Things have slowed down a bit here. I am doing more planning and plotting than running around the city like a madwoman.
I start work with my second (money earning) job this Saturday, and am am not happy about it. Thus far this job has already messed up my plans for at least two holidays and a possible trip out of the country. And, I will only be working there for two months. Eff. I start working at a summer camp this Saturday, July 3. So, I will be missing the July 4th celebrations at the US Embassy. And, I am working at this happy fun time camp all of the week of July 12-16 so I get to miss Nadaam as well. This one I'm particularly irritated by. Mongolia has, maybe, three or four recognizable holidays. The biggest (and soonest) of which is Nadaam. It is a three day festival in which people come from all over to compete in the "three manly sports", wrestling, horseback racing, and archery. I will be in UB for Sunday the 11th, so I will get to see the opening ceremonies. But, I get to miss the rest of it, thank you camp. If I were teaching here in UB at that time, the school in UB doesn't have class during Nadaam, but of course the camp does. And, then I get an email from Gina this morning about a conference opportunity in Russia that @Mn really should be sending someone to. Who wants to go? Me! Who can't go because she has class? ME! B is displeased. At least this job is only until August 20th. Then, hopefully I can find something a little less irritating. I know this sounds spoiled. I have to miss celebrations and conferences because I'm teaching Mongolian children to speak English which may or may not improve their chance to eek a more profitable living in globalizing Mongolia. Part of me is okay with missing the festivals and whatnot because I fully plan on doing it next year either on my own as I circumnavigate Mongolia hunting down any and all animal-based festivals (yak festival: July 14-16 at Khatgal sum, Mongolian horses: August 15, Golden Eagle Festival: September 18-19 Bayan-Ulgii province, Tsaatan Festival (which involves reindeer polo): July 1-4 Khuvsgul province - you get the idea. They like to celebrate their critters...) or with whoever can make it to visit Mongolia next June and July. But, on the other hand, I have still seen very little Mongolia. I know this is a byproduct of living here and not making a whole lot of money. I don't get to do the tourist thing. I get to do the living here thing. Which would be okay by me if I got to see more than the walk between my flat and my destination and do more than sit around and make plans. This is supposed to be the adventure-travel location extraordinaire, and all I'm doing is sitting around waiting for something to happen. And, when I finally have to chance to get out and seeing the things I read about before coming here or the opportunity to travel to Russian, I'm stuck doing a job I don't care about. This isn't why I came to Mongolia. I came for the country, for the people, for the opportunity to travel, and for AIESEC - and so far this second job is getting in the way of all of that (except maybe the people aspect). And, I haven't even started.
Now that I'm settling in I have a little more time to be homesick. It's not bad, but it comes in waves of missing certain people or places. I was listening to Corey Smith yesterday and started miss Athens like crazy. For those of you who don't know Corey Smith, he is a singer/songwriter from Athens and most of his songs deal with Athens. So, if you aren't from there or haven't lived there his songs probably will mean very little to you. But, having lived there they remind me so much of my time in Athens it's scary. So, I figured I'll probably stop listening to him for a while at least until I'm more settled and less prone to waves of homesickness.
I have started scoping out places that will probably become my usual haunts. There is a cafe here called Cafe Amsterdam. It's most expats, but I do really like the atmosphere and they have a little in-house library. It's close to the city location of the second job, so I will probably end up killing time there in between classes. There's also a little French bookstore that I visited yesterday. I has some English language books, they mostly have the Classics, and they are pretty expensive. So, I'll probably just end up sitting in the store and reading them there. But, it's not far from the flat and it's pretty cute. There's another cafe that I will try today. I forget the name but it's run by a German woman named Bridget. :) There's also a little bakery right next door, so I don't really see where I can go wrong with this.
Anyway, I've killed enough time lying around the flat this morning and I actually do have quite a bit of work to plow through today so I should put on actual clothes and get my butt off the couch.
Acronym for today: OGX or outgoing exchange the facet of AIESEC that is responsible for sending people abroad.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
RA and RE
I feel like today is a good day for lists.
Things I should be doing:
AIESEC planning
eating breakfast
Setting up a GMM schedule for Thursday
Getting more juice (because it’s delicious)
Getting more TP (because we’re almost out)
Not doing this…
Things I did not think I would be able to find here, but am pleasantly surprised that I did:
An awesome variety of chocolate
Really tasty juice
Colgate toothpaste
Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner
Charmin Ultra TP (even though we will most likely NOT be buying it as it is at least 20 USD more expensive than the 1.50 USD Mongolian off-brand)
TheraFlu
Nyquil
A 10lb box of NesQuick
A 10lb box of Bisquick.
