Monday, June 28, 2010
Quick Note
Just a quick note to say that, after a wonderful three week break here in California, we are headed back to Mongolia to finish our last year. We did what we came to do (eat! eat! eat!) and I think we are both well-rested and ready to tackle it all over again. Once we get all settled in I'll post some more.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Seoul, But No Sleep
We made it to Seoul! We are currently sitting in the VIP Hub Lounge at the Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea. We definitely feel about a million miles from Olgii, which at this point is a good thing because we needed a break.
Although we haven't slept in 24 hours, we techinically started the morning of the 8th with a Starbucks fix (Ashlee's first chai latte in over a year) and -- though we might not admit it later -- a McDonald's sausage McMuffin. After walking all over the airport, we still found ourselves with over 8 hours to kill so we pulled out the trusty Visa, which is a bit rusty, and sprang for access to this VIP lounge that sports a modest buffet, a cooler full of drinks, an espresso machine, and a few bottles of spirits. It's ok to have an 8am cocktail when you technically never went to sleep, right?
Anyways, our last days in UB went well. A few of the highlights were catching a surprisingly random live concert performed by LA band Ozomatli right in downtown UB and welcoming the latest batch of Mongolia PCVs who arrived in-country looking nice and clean, albeit a bit bleary-eyed from the 30+ hours of travel from San Francisco. Just last night (was it only last night??) Ashlee and I had dinner with the four new married couples. I must say, I love not being the FNG anymore. They all seemed really nice and we are glad to have some new blood in the program.
At the moment, however, I think I may go for another cocktail and then a hot shower. It's crazy to think that we will be back in Walnut, my hometown, in less than 20 hours!
Although we haven't slept in 24 hours, we techinically started the morning of the 8th with a Starbucks fix (Ashlee's first chai latte in over a year) and -- though we might not admit it later -- a McDonald's sausage McMuffin. After walking all over the airport, we still found ourselves with over 8 hours to kill so we pulled out the trusty Visa, which is a bit rusty, and sprang for access to this VIP lounge that sports a modest buffet, a cooler full of drinks, an espresso machine, and a few bottles of spirits. It's ok to have an 8am cocktail when you technically never went to sleep, right?
Anyways, our last days in UB went well. A few of the highlights were catching a surprisingly random live concert performed by LA band Ozomatli right in downtown UB and welcoming the latest batch of Mongolia PCVs who arrived in-country looking nice and clean, albeit a bit bleary-eyed from the 30+ hours of travel from San Francisco. Just last night (was it only last night??) Ashlee and I had dinner with the four new married couples. I must say, I love not being the FNG anymore. They all seemed really nice and we are glad to have some new blood in the program.
At the moment, however, I think I may go for another cocktail and then a hot shower. It's crazy to think that we will be back in Walnut, my hometown, in less than 20 hours!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Let the Vacation Begin!
We made it to UB and our vacation has officially begun! We're staying at a guesthouse popular with PCVs -- basically it is $12 a night for a small 6' x 15' room with a double-sized bed, mini fridge, and (much to Ashlee's delight) a television with a half dozen English-language channels including National Geographic. There's a toilet and hot shower just down the hall. Not that we really need the hot shower, though, as the weather has been in the 80s, which is absolutely sweltering to us after this harsh winter.
We've spent our first couple of days in the big city taking care of a few errands. Just yesterday we had our mid-service medical and dental check-ups. We are both happy to report that our first dental cleaning in 18 months revealed that we are both cavity-free and overall in good shape. I was a bit nervous about going to the dentist here in UB because I have gone to the same single dentist (go Dr. Cheung!) my entire life. While this new dentist seemed to use a different technique (lots of scraping) I survived. We also passed our medical appointments with flying colors, although I was told that I probably need to wear full-time glasses in the near future. No worries, though, because Peace Corps will pick up the tab.
We have spent the rest of our time here catching up with PCV friends, picking up some more souvenirs for friends and family back in America, and eating (of course). It is sort of standard for PCVs to eat their hearts out while in UB and we are happy to oblige -- although we realize that even our favorite meals in UB pale in comparison to the food we'll be eating in less than a week back in California.
Probably the biggest highlight of our stay here so far was getting to see Iron Man 2 in theater. There's a legit three-screen theater complete with stadium-style sitting right around the corner from the PC office that usually shows at least one American movie with Mongolian subtitles. When you buy your ticket (approx. $2 -- take that America!) you are assigned a seat, just like at a sporting event in America. Oddly enough, the locals actually seem to abide by this seating rule. Although there were a fair amount of movie talkers (including one little boy who saw that we are foreigners and offered us some of his popcorn), we enjoyed the show.
Now we are pretty much free until we leave on Monday night. The new group of volunteers will be arriving on Saturday night and we plan to greet them at the aiport with some other PCVs. I guess there are 4 more married couples coming in this group and PC has asked Ashlee and I to meet with them on Monday to talk about any couples-specific challenges they may face during training -- which you may recall was the most difficult portion of our time here in Mongolia. We're excited to meet them and impart our wisdom.
So yeah, we're beyond excited about our upcoming trip to America. We leave UB at 11:20pm on Monday the 7th, we have a long-layover at the wonderful airport just outside of Seoul, South Korea (which is stocked with lots of American eateries like Subway, Quiznos, Starbucks, and McDonald's), and then we're scheduled to land at LAX at 10:20am on Tuesday, June 8th! California, here we come!
We've spent our first couple of days in the big city taking care of a few errands. Just yesterday we had our mid-service medical and dental check-ups. We are both happy to report that our first dental cleaning in 18 months revealed that we are both cavity-free and overall in good shape. I was a bit nervous about going to the dentist here in UB because I have gone to the same single dentist (go Dr. Cheung!) my entire life. While this new dentist seemed to use a different technique (lots of scraping) I survived. We also passed our medical appointments with flying colors, although I was told that I probably need to wear full-time glasses in the near future. No worries, though, because Peace Corps will pick up the tab.
We have spent the rest of our time here catching up with PCV friends, picking up some more souvenirs for friends and family back in America, and eating (of course). It is sort of standard for PCVs to eat their hearts out while in UB and we are happy to oblige -- although we realize that even our favorite meals in UB pale in comparison to the food we'll be eating in less than a week back in California.
Probably the biggest highlight of our stay here so far was getting to see Iron Man 2 in theater. There's a legit three-screen theater complete with stadium-style sitting right around the corner from the PC office that usually shows at least one American movie with Mongolian subtitles. When you buy your ticket (approx. $2 -- take that America!) you are assigned a seat, just like at a sporting event in America. Oddly enough, the locals actually seem to abide by this seating rule. Although there were a fair amount of movie talkers (including one little boy who saw that we are foreigners and offered us some of his popcorn), we enjoyed the show.
Now we are pretty much free until we leave on Monday night. The new group of volunteers will be arriving on Saturday night and we plan to greet them at the aiport with some other PCVs. I guess there are 4 more married couples coming in this group and PC has asked Ashlee and I to meet with them on Monday to talk about any couples-specific challenges they may face during training -- which you may recall was the most difficult portion of our time here in Mongolia. We're excited to meet them and impart our wisdom.
So yeah, we're beyond excited about our upcoming trip to America. We leave UB at 11:20pm on Monday the 7th, we have a long-layover at the wonderful airport just outside of Seoul, South Korea (which is stocked with lots of American eateries like Subway, Quiznos, Starbucks, and McDonald's), and then we're scheduled to land at LAX at 10:20am on Tuesday, June 8th! California, here we come!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)