THIS MONGOLIAN LIFE

wonder what the Mongolian version of Vitamin C’s...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:47:54 -0500

wonder what the Mongolian version of Vitamin C’s “Graduation Song” or Green Day’s “Good Riddance ” would be..

Last Friday, my school held it’s “Bell Ceremony” graduation for the 5th, 9th, and 11th grade classes. Since I’m wrapping up my 2 year service working here at the 4th school, it was kind of like my graduation too (hence donning the French maid-esque Mongolian school uniform for the big event) Beautiful day to celebrate all the hard work these students have put in over the years… both so happy and lucky to have been a part of their last two years. Congratulations to all the 4th School 5th/9th/11th graders!

One of my favorite things to check out at the Peace Corps office...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:12:37 -0500

One of my favorite things to check out at the Peace Corps office in UB… good visual to see that you really can’t throw a rock too many places around Mongolia without hitting a PCV in the head.. check out those smiling Dundgovi faces!

Had to say one of my first goodbyes the other day to our...

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:53:37 -0500

Had to say one of my first goodbyes the other day to our school’s art teacher, Tsetseg, who got a great opportunity to spend the summer teaching and learning about the education system in Korea. Always fun to joke around with in the teachers’ room and hilarious to work out with at fitness club.. really going to miss her and wish her the best of luck with everything!

She gifted the picture (above) that she made for me before she left, the symbol being the “Soyombo”, the national symbol of Mongolia also pictured on the Mongolian flag.. for more on the symbol, check out the ever informative Wikipedia on it… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyombo_symbol

After our COS Seminar, we all had to stick around UB for our...

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:10:44 -0500

After our COS Seminar, we all had to stick around UB for our medical and dental check-ups. Great timing since we got to go to an amazing salsa night with Colombian performers, celebrate a few PCVs’ birthdays, go to a Mongolian rock concert (the Lemons.. one of my favorites!), have a few goodbye dinners, etc. Also, I got to see and work wtih my 11th grade student and counterpart who won the aimag-level English Olympics and were about to compete on the national level.

One of the days, my stiemate Anh, new Mongolian friend Sunny and I snuck in an afternoon trekking up Ulaanbaatar’s Soviet WWII memorial Zaisan Tolgoi for a great view of the city and some more eagle holding.

Then it was back to the Gobi again for my students’ graduation, our “Dundgovi Best Song” competition, and a day trip to Baga Gazariin Cholo.. To be continued…

So a little but much anticipated COS Conference tradition (along...

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:18:19 -0500

So a little but much anticipated COS Conference tradition (along with slideshows and “Senior Best/Most Likely to” awards) is the COS Cook-Off…

This year, four teams participated with my amazing chef friend Jaclyn leading our team to winning “Best Dish” and taking second place overall with homemade lasagna, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken caeser salad, and bettter-than-sex cake (<—- which won best dish btw!)

The judges consisted of our fearless country director, one of amazing PC medical officers, and two fantastic Mongolian staff members. It was a tough call to judge as all the food was amazing (or maybe I’ve been here just a bit too long :) but the Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders (PCVLs), our fantastic four, took home the gold with their incredible enchiladas and Mexican-themed dishes.

In the end, everyone wins as the whole group gets an amazing spread for appetizer, entree and dessert this night!

Two weeks ago, the twenty-second group of Peace Corps Volunteers...

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:03:00 -0500

Two weeks ago, the twenty-second group of Peace Corps Volunteers had its Closing-of-Service (COS) Conference, our last and final hurrah Peace Corps seminar together were we had time to reflect on these past two years and plan out our next big ventures as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers!

As seen above, we had ourselves a little photo shoot with one big group shot and pictures of each individual training site from our summer training in 2011. We made signs throwing shout-outs to those who weren’t able to make the conference for whatever reason. (also pictured, is one of the amazing PC Mongolia staffers, Muugi, who is becoming quite the yoga master after attending my school fitness club)

Blows my mind that we made it through, M22s! Proud of all y’all, going to miss you people and looking forward to seeing what crazy/awesome plans are next for everyone… 5 year reunion in 2018?? My vote is Fiji…

Just 23 days in this beautiful place.These past few weeks have...

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:27:35 -0500

Just 23 days in this beautiful place.These past few weeks have left me little to no time for PCV senioritis to set in while I’ve been experiencing that crazy phenomenon of time both speeding up and slowing down. That being said, I need to catch up on all the good times that have been had this May.

At the beginning of May, I got to tag along as cheerleader with 15 of the best English students and teachers from the 4th and 1st schools here in Dundgovi as they made the 6 hour trek up to Govi Sumber aimag just north of here. (got to hang out with gracious Govi Sumber PCV hosts there too.. always a plus!)