Refrigerated dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt – and all of it delicious)
an iTouch (another thing I will not be buying, but it's nice to know it's here)
A North Face Store
Designer labels
Victoria's Secret (I'm not sure if it's just the lotions, or panties too, but for cryin'out loud they don't even have that much in UTAH!)
Things I cannot find in Mongolia and wish I could:
Tortillas
Air Conditioning - not right now though because it has drastically cooled off in the last 24 hours...
Salsa
Tortilla Chips
(But, there is a Mexican place down the street that I plan on trying soon, so…we’ll see)
English Language fiction (I know it’s here somewhere I just have to find it)
Acronyms for the day:
RA – Raised, as in a traineeship (TN) or exchange participant (EP) has joined the AIESEC repertoire.
RE- Realized, as in a TN has been filled with and EP or an EP is actually matched and working in their TN.
Things I should be doing:
AIESEC planning
eating breakfast
Setting up a GMM schedule for Thursday
Getting more juice (because it’s delicious)
Getting more TP (because we’re almost out)
Not doing this…
Things I did not think I would be able to find here, but am pleasantly surprised that I did:
An awesome variety of chocolate
Really tasty juice
Colgate toothpaste
Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner
Charmin Ultra TP (even though we will most likely NOT be buying it as it is at least 20 USD more expensive than the 1.50 USD Mongolian off-brand)
TheraFlu
Nyquil
A 10lb box of NesQuick
A 10lb box of Bisquick.
Refrigerated dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt – and all of it delicious)
an iTouch (another thing I will not be buying, but it's nice to know it's here)
A North Face Store
Designer labels
Victoria's Secret (I'm not sure if it's just the lotions, or panties too, but for cryin'out loud they don't even have that much in UTAH!)
Things I cannot find in Mongolia and wish I could:
Tortillas
Air Conditioning - not right now though because it has drastically cooled off in the last 24 hours...
Salsa
Tortilla Chips
(But, there is a Mexican place down the street that I plan on trying soon, so…we’ll see)
English Language fiction (I know it’s here somewhere I just have to find it)
Acronyms for the day:
RA – Raised, as in a traineeship (TN) or exchange participant (EP) has joined the AIESEC repertoire.
RE- Realized, as in a TN has been filled with and EP or an EP is actually matched and working in their TN.
LR
G, Oyunbold, and I met up with Nate on Wednesday morning to pick Pago up from the airport. (N and OB are AIESECers, N is alumn, P is MC VPP ICX – Member Committee Vice President of Incoming Exchange). His flight was supposed to come in at 6:15 am, but didn’t actually show up until 9ish. So, we asked Nate to bring his pc with him to the airport so G and I could use internet (which was still in super high demand then). I ended up spending most of the wait checking email and such. Pago’s plane finally landed and appeared, we caught a bus and came back to the flat. While we were out running errands later G finally got a call from the internet people asking someone to be home in 15 min because they had an operator on the way. By time P and I got back from NUM (National University of Mongolia) we had internet!! But, it’s not wireless yet. It’s still just a cable, but it’s internet. We are learning to share very well.
Thursday night we had a 2nd going away party for Roman with the AIESECers. We ended up sitting at the bar for several hours playing different conference type games and such. It was a lot of fun. I really like our group of AIESECers. They are a lot of fun. They are all super helpful and so far very eager to keep attending meetings through the summer and keep rocking on through AIESEC business. I am really looking forward hanging out, working, and getting to know them. They are a really cool group of kids.
Friday morning we went to take Roman to the train station. We were up around 5:30 to get him to the station by 6:15. The new MC and several AIESECers saw him off. I’ve decided that I prefer airport goodbyes to train station goodbyes. Airport goodbyes and short and sweet then you get to trek off toward security and get on with your travels. Train station goodbyes last forever. And, then those who are doing the seeing-off get to stand around forever staring at the ones being seen-off while the train warms up rumbles off. It’s a very long process.
Now we are officially the MC, not MC-elect of AIESEC Mongolia. As of Saturday. Scary business.
And, your acronym for the day: LR or Leadership Role. Part of the AIESEC experience in which regular members step up (usually into a role they are totally not prepared for) and lead others.
Thursday night we had a 2nd going away party for Roman with the AIESECers. We ended up sitting at the bar for several hours playing different conference type games and such. It was a lot of fun. I really like our group of AIESECers. They are a lot of fun. They are all super helpful and so far very eager to keep attending meetings through the summer and keep rocking on through AIESEC business. I am really looking forward hanging out, working, and getting to know them. They are a really cool group of kids.
Friday morning we went to take Roman to the train station. We were up around 5:30 to get him to the station by 6:15. The new MC and several AIESECers saw him off. I’ve decided that I prefer airport goodbyes to train station goodbyes. Airport goodbyes and short and sweet then you get to trek off toward security and get on with your travels. Train station goodbyes last forever. And, then those who are doing the seeing-off get to stand around forever staring at the ones being seen-off while the train warms up rumbles off. It’s a very long process.
