Beach Corps

Here I am, last full day on the island. And I'm on the internet blogging and checking March Madness stats (SUCKS TO SUCK MICHIGAN ahahahahaha). I'm waiting for my family to wake up so I can make breakfast and go snorkeling one last time. We're on St. John, and we've pretty much not had to go anywhere else... full of freaking amazing beaches and even more amazing food and people. I adore it here, but my skin doesn't- I still think I'm slightly allergic to the sun, because I get those awful rashes if I'm out too long:

Ignore my haggardness of appearance and my pouty face- I've just woken up. Also, the rash doesn't look as bad in the camera. 

That's another reason I'm not in the Beach Corps (the oh-so-affectionate name for Peace Corps volunteers who live on islands/near water), or anywhere really hot. I talked with one of my old sitemates just before I left, and he said that Beach Corps volunteers complain incessantly about their situation. Which they shouldn't, we both agreed. I guess bugs wouldn't be fun, but we have those too. Grass is always greener though, right?

Anyway, apparently the temp doesn't get too high here in the summer, and year-round it's something like 70-90 because of the sea regulation. Crazy. It also hasn't rained at all since we've been here, despite a 50% chance of rain everyday (watch... downpour = tonight).

In honor of St. Patrick's Day (which we will be celebrating today at all the bars by the beach), here is some Caribbean fun:

That is truly the question, isn't it?

Rum rum rum... yum!

(Real pics to follow when I get back to the land of the blue sky...)

Leap Frog / Leap Year

Really, I just thought it would be fun to post on February 29th. Happy leap year!

So because I'm distracted (and I shouldn't be- I have a ton to do), here's a picture of where I'm going next week:

St. John, US Virgin Islands

No worries, I'm sure I'll get better pictures when I'm there. POW!

(Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...)

You win again, Tsagaan Sar.

I'm going to just go straight to pictures. I'm tired, a little sick, and hung over in oh so many ways (mostly buuz and vodka). I didn't go to as many houses as last year, but still an exhausting amount (15). It was really nice seeing my friends and counterparts, but man, is this holiday tiring (and I didn't even host!). Also: LARGE PICTURE TIME. Yeah.

Check out the customs/play-by-play from last year's blog. 

Greeting the new year's sun!

Greetings :) amar bna yy?

More greetings...

Toasts.

A sampling of the doctors, nurses, and workers at my hospital!

My director and I!

Aldarmaa!

Smilie face boov tower.

BUUZ EAT EAT MORE BUUZ 

Come play with us...

Travis' expression is perfect.

The three amigos, together again :)

It's not Tsagaan Sar without spilt blood in your stairwell.

D'aww.

This picture sums up that night pretty well.

Family portrait. 

Happy Tsagaan Sar, everyone!

It's that time of year.

Imagine, if you can, Best Buy on Black Friday. Scary crowded room, full of people pushing to get the last $100 laptop? Right. Well, Mongolia has it's own mini-version, but instead of electronics, it's carts full of food stuffs.

What is the holiday?

It's TSAGAAN SAR time! :D

This was how I imagined most of the people I encountered today were thinking. People pushing past each other to get the last Super Kontiks off the shelf. It reminds me of a couple conversations I've had in the past year about the commercialization of Tsagaan Sar. I could see it getting to Christmas-sized proportions, easy. The ads on TV, the sales, all of it hints towards commercialism. Where it becomes less about celebrating the beginning of the end of winter and the new lunar year, and more about fancy things? Some Mongolians I've talked to agree.

I'm interested to see the differences between this year and last year. One of the traditions of Tsagaan Sar is giving a gift to every person who comes to your home. The more money the family has, the fancier the gift tends to be (candy, money, and phone units are common... things like clothing, decorations and American dollars are less common). Families can quite literally go broke preparing for this holiday. The trade-off is though, is that the families will probably be able to live off of whatever gifts they received during TS. Is it starting to get out of hand, though?

So, I had a fun time at the shops today. I went store to store, but everyone was out of (good) veggies. The last store I stopped in had a good pile of green peppers, so I went to town. I really love onions (for those who don't know me) but the pile was really quite sad. I asked the nice store lady if she had any more, and she went in the back to get some.

A couple of people came by to look at the onions, but were dismayed at the wilted-ness of them. Oh, but I waited there patiently. And waited. UNTIL. The lady came out with a crate with only like 30 onions in it. And they were all mine! I had my bag ready, and grabbed up a couple kilos right before the swarm of people in the back of me, who realized that there were new onions out, pushed me to the side.

But it was too late for them. I had the most glorious onions of the pile. 

And I realized at the moment, I'm more integrated into this culture than I thought.