My sitemate Anna and I had been working with the students for a while practicing speaking on such topics as “My Dream”, “Mongolian Air Pollution”, “Child Abuse”, “The Importance of Money”, “About World Vision Mongolia” <— who was putting on the whole event. Not the easiest prompts for 10th and 11th grade students to discuss especially in another language alone in front of an auditorium full of ESL learners and a few native speakers… but I was so proud of these kids for their hard work, perseverance, and bravery up there.. I kept putting 17 year old Stephanie up there talking about “Unemployment” in Spanish. Infinitely more impressed with my students then :)

So the competition consisted of 3 rounds, eliminating participants at each stage:

round one: exam portion covering grammar and writing
round two: the top 5 from each grade level moved on to the speaking portion where they drew a topic at random and talked about this topic for up to 5 minutes (of the 20 chosen for the 4 different levels, something like 10 of them were from Dundgovi!)
round three: the top 3 from each grade level then participated in a debate against each other with topics mostly covering the importance of studying abroad… I was so pumped to see a debate here in Mongolia especially a heated one at that!

Oh there also was an English song competition thrown there before which I took notes on for our “Dundgovi Best Song” competition we actually just held this past Saturday (more on that later!)

After getting through all three rounds, the judges tallied up the scores and announced the winners and AMAZING PRIZES!

One of my teachers took 3rd place in the teacher’s category and another teacher took “Best English Teacher” of the tournament… both taking home certificates, medals, cash money, and a DVD player.

One of our 11th graders and one of our 10th graders got 2nd place, won “Best Pronunciation”, got 2 DVD players and a trip to the US!

One of my favorite students, a 10th grader at my school, took home the gold, a desktop computer… and a full ride scholarship to her choice of 150 universities in America!!!!! So incredibly excited for this student and to meet up with her sometime in 2014 :)

All the students and teachers did so well and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to work with these two years. They have some great potential and I look forward to seeing where life takes them

30 days left of my Peace Corps service… way too many...

Mon, 13 May 2013 05:54:00 -0500

30 days left of my Peace Corps service… way too many different kinds of emotions going on right now to process, So for now, I’m going to cherish every Mongol minute I have left here and get excited that I get to see all these faces and more in exactly one month!

Pizza Night at the Kovanda Ger with one of my English teachers,...

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:01:49 -0500

Pizza Night at the Kovanda Ger with one of my English teachers, her son, one of my 11th grade students, my hashaa family, and the PCVs in town.

Went a bit off the beaten pizza path and cranked out some BBQ chicken pizza, Indian butter chicken pizza, and chicken alfredo pizza… dinner was a bit chicken-crazy but gotta cherish the brief respite from old angry sheep meat.

and as if this meal wasn’t deliciously unhealthy enough, we washed it all down with some coke and cupcakes for a little Gobi dessert.

We ended the night with some intense games of Bananagrams, and the smack talk coming from these ESL learners in English! Moments like these…. I feel like a proud mama:)

Click here to check out the Rotary press release picked up by the Wall Street Journal that my good friend Michelle wrote... ROCKSTAR

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:50:32 -0500

Click here to check out the Rotary press release picked up by the Wall Street Journal that my good friend Michelle wrote... ROCKSTAR:

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130501-906266.html

What the world eats -- a week's worth of groceries - Imgur

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:39:21 -0500

What the world eats -- a week's worth of groceries - Imgur

a few Mongol photo shoot outtakes…. It was a long winter.

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:07:56 -0500

a few Mongol photo shoot outtakes….

It was a long winter.

WOO all caught up on this Mongolian life once more… So...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:17:00 -0500

WOO all caught up on this Mongolian life once more…

So I’ll leave you with this little gem we took recently at my hashaa dad’s photo studio for a very belated birthday present for our sitemate Anh (sitting on the right in front). Pictured are all the Peace Corps Volunteers currently living in Mandalgobi, Mongolia.. if only I can get my hands on the outtakes…

Now we’re in the final countdown with a few more English Olympic competitions, a province-wide song competition and graduation left to go and I’ll be on my merry way back to Amerrrrica! (EXACTLY 45 DAYS!)

Celebrated Earth Day this year with a big old trash pick-up...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:14:53 -0500

Celebrated Earth Day this year with a big old trash pick-up competition and a pick-up soccer “herd ball” game!

Got some very environmentally aware little Messi’s and Ronaldo’s here in the Gobi!

English Week 2013 This past week, we held our first (and...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:09:30 -0500

English Week 2013

This past week, we held our first (and hopefully not last) annual English Week for students of the 4th secondary school in Mandalgobi Mongolia!

It was a crazy/busy/fun/great week consisting of the following:

Monday - 4th School English Olympics test & showing of the movie “the Hunger Games” with English subtitles
Tuesday - 5th grade poetry reading competition and 7-9th grade skit competition
Wednesday - 10(12)th, 10(11)th and 11th grade speaking competition
Thursday - 4th School Best Song competition (much like American idol if you will)
Friday - English Project Fair competition (where students have free rein to come up with a project answering the question “Why is it important to learn English?)

Congrats to all the competition winners and a big thanks to all those who participated and my rockstar English teachers for helping me put this on!

Turns out my brother and his fiance aren’t the only ones...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:35:53 -0500

Turns out my brother and his fiance aren’t the only ones getting tying the knot these days!

One of our own, Peace Corps volunteer Nathan hailing from the lovely Mongolian city of Erdenet, recently married his Mongolian host sister, Suvdaa whom he met during our summer training two summers ago!

