Stepping into the Steppe

Hi All, sorry for the delay in posting, I guess I've just been having too much fun :) Today is Sunday July 26 and I just got home from a weekend with Dennis, and three Californians who are coming through UB and staying with us for a few days. My student, Bolor, invited us to visit her family in the countryside. We took the bus yesterday morning for two hours and ended up in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Nestled between lush green valleys and tall rocky mountains, we found ourselves staying with Bolor's herding family in a settlement of three gers. Her father, a retired police officer, returned to the countryside and now lives with his mother and a few siblings in this heavenly spot where he herds horses, cows, sheep, and goats. This place was breathtaking and I will post pictures at the end of my writing. 

As for the rest of my life, I've been working very hard teaching and feeling mostly rewarded as my students become much more comfortable in the classroom, volunteering and having an easier time understanding normally paced English speech. Some of our students have taken a liking to us and offered to take us out on the town and come over and cook buuz for us. One great thing about Mongolians are their natural hospitable way. So many Mongolians have offered us food, company and even their family's homes to visit. I feel so grateful to experience such a culture where hospitality is instinctive. 

While in UB, we recently were able to visit the Gandan Buddhist Monastery. We were so fortunate to have one of Dennis' students who is a monk, give us the grand tour. Pictures will follow...

I'm coming up on my halfway point here in Mongolia and it's always nice to get over the hump of something. I am looking forward to having some free time in the end of August and beginning of September to do more significant traveling. But as for short travels, we have another weekend adventure planned to go to the Gobi next weekend. I am so excited to take the train across Mongolia and end up in one of the most famous deserts on earth. I'm hoping I get to ride a camel. Alright, well I hope this a sufficient enough report of my travels, it has been difficult to find the time to sit down and write on this blog but I will do my best to keep up with it. If you have any pressing questions or just want to say hello, e-mail me at lodea@ucsc.edu

Love you all!!

Feast your eyes

The ger's beautiful inside roof.
Frisbee on the steppe
Take a deep breath
Bolor in the ger
Ah, yes.
Babies!
Bolor's dad serves us airag (fermented mare's milk),

yogurt, milk tea, and cheese curds. DAIRY!
Looking out of the ger
Arrived in countryside and quite happy

Eat the buuz

Buuz!
Buuz factory
A storm is a-brewin'
Fresh Veggies!

Oh, Happy day

Gandan Monastery


Horse races

Naadaam Horse races 



UB at dusk

Hello all, I am coming up on the end of my third week here in Ulaanbaatar, and we are entering into the weekend and festivities of the national holiday Naadam which occurs this Friday through Monday. Our plans are to travel out to the country to stay with the thousands of horse racers and their families before they, being 10-13 year old boys, do a 30 mile race. Nyamsuren has invited about 30 of our students to join us, so we will be a crowd of 40 people staying in gers (Mongolian nomadic tents) out in the country and watching the boys and their horses race across the open plains of this vast and intriguing country. 

Dennis and I are working hard in our classrooms, usually coming home tired and content with another day of laughter, confusion, and progression. My students are beginning to gain an understanding of my personality and teaching methods, which are changing and developing everyday. And although we are working like dogs (one of the many idioms we have taught), we are finding ways to discover new, exciting, scary, regressive and thankfully progressive things in this city. After meeting a group of students from Pittsburgh, we have been able to invite each other to events in the city. So far, we have participated in a rousing game of trivia at a local bar, experienced the first ever gay art exhibit in Mongolia, attended the opening of a rescued, ancient, wooden, Russian building, turned into a musuem, once inhabited by the famous Buddhist painter Nicholas Roerich. This exhibit was amazing, viewing pieces from students aging from 18-23 who competed for a prize by creating Roerich-inspired art. Here are a few of my favorite pieces:

This exhibit was exciting and fun.

Tomorrow, we are heading to the UB palace (a concert venue) to see Altan Urag, a Mongolian folk band. Here is a youtube video of a famous song of theirs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBNqY5pBU-4

I hope you all are well and I will update soon.

Kisses,

Lucy