Thanksgiving Menu in Bayankhongor...

Fritters
Chirros

Chicken
Mashed potatoes (variety)
Stuffing
Vegies
Biscuits
Gravy
vegie salad

Oatmeal cookies
Jello
Pudding
Pumpkin pie

Happy Thanksgiving!

How to teach the Hokey Pokey

So this week has been a relentlessly busy one so far. Besides the regular class load I helped teach a seminar to fourth grade English teachers meaning I sang songs for and extra four hours this week. In other teaching news I offered to teach my second year English class outside today. They took me up on the offer and we headed outdoors bundled in a minimum of four layers. This seemed like a perfect time to teach the requisite English song: the Hokey Pokey. At first they were a little embarrassed to be singing in front of the school building in the cold (especially when "you put your left hip in and you shake it all about..."), but it eventually reached the silly level at which point they started to enjoy the song and dance.

We started taking the comparative/superlative quiz with the students sitting on the non-functioning fountain when one of the students asked, "Tysen bagsh (teacher) are you cold?" Not wanting to look weak I decided that the best reply would be, "No, of course not" but then, at the spur of the moment I decided to follow up on the response with another question, the famous, "...are you?" Being Mongolians I assumed that the -9 degree Celsius weather felt a bit balmy (people still aren't wearing hats here... I usually wear two on top of each other). But how wrong I was! Haha! They wanted to go back inside to finish class! I win!

Or not...this winter will be telling. It's really not bad until the wind picks up, at which point it doesn't seem to matter how many layers you are wearing...

Bathing has become less entertaining of late. Let me explain (the youth of America are advised to avert their attention away from this blog for the next few moments...). The process of taking a tumpin bath is a complicated one. At least it is for Tysen. You see, a tumpin is a giant Tupperware, maybe two feet in diameter.

Step one: make a huge, and I mean huge fire in your stove. I recommend stuffing the thing with so much wood and coal that you can barely get the cover put on...


Step two: turn on your Peace Corps issued heater. On high. But not too high less you blow your ger's fuse (again...).

Step three (actually performed simultaneously with steps one and two): boil water in your tea kettle. You won't need much.

Step four: pour one scoop (maybe 4 cups) of cold water into your tumpin (you could use more if you are less frugal about your water supply, meaning you don't sleep through the morning delivery every time you run out...). Add a little of your boiled water. WATCH OUT! Do not put too much boiling water into the tumpin. Your tumpin will not melt but your head will not soon forgive you...

Step five: tip the tumpin towards you and bob your hair into the pooled water. You will need to splash some water around since you are not using much (remember your Peace Corps budget friends!). Apply shampoo and rinse. At this point many people get new water to wash their body. Take a wild guess about whether or not Tysen does this...

Step six: wash yourself. Start with your top half kneeling over your tumpin. Then stand/squat in your tumpin and wash your lower half.

Step seven: reach for your towel and dry yourself in the tumpin (don't get your ger carpet wet, it is hard enough to clean the way it is...). GET DRESSED QUICKLY LEST YOU DIE A QUICK BUT PAINFUL DEATH.

Mash sain baina! You have just taken your first (and most likely last tumpin bath, if it is not your last, please seek counseling). Most Mongolians use the shower houses here and find tumpin bathing Peace Corps Volunteers a bit odd and provincial. But, hey, you know what, I don't have a good response to that one yet...

I should mention things political. Or not...

Enjoy the weather!
Peace out from Mongolia
(7:27 PM on Wednesday, November 12).

Their was an existentialist...and Camus was his name-oh!

That's right friends, I did a little Bingo remix while doing laundry at Leslie and Nathan's today. They then made me pancakes. Yeah. Then, at one o'clock some of my students made me tsuivan. Yeah squared. Now I am full, but need to plan lessons, prepare for a seminar, and try not to let my German fall into the abyss that my Ancient Greek is lying in... Yana!

Other news, it seems that my ger can be at one of two temperatures: cold or super hot. I am working on the correct in between. Neither extreme really bothers me but guests spend about half the time telling me either "Wow, it's really cold in here!" or, "Wow, that's a really warm fire...". Discovery of the day: a TV makes entertaining guests about 1,000,000 times easier than trying to keep up a conversation. And, one can always ask silly questions about the show. Like the reality TV show about city kids working on a farm. My first three comments went like this:

1) There was a shot of some kids putting potatoes in bags. No talking, no music, just kids putting potatoes in bags. "What are those?" I asked. I wonder...

2) Next, after the break, some people on the show were waking up. "Wow, they look tired!"

3) Finally, after another 10 minutes of this amzingness, I ask what seems to be a pertinent question, "Do Mongolians watch this show?" Followed quickly by, "Why?"

Getting ready to have an awesome nerd fest in UB with Oyuntugs! We made a list of museums to visit and are working on a list of books to buy and scholars to bother! Yahoo!

In important news I played piano for the closing ceremony of the aimag's Olympics. This performance led to the realization that, while I am beyond excited to have access to a piano and do a concert with Leslie! (yahoo!) I made the right move to leave that career choice behind. I think.