We were fortunate enough to make our way up to Erdenet for the weekend after two separate 6-hour bus rides and enjoyed a weekend of hanging out with Peace Corps friends, playing a long game of pick-up soccer, and of course, being a part of the wonderful celebration of these two now newlyweds!

It was my first Mongolian wedding and a beautiful one at that with trained Mongolian singers, horse-head fiddle players, Peace Corps Volunteer and Fulbright scholar performances and a personal favorite, a contortionist act gifted to the couple by the bride’s uncle!

Whirlwind weekend but so happy to have been a part of it… then it was off to the Gobi again to kick off our school’s English Week 2013! (well after a 9 hour bus ride after multiple bus breakdowns blahhh). Got home to find out that my hashaa mom spread a teeny tiny bit of gossip that my little trip to Erdenet was MY wedding to an Erdenet man I had met last fall when my teachers and I went to a math olympics to support participating students.. ha didn’t help that she had just gifted me a beautiful Mongolian silver ring I could only fit on the ring finger of my left hand ha.

Well, just wanted to say congratulations and best of luck to the newlyweds, Nathan and Suvdaa! Very happy for you two and excited to see what your future together holds!

Just a typical day in the hashaa…. Got a little distracted...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:21:12 -0500

Just a typical day in the hashaa….

Got a little distracted when I went to fetch water when water cart turned race car

A few weeks back, my brother and his fiance (after fearlessly...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:16:42 -0500

A few weeks back, my brother and his fiance (after fearlessly taking on all that is Mongol travel here) had one of three wedding showers hosted by my parents with a theme you may be able to guess by looking at the picture sent to me above of my brother’s fiance, my brother, my aunt Carol, and my Uncle Mark sporting some pretty saddle-hardened, purdy get-up for the big ho-down… now only just over 2 months until the big day!

Also, exciting was the safe delivery of the rocks above to my aunt and uncle who visited in the fall for the big eagle festival out west. My aunt and uncle have a good friend who collects “snail” things and was helping them out while they were on vacation. Being the always thoughtful people they are. they wanted to get something Mongol and snail for their friend but I don’t quite think we have much in the ways of snails around here so we came up with a bit of a different plan: a rock from Bayan Ulgii decorated with the Mongol traditional script reading.. you may have guessed it.. “snail” in Mongolian!

The other rock is a souvenir for my aunt and uncle reading “Good luck and happiness”, a Mongol favorite as well-wishes go.

Elated to see these characters pictured above in something like 45 days!

Immediately after my visitors left back for the land of the home...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:06:19 -0500

Immediately after my visitors left back for the land of the home and the free, we got right back to the Mongol grind of things and had a few English competitions go down:

English Olympics: This national competition is held every spring for each academic subject and it isn’t just your typical mundane academic competition… things get real. thousands compete. smack talk goes down. and only the most well-versed (and best test takers) in their respective subject boast the classic gold medals and certificate dolled at every a Mongolian competition.. but these specific medals earn you mad street cred for the year and a trip to UB to compete on the national level…. this year, I’m very proud to say that 4 of my 5 English teachers placed in the top 4 spots at the English Olympics and 2 students took 1st and 3rd in the 11th and 9th grade Olympics respectively… so proud and wishing them the best of luck in a few weeks here for the national competition!

Dundgobi Aimag English Spelling Bee - For the past few years, Peace Corps Volunteers have held an English spelling bee here in town. Last year, we extended it to include all the kids in the entire province and this year, we tacked on a few more grades to compete. Always a favorite in the world of Dundgobi English language learners here and personally one of my favorite projects to date!

Dundgobi Aimag Pyramid Competition -Word on the Mongol street is this competition has been all the rave in other provinces, so we decided to give it a go down here in the Gobi. Basically, it’s a three-tier English competition for secondary schools students and what each tier entails is up to you! So we made this competition for the 8th graders of Dundgobi Aimag to compete in Taboo, Word Scramble, and a final round of Jeopardy… big hit and my little 8th grade nuggets took home the gold. Congrats to Badarch and the gang :)

Now, March English Competition Madness is technically over but the madness part continues on…. last week, we had our first ever English Week here at my school. We are also preparing for an upcoming World Vision English Olympics (where winner gets a scholarship to study in America!) and the national English Olympics where my English teacher Navchaa and 11th grade student Sukhee will go to compete. And to bring it all home, we will have an “American Idol”-esque song competition at the end of May here! I’m hoping to get my Simon Cowell on ha.

Then, it’s like 2 more weeks and my work here is finished… AH!

we finished the night off with celebrating two Peace Corps...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:35:07 -0500

we finished the night off with celebrating two Peace Corps volunteer birthdays and playing the always classy game of Flip Cup at my sitemate Anna’s ger….

Then it was off to our town’s one dance club, Nitro, and home at a decent hour since the next day, the group would head up to Ulaanbaatar once more (through a sandstorm nevertheless..hardcore) for one last day of souvenir shopping, Indian food dinner, and some modernized Mongolian throat singing… and the next day, the long trek back to Chicago!

Overall, fantastic trip… I’ve been so blessed to have three waves of family members come visit and being able to introduce two of my worlds to each other in this incredible place…