Wrapping Things Up

This is a picture of me at Gachuurt's regional Nadaam back in July. I'm drinking a large bowl of airag, which is fermented mare's milk. It is sort of like Mongolia's champagne.

This is a picture of the ger I stayed in during my first 6 weeks of training. Standing outside are some of my "doos" -- or younger siblings in Mongolian.


This is a picture of my little host brother and I in our yard. Gachuurt is a really pretty town with mountains and a river just outside our hasha gate.




This is a picture of my LCF (Language Culture Facilitator -- don't you love Peace Corps acronyms), her husband, and myself. I encountered some trouble with my first host family, so Nara took me under her wing while things were sorted out. She and her husband are incredibly kind. They are also the first Mongolians I have met who actually keep pets, rather than guard animals. The large beast is their pitbull, Dingo -- he's a sweet dog with tons of energy.

Well, we have definitely taken advantage of being here in the city. This past Tuesday both Ashlee and I had the afternoon off after our morning language session so we decided to grab some lunch together. Ashlee picked the brains of a few current volunteers and she found out about a place called Granville's Irish Pub -- it was amazing. We split a large spinach salad with bleu cheese, a BBQ bacon cheeseburger w/ ranch dressing, french fries, and large beers. Divine. Although we were completely stuffed, we also -- of course -- ordered ice cream for dessert. They even had a cappuchino for me! We completely blew our budget for the month, but it was well worth every tugrik!

Afterwards we checked out the movie theater close to PC HQ and found, to my delight, that we were right on time for a showing of Transformers 2! I swear, the stars were aligned for us. The movie was in English with Mongolian subtitles. The theater was nice (stadium seating) and filled with kids. Ashlee was a little disturbed with all the movie talking -- the kids probably couldn't understand the movie anyway, so why not talk? It was like being in an episode of Mystery Science Theater. I really enjoyed the movie -- what a great escape back to America.

Yesterday I again ate lunch in the city -- this time I made my way to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant! It was just like good ol' Emperor's Mongolian BBQ back home in Walnut. They even had chicken (something I have not had in months) and fresh vegetables. It was all-you-can-eat, but I swear that my bowl was three times larger than anyone else's.

But yeah, today is the last day of PST in our host communities. It is also our last day of Kazakh language lessons. We get out of class at Noon and then Ashlee and I will share a last lunch in the city. Tonight we get to pack all of our stuff and then rendevous with all the other trainees tomorrow. Everyone else is very nervous for Saturday -- that is when they all find out where they are going for the next two years. Exciting stuff.