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!