Catch Up

I feel like I have been neglecting this blog recently but that’s not totally my fault. The wireless internet has pretty much been out at my guesthouse for almost 2 weeks now, which is very annoying and cuts back on my random internet time; so I’m blaming my lack of internet access as the reason I’ve not put up any real posts lately. However, I’m currently sitting in a café, sipping some hot chocolate, downloading tv shows, and have the sufficient time to kill on the internet.

Life has been pretty normal the past couple of weeks. It is currently Friday afternoon and the reason I’m in a café and not at work is because it is a holiday in Mongolia, one of their biggest, so I’ve been off work since Tuesday (I’ll do a post about the holiday later after it’s finished).

Work is going alright. I’m getting busier and at the same time I don’t always have a lot to do. I’m working on setting up appointments with embassies, companies, and organizations to ask them to support our project. Last Thursday I had a meeting at the US Embassy, which was really fun. It was my first meeting here in Mongolia about pitching the Habitat project/getting support and it was great. I especially enjoyed getting to see some of the US Embassy. I’m also working on a Charity Dinner Fundraiser that we’re throwing in a couple of weeks. I’m not in charge but I’ve been asked to get invitations out to embassies, etc. so I’ve been working on that as well. Lastly there is a grant proposal that is due next week that I’m working on with a girl (Eenee) in the office. It is not very long and I feel like I could write it pretty easily but Eenee wants experience writing a grant proposal so it is going to take a lot longer. I’m actually meeting her tomorrow (Saturday) to work on it because we might not have time next week and this holiday schedule has derailed a few things. My boss will be back at work on Monday (I think), so I’m waiting to see if that will alter my workload at all.

In social updates I’ve been hanging out with the English girl Anna who lives at my guesthouse. Last Friday we met after work to go to a café to chat and sit on our computers for a few hours, which was nice. Then on Saturday afternoon I wanted to walk around some parts of the city that I’d never been to before and she came with me. We walked around for a few hours and stopped at an Indian restaurant that was recommended to me and got take out. 

Anna when we were walking around UB.

Saturday morning I helped out with music lessons at church for the second time. It went well although there weren’t many people there because of the upcoming holiday a lot of Mongolians had to work, it was still good and I was able to chat with the senior missionary couple quite a bit (and they’re the ones who recommended the Indian restaurant which ended up being fantastic).

The best update of all is that it is getting perceptively warmer!!!!! The temperature has been positive during the day most of the past week and even got up to 12F!!!! I was able to not wear a hat when I walked home from church on Sunday, it was THAT warm.

See, no hat!!!

Stay tuned in the next few days for my post about Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian holiday where all we do is eat.

I also thought I would post this picture of a new billboard I saw a few days ago. In my opinion, any city that’s going to put Roger Federer on a billboard has got class.