Oh nah nah, миний нэр хэн бэ?

...what's my name?...

Chillin' by the seaside in Hong Kong

Hey, all. My bad with the lack of updates. If you didn’t know, I was in AMERICA. It was pretty darn awesome. I hung out with my friends every day, I got to see lots of people, drink lots of good booze, and eat lots of good food. A completely awesome trip.

Since I’ve gotten back, I’ve gotten the same questions: “How was America?” “Was it weird being there?” “Was it weird coming back?” “What was the weirdest thing about being in America?”

A lot of ‘weird’ questions. America was good. It’s still there! It wasn’t weird being there, nor was it weird coming back. I was sorta indifferent, I think. Of course, it was sad saying goodbye again to my friends and family, but on the plus side, my mom, sister and brother booked tickets for July! Hopefully Ellen’s tickets to come soon after. :)

HARRY POTTER PARK!

The weirdest thing I noticed in America was not the clean bathrooms that had toilet paper, not the super awesome customer service, but the fact I tended to ignore people when I was shopping. I’m used to not understanding people around me, and I think that transferred to American stores. I felt quite dumb.

I also had a second leg of the trip, in Hong Kong to see my dear Janice. It was a really nice trip, full of equally awesome food and lots of shopping. :) We saw some of the usual tourist sights, and Janice took me to some local areas that were out of the way. It’s a super big city… much like London or New York I think (although I’ve never been to NY). Full of life, lights, and sounds.

My sister, Jack-Jack, and Lauren!

I finally arrived back in UB late last month. The next day my wallet was stolen (fun times), and the only reason I was sticking around was because people were coming into town who I hadn’t seen in a while. I was really happy to get back to the BU, back to home (and Mika!), and of course, work. I got a warm reception and I’ve been pretty darn busy since then. Children’s camp, seminars, case studies to write, projects to keep up on… I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I left America!

Mommy and Jack :)

Since I’ve been back we’ve had three visitors, if you can believe that. We’re not a well-traveled Aimag since we’re on the edge of Mongolia and there’s not much out here. Last week we had Peace Corps for a visit, this past week we had our dear friend Cassandra come from UB on HCA (host-country agency) business, and yesterday we had the UB embassy come for a talk about scholarship opportunities to study in America. It’s been really nice having people (read: other Americans) come by to chat. It was especially nice for me to hang out with Cass this past week- lots of girl talk. :) Dava and I were talking and we decided that we want at least one other girl site mate next year (her school might be getting a teacher-trainer, which would be really great), so we can have girl chats and hang out after work. In Mongolia, if a Mongolian woman is seen hanging out a lot with a man (foreign or otherwise), it can be construed as them being involved together… that’s why there’s a government official that had to be corrected by my supervisor since he thought I had three boyfriends. Sigh.

The usual crew! WTF Luke.

Sadly, it’s not all been good news in the BU. Nate’s supervisor had a really bad stroke and at this point, I believe he’s still in the hospital. He’s such a super nice guy, and I really hope he gets better. :/  Last week, Tumbee (who used to work at the children’s center as well), got into a bad car accident in UB. Thankfully, he’s ok, but his passengers aren’t doing as well. This is kind of a doubley bad thing since Tumbee’s wife is having a difficult pregnancy and the stress of the accident doesn’t help. And to top the week off, my coworker had a death in a family, so it’s been a little stressful around the work place as my coworkers are getting ready for the nursing competition in dornogobi (another aimag, south west of us). Actually, now I can’t remember if they said it was in dornogobi or dundgobi. They’re right next to each other.

At the club, partying it up like we're 20 again, ha.

But otherwise, things are good. My routines are back to normal, and I’ve even started running regularly since the weather has been SO NICE. 50’s, 60’s, even a low 70’s last week. And since it’s (literally) always sunny in Mongolia, it’s seemed even warmer. My apartment has been hot since it’s a bit too cold at night to have the heat shut off. I’m gonna be a little sad the day they turn the heat off… back to the tumpin bathing.