Now we are officially the MC, not MC-elect of AIESEC Mongolia. As of Saturday. Scary business.
And, your acronym for the day: LR or Leadership Role. Part of the AIESEC experience in which regular members step up (usually into a role they are totally not prepared for) and lead others.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
NA
In response to inquiring minds:
I do really like it here. We've been keeping pretty busy so there has been very little down time. It feels a lot more homey that I thought it would this quickly. The other people on my team and I are supposed to start taking Mongolian lessons which will be nice and make everything easier. But even then it's not terrible hard to get around in UB. We pretty much walk everywhere. It's a fairly small city and nearly everything we need is within walking distance. We've used taxis and the buses a few times but those are harder to navigate without knowing Mongolian. Especially the taxis, b/c those are mostly just regular people who pick you up on their way to earn an extra buck and if you can't speak Mongolian you will get ripped off. So far we've only lost electricity once and not for very long.
It is different, but so far the biggest difference is the language. The Mongolian women are very independent and very fashionable. Apparently they get it from Russia. I've been able to find pretty much all of the toiletries I was worried about finding. If we were in the country it would be a totally different story. There it seems to be mostly ger living, some towns, but few conveniences. And, a LOT of mutton. Greasy, fatty mutton. It's kind of nasty. Fortunately mutton is NOT a staple (at least for us) in UB. We've been going for a lot of business, lunch meetings recently so we've had very nice cuisine. But, even not eating at the most expensive places in town you can get nearly everything you could want. There's even a Mexican/Indian place here that I want to try - more for novelty than quality. I've heard it's not the best. We even ate at a North Korean restaurant the other night. It was freaking delicious. Mongolia is apparently one of the few countries where NK has an embassy as well. Once you get past the details like the cost of traveling and language barriers, it must be easy to travel as a Mongolian. They seem to have good relations with EVERYONE.
Anyways, I'm at the airport and running out of battery so I supposed I should wrap up.
NA: No Acronym
I do really like it here. We've been keeping pretty busy so there has been very little down time. It feels a lot more homey that I thought it would this quickly. The other people on my team and I are supposed to start taking Mongolian lessons which will be nice and make everything easier. But even then it's not terrible hard to get around in UB. We pretty much walk everywhere. It's a fairly small city and nearly everything we need is within walking distance. We've used taxis and the buses a few times but those are harder to navigate without knowing Mongolian. Especially the taxis, b/c those are mostly just regular people who pick you up on their way to earn an extra buck and if you can't speak Mongolian you will get ripped off. So far we've only lost electricity once and not for very long.
It is different, but so far the biggest difference is the language. The Mongolian women are very independent and very fashionable. Apparently they get it from Russia. I've been able to find pretty much all of the toiletries I was worried about finding. If we were in the country it would be a totally different story. There it seems to be mostly ger living, some towns, but few conveniences. And, a LOT of mutton. Greasy, fatty mutton. It's kind of nasty. Fortunately mutton is NOT a staple (at least for us) in UB. We've been going for a lot of business, lunch meetings recently so we've had very nice cuisine. But, even not eating at the most expensive places in town you can get nearly everything you could want. There's even a Mexican/Indian place here that I want to try - more for novelty than quality. I've heard it's not the best. We even ate at a North Korean restaurant the other night. It was freaking delicious. Mongolia is apparently one of the few countries where NK has an embassy as well. Once you get past the details like the cost of traveling and language barriers, it must be easy to travel as a Mongolian. They seem to have good relations with EVERYONE.
Anyways, I'm at the airport and running out of battery so I supposed I should wrap up.
NA: No Acronym
Sunday, June 20, 2010
TiM
T.i.M.
So, we still don’t have internet. We were supposed to get it at 10am on Friday, then noon, then four, then seven. We finally told Tuvshu (the AIESECer that is helping us with all of this) that we couldn’t do it at seven because G and I were going to Steppe Inn to schmooze.
Steppe Inn was opened in the backyard of the British Embassy back in the day before there were any bars or nightclubs in UB. The Brits need a place to put back a pint after the long Mongolian winter days. Now, it is an expat hang out. But, you can only get in if you are a member or if you are invited by a member. G and I not being members yet, were invited by David – the Italian we had dinner with last week. We met up with David by MetroMall (more on that later) and walked the 30-40 minutes to Steppe Inn.
