Ploofle

Back in Khovd and of mixed feelings - it was really nice to be in the US to visit Bonnie and talk to many friends and family, but it was a pretty rough first few days back here. I probably should have given myself a little more padding before getting back into the grind, but it was literally 24 hours after getting back from Philly I was en route to Seoul, then a 7 hour layover there, then overnight in UB and out from the guesthouse at 6am to catch the 8am flight to Khovd. Bleh. But! I am better now and dislike fewer things in the world compared to 72 hours before.

So, random things here - for example, my eyelashes freeze and stick together when I walk the 5 min or so from home to work. However I’ve been told by another PCV that January is the coldest month so I know I don’t have to expect more than this. A teacher I know told me that it was -35C overnight (morbid curiosity trivia: the C and F scales converge at -40) and I haven’t quite picked up my space heater yet for my house. That will definitely be remedied tomorrow. In the meantime I have worked on pseudo weather stripping some of my more ginormous drafts and nailed the equivalent of outdoor carpeting to the inside of my balcony door. I have also taken to the habit of sleeping early - as it’s coldest it seems right about 8-10pm and I’m definitely warmer if I wake up at 6am.

Other random thing - drinking vermouth and pretending it is both tasty and wine, which it sure isn’t. Once again, the requirement that you leave no bottle half-empty has punished me. Also random - currently vodka is not available due to over a dozen people dying during the new year from poisonous vodka. Some joker thought they could use wood alcohol in lieu of, oh, alcohol for human consumption, and thus many people became ill. Apparently at first you couldn’t buy any alcohol, and in some places still you can’t, but in Khovd the beer and vermouth/wine are selling well. This also means I can’t attempt to freeze vodka then take a picture sadly looking at it (or, I suppose, attempting to shoot it (ugh)) to show how cool it is here.

Finally, the stainless steel water bottle substitute for my dearly departed nalgene is working like a trooper. I’m not using it for drinking water much, mind you, but it makes a hot water bottle bar none for when I go to bed lately - it’s just a smidge away from being too toasty/burning when I have all my layers on in my sleeping bag. It’s also done well at rolling out biscuits and generally not getting easily lost.

Speaking of biscuits, looks like my biscuit-covered mutton stew is done. This is course #3 of stew, as I accidentally made too much. I meant to take a picture of my horrifically large carrot but was hungry and thus just chopped it up. It was about 2 1/2″ radius at its largest point and dwarfed the 3 potatoes it sat next to (malevolently).

Tags: cold, travel

Flight was canceled last night due to weather, and supposedly it is canceled today as well. While I appreciate the free meals and nicest hotel I’ve been in since staging in Atlanta, I nevertheless want to get the hell on my way

Anyway, I am pouting at the coffeeshop and pondering ways to spend more money. Bleh.

Tags: travel

A tidbit that was joggled in my memory which I may or may not have mentioned before:

Young children, as with US airlines, pay about half price for a seat or go free if they’re small enough. Unlike US airlines, they are not minded by the flight crew but rather by whoever may be on the plane and willing to do so. Sometimes people will bring their child to the airport and ask someone (who typically isn’t a total stranger; in a community of 30,000 with large families, most everyone is a sister/cousin of a friend or another relative, it seems) to carry em along. Most volunteers, if not all, tend to refuse outright for airplanes, as kids tend to fuss more on said planes with air pressure, etc., not to mention the vague worry of “what next” if they get to UB and there is no one to pick up the kid. Regardless, it’s kind of fun to watch, as so many people here really seem to dote on babies or young kids and definitely fuss over em…

This actually sort of happens in most transportation situations, though - many a Peace Corps volunteer here can tell a story about being on a 10-hour minibus ride where they’re handed a baby to hold and several hours pass before they return the bundle back to its rightful owner…

Likewise, in a way that would make Homeland Security despair, people often ask passengers to take a bag or letter(s) to Ulaanbaatar to be handed off to a waiting relative/friend at the airport. The other option tends to be post, where they may overcharge you and it can take forever to get to its destination. Plus if the recipient isn’t expecting it, they may never swing by the post office to see if they have anything and thus more delays. I don’t know how long mail *actually* takes to get back and forth though I do know that it comes in on the planes, not overland.

I kinda wish that there was that kind of community/trust in the US concerning children - I kinda feel good when some person I know hands over their baby to me like I should know what to do with it while they run an errand or do their makeup or whatever. Holding babies is kind of like holding a bag of flour, so those home ec (or life skills or whatever it was called) people in Texas knew what they were doing.

Then again, babies on a trial basis may be the best contraceptive

Tags: babies, travel

I’m back at work, this time in UB, until the flight flies on the 27th. Hopefully this week I will make fondue as well as okonomiyaki at jeff’s as well as candied orange peel. I’m hungry already, as I haven’t had lunch yet, which is the next item of order. This afternoon I’ll likely work at Nayra’s to eat lunch as well as use wifi and coffee…I need to break down my large bills and all.