Mika’s been a little bugger lately. The weather has seemed to give him cabin fever, and he’s exploring any possibility to get out of the apartment. He already had attempted suicide when Sarah was taking care of him, and with me he’s gotten stuck in my neighbor’s balcony and nearly fell off. Stupid ass cat.

Lastly, if people are interested, these are my currents:

TV Show: I finished Parks and Rec in record time… finished 30 Rock, now onto Arrested Development.

Movie: None. I’m so ADD, and I love my TV shows. I usually flip on Oceans 11/13 if I just want background noise.

Music: Really mellow stuff at the moment… Aqualung and Jack Johnson on repeat, yeah!

Book: River Town, about a TEFL PCV in China. Neat story so far.

At one of the many black markets in Hong Kong!

Hangin' with Janice!

Oh, and some BU pics too. This is what we did when I got back:

Now that's what I call a beer pong table.

...Wait. What?

It's how we do it in the 'Bu.

All in a day's work.

AMERICA... F___ YEAH!!

Hey, I'll *try* to keep this blog at least PG-13-ish. Sometimes.

As I mentioned in my last post, or at least eluded to- I’m in AMERICA. It’s really not weird being here. The only time I got a little emotional over the culture was in the Korean airport when I saw Dunkin’ Doughnuts. How sad is that? It could have been how tired I was, but I guess after all these months it was really nice to see something so familiar. I also felt really dumb in the Korean airport, being forced to use English because God knows I can’t speak a lick of Korean (I don’t even know ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’). Oh well. I’m always impressed on how well Koreans speak English. Their pronunciation of words always seems really good compared to other nationalities… although in the airplane it cracked me up when the Korean guy ahead of me pointed to the seat rows and said, “A, B, zhee, D…” (How is Ezhee-Bezhee doing, Nema?)

America is awesome, just so you know. For all the bitching people do about their lives, you really have to remember how privileged you guys really are here.

Today my mum and I off to Orlando to see the Blue Man Group, and tomorrow is the Harry Potter Park! :D Then Saturday is my return to the cold north. Can’t wait! By the way- WAY too hot and humid here. Wow. I thought I would never feel this kind of weather again, but it’s been SO nice to wear sandles. We had to buy them right after we got Jimmy Johns (haha YES #9) when I got here because I only brought my big Mongol boots with me and my feet were SWEATING.

So today I’d like to share a neat selection of songs that I found/listened to on my way here. I tend to make travel playlists and listen to that stuff back to back. A lot of the songs have to do with “coming home,” which is not so hard to make out why. :)

“Coming Home” – Diddy (P. Diddy? Puff Daddy? I dunno)
                  Love this song. Come on, that chorus? It sounds super cheesy written out but it’s a beautiful song. For some reason the album cover and name (“Last Train to Paris”) really seals the deal for me.

“Coming Home” – The 88s
                  Oldie song that I had in my list (I mean, it’s just a song that’s been in my library for a long time), just it’s still oh so good.

“At Least It Was Here” – The 88s
                  Theme song to Community! I thought they sounded familiar, and it only took me to season 2 to figure it out! Ha. So freaking catchy, but kind of strange lyrics if you don’t look for the “live in the moment” meaning.

“99 Problems” – Jay Z
                  I blame Todd for my current Jay-Z obsession since he gave me his discography.

“Runaway” – Kanye West
                  Like a 10 minute song, but it’s pretty neat. Has a repetitive piano melody, which I love.

“Dog Days Are Over” – Florence + The Machine

                  Found this song watching Glee (haha). When I first heard it I thought it was really strange but it grew on me.

The whole of the “Sigh No More” album by Mumford and Sons
                  If you don’t have this album, GET IT. NOW. When I first listened to it, it literally (seriously, literally) took my breath away. It is a gorgeous piece of work.

 “What’s My Name” – Rihanna and Drake
                  I hate Rihanna, but this song gets in my head all the time… just the chorus though.

“It Won’t Be Long” – The Beatles

                  Old Beatles, yeah!