It was actually pretty cool. We met a lot of people. Peter who is amateur networker – his wife works here and he hooks people up from various facets of the expat community. For example, G and I got an email from him that we should look another person who has been doing youth leadership programs in UB for several years. We also met the youth leadership guy. And, the British Ambassador and his wife, an ex-jockey and his wife who are trying to bring thoroughbred racing to Mn, and an architect/professor from Britain, and several others. Supposedly now that we’ve made an appearance and met the ambassador applying to SI should be fairly easy.
I also had several small-world experiences on Friday night. At Steppe Inn, I was talking with Steve, one of the first people G and I met at the expat drink on Wednesday. He does IT systems for the Mongolian department of finance, like the stock market. He also had contracts and does work in right around 50 countries. So, I was talking with him and he is originally from Chicago, but has family in Michigan. Mason, Michigan. I went to high school with his niece, and he is familiar with several people I knew at MHS. Weird. Then a bunch of us from Steppe Inn went to Grand Khan to grab a bite to eat before going our separate ways. While the bathroom at GK, I glance over to the back of the line and there is the Mongolian girl I had soccer with this spring. It was kind of amusing. She kept looking at me like she recognized me, but couldn’t figure out why the hell I would be in the bathroom at the GK. I talked to her briefly and ended up giving her one of my business cards that I had leftover from SI. Small. World.
Saturday morning we left for the countryside. Everything in Mn that isn’t UB is “countryside”. We took a three hour train ride to the countryside to a hotel next to a river and just hung out. Andrew (G and my roommate) set up this trip for about 20 people – mostly expats. There were several Australians here for work or volunteering, some Germans that were doing a year with the VOS instead of a year in the German army, another American here with Peace Corp, some Canadians who are doing work with the Mn department of health services, a girl from Singapore doing an @ TN, and a few Mongolians. It was a lot of fun. We went swimming, hung out by the river, went to the hotel’s discotech that night, and did some karaoke. The disco was interesting. They would have the usual lights out dancing music, then would stop, turn on all of the lights, everyone would leave the dance floor, and they would play Mongolian waltz/folk music. The first time it happened there were 15 very confused foreigners left in the middle of the floor. After discoteching for a while we went downstairs to rock out some karaoke, which is apparently very popular in Mn. Go fig. Sunday consisted of more lying around. A group did some hiking around the hotel, but my feet weren’t really up to it. So, I did the river thing instead. We caught the 1:30 train and were back in UB by 5:00.
After some showers and grocery shopping G and I hosted dinner for our @ers. Seven people showed up and it was nice. We made chili, which actually turned out pretty decent considering the time crunch and what we had to work with. We’ve also made several very exciting shopping discoveries in the last few days. MetroMall is amazing. There is a pharmacy with things like tampons and Nyquil and Theraflu and acidophilus and Colgate and razors and shaving cream and shampoo and so many other treasures. (I guess I didn’t really need to pack an entire bag of toiletries). Then there’s the grocery store in the basement of MetroMall with enough Mn versions of American-type food to keep me away from mutton and mutton grease for as long as I am in UB. They even have refrigerated, pasteurized, normal milk. It’s beautiful. And, the yogurt is super delish. Then, next to MetroMall there is an “American” store with American goods. Their food area is small, but they have stuff like Bisquick and Clorox wipes. It’s all much more expensive, but it is also bulk goods from Costco. There is a lot of Kirkland brand there. So, we might not get a whole lot from the Americana store, but at least it’s there if we need or want it.
Mostly for today we are going to be around the apartment waiting for internet. We’re supposed to get internet again today, but we’ll see. Tonight we’ve got more schmoozing with the old expat community. We’re supposed to be going to the North Korea restaurant in town. It’s actually owned by North Koreans with NK décor and NK video propaganda. It should be interesting.
TiM: akin to TIA (This is Africa). This is Mongolia. A phrase expressing the fact that things are done differently here and there's not much you can do about it.
So, we still don’t have internet. We were supposed to get it at 10am on Friday, then noon, then four, then seven. We finally told Tuvshu (the AIESECer that is helping us with all of this) that we couldn’t do it at seven because G and I were going to Steppe Inn to schmooze.
Steppe Inn was opened in the backyard of the British Embassy back in the day before there were any bars or nightclubs in UB. The Brits need a place to put back a pint after the long Mongolian winter days. Now, it is an expat hang out. But, you can only get in if you are a member or if you are invited by a member. G and I not being members yet, were invited by David – the Italian we had dinner with last week. We met up with David by MetroMall (more on that later) and walked the 30-40 minutes to Steppe Inn.
It was actually pretty cool. We met a lot of people. Peter who is amateur networker – his wife works here and he hooks people up from various facets of the expat community. For example, G and I got an email from him that we should look another person who has been doing youth leadership programs in UB for several years. We also met the youth leadership guy. And, the British Ambassador and his wife, an ex-jockey and his wife who are trying to bring thoroughbred racing to Mn, and an architect/professor from Britain, and several others. Supposedly now that we’ve made an appearance and met the ambassador applying to SI should be fairly easy.
