Today is Friday and I just finished my first week of school. I am so excited for these next two months of teaching although it will be chaotic. On the first day of class the students were very shy and unwilling to volunteer and speak in front of the other students. I have realized that this is one of the most difficult things to do when learning a language. Most language learners (including myself) are so hesitant to speak in front of others in fear of making mistakes or sounding silly. Most of the students giggle and laugh when they have to say more than five words in front of their peers and myself but I hope that I can make them comfortable enough to speak more and more each day. I have been trying really hard to be friendly and a little bit goofy infront of them so that they feel more relaxed in the classroom. But for the most part, I have been pleasantly surprised by their friendly demeanors and smiling faces. Most of them laugh a lot and seem genuinely interested in learning English and especially about our culture in the United States. I hope to show them a different side of America rather than what they see through the mass distribution of American media (i.e. Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias). There is so much to share and so much to avoid; it can get overwhelming.
We work long days in this office and luckily it is a nice space on the ninth floor of a building so from every window I have a beautiful view of UB and the surrounding mountains. The weather is warm although the sky has threatened a few summer storms yet nothing has happened yet.
I was worried about surviving as a vegetarian here in UB and although I did succumb and try "buuz" a national dish consisting of noodle dumplings filled with mutton (eh...), I was pleasantly surprised to find a Vegetarian cafe one floor below our school. In this cafe, they serve traditional Mongolian food but with the bold decision to not serve meat. This is a big step in Mongolia because meat has been the staple food since the beginning of time. But now that people are living modernly in the city, vegetarianism has become an option. This cafe has delicious fresh. simple salads (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, green onion, olive oil, vinegar), vegetarian buuz (yum), tsuiven (handmade noodles with vegetables), tofu dishes, and a different soup every day. You can stuff yourself here for under 3,000 tugrug which translates to about $2.50. Other than this cafe, there is a plethora of restaurants and options that offer many different international cuisines. Yesterday, Dennis and I went to a french cafe and had paninis with fresh homemade bread. You can drink tea anywhere and the Mongolian beer isn't bad.
Overall, this trip has been great so far. I don't feel uneasy although I have avoided going out alone at night since there is a good amount of drunk men roaming the streets being fools and yelling obscenities although none have approached me yet. Most Mongolians are very polite and respectful even to the token tall white girl. This weekend I plan to discover more of the city and on Sunday the school director, Nyamsuren, will drive us out to the country. She promised to take out out of UB every weekend and we will spend a few days during Nadaam festival camping in the country watching the horse races (mama, I will defintely take pictures for you), and after our two months of teaching we will take a week long trip up to lake Khövsgöl (look it up on Wikipedia, it's 2 million years old!)
I will post more pictures soon and miss you all! if you want a post card- send me your address.
xo, Lucy

Modern Day Mongolian Celebrities

Today is Monday and we had quite the exciting day here in UB. The weather has turned out to be perfect, very similar to a ideal spring day in Northern California. Dennis and I have been exploring around the town and he is giving me a crash course in Cyrillic which is scary to look at but not too difficult to get the hang of. Still, understanding Mongolians is near impossible at this point. We met Nyamsuren (the school director and woman who has given us her apartment for the summer) outside the apartment and went to the immigration office to register ourselves. After that little extravaganza we visited "Success School" for the first time where we met her comrade and assistant director of the school André, a French man. It was fun to talk in French with André who is an animated, and classically funny Frenchman. The school is very nice, with two large classrooms, a huge computer lab, and an office for Nyamsuren, André, Leah (an American woman), Dennis, and I. Soon after that I got to meet my 30 students. They were very shy although thankfully just about the same age as me and look eager to be there. The deal with the school is that these students are offered free English education for the summer after going through an interview process. Many of them are from the country side without much money although very determined to learn English to improve their chances of getting international jobs after graduating college. While we spoke with them, a local TV station came and filmed the meeting. At this moment, I realized how important the implementation of English education is to the Mongolian people. After this meeting, the five of us, plus Leah's beautiful 11 month old baby girl Amélie, drove to national TV station in UB to be interviewed on live television! This was crazy. We were wired with headsets and brought onto a live set in which we sat in a cheesy pink and white decorated "living room" and spoke to a television personality about our intentions, experience, and reasons for visiting Mongolia. Nyamsuren translated for us and we sat there looking mostly confused by their chatter in Mongolian. 

Today was really exciting and I can't wait to actually start teaching on Wednesday. I feel really blessed to have students my age and I hope that I will form friendships with them, leading to an even more intense and personal discovery of this city. I am also eager to learn more about Buddhism and the history of the Mongolian people. I will write more soon.

xo, lucy

Lucky strikes for Perl

Kitchen, perfect sunny perch to read
Zanabazaar Art Museum- absolutely amazing
Mongolian Graff UB Graff

UB- town center
Sukhbaatar Square
View from Apartment
Bedroom view
Bedroom view

View of China from the Plane
Bye Bye Beijing
"Don't be sketch"
My impression of Beijing
Landed in Beijing, and no, Californians, that is 

not fog, it's smog. Yum.

Getting There

Hi All, this is my first post on my travel blog to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I cannot say that traveling here was easy, but I am finally here and settled in an apartment downtown. My flight to Beijing from SFO was smooth although long (12.5 hours). I thought that having some sleeping pills prescribed would be a good idea but instead I found myself hallucinating in my seat tin some half-dream world where I could barely contain my limbs...pretty great. But once I got over that, I was able to sleep, watch terrible movies, and read. Once landed in Beijing I successfully navigated to my new gate and waited to board my flight to UB. Little did I know...storms in both Beijing and UB delayed my flight over night. This is where the adventure begins. Ushered by Chinese airport employees, Chinese, Mongolian, and a few American travelers were brought out of the airport, crammed into little busses, and brought to a hotel about 15 minutes from the airport. Here, we were paired and put into rooms for the rest of the night. By this point, I was delirious from traveling for 26 hours and although disappointed, was happy to have a bed to sleep in and a shower. I shared a room with a 30 year old Mongolia woman named Mugi who lives in Germany. Along her travels she met two other Mongolian women who spent their time in our room chatting and most importantly answering all and any questions that I had about UB and Mongolia. These women were so friendly and we all ended up exchanging e-mails.
After a solid night of sleep, we were treated to a Chinese breakfast of hard boiled eggs, pickled seaweed and bamboo shoots, dumplings and lots of green tea. We were crammed back onto busses and eventually flew out of Beijing at 2 p.m.
The entry into UB by plane was most extraordinary. Mongolia is incredibly beautiful; vast, green (once past the Gobi desert), and from the airplane I could see gers (tents that the country people live in) and flocks of sheep, goats, and scattered horses. The city fits inbetween mountains on all sides but the east and even though the storm had not yet left, I could really understand why this country has been dubbed "the country of blue skies".
I landed and was met (fortunately) by the director of the school, Nyamsuren. She is a fairly young Mongolian woman with great English and a very friendly demeanor. We drove into the city and arrived at her apartment which she has so graciously given to me and Dennis (travel buddy from Santa Cruz who will arive here today) for the summer. Her apartment is right in the center of the city and is a very special place. With two large bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom, I couldn't have been happier with accomidations for the summer. She took me out to eat and grocery shopping and then left me to the apartment for the night.
Today, I have wandered the city although wary because I do not speak or read Mongolian. I am excited to see Dennis this evening. I will post pictures soon. Miss you all, my sweet potatoes.