“Dear Avery” – The Decemberists
                  The final song on their newest album. Very pretty. “Dear aaaaverrrrry, cooome home” :)

“All Day and All of the Night” – The Kinks
                  Um, yeah. Great song.

“About Her” – Malcolm McLaren
                  This is the mix that that dude did for the Kill Bill soundtrack. I re-watched the movie and started looking for the songs to download.

And of course, “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” by Peter, Paul and Mary

That’s all for now. :) I’ll probably update after my vacation… 

21 Ger Salute

I am such a bum. I attempted to finish this blog before I left for America, but that didn't work out at all, nor did trying to finish it before March. Whoops. But here it is, in all it’s glory- my Tsagaan Sar post.

Ok, before I begin- Happy 50th Birthday, Peace Corps!! :D

So by now, you now that Tsagaan Sar has came and went. It was honestly the craziest, most indulgent holiday I’ve participated in, and that’s counting Thanksgiving. It’s kinda like Thanksgiving + Christmas + Halloween, really. And Mongolians treat it as such.

Next to the Ovoo! All bundled up, ready for the New Year!

It all started on Tsagaan Sar Eve (called “Bituun”). I went to work as usual but there was quite literally nothing going on except for people preparing for the holiday. Even the housewives that take “breaks” in the hospital were nowhere to be seen (seriously, people treat the hospital as a vacay spot- can you say: Easiest. Patients. Ever?) So instead I spent the morning (and afternoon) gutting and seasoning fish for my CPs. The smell reminded me of the good ol’ days of the AAHL (fish lab) back at MSU. Ahh, I was home.

I then chilled at home until Suvdaa called me to come to her apartment. As tradition goes, you visit your parents on Bituun, more relatives on the first day of Tsagaan Sar (TS), then friends on the second day. That totally didn’t apply to me since I did most of my visiting on the first day, but I digress.

First Sunlight of the New Year

I spent Bituun night at Suvdaa’s home, celebrating it with vodka, buuz, and the fish I cooked earlier in the day. Her two children then challenged me to a couple games of huzur (spelling it wrong- it’s a Mongolian card game, similar to Hearts/Spades). I got my butt kicked so badly by her daughter it was insane.

Suvdaa's Father! Little hard of hearing :)

The next morning (or actually, later that day since we didn’t go to bed until well after midnight), we got up extra early to see the sun rise at dawn. It’s a tradition to greet the New Year right by seeing the first bit of sunlight rise over the Mongolian steppe. This year is the Year of the Rabbit, and last year was Year of the Tiger (alright, no one told me that, no wonder it was such a nice year).

We went to the tallest peak in our town, which isn’t really saying much, but it gave a wonderful view of the horizon to the east. It was bitterly cold, with a slight wind, so I opted to wear a ton of layers until my deel which I was kind of paying for later since the gers I went to were blazing hot. But it was nice outside, anyway. After seeing the first peak of sunrise, the Mongolians raise their arms and shout, “hooray!” Monty Python style (literally, that’s what it sounds like… “and then they rejoiced”. I think it’s a Buddhist chant), and move their arms in a clock-wise motion, while other people threw rice and milk to the sky. I felt pretty out of place, but it was really cool that Suvdaa took me.

Tuya's Family!

After getting back to Suvdaa’s home, we started the greetings of the New Year. When you welcome people into your home, you start with the oldest male adult, and move down from there (or in a circle if in a ger, but always with the eldest first). You hold out your arms and if you’re younger, you place them on bottom so you’re kind of grabbing onto the other person’s elbows. You then both say, “amar bain oo” (formal greeting) and kiss/sniff each other on the cheeks. You then sit down to eat. OH and you don’t greet the same person twice in one Tsagaan Sar. My bad for attempting that bit.

All together, I visited 21 homes. I’ve never been so tired, so full, and so overwhelmed with all the hospitality. Visits usually go as follows:
-Greetings to everyone

Too cute- Nema, Alex, and their apparent
adoptive children, ha.