I also had several small-world experiences on Friday night. At Steppe Inn, I was talking with Steve, one of the first people G and I met at the expat drink on Wednesday. He does IT systems for the Mongolian department of finance, like the stock market. He also had contracts and does work in right around 50 countries. So, I was talking with him and he is originally from Chicago, but has family in Michigan. Mason, Michigan. I went to high school with his niece, and he is familiar with several people I knew at MHS. Weird. Then a bunch of us from Steppe Inn went to Grand Khan to grab a bite to eat before going our separate ways. While the bathroom at GK, I glance over to the back of the line and there is the Mongolian girl I had soccer with this spring. It was kind of amusing. She kept looking at me like she recognized me, but couldn’t figure out why the hell I would be in the bathroom at the GK. I talked to her briefly and ended up giving her one of my business cards that I had leftover from SI. Small. World.
Saturday morning we left for the countryside. Everything in Mn that isn’t UB is “countryside”. We took a three hour train ride to the countryside to a hotel next to a river and just hung out. Andrew (G and my roommate) set up this trip for about 20 people – mostly expats. There were several Australians here for work or volunteering, some Germans that were doing a year with the VOS instead of a year in the German army, another American here with Peace Corp, some Canadians who are doing work with the Mn department of health services, a girl from Singapore doing an @ TN, and a few Mongolians. It was a lot of fun. We went swimming, hung out by the river, went to the hotel’s discotech that night, and did some karaoke. The disco was interesting. They would have the usual lights out dancing music, then would stop, turn on all of the lights, everyone would leave the dance floor, and they would play Mongolian waltz/folk music. The first time it happened there were 15 very confused foreigners left in the middle of the floor. After discoteching for a while we went downstairs to rock out some karaoke, which is apparently very popular in Mn. Go fig. Sunday consisted of more lying around. A group did some hiking around the hotel, but my feet weren’t really up to it. So, I did the river thing instead. We caught the 1:30 train and were back in UB by 5:00.
After some showers and grocery shopping G and I hosted dinner for our @ers. Seven people showed up and it was nice. We made chili, which actually turned out pretty decent considering the time crunch and what we had to work with. We’ve also made several very exciting shopping discoveries in the last few days. MetroMall is amazing. There is a pharmacy with things like tampons and Nyquil and Theraflu and acidophilus and Colgate and razors and shaving cream and shampoo and so many other treasures. (I guess I didn’t really need to pack an entire bag of toiletries). Then there’s the grocery store in the basement of MetroMall with enough Mn versions of American-type food to keep me away from mutton and mutton grease for as long as I am in UB. They even have refrigerated, pasteurized, normal milk. It’s beautiful. And, the yogurt is super delish. Then, next to MetroMall there is an “American” store with American goods. Their food area is small, but they have stuff like Bisquick and Clorox wipes. It’s all much more expensive, but it is also bulk goods from Costco. There is a lot of Kirkland brand there. So, we might not get a whole lot from the Americana store, but at least it’s there if we need or want it.
Mostly for today we are going to be around the apartment waiting for internet. We’re supposed to get internet again today, but we’ll see. Tonight we’ve got more schmoozing with the old expat community. We’re supposed to be going to the North Korea restaurant in town. It’s actually owned by North Koreans with NK décor and NK video propaganda. It should be interesting.
TiM: akin to TIA (This is Africa). This is Mongolia. A phrase expressing the fact that things are done differently here and there's not much you can do about it.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Mn
Mn.
I’m here!
I left Las Vegas around 8 on Saturday night entrusted my 120lbs worth of luggage to the luggage fairies and boarded my first of three flights with another 30lbs of carry-on luggage. Fortunately, I was able to whisk through all three boardings without having to surrender my larger carry-on to gate-check. I spent four hours in LAX, three hours in Beijing, and finally landing in UB (Ulaanbaatar) around 10am Monday morning. My flights and transfers went very well. On the first flight, I ended up talking to the Hungarian woman next to me who ended up invited me to stay with her at her home in Australia if I’m ever in Sydney. The flight to Beijing was pretty uneventful. The upside was that the meals were surprisingly tasty. But on the downside was that there were no seat-back TVs like, only overhead TVs, which made the flight sort of drag by. When we landed in Beijing it was 6 am and the airport was empty. It was a little tricksy finding the international transfer area, but once it did it was a breeze to get to my gate and plane. The flight to UB lasted about two hours. At Chinngis Khan International Airport I zipped through immigration, picked up all 120+ lbs of luggage, carted it out and was met by Gina, Roman, and Ganzukh. We wheeled my luggage to the farthest end of the parking lot before unloading it to continue dragging it toward a bus stop. After catching a city bus we rode the half hour or 45 minutes back into the city from the airport. When we finally made it to the flat dropped off my stuff and went back out into the city. The rest of the day included dodging traffic, changing money, awkward meetings with the new President of NUM (National University of Mongolia) and our new boss at VoW (Voice of the World), adventures in ordering Mongolian food, following Roman around mildly sketchy back roads to various places around the city, and falling asleep during the Cameroon/Japan match.