Sounds like Andy is flying out on the same flight as me to Seoul…which we discovered today randomly…which means slightly more fun perhaps on the plane. Wrapping up gift-shopping hopefully tomorrow when the office is closed and (maybe?) the black market is open…

Training was cool - I’ve been asked 3 times in the past 5 days from Mongolians and Americans alike about my supposed vegetarianism…it’s a true curse. Which is essentially like true love, but comes with a rash.

I wonder who the random person who comments on Melissa’s blog is? And I wonder if I can bathe tonight?

I’ll send out an email prolly today re: contacting me in the US if you don’t know how yet. Miss you all and just in case happy holidays.

Tags: boo vegetarians, hungry, travel

So, fyi, I am at home writing this freshly bathed and in my heavy long underwear top, flannel-lined pants, and down booties. I will dress more appropriately for the outside in a bit, but for now, my feet get to breathe a bit from their week-long entrapment in heavy wool socks and my heavy boots (woo Amy and Jordan! They are very useful now.)

This week or two has been eventful at least from a personal life standpoint. Due to my impending weeks-long trips to UB, US, and elsewhere (woo host family!) I started putting more pressure on getting my pipe fixed. In case I didn’t write about this before, the short version is - two weeks or so back, toilet incoming water pipe doo-dangle jury rig disintegrated, shooting water uncontrollably out of the pipe, and me wearing no pants as I was just getting ready to do laundry, thus conundrum while I stuck my finger in the pipe to stop the water, tried to figure out how to contact my landlady with my cell phone in the kitchen, and get my pants on before she arrives. Resolution to that was to re-jury rig but with a plastic bag, but then I made the pipe valve thingy leak as I was trying to shut off the water pre-calling her and post-putting pants on. Both of these were still leaking, albeit slowly, but it wouldn’t do to have em leaving without someone to empty out buckets of water - and actually the toilet leak issue was worsening such that I had to empty out water once every 8 hours or so. So, in comes the chain-smoking fanny pack/tool-bearing plumber, which quite effectively fixes the leaky pipe while admonishing me to not touch the valve again as he ashes into my toilet bowl. The solution involved horse hair, several bolts, and a home-made washer made on the spot from a panel of rubber he had. Ta-da.

I partially sealed my windows with this putty stuff you can buy at the market for 1200 tugriks a kilo. For the first time ever, I actually get some condesation fogging on my windows, so I’m gonna get another kilo to finish it up.

Then the next evening was the local-ish christmas/holiday/etc party. Other foreigners were invited as well as Mongolian friends, there were wonderful sugar cookies by Stacey, a white elephant gift exchange, a string of christmas lights, punch made with Tang, and other goodies. The donuts (cake donut holes, more like it) I made were sad because I didn’t blot them very well and so when you ate a few the inside of your mouth would be coated with a thin layer of mutton lard…plus they didn’t rise much which is also why they went from my imagination of jelly donuts which I would fill with my apricot jam to cake donut holes. Pfft. The sugar cookies had icing and thus I was very happy, and my white elephant gift was in summary a toy camel that plays the miami vice(?) theme song or something like it, walks across the room, and has red flashing eyes. It will be coming with me to the US and probably back.

I bought my winter meat and veggies per the advice of my counterpart, who said the prices go up a lot later and the quality isn’t as good, as pretty much the meat you buy is probably the sheep that was killed in the past few days or so, and animals get awful skinny by the end of winter. Thus, 10kg (22lb) of mutton later, I am set I think until early March. I spent a few hours on Sunday trimming fat and deboning and packaging into 1-2lb parcels for easier use. I’ve also experimentally trimmed all the tops off the carrots to keep em from sprouting in the big flour sack in my closet…the mutton and soup bones are residing on my balcony (I live on the 4th floor, so I think they’re safe from animals). Here’s it mostly sorted out:

Re: my first real experience playing soccer - I don’t know how long my legs are, and this isn’t a contact sport, and 16-year-old Mongolian men are way too hard to play against when you don’t get to shove em to the ground or actually have foot contact with the ball.

Jeff and I are going to bring our controllers to training in UB and with my laptop and AV cables set up some fun SNES games, bwahaha…

I will also be an aarul mule this trip.

Alrighties, on to lunch (mutton japanese curry) and then work. I believe I’ll be getting a treat tonight - someone’s making horse sausage tsuivan and I’m invited.

P.S. I just found out my grater can also make crinkle-cuts, say for crinkle cut fries, and in a fit of enthusiasm last night my curry is now full of crinkle-cut potatoes and carrots. Maybe I’ll make fries for a meal before I fly out just for the experience…

P.P.S Bah proper writing style - I see a variety of problems above. I’m busy.

Tags: mutton, plumbers, soccer, travel