am at work. I supposed to be working on a translation for my English class that starts next month. There is a huge stack of meat on the windowsill to the right of me. I love this country, truly. There’s always at least one happening a day that reminds me that I’m on the other side of the world from everyone I know.

The heat is going to be turned on next month, which for the past week I am looking forward to. I can even tell you the last hot day- last Monday. Ever since then it has been 60’s, 50’s-ish, and I’ve been missing the sounds of the kids at the square late at night as I fall asleep. That has been replaced by Mika making a racket in the hallway. Mika has been doing well, and he loves playing in his litterbox of dirt a little too much. At least he’s white and not brown like when I got him!

Right now it is freaking freezing in our work room. Even during the days that it was in the 80’s, this room was freaking cold, making my nose and fingers cold. And you all know how much I hate when my nose and fingers are cold! Tuya, Altansuvd and I have been taking to boiling lots of tea in the past couple days. I don’t exactly have a jacket (unless I want to wear my hard-core winter one now), but one of these days my friend Dava is taking me to meet a lady who can sew a coat for me.

What I would give for my hot tub right now. Ah, that would be wonderful. Anyway, I shouldn’t complain because it’s gonna get a hell of a lot colder. Then I will complain haha.

I just saw the most glorious bathroom ever, in the pediatric ward. I wish I could upload a picture, but it had two washer machines, a lovely toilet with seat cover, and possibly the most beautiful shower I have seen in Mongolia. Scratch that, it is the best bathroom I’ve seen besides my host family’s bathroom. That shower had (what looked like) hot water (probably from separate boiler), with glass doors and removable shower head.

(Written the next day) We got internet at work yesterday at the end of the day… currently installing the required Yahoo messenger. My M20 site mates joked that when you come to site, the Mongolians actually only make sure you have three things- a place to live, a door to that place, and Yahoo messenger.

Last night was a bit rough. I got home after going to the meat market with Altansuvd, which I’ve been before, but I’ve always been on weekends where no one was there. Today, however, I was slapped in the back with dead sheep bodies no more than 5 times because it was so crowded. Hm. I got a kilo of some mystery meat (I think it was goat) for Mika, and when I got home I discovered there was no water. I got it back this morning, but it was a little sad having meat fingers and having to use my nice filtered water to wash with.

THEN since it’s been so cold, I remembered I had my space heater… so I turned it on and WHAM YES HEAT… for 30 seconds. Then it died. But it started back up this morning just fine, so… I think I had a shitty night I suppose!

‘Tis all for now. Going to work on my English lessons (class starts next week, ahh!).

I'm the hero of this story, I don't need to be saved...

The internet has once again hindered all my productivity including doing blog posts. Hm.

Things I do on the internet:
-Facebook (sad I know)
-CNN/news
-Email and lots of it
-Flickr
-Various message boards
-INTERNET RADIO!

And I'm about to get internet at work as well... which actually would be a good thing, because I could do grant stuff and look up English language activities. Instead of trying to think of my own and using the same book and playing spider solitaire. Actually, the spider solitaire thing won't change. I don't have it on my mac, and I love it so! Along with hearts. I will kick your ass around the corner if you dare to play hearts with me.

Anyway, today was pretty darn busy. I taught a bunch of English to one of my counterparts, and then in the afternoon I met with an english teacher who is going to help me with grammar explanations (because I seriously need it- present perfect WHAT). Days have been going pretty steady now, but it's still going to take some time before I figure all this stuff out.

This weekend I was SIIICK as a dog. Food poisoning, I suspect. For sure the worst I've felt since I've been in Mongolia, but nothing life threatening or anything.

In other news, I HAVE A KITTEN! My site mate Todd had the hook-up from one of the teachers at his school. I have named him Mika, for he reminds me of the singer. He is a little storm, as all kittens are. I actually have to stop every other sentence to either stop him from climbing all over the keyboard or clawing my leg off. This thing does not stop purring, it's so adorable. This morning he feel asleep in my arm and was half-purring still. So. Cute.

Weird thought today as I was going through my photos... I've definitely grown a shit ton in my ability to take actually ok photographs since I started only a couple years ago. Man I love this hobby.