On Tuesday we went into Roman’s office to catch up on internet time, had a meeting between Roman, Gina, and I about the Mongolian AIESECers, what they’ve been doing, who has been responsible for what, and did a little bit of preparation for the GMM (general member meeting) that night. We then had lunch with one of our BOA members, an American named Jim Dwyer who is on the Business Council of Mongolia. It went really well, which was a nice change from the meetings the day before which were both awkward and unproductive. Jim also showed us the local art gallery that is a part of the same building that Saffron (the place we had lunch) and Khan Bank are in. He made suggestions about other art galleries to check out in the city as well as another restaurant run by the same chef, and Millie’s Café which is run by a Kenyan expat for part of the year and her Cuban chef and his Mongolian wife for the other part of the year. Millie’s is supposed to be a well known expat lunch spot. Even if it is supposed to be a hangout for stuff y old expats, I still really want to try Kenyan/Cuban/Mongolian cuisine. After lunch we went to drop off invitations to a ceremony next Tuesday for the previous term to some of the people and businesses that have supported @Mn for the last year, ordered business cards, and went to our first GMM with AIESEC Mongolia. The GMM went pretty well, we dance and introduced ourselves, and then split the kids up into their groups so Gina and I could start to get to know them. Trying to pronounce their names was a flustercluck. I only had 6 kids in my group (Gina had 9), and I can still only remember 3 of their names. (Oyunbold, Tuvshu, and Odnoo.) I’m still working on the rest. After GMM we went to the Grand Khan for drinks. Gina and I stayed for the beginning of the Slovakia/New Zealand match before going back to the flat to make dinner.
Wednesday we did a lot of walking according to Roman, as opposed to the last two days when we only did sort of a lot of walking. Started off the day with another meeting with Roman and Gina about the planning and scheduling for June-August. The three of us then went to lunch with another BOA member, Luvsan who is a Mongolian alumn from AIESEC Australia. Both lunches were paid for by the BOA guys and were at ritzy business restaurants (holla). After lunch we dropped off more invitations, picked up our business cards, and went back to VoW for a follow up meeting about working for them. We finally got our schedule and salary settled with Altaa. After VoW, Roman, Gina, and I went to visit Andrew (Gina and my third roommate for now) at the radio station he does a show for. We ended up be sucked into being guests on one of their shows while we were there. Then Andrew shared some of his extensive knowledge about orcas with us. For example, did you know that orcas are dolphins, not whales? They are called killer whales because they kill whales. And, that orcas around the world kill differently based on what they are eating. Some stun fish by smacking then with their tails then scoop them up in their mouths, where others will beach themselves trying to get seals and such? Yeah, I didn’t know that either. Go fig. After the radio show R, G and I went to a weekly drink rendezvous with a bunch of expats in the area. It was okay. But, a combination of aching feet, sweaty B, and general exhaustion makes B antisocial. We’ll probably be back throughout the year especially after Pago gets here. It’ll be good for business contacts. Then we escaped that by going to dinner at another AIESEC supporter’s house. He is an Italian expat entrepreneur who has been in UB for 6 years. It was nice, I was still tired and not very good company. G and I finally went home after dinner and crashed.
It’s nice to be meeting so many people in the expat community. For one thing, I never expected it to be so big in UB. But there are a lot of western expats in the area – especially Aussies. But, I’m more excited about spending time with local Mongolians than the expats. I can be around westerners anytime. Bring on the Mongolian. G, maybe P, and I are eventually supposed to start taking Mongolian lessons from a lady that some Brit knows that R knows. It’ll be nice to be able to do more than just point and grunt and look like an idiot.
I finally was able to sleep past 7 o’clock this morning. I was awake at 6 on Tuesday and 5:30 yesterday. Ick. I got up, heated up some water in our electric kettle so I could shower. We don’t have hot water yet. They are working on the pipes in the area so they are deeper in the ground and less likely to freeze this winter. This makes for interesting “showers”. After splashing a bit of kettle water on myself and sort of washing my hair I finally called it quits in the shower. Hopefully things will be less awkward and inefficient soon. I got dressed and since I was the only one awake and we didn’t have bread, I decided to take a walk. I’ve been eating mostly toast for breakfast because G and I haven’t really had a chance and guide to get us to a market yet, and without bread there is no toast. So, I went in search of bread. I was just going to stop at the store in our courtyard area, but she was closed. I discovered how to get around our block, and found an open store on the way. I got yogurt and bread for breakfast today. The yogurt was super delicious so we definitely need to get more of that going on. I’ll probably try to get eggs and preserves in the next few days just to spice up b-fast a little bit more. Other than that we have other meetings planned for today and should be getting internet in the apartment this morning! Fingers crossed. At this point, I agree with G – I’d rather have internet right now than hot water. I still want both, but the no internet thing is getting old.
