School Break

We're done! It feels good. After the last few touch-ups dry, we can remove the improvised barrier of shoddy furniture and let the kids have at it. I'm a little worried about this -- we have already noticed a number of pen marks and a few scratchings done at the hands of students. I'd like to think that they were just trying to help us in their own way. Time will tell I suppose.

In other news, I've been on a school break for almost two weeks now. That's two weeks of sleeping in, avoiding the increasingly bad weather outside, and lounging around the house watching my new favorite show, The Wire. That's not to say that I have been entirely lazy: I did finish up and officially submit my grad school application. I'm only applying to one program (cross your fingers!) and I'm not expecting to hear anything until the spring. If I never mention it again it's because I didn't get in, so don't ask! Ha.

So yeah, November is pretty much a done deal for us. We just got word last week that Peace Corps needs us to make a quick trip back to UB for some flu shots next week. This effectively threw a wrench into our plans of traveling to Hovd this weekend to celebrate the West's Thanksgiving, but it actually may have changed things for the better. Now the plan is to fly into UB on Thursday (Thanksgiving!) and return to Olgii the following Tuesday. This means that in addition to catching up with our PCV friends from around the country, we will get the chance to re-supply, eat at our favorite restaurants (Hazara!), and we will be able to attend the Turkey Day feast that Peace Corps puts on with the help of the embassy. To make the deal even sweeter, there is a possibility that the new Harry Potter movie will be playing in UB! We're trying not to get our hopes up -- too much.

The five of us Olgii PCVs will also be having our Thanksgiving dinner this coming Wednesday. Because of the generosity of our families and their loving care packages, we have the means to make chicken & dumplings, yams, greenbean casserole, pumpkin pie, corn pudding, pecan squares, and apple crisp among other things! It will be a glorious day of food. Wendesday will also give us the chance to celebrate Justin's birthday. Unfortunately because of our last minute trip to UB and the fact that Adi and Brian were already going there for training, Justin will be all on his lonesome for his actual birthday (the 29th). We'll find a way to make it up to him -- perhaps by leaving him a key to our apartment with access to hot showers and all the Thanksgiving leftovers.

That's all for now. 8 more months!

PS - Our sitemate bonding is still going strong. We have been meeting regularly for dinner twice a week (one home-cooked and the other at the Turkish restaurant), Thursday is Monopoly night, and we just had our second Olgii brunch this past weekend. It was a huge success. We made eggs benedict complete with hollandaise sauce, bacon, and potatoes O'Brien. We even mixed up some bellinis for late morning cocktails.


The guy on the right is a couch-surfer from Poland who was staying with Brian.

PPS - Adi, our soumer (soum is the Mongolian word for village), made a trip into town the other day. She brought a friend with her.