Ploofle

This weekend has been a mess. Short version: random picnic outings, yogurt women getting in a fight over me, losing and finding Francine.

Long version: The stressful week continued until Saturday-ish - Francine was quite bad on Friday, and I was short money as I hadn’t gotten to go to the bank since returning to Khovd. So I figured I’d try taking Francine to the English Movie Night at the Library’s American Corner and tie her outside so she couldn’t destroy anything else. I went off to buy dinner and about 50 minutes later I returned and she was gone…I felt bad for tying her up in the first place, then felt bad for feeling partly relieved, so all sorts of mess. Thus ended my Friday night. Saturday comprised a variety of outings. My work went out to Black Lake and we had lots of food, which made me happy, but I obviously couldn’t bring Francine, which made me sad. Lots of cute kids and I have some spiffy photos from it that will be posted eventually. Plus fish in a can! And fruit in the form of a can of cocktail fruit…and I used the can opener tool on my leatherman (which meant learning how to use a manual can opener…)

Then I got home and finished making some bread I had rising. It’s still not behaving - if I leave it out to rise too long it dries out and kind of collapses, and I’m not sure why. Maybe the lack of hydration? Perhaps I should seal it up better while rising. The thing is, it still is bread-y (not dense or gross inside) but just kind of flat. Maybe it’s the yeast too…oftentimes it’s past expiration but I don’t have other options.

Then I went to Laura-the-Fullbright’s sort of going away party and had pizza hooshor and played apples to apples! It was fun, but not as silly as I’ve experienced previously. Maybe I hadn’t drank enough…only one tumbler of wine.

Sunday was a big cleaning day. The place was still disasterous from Francine plus me being gone for almost a week. I did all the dishes, laundry, swept, cleaned my water distiller, and mopped. I also got groceries - and found oranges!! So I bought a few - they were expensive - and ate two right off the bat. They were a bit sour but still citrus…and then I candied the orange peels for something later. Maybe a bread or fruitcake - as they have candied pineapple out here…

I also cooked up dinner, which made me very happy. It’s the first time in almost a week I managed to cook, so that was cool. Japanese curry - which I had bought for a pretty penny in UB - and it made me nostalgic as well as very very full and burping strange things for the rest of the evening. My laundry’s still a bit damp so it’s outside still - hopefully no dust storm and warm enough to dry out a bit more by lunchtime. I still need to dust, but the apartment’s looking pretty good. I also slept absurd amounts and feel generally more human.

So concerning the yogurt, I went down to get yogurt, and my normal lady wasn’t there, but someone else said they had yogurt. So I went back upstairs to get my jar, and by the time I did so, there were THREE yogurt ladies outside, including the normal one, who repossessed what is technically her jar, while the ladies begin to argue over who I’ll get yogurt from, including the original non-normal lady who is trying to drag me off to get “her” yogurt, with my lady scolding the other lady, etc etc. So what do I do? I flee. I mumble something about “market” and “later” then run away and avoid the courtyard for the rest of the day.

This morning my lady was outside and came up to me to mutter that my yogurt and HER jar will be available this evening, so meet her then. The other lady looked at me bemusedly, and the other other lady asked about my dog. I think she approved of Francine being lost, but it’s hard to tell.

I swung by the Library today to see if Francine was about and lo and behold there she was chasing random people like usual! So she’s followed me to work and there she will sit til I leave (dammit) as I’m not going to leave her inside anymore I think unless I’m there. I’m glad she’s back, but I also just cleaned up the house! And threw away her food…

So that’s about it. Hope you all are doing well and live in less interesting times…

Tags: fleeing, francine?, yogurt

It’s been quite a week - sort of. As mentioned previously, my Khovd flight was delayed, but I was very kindly treated - so I think I’ll bring a poundcake or some such back to their office on my way in next time. I’m still recovering from the massive walking-about and general lack of time (and money) that is UB, not to mention Francine the puppy being her puppyish self. Today my supervisor helped administer vaccines - I bought them in UB and was going to do it myself, but why when there are dozens of experienced injectors at my office location? She was very good and only whined a little bit. 2 more in the next 6 weeks, and also I need to figure out how this deworming medicine works - oral or injection? The power has been out lately due to apparent nonpayment of bills aimag-wide or some such. The times they’re off are random to me, though, so perhaps it’s something else, like repairs. Needless to say it’s helped to add more uncertainty in my life. The internet has also been bad out here, and Bonnie hasn’t been able to really call in several days, so it’s a bit rough going cold turkey…hopefully things’ll be better during the weekend.

My bread has been bad lately - not as bad as in the US, but more dense than I would like. As I’m feeling rather short on money at the moment, I may make some more tonight. Also Suzie passed on to me various lamb recipes from her parents, one of which is…korma? That middle eastern ground meat thing? As I have both yogurt and and mutton, I thought it’d be a good time to try it. Too bad I won’t have some super tasty pilaf to go with it…lately I’ve been grazing, so it will be nice to really eat something. UB’s Indian and Chinese food spoiled me. I’m also testing out a concoction to prevent Francine from chewing on, say, my insulated inner door. I boiled some hot dried peppers and orange peel and daub the liquid on things. I think it works, but I don’t know how long it remains potent once it dries out. Adding oil to it may help, but then Francine thinks it’s a snack. Booo….

Think I’ll read some research articles or something for the remainder of work. I’m tired and prolly would make mistakes doing anything else…

Tags: bread, electricity, francine?, khovd

OMG. It’s snowing. The mountains have disappeared into whiteness and the snow is coming down pretty thick. I’d send a picture of this, my first snow in Mongolia, but the camera’s at home. I feel cold just looking at it…kinda glad that my trip to the soums has been postponed again and that power is back.

And here are some photos of Francine:

That is all.

Tags: cold, francine?, snow

These past few days have been a bit icky, as they have had the power and thus heating and water turned off for the past day and a half from 7am to 7pm. Mostly it’s affected internet access and cooking, but those bits are two rather major portions of my life, so boo. And perhaps I can blame the puppy on that…

It’s the same puppy that I’ve seen milling around for the past 3 days or so. She’s the one that followed me to work one day, and yesterday she was hanging around the health department, and thus I picked her up. She’s actually rather heavy, so I ended up sticking her in my backpack and carrying it from the front like a dork.

She’s really cute and doesn’t move much - my favorite kind of pet. Though I’ve heard when you first get animals here they tend to be really tired at first - big transition from constant cold and moving and scrounging to, well, being fed and warm. So maybe she’ll be a terror later. Being rather adverse to this kind of commitment, I continually have second thoughts - my track record with pets is not all the great if I’m responsible for them - but perhaps I will have free time and thus it’ll be ok. I figure she can play with Jason’s puppy and tire themselves out so it’ll be minimal effort on my part.

I’ve been trying out names on her and I think she may be called Francine. Again, ew, responsibility.

Tonight there be latkes and people over for em. Plus they can help tire out the puppy

Anna, if you’re still out in internet land, thanks muchly for the card and padded envelope - I’ll attempt the Mongolia-Ethiopia postal adventure very soon…mmm…coffee

Sharlene - I got it! It took like 2 weeks and the cheez-its arrived in wonderfully intact condition - I had em for dinner the same night and almost made myself sick

Bonnie - remember eggs Benedict. plerf.

Tags: cold, electricity, francine?, latkes