We were supposed to get internet on Thursday in the apt. But, it didn't happen. Then we were supposed to get internet today at 10am. Didn't happen. Now, they are supposed to come at 4pm today. We'll see.
Anyway. Today's acronym is not actually an acronym but an abbreviation for Mongolia. UB is Ulaanbaatar.
I’m here!
I left Las Vegas around 8 on Saturday night entrusted my 120lbs worth of luggage to the luggage fairies and boarded my first of three flights with another 30lbs of carry-on luggage. Fortunately, I was able to whisk through all three boardings without having to surrender my larger carry-on to gate-check. I spent four hours in LAX, three hours in Beijing, and finally landing in UB (Ulaanbaatar) around 10am Monday morning. My flights and transfers went very well. On the first flight, I ended up talking to the Hungarian woman next to me who ended up invited me to stay with her at her home in Australia if I’m ever in Sydney. The flight to Beijing was pretty uneventful. The upside was that the meals were surprisingly tasty. But on the downside was that there were no seat-back TVs like, only overhead TVs, which made the flight sort of drag by. When we landed in Beijing it was 6 am and the airport was empty. It was a little tricksy finding the international transfer area, but once it did it was a breeze to get to my gate and plane. The flight to UB lasted about two hours. At Chinngis Khan International Airport I zipped through immigration, picked up all 120+ lbs of luggage, carted it out and was met by Gina, Roman, and Ganzukh. We wheeled my luggage to the farthest end of the parking lot before unloading it to continue dragging it toward a bus stop. After catching a city bus we rode the half hour or 45 minutes back into the city from the airport. When we finally made it to the flat dropped off my stuff and went back out into the city. The rest of the day included dodging traffic, changing money, awkward meetings with the new President of NUM (National University of Mongolia) and our new boss at VoW (Voice of the World), adventures in ordering Mongolian food, following Roman around mildly sketchy back roads to various places around the city, and falling asleep during the Cameroon/Japan match.
On Tuesday we went into Roman’s office to catch up on internet time, had a meeting between Roman, Gina, and I about the Mongolian AIESECers, what they’ve been doing, who has been responsible for what, and did a little bit of preparation for the GMM (general member meeting) that night. We then had lunch with one of our BOA members, an American named Jim Dwyer who is on the Business Council of Mongolia. It went really well, which was a nice change from the meetings the day before which were both awkward and unproductive. Jim also showed us the local art gallery that is a part of the same building that Saffron (the place we had lunch) and Khan Bank are in. He made suggestions about other art galleries to check out in the city as well as another restaurant run by the same chef, and Millie’s Café which is run by a Kenyan expat for part of the year and her Cuban chef and his Mongolian wife for the other part of the year. Millie’s is supposed to be a well known expat lunch spot. Even if it is supposed to be a hangout for stuff y old expats, I still really want to try Kenyan/Cuban/Mongolian cuisine. After lunch we went to drop off invitations to a ceremony next Tuesday for the previous term to some of the people and businesses that have supported @Mn for the last year, ordered business cards, and went to our first GMM with AIESEC Mongolia. The GMM went pretty well, we dance and introduced ourselves, and then split the kids up into their groups so Gina and I could start to get to know them. Trying to pronounce their names was a flustercluck. I only had 6 kids in my group (Gina had 9), and I can still only remember 3 of their names. (Oyunbold, Tuvshu, and Odnoo.) I’m still working on the rest. After GMM we went to the Grand Khan for drinks. Gina and I stayed for the beginning of the Slovakia/New Zealand match before going back to the flat to make dinner.
