A lovely Autumn Day... pingtai...

The biggest news first. I was sitting in my ger today making poories (really a strange adaptation of poories with dried fruit and plenty of sugar and honey...yum...), when Dogoo and Mamu (my hasha mom and hasha little brother respectively) come into my ger with a TV! They cleaned off my avter (clothing container) and set it up and showed me their favorite channels. "Mash ikh bayarlalaa!" Thank you very much was the reply of the flabbergasted PCV...

Then about fifteen minutes later then come in again with, a giant rug! Yahoo. Warm, and cozy looking. In other ger news, I got my "ping" yesterday. A ping: little house thing in front of a ger for storing wood and keeping out the cold. Also chopped some wood with Mamu. And by chop some wood with Mamu I mean, tried to chop wood and Mamu laughed at me. I resorted to hauling the chopped wood to my ping. A new challenge. Seems doable. I will have to practice secretly...

Teaching is going well and I've discovered a new way to learn more Mongolian. I am trying to make sure that I know how to say everything I am teaching my students in Mongolian. Also need to learn more songs. Speaking of which, Leslie and I are going to record her song "Mongolia" some time soon and they will post it on their blog. Very cool. More pictures also coming soon. I took some of Bayankhongor and my camel coat.

Leslie and Nathan had a party yesterday night. We had our Mongolian counterparts over. There was a conspicuous lack of alcohol which resulted in Mongolians leaving the party early. Live and learn friends, live and learn.

Check out the Chamberlain's blog for information on how their apartment was pillaged and then restored within a 24 hour period... Yikes.

Currently reading: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Good read. I hear that if one likes the movie then the book will be amazing. So far, true. Looking forward to reading some Sartre, Derrida, Heidegger, Niezsche, and I hear that I NEED to read The Picture of Dorian Grey. Should be in the PC library in UB so I will pick it up in December.

Oh! Speaking of December, we found out that we will be in UB for training from December 16-19. So, Peder and I will make the trek to Javkhlant after training is over and stay with our host families from this summer. Christmas in Javkhlant! Awesome.

More sometime later, internet is proving to be a fickle thing to come by: the school's internet is often occupied by the 300+ students and my friends internet is intemittant and obviously primarily theirs... But, there is the post office.

One last thing. Yesterday Peder, Mamu and I climbed one of the mountains near Bayankhongor. Beautiful view. Ate some dried fruit and nuts. Answered some cell phone calls (pleasantly odd), and then treked back down. On the way back some kids playing by the river caught me some fish. So I have some pets in my ger. Living in an empty licorice container. Three of them. Any name suggestions? Do let me know, preferably before they die...

All the best!
T.d.D.