-Sit down, eat a piece of “white food” (aka food made from dairy) first or wait for the cup of milk tea that will be brought to you
-Start eating salat (mayo-covered egg or potato salad), pickles, etc
-Get a big thing of buuz and start eating that
-In between all of that there’s at least three vodka shots that are offered to you (seriously, it’s tradition)
-Also talk about stuff in between there with the limited Mongolian you have
-If you’re super lucky like me, you’ll get asked to sing any Mongolian songs you know
-Near the end of the visit the host gives gifts to the guests. Apparently it’s not a sign to leave, but it basically means you can leave whenever. Usually I didn’t stay at a house more than half an hour.
Gifts I got included: tons of candy/chocolate, unit cards for my phone, money (including *American* dollars!), a neat glass elephant statue, gloves, a scarf, a mini iron (found that one funny because that house gave the men cigarettes and the women irons. I can see what’s happening), leather key holder, and tons of shampoo and body wash- really useful!
-Say thank you and goodbye!

So the first couple homes I went to were with Suvdaa and her family, then we went to her parents house, and Tuya’s home after that. Umm, who told me Tuya can play the guitar?? Anyway, right after that I met up with Alex and Nema and went with them to visit the Mercy Corps people’s homes, which I knew them due to always coming to their office to take pictures of them. :)

Ger Tsagaan Sar!

After THAT (still same day here people), we went to Bymba’s and met up with Mogi to go to his home and some of his friends’ homes. Yeah, by the end of that I didn’t know if I was super tired, drunk, or both. That day I went to 15 homes. Oi.

The next morning a sad Mika, sad by the fact that I didn’t spend any time with him, awaked me from my sleep. Boo. After getting myself together in the morning, I started round two of Tsagaan Sar. I went to my friend Bojo’s home, who her mother is a nurse at the hospital. Bojo lives and goes to school in UB, and was there for Tsagaan Sar. Her family was so incredibly nice, and they said they were honored that I came to their home since I was the first foreigner to visit during Tsagaan Sar. :) D’aww! And the father even gave me a book of Buddhist prayers in Mongolian script, in which he wrote a message of good luck and thanks in the cover… in script! :D It was such a nice visit. I left just as more family members came, and I didn’t have to go far to reach my next destination- my supervisor’s! The assistant mayor was there when I arrived, so it was nice to chat with them for a little while.

Supervisor's home

The afternoon was spent at Todd’s, Tunga’s, and Nema’s homes. I remember because I took pictures at every place I went to, making sure that I didn’t forget anything that happened. Good thing, too, I can’t quite remember since it’s been a few weeks. :/ So that brought my house visiting that day up to 5.

Bojo's Family

The third and “final” day of Tsagaan Sar (I put that in quotes because in most places it lasts much more than three days, especially in soums), we had the big “hospital greeting,” meaning everyone came to the hospital so we could do a mini-version of what you do at everyone’s homes. Kind of like seeing everyone but less mess because you don’t have to serve people or give gifts.

After that, I didn’t plan anything so I gladly got out of my deel (the buus was killing my ribs, ha) and started catching up on emails. That was so short lived because Nema came over to use the internet and tell me that the dentist, Tsolo, who was also working at the health department, asked all of us gadat-huns (foreign people, literally “outside people”) over for TS. So away we went. I decided to wear my new “stylish deel” because it was more comfortable and I felt like wearing it at least once.

Hospital greeting! One of these things is not like the other...

Hahahaha :)

That afternoon was… umm. Let’s just say there were a couple bad decisions, mostly fueled by the two large bottles of vodka that the five of us consumed. I still don’t know how we did it. Afterwards we stumbled back to Todd’s to make more bad decisions, and it finally ended with Mogi and Nema walking me back before they went off to visit friends. Let’s just say I couldn’t get outta bed Sunday, and didn’t make it to work Monday. Bleh. Never again. A big part of that, though, was my back hurt from the weird positions I was doing while taking all the photographs during TS. …I realize that last sentence could have been really bad if I didn’t specify the photo thing.