Wednesday we did a lot of walking according to Roman, as opposed to the last two days when we only did sort of a lot of walking. Started off the day with another meeting with Roman and Gina about the planning and scheduling for June-August. The three of us then went to lunch with another BOA member, Luvsan who is a Mongolian alumn from AIESEC Australia. Both lunches were paid for by the BOA guys and were at ritzy business restaurants (holla). After lunch we dropped off more invitations, picked up our business cards, and went back to VoW for a follow up meeting about working for them. We finally got our schedule and salary settled with Altaa. After VoW, Roman, Gina, and I went to visit Andrew (Gina and my third roommate for now) at the radio station he does a show for. We ended up be sucked into being guests on one of their shows while we were there. Then Andrew shared some of his extensive knowledge about orcas with us. For example, did you know that orcas are dolphins, not whales? They are called killer whales because they kill whales. And, that orcas around the world kill differently based on what they are eating. Some stun fish by smacking then with their tails then scoop them up in their mouths, where others will beach themselves trying to get seals and such? Yeah, I didn’t know that either. Go fig. After the radio show R, G and I went to a weekly drink rendezvous with a bunch of expats in the area. It was okay. But, a combination of aching feet, sweaty B, and general exhaustion makes B antisocial. We’ll probably be back throughout the year especially after Pago gets here. It’ll be good for business contacts. Then we escaped that by going to dinner at another AIESEC supporter’s house. He is an Italian expat entrepreneur who has been in UB for 6 years. It was nice, I was still tired and not very good company. G and I finally went home after dinner and crashed.
It’s nice to be meeting so many people in the expat community. For one thing, I never expected it to be so big in UB. But there are a lot of western expats in the area – especially Aussies. But, I’m more excited about spending time with local Mongolians than the expats. I can be around westerners anytime. Bring on the Mongolian. G, maybe P, and I are eventually supposed to start taking Mongolian lessons from a lady that some Brit knows that R knows. It’ll be nice to be able to do more than just point and grunt and look like an idiot.
I finally was able to sleep past 7 o’clock this morning. I was awake at 6 on Tuesday and 5:30 yesterday. Ick. I got up, heated up some water in our electric kettle so I could shower. We don’t have hot water yet. They are working on the pipes in the area so they are deeper in the ground and less likely to freeze this winter. This makes for interesting “showers”. After splashing a bit of kettle water on myself and sort of washing my hair I finally called it quits in the shower. Hopefully things will be less awkward and inefficient soon. I got dressed and since I was the only one awake and we didn’t have bread, I decided to take a walk. I’ve been eating mostly toast for breakfast because G and I haven’t really had a chance and guide to get us to a market yet, and without bread there is no toast. So, I went in search of bread. I was just going to stop at the store in our courtyard area, but she was closed. I discovered how to get around our block, and found an open store on the way. I got yogurt and bread for breakfast today. The yogurt was super delicious so we definitely need to get more of that going on. I’ll probably try to get eggs and preserves in the next few days just to spice up b-fast a little bit more. Other than that we have other meetings planned for today and should be getting internet in the apartment this morning! Fingers crossed. At this point, I agree with G – I’d rather have internet right now than hot water. I still want both, but the no internet thing is getting old.
We were supposed to get internet on Thursday in the apt. But, it didn't happen. Then we were supposed to get internet today at 10am. Didn't happen. Now, they are supposed to come at 4pm today. We'll see.
Anyway. Today's acronym is not actually an acronym but an abbreviation for Mongolia. UB is Ulaanbaatar.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
XP
So, in about 92 hours I will be leaving the country for at least a year. The plan is to be gone about a year. But, who knows, plans can change. But, for the sake of the argument, let's say a year. One whole year. I think I should be more worried than I am. It's not that I'm not worried or excited or anxious. I just haven't really thought about it at all since I left Georgia. The anxiety and excitement will hit soon enough. I'm pretty sure they will follow shortly after I pull out my suitcases and start loading. Which is just one of the reasons I am reluctant to start packing. (Not one of my better ideas I assure you. To wait to pack that is.)
Anyways, that's all I have for now. Short, sweet, pointless. I shall start regaling the masses of my exotic adventure next week, I'm sure.
XP: Experience as in the @XP or AIESEC Experience. A set of benchmarks by which AIESECers and Exchange Participants may measure their time and adventures in AIESEC. There is the I2A: Introduction to AIESEC, where you get to learn all about our ways. TR or Taking Responsibility where a member may take on smaller responsibilities. There is also LR or Leadership Role and X or Exchange both of which are pretty self explanatory. H4TF or Heading for the future, in which now-AIESEC alums decide how to apply AIESEC to their lives...
Don't you feel educated. :)
Anyways, that's all I have for now. Short, sweet, pointless. I shall start regaling the masses of my exotic adventure next week, I'm sure.
XP: Experience as in the @XP or AIESEC Experience. A set of benchmarks by which AIESECers and Exchange Participants may measure their time and adventures in AIESEC. There is the I2A: Introduction to AIESEC, where you get to learn all about our ways. TR or Taking Responsibility where a member may take on smaller responsibilities. There is also LR or Leadership Role and X or Exchange both of which are pretty self explanatory. H4TF or Heading for the future, in which now-AIESEC alums decide how to apply AIESEC to their lives...
Don't you feel educated. :)
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