Spit Freezes Too

The internet has been out at my guest house since Friday, so I’m blaming that for my lack of blogging the past few days.

I want this blog to be about an interesting phenomenon that I noticed a couple of weeks ago when I first walked around Ulaanbaatar. Like other Asian countries (I’m looking at you China), many people here spit anytime and anywhere they feel like it. However, because it is so cold the spit freezes, and is therefore left on the sidewalk and pavement for all to see, (presumably for many months to come). I’ve become strangely fascinated by the frozen spit all over the place and have therefore photo-documented it to share with all of you. Please enjoy the pictures of frozen spit.

 

Love from the Receptionist

This post is dedicated to Augi (spelling?), the extremely nice and well-meaning receptionist at Habitat’s Mongolian headquarters. She sits at a desk 12 feet from me. 

For most of yesterday morning our boss was out of the office which I think gave Augi the license to come and talk with me for most of it. She speaks decent English, (at least I can usually get the gist of what she’s trying to say) but she is always wanting to practice and I’m more than happy to oblige because she’s kind of fun to talk to.

She seems to know a little bit about Mormons because she asked to confirm that I don’t drink tea or coffee. She was headed to the store to get some office supplies and asked if there was anything she could get me that I would drink. I told her I could drink any type of just fruit tea. So she bought black tea with lemon and strawberry flavoring, which of course is just normal tea with fruit flavoring. I feel kind of bad about this and haven’t told her that I can’t drink that either, I’ll probably just take a tea bag every few days and bring them home to my hostel where someone can drink it. 

Mid-morning she made the executive decision that the hostel I’m living at right now is not very good. I’m not sure where she got this idea because I am overall quite satisfied with my living arrangements. Nevertheless, Augi wants me to find somewhere better. First of all she would like me to move into her apartment starting in May when she and her husband and son will move to their summer house. I would live there with her 19 year old daughter for free. She thinks this is very important because I am a student and can’t afford very much and it will help her daughter with her English. I am actually not opposed to this idea and we’ll see how things work out. Then, without me realizing she got on the phone with a previous Habitat coordinator to ask about hostels (this was all in Mongolian at first so I had no idea what was going on until she handed me her mobile phone). The previous coordinator gave me a hostel name and the phone number. I looked up the website and Augi came over to my desk to look, then she asked if she could call, so she stood at my desk using the phone to call this other hostel. Eventually she gave the phone to me to talk to the lady who runs the new hostel and now I’m supposed to go take a look at it to check it out.

Then for lunch Augi invited me into the conference room so we could eat together. I had brought left over spaghetti to eat. Augi had, as usual brought a variety of things including some potato salad she made and gave me a plate of it. The potato salad was very good, lots of different things in it. But she was also eating some meat and she put a couple of pieces on my plate without me really wanting her to. It was some sort of cow’s stomach apparently and it made me a little sick. I couldn’t handle the outer membrane and didn’t eat that. But for 15 minutes I sat chewing the meat. There was no way I was going to handle eating the other piece so I said I was full and would eat it later and so put it in with my remaining spaghetti. This prompted Augi to put all the remaining meat in my plastic container. Not the best plan, but it did allow me to dispose of it when I got home and so didn’t have to hurt her feelings.

That was my day of Augi. I really like her and she has taken a definite interest in me which I appreciate.

Ok, I admit it, it's cold!

I normally wouldn't bother writing more than one post in a 24 hour period but I feel like wallowing in a little bit of pity. Today seems particularly cold. During my walk to work this morning it was especially chilly that I even put up my hood on top of my very warm hat (I don't normally like to do that because it cuts off my peripheral vision and I need all my wits about me when navigating the icy streets and traffic). But I could literally feel the metal in my earrings starting to freeze, so I put up the hood. On top of that it is even quite chilly in my office. I've already put on my scarf and gloves and I'm debating about whether I should put on my coat. Tomorrow I'm wearing 5 layers instead of 3.

 

My bright office. Unfortunately all those windows mean not so great insulation, though normally it is ok.

Funny? Not so much.

Right before I left I had a conversation with my mom that went something like this:

Mom: How come you haven’t made your blog funny? Isn’t it supposed to be funny?

Me: I don’t know. I’m not usually funny on purpose. It doesn’t have to be funny, it’s just supposed to update people on how I’m doing.

Mom: Well why don’t you talk about when you first heard about going to Mongolia?

Me: You mean how I came home and burst into tears as soon as my roommate came to talk to me?

Mom: Yeah, that’s funny!

I’m not sure why me crying is funny, but apparently my mom thinks it is. Turns out my tears were for nothing because living here is not so bad. They have pretty much anything a Westerner could ask for. Including giant jars of Nutella and Dunkin Donuts Coffee (if I drank coffee, you better believe I would buy Dunkin's coffee).

The Same in Every Language

I was going to write a post summing up my weekend but I'll do that later. Now I just want to digress and say how much I freaking love church! More than any geographical location in the world, going to church makes me feel like I'm home. Today I had the opportunity to go to church in Mongolia for the first time. I had found the church last week but had missed all the meetings (oops). I was grateful that the building was in fact clearly marked so I knew where I was going at least (unlike China where the first week I had to follow someone in a la Harry Potter trying to get on the Hogwarts Express for the first time). I didn't really understand a word of what was said today but I was so happy to be there, to partake of the sacrament, and to feel the spirit. Relief Society was just like it is everywhere: flowers on the table, good news minute shared, plugging for visiting teaching, and we went over time 10 minutes. It felt good to be home.

A Good Day

Today was a good day. Not that I've been miserable or anything, far from it, but today was the best day I've had since leaving the US. Today was my first full day of work and it has gotten me very excited.

What made today awesome:

• I survived walking to work in -39F weather this morning.
• I spent an hour and a half talking with my boss about everything I'm going to be doing for HFH Mongolia (which is kind of scary since I don't know how to do half of it but I'll figure it out somehow).
• I had lunch with my co-workers in the conference room. I didn't understand any of the conversation that took place in Mongolian, but it was fun to be with them and Mongolian is a beautiful language to listen to. Half the time it sounds like what they're saying is an important secret, which makes me want to know what it means all the more. 
• My office is warm and bright. It is a nice place to spend my day.
• All of the food I've had in Mongolia so far has been delicious.
• I survived the walk home in -31F weather.

It was a good day. 

Here are a couple of pictures I took of myself while walking home yesterday. I took the one on the bottom to show the small part of my hair that did not get put under my hat and so it frosted after being outside for 3 minutes.

Back to Beijing

On Monday, after only being in Mongolia for 1.75 days, I went back to China. For some unbeknownst reason I had to leave the country in order to get a Mongolia work visa. So back I went to Beijing, the nearest Mongolian embassy. I was not exactly thrilled to have to leave Ulaanbaatar so quickly without really getting a chance to settle in yet and though I like Beijing, I didn’t really have any desire to go there again, especially in January. Oh well.

The trip overall was ok. There were some frustrating experiences dealing with the Mongolian embassy and then a bank where I had to pay the visa fees, but otherwise things went smoothly. I did a lot of walking around because I had time to kill and no real agenda. It was really fun tobe back in China where I feel very comfortable.

(Being a solo tourist means a lot of self-portraits.)

I’m very happy to be back in Ulaanbaatar though, despite the 40 degree temperature difference.