Bottoms up, boys!

Anyway. That was pretty much the end of TS in Baruun-Urt. I was invited to a couple homes this past weekend, but luckily it was informal. More pictures on that later because these past couple weekends were a hoot!

Some other pictures:

Mogi's family and friends- his dad is the on of the right.
The scarves he has on is all the Nadaam prizes he's won with his prize horses!

Nema and his mom!

Traditional Greeting

...another toast??

I reaaally liked her deel.

Snuff bottle passing! And Mongolians smiling! What else could you want?!

Suvdaa's mom and her sister. So cute. :)

Dance Videos!

Tsagaan Sar was awesome. Might not be over for me, since I'm going to visit my dear Sarah in Daranga Soum on Thursday (with Nema! Paaarty time!), and she said her Tsagaan Sar lasts 20 days there. Oi.

So here are some videos to hold ya over from the Children's Concert back in October:

How to Make Buuz/Bansh: A Photographic How-To

Thanks Mel, Ellen and Mom. :) I know I have a lot of time to figure out what I’m doing in the future… I tend to think about it a lot since I have the time on my hands to think about such things.

Just finished up a lovely conversation with Ellen about… Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13, whist I was trying to clean my desk. Sundays are usually my cleaning day. By the way, I think 13 is my favorite! Mmm George Clooney.

As I mentioned, Tsaagan Sar is THIS WEEK. I’m not hosting my own Tsaagan Sar, but I’ve been invited to a bunch of houses already. Suvdaa’s even got her stack of 50 tug bills to give to the children who come’a knocking. Seriously, it’s like trick-or-treating for the kids, except they get MONEY. Alex told us last year kids came knocking at his apartment building, but since no one was answering their doors, the kids shut off the circuit breaker. Nice!

I also got my new deel (traditional Mongolian dress) this week. I'll have to upload those pictures after Tsaagan Sar. Remind me.

Last weekend I went to Suvdaa’s home to make bansh, which are like mini-buzz (dumplings). It was interesting to explain to her that we just have the one word for dumplings; that we don’t specify between sizes like they do.

In keeping with my new year’s resolutions, I did a photo-how-to on how to make bansh!

Start with mixing flour and water... make a  dough ball!

                

  Let the dough rest...

                    

            While the dough rests, take out your sturdy knives and
                     choice of meat (in this case, it's beef, but you can have camel, sheep, goat, whatever!)
       Just be sure NOT to trim the fat! (Mongolians love it!)

Cut the meat in big strips...

...then take those strips and cut them into even tiny-er strips...

Make sure to look FABULOUS while doing it!

...and cut again to make tiny cubes of MEAT

Now that you've chopped the meat,
put a handful of salt into a bowl of water for the onions.

Next, chop the onions into REALLY SMALL PIECES!
This is Suvdaa's daughter, such a helper! :)

Onions into the water-salt mix!

Onion-salt mix, into the meat mmmm

Now rooool it out into a desired thickness (thicker
for buuz, thinner for bansh)

While waiting that to marinate, check out the dough
that was resting, and kneed it like ya need it.

Cut the roll it into a desired thickness and press it,
making a cute little dough-coin thing

                                          

                DOUGH! IMMA EAT CHOO

Now the trick to good buuz is the rolling and the pinching-
roll from the inside to make a disk that's slightly thicker in the middle.

Now add the meat + onion mix...

...and pinch the top like an accordion... or something
I'm really terrible at it. So don't listen to me.

          
                     TA-DA!

                              

           Suvdaa even taught me how to do the buuz folding... which I failed at. Big time.

Can you tell which one I made? Ha.

                                

           All that's left is to cook 'em! This is milk tea, a traditional Mongolian drink.
            It's a mix of water, milk, tea from drained tea leaves, and a little salt.

                        

                                 IN GOES THE BANSH!

Boil, and SERVE!

Eat it with friends! Hom nom nom!