Other important news: the snow has melted. We need snow to cover the dirt. Which puts me in a precarious position of hoping. Please let it snow which indirectly calls for colder weather, which indirectly asks for me to be very cold on my 20-30 minute walk to and from work as I still do not have a winter coat ("Buy it in UB, not here, there are no good ones here...all from China." Hmmm.).

Currently the weather is ok, enjoying the chilliness. Below freezing in the mornings but not below 0 F yet...

Made pudding for students today. It was deemed "goe" (tasty). Thanks pudding senders!

When a random man stops your friend on the street and tells him to bring all the Americans over at 6:40... This is the result...

No lie. That's what happened today. I got a text from Peder that read: "Some important looking dude invited s somewhere at 640. You guys down?" So we met at Leslie and Nathan's and decided that this would be the perfect setting for a horror movie. It was dark, we were supposed to meet him outside the bank. So we meander over to the bank and meet the fellow, heavy set but wearing a suit.

"My name is T---. What is your name?" Some brief introductions followed by, "Come this way." Wander through some alley looking thing, through a back door, and into... a new internet cafe. Yes, this man has developed a sense of good business unparalleled in this city. Who will use my new internet cafe? How about the odd foreigners who are always in the internet cafe at the post office? Indeed sir, indeed. He wanted us to use his new computers for free that night. On him. "No tax."

Guess where I am posting this from...

The snowball fight.

Hey there! So in the latest environmental news from Mongolia Tysen and Mamu moved his pile of coal from the driveway to between two of many sheds in the hasha. I like to think of this lovely black pile as my little piece of global warming. After the shoveling (a blast of a time I assure you), I decided that Mamu needed to be hit with a snowball (as he had mentioned in tutoring the week before that, and I quote "I like to have snowball fights in the winter.") This quickly escalated into a all out snow war with Tysen and the four under 10 children pitted against Mamu. We definitely had the last laugh when I instructed two of my comrades to grab Mamu's legs while I put him in a head lock. The other two kids proceeded to smash about 5 bazillion snowballs into his face. I should note that this was our only successful battle of the war: I was wrestled to the ground about, oh I don't know, 7 times. Each time Mamu thought that both snow and dirt should get into my mouth...

In other news school is CRAZY busy, but in a good way so far. I've decided that I will start some silly Mongolian translation projects like translating Yesterday into Mongolian and some Mongolian lyrics into English. I will keep you posted. I also hope to revive my 501 Mongolian verbs plan (like the famous 501 German verbs, French verbs, etc). Amazingly, no one has written the Mongolian one yet...

Right,
Stay warm and take care!

Za, za, za

Ah, the infamous three za's! (ok, ok, ok). This, my friends, is what you say when you run out of Mongolian vocabulary and have already stumbled through all the grammar you "learned" this summer. Or, it is what your visitors say to you after they have finished their obligatory cup of tea and are done attempting to stoop to your linguistic level. Friends, a good day to you all!

SNOW!

Snow fell this morning! Wonderful to see. Nathan and I were chatting on the way over to the Internet cafe and we decided that what Bayankhongor needs is a good coat of snow. Can't wait! Electricity is out right now in my part of town but it's not terribly difficult to get around: made a big pot of soup at Leslie and Nathan's and had it for dinner last night, lunch today, and supper again tonight no doubt. Tasty stuff: turnips, carrots, rice, onions, garlic, bouillon cubes. You can't screw up soup (unless your name is Quinn and you burn it...), and it hits the tummy just right on chilly days like these so it looks like my future will contain more of this grand liquid/solid ambiguity.

Work continues to go well: I've discovered that centering the lessons around ideas makes life more interesting that focusing on individual competencies. So for example: I look in the book to find out what the content is, then think about what interesting topic could be discussed using this content and then make some activities. Working so far...

Halloween celebrations coming up at school. The new English Club will be sponsoring the event which will include costumes, dancing, and candy (naturally). Should be a good time.

Is it time for a new Mongolian recipe? How about making some Huushuur (pronounced Hoe-shore)? First, decide if you are in the mood for meat. If yes, get some ground meat. Make mashed potatoes with lots of great spices (thus making my recipe not Mongolian...). Boil some carrots and turnips with those taters if you feel so inclined. Use plenty of garlic and onions! Ok! Now make some dough: just flour and water is fine, a little salt too is a good idea. Roll out your dough nice and thin and make smallish circles (about 6 inches in diameter). Put your mashed concoction on your dough circle and then fold the dough in half and pinch it shut. Now fry that sucker in some oil. Let it turn light brown so it's crispy. Yahoo! You have huushuur! Good stuff but it might kill you if you eat it too frequently...

I found out where the local cemetery is, and learned some burial customs (the body isn't always buried for example). Peder and I might check it out with Mamu sometime soon (but not at night, says Mamu...).

Climbed another mountain last weekend: better view of Bayankhongor than the mountain the weekend before provided but alas I forgot my camera at school, will get more pictures sometime in the future.

I forgot my list of blog topics at school...so there shall be more soon.


Take care and enjoy the weather!
Tysen