Greetings and Salutations! Happy New Year!
I was feeling nostalgic the other day and found this School House Rock video I would like to share:
I hope that everyone had a great holiday season and that you all are well on your way to keeping many of those new year's resolutions you made alive and well. This year I hope will come and go slower than this past year, I mean amazing things have happened! Here is a year in review:
January 2011 - getting ready to head for training in Colorado.
February 2011 - made the journey to Fort Collins Colorado to be trained by wonderful people. Received some fantastic information and great help in planning what to bring with me when traveling to Mongolia.
March 2011 - Mongolia here I come! I left on the 28th of Feb and arrived on the 1st of March. Moved into my apartment and started language school. Traveled around the city and visited many places like Sukhbaatar Square, got lost, rode a bus by myself to a teammates with only 3 or 4 phone calls, and more. Began training for the EXCEL program and helped lead a 7 day English seminar.
April 2011 - finished EXCEL seminar, celebrated Easter with the team and went to Terelj. Watched the sheep be prepared to make Khorkhog and ate/served said dish: pressure cooked mutton, potatoes, carrots, and onions with hot rocks.
May 2011 - continuing with language class, helped get the EXCEL graduation set up and cut/slice/serve cake to the families of those graduating. Baked my first sour cream dutch apple pie (delicious by the way). Visited Gandan - the biggest temple in UB, houses the largest standing Buddha statue in the world, and watched people feed the pigeons. Observed a lantern festival and traveled to northern Mongolia to see the 'mother tree' - a place where Buddhist and others go to pray. Saying good-bye forever to some teammates while other merely a 'see you later'.
June 2011 - celebrated my first 'Children's Day' by taking a hike with a good friend of mine, teammate's parents came to visit, roommate's birthday, and went to a Mongolian culture show. Climbed the Zisan monument (several times) and got my picture taken with a golden eagle.
July 2011 - Happy 4th of July! Celebrated this with friends, made potato salad and pickles, and watched some kids play baseball from the English Co-Op school. Enjoyed the preparations for the Mongolian celebration of Naadam (the 11-13th each and every year) and enjoyed seeing all that there was to see during this celebration: wrestling, archery, and horse racing as well as eating hosher (fried meat pies), spending time with friends/teammates, and trying airag or fermented mare's milk.....eew.
August 2011 - teammates from the states making their way back to Mongolia, finishing up language class, and teaching a 3 week course for a high school (the Summer Sampler) with my friends Matt and Matthew. Teaching Biology, Chemistry, and English, I was able to 'tap into' what I had learned in college. Went to the Coca-Cola bottling factory for all of Mongolia and got to drink all the coke zero that I wanted! Fantastic!! Fall training at Terelj where I rode a horse who got tired and sat down while I was still on it.....fun times.
September 2011 - began working with my students (teachers) in EXCEL and began teaching! Hurray!! Grading homework, preparing lessons, and observing teachers.....fun fun fun. Went north again with some friends and saw the Mother Tree again, still a tree and people were still praying to it. First snow falls on the 28th....broke out the warm coat. Finally moved into an apartment of my own (and my roommates) at the beginning of the month. Huzzah!
October 2011 - still teaching. Started making tortillas with my friend Jennifer once every two weeks. Teaching, observing, teaching, observing, grading, grading, grading.....etc.
November 2011 - my friend Bonnie came and took me to the orphanage that she has been supporting for more than 10 years. Made plarn to make a bag (which I finished in Jan 2012) and the bag turned into a garbage can....what can I say? Made ricotta cheese which unfortunately went fuzzy before it was used. Snow snow snow and more snow. Went to the circus (the Wizard of Oz) with Kevin, Pam, and Aleta. Roommate's father came to town, went sight-seeing with them and some good Mongolian friends. Saw the huge stainless steel Chinggis Khaan and a really neat monastery. Celebrated Thanksgiving at our director's house with the entire team. Ate turkey, stuffing, corn bread/pudding, rolls, cranberry sauce (yeah!), pumpkin pie