Some of my beautiful, tasty, eye-watering onions.

(No worries, she brought out more after I went to pay. But after all the shopping, the pushing and shoving... it was my moment!) 

Until after Tsagaan Sar (which is Feb 22nd-24th)... peace!

Lay down in your new town, walk the ground

So I'm back! I've actually been back since late last month, but work comes first, and I never seem to have the motivation to write down daily happenings.

Welp, I have zero shortage of work for the rest of my service. I'm not complaining, I realize I'm one of the lucky ones. I just finished two proposals last week, which along with Children's Camp this summer... I'll be set. Doesn't seem like a lot, but things go pretty slow here. Gotta give it time.

I feel sad that I've been away from my town for so long. I'll be spending more time in UB in the spring, and I fear what I'll miss then. I said I wrote my last blog post before I left. When I arrived back in the BU, I had found out that Altansuvd had lost her baby while I was gone. I thought about changing my post, but left it as it was... I feel like it would have been cheating if I changed it now. I've been able to see her a couple of times since then, and she's doing well. She told me the other day that her family won't have Tsagaan Sar this year, because of the grieving period (I think she said 45 days?).

In other news, in a couple of weeks I'll be on my way to Florida to see the grandparents and take a vacation to the US Virgin Islands with mom and Monika... vacation well deserved, the calm before the storm that is the rest of my time here in the BU.

Some pictures from my trip:

Woman in the traditional medicine hospital. She had a stroke, and the doctor said with traditional treatments, she was able to walk again. Interesting, no?

Children at the Disability Center in Bayankhongor.

Old house in Arvaikheer!

A desk that was donated as a part of G.W. Bush's Millenium Challenge (Mongolia was selected as one of the countries to receive grant money)... I think it's interesting that the USA is translated literally as "America's 1st Country". Maybe I'm just reading it wrong. 

Seabuckthorn wine! It actually tasted pretty good.

Creepy old hospital wheelchair.

Seminars! It's fun to give each other the heimlich, right? 

Always remember to call for help.

Jess and I did a mini-photoshoot thing for fun!

Looking out a window is always a good way to look amazing. Fact.

Warning: EXTREMELY HOT

This, my friends, is a young Stephen Colbert:

Taken from an article about a young Jon Stewart at a Dead Kennedys concert.

Yeah, you're welcome.

New Year.

**NOTE: I wrote this before my trip, just after new years. I didn't have time to put in the pictures, so I left it until now.

2012.

I've always enjoyed even years more than odd years, is that strange? Although some even years have been the absolute worst of my life, I've liked them better. Fun fact: Mongolians believe that how you'll spend the NYE is the same as how you'll spend the upcoming year. So spending last NYE alone with my cat seems pretty accurate, no?

This year, Jess and I traveled down to Dariganga to ring in 2012 with our own Sarah K. This means I'll be surrounded by friends this year, yeah? Since this year marks the final stretch of my Peace Corps service, it makes sense.

So how did I do on my new year's resolutions? Pretty well, I thought. Get shit done, genee (I said). I think I successfully got shit done. I'll mark that as a check. Taking more photos, genee. That is a not check. Jess and I are planning to keep each other creative this year (her passion being poetry). I've already started the year out pretty well:

2012 Resolutions:
-More photographs, even taking shit ones and not being so hard on myself about them
-Get even more shit done and finish my PC service out right
-Get healthier!
-Read more, watch less crap, dammit
-Swear less!   no.

I'm getting ready for a mini tour of Mongolia next week: A week in Altai, and a couple days in Bayankhongor, Arvikheer, and Khar Khorin. All for nursing seminars and CPR/first aid classes, but it'll be nice to visit with friends... and work on those new year's resolutions.

Yesterday was weird. That's seriously the only word to describe it. I was so pleased with myself that I got so much work done, but yet downer things kept happening like tearing a huge hole in my nice pants because I got too close to a metal trash can (seriously, what). At least the day ended off well, with a wine-filled evening with my CPs, although I had planned to do laundry (and I did end up doing later), I decided to let it go. I haven't done that in a long time, isn't that sad? I've become a grouchy-pants. I then stumbled to the store half-drunk with a coworker who I thought didn't like me that much, but there we were, arm-in-arm making our way to the center of town and having a nice conversation.

Shin Jil was a lot more low-key this year, and a bit of a downer. I was still sick, so I wasn't drinking (mistake! but at least I didn't have a hangover). Altansuvd wasn't there because she had just had her baby (?!?!?! it's a BOY!! You guys don't know how excited I am about this), and Mukhzul wasn't there because of a family death. I enjoyed the time, anyway:

Happy New Year, folks.