Jul 21 2007
Tigers and bears but no lions…
At the end of last weekend a circus (the first in at least the past 2 years, according to one of the PCV’s who lives here) came to town. I was hoping to go to it, but it was 6000 a person and when my sister came she didn’t have enough for her and her son (9000) so we got the cheap show by just watching em set up and seeing the animals caged up outside. It was a little sketchy, particularly after I saw the tiger – we were behind a pretty rickety chain link fence and the only thing that would’ve saved me in the case of a rampage would be all the delicious child-sized appetizers, and they run fast. So I would’ve been one of the first to go…
Otherwise, it’s been a pretty uneventful week. We’ve started basic Mongolian dances during our class breaks because we’re supposed to do them with our host family members during parent appreciation day. One is waltz-like, and the other two are more like line dancing than anything else. DDR-like mentality is coming in handy here, so if I can get my confidence up, maybe I’ll go dancing more with Bonnie. Mostly though I tend to get dizzy – waltzing is very rotation-intense stuff.
Oh, and the cousins tried to lock me in the pointy outhouse – I was more perturbed by their disturbing me every 30 seconds or so than by the actual attempt; I think they were trying to get me to hurry up so that the joke could run its course. I just reached over and moved the little wood piece though so I hope they were disappointed…
Shinay breaks out the checkers every so often and thus far I’ve been quite a bit better than her. Finally something that I’m better at than her…
Wood-chopping continues apace, and at this point I’m mostly just trying to keep on the same path. It’s only 2 1/2 more weeks of training, and all of us here have to behave just for a bit longer and keep it all together…
It’s already cooling down a bit here. I’ve been told that this is a bit unseasonable – that it should be hotter – so this may be a warning for a pretty long and cold winter. I’m often wearing shorts during the day, but often wake up quite cold and put on a pullover when the sun goes down. That and the burrs are getting evil lately – I track them into the house with my shoes, then they attack me when I’m barefoot in an ouchy way. Hope I have more news for you all soon…