What a not insightful blog post. Oh well. Maybe next time with more detail!

No one needs to know we're feeling higher, and higher and higher

September already? Oi geez.

At the time of writing, it is September 1st. That can only mean one thing for children this time of year- the first day of school! (And it is for the whole country!) I looked out my window this morning while I was making breakfast only to see moms with their children dressed up in their best suits. Usually that time in morning is populated by the old men stooping across the road at the social insurance building. They are interesting to watch too, really. But anyway, while I was walking to work I could see one of the schools decked out in balloons and tents with Akon blasting in the background. Huh. I wonder if the parents are excited for them to get back to school like American parents.

Not much is happening at the moment. My hospital is pretty busy this month because inspectors are coming mid-month for accreditation purposes. Kind of like JCAHO, I suppose? Anyway, I’m kind of finding my own stuff to do, like helping out with English classes at the schools or whatnot.

This past weekend was interesting- Saturday, the whole town had a huge celebration to commemorate the Mongolian win against the Japanese that ended in 1945 (World War II? My counterparts said no, so there must be some history that I’m missing?), also the 5 year anniversary of the zinc mine that is near my city.

So bright and early, my counterparts (CPs) look me to a part of the steppe just outside the city to watch two horse races- one for “older” horses, around 6 years, and one for “younger” horses- 2 years old. All the horses are manned by children (so maybe the word should be “childrened”?), and sometimes that’s a problem because with the more competitive races the parents might pull the children out of school to practice. Anyway, the race was as cool as ever, you could start to see the cloud of dust rising from the horizon, which meant they were probably 10 or 15 minutes away yet. The dust isn’t just from the horses- they are also from ambulance and police cars, waiting in case a child falls from the horse (which isn’t uncommon- you see horses come back rider-less all the time).

After the races, there was a… um, not sure what you would call this, not a demonstration because that sounds like there was riot or something. I guess the closest phrase would be “military parade”. Basically, the military put on a show to show off their mad skills, like punching through fire bricks (for reals), saving people from terrorists (complete with fake rounds in their guns that scared the kiddies as well as my CP), and parachuting into the square. Actually, I’m not totally sure what the point was, but I was quite impressed with it all.

A couple hours later there was a military concert at the theater. It was jam-packed with Mongolian dances (which I absolutely love, I can’t get enough), singing and Mongolian instruments (which I also love!). There was supposed to be another show in the square that evening, but the weather was pretty crappy and freakishly windy.

Sunday was spent doing a lot of cooking and a whole lot of nothing, ha! I have started to become a chef, and I imagine that when I get back home I’ll have a whole slew of recipes I can use. I think we really take what we have for granted- I’m lucky because in this town we have quite a range of food options, including brown sugar (!!), and the occasional chicken drumstick. Oh, and I’m for the most part vegetarian now since I’m mostly too lazy to prepare meat. Mmmm eggs and peanuts. Anyways anyways (aww I miss Oogii), I made honey-Dijon chicken with veggies and rice pudding for dessert. Hells yeah!! I. Am. Awesome.

Lately I’ve been a little lazy, because I’ve mostly been eating fried potatoes with ketchup and lots veggie melts (grilled cheese with veggies in them… mmm). Need to expand my horizons!

Even though I’m a health volunteer, I’m going to be teaching a loooot of English. I don’t mind, though. Today I was talking with my counterpart and the ENT doctor (ear/nose/throat) and the doctor had just completed a two month course on English, so that kind of made her even with me in terms of language. Anyway, we somehow got on the topic of how you pronounce “corps” (as in Peace Corps). In English you don’t pronounce it with the ‘S’, but in Mongolian you do. So anyway, the doctor looks up the Mongolian word for “corps” and my CP and her keep saying corps with an ‘S’. So she hands me the dictionary and points to an unfamiliar Mongolian word. Next to it is “corpse”. Ugui! (No!) We all laughed pretty darn hard though. Just goes to show you that English is HARD (and so is Mongolian… the words for “husband” and “dog,” as well as the words for “sheep meat” and “human meat” are crazy similar).

Das ist alles (for now!). Love you all :D