And that's about it! Easy-peasy yeah? So now go make your own and let me know how it goes. :)

Happy Tsaagan Sar, everyone!

Сар шинэдээ сайхан шинэлээрэй!

Singing oh, January, oh

The Decemberists new album = rockin', albeit a bit country sounding, was inspired by REM so I'm gonna give them a break.

Went to the Mercy Corps Client Day and Trade Fair during the weekend, some pictures ahead (HAHA get it?! Well, if you don't you'll see soon enough...). I got some cool stuffs, including PORK which we made pulled-pork sandwiches with and they were DELICIOUS.

Yesterday was the end of the 4^th Nine (see my post about the Nine Nines)… which is the coldest Nine. Only warm from here on up, yeah? I’d like to call BS since it’s only the end of January, but it seems that it might actually be true- the weekend calls for the lows to be ABOVE zero, and highs of +23F! I don’t even remember what that feels like! Break out the bathing suits!

This little sheep went to market... 

Also a month from today (*ahem* this was written yesterday) I’ll be headed to the good ol’ US of A (and Hong Kong) for a nice vacation. I’m thinking either I’m going to FREAK OUT (dreading reverse culture shock) or it’ll be perfectly fine. Hopefully the latter. Although my mom said she had it when she came back from Scotland for the first time, going into the huge supermarkets. One can only hope that I freak out whist eating a wonderful Jimmy Johns sandwich. #9 with no tomatoes and extra lettuce and onion… here I come.

…Need to stop thinking about American food. Just gets depressing. I’ve noticed I get on “food kicks” here. Like I’ll eat one kind of thing for a long time then suddenly get sick of it. I once was hugely obsessed with veggie melts but once sliced cheese disappeared from the delguur (store) shelves, I’ve been mostly eating sliced veggies with a Thai sweet-and-sour sauce, sometimes with chicken if I have it. For breakfast I used to be a hard-core egg eater but now I’ve gotten lazy and, with the help of Alex’s oven I’m still pirating, I’ve been eating toast nearly every morning. Partially also due to the fact that eggs are becoming a rarity again now that Tsaagan Sar is less than a week away.

i lose mai bodie... plz help mi :(

In other news we finished our grant for the Children’s Camp this week and I’m just waiting until Friday to get the final signatures so we can send it in. This week I’ll be starting another grant to address road safety in our community. When my coworker said that the hospital was interested in doing that project, I was right on board. We’re going to try for a MCA (Millennium Challenge) grant… but the deadline is April 4^th, just after I come back. So I’m going to try my darndest to punch this thing out next month with the help of my coworkers.

A little random, but I had a momentary freak-out at work today. I haven’t been feeling very good this week (tired/sore throat), I don’t know if that has anything to do with this. Anyway. I had “Doctors Without Borders” on the brain for some reason so I decided to check out their website. My thought process went a little like this:

Oh this would be a really awesome thing to do, what are the requirements? *clickity click* --> Huh, two years clinical experience with less than a 2 year gap in between --> Well, that’s ok, I can do my masters before hand, then I can work for a couple of years and then do this --> Let’s look at U of M’s nursing master’s programs! *clickity click* --> shit, do I need to take the GRE? WHEN? --> wait, what the heck to I even want to do my master IN? Clinical nurse specialist in GI diseases? CNS in adult acute care? Community health? Education? --> Should I start applying now?? --> Oh, but what if I wanted to take a year off? Then I could go down to Bolivia to do the photographs for Hugh’s university --> What about those photography classes I wanted to do? *clickity click* --> What about the continuing education classes in Japan? *CLICKITY CLICK* --> What about doing a year in South Korea teaching English? You get paid for that! --> What if I want to do a 3^rd year here?! I’m going to be SO OLD! I’m going to be the OLD SPINSTER with the nice career and no love/personal life, aren’t I? AREN’T I?? --> …I really should be working on that grant. *hastily closes browser tabs*

…Luckily my coworkers did not notice such a thought process.

Here's a nice picture so you can think happy thoughts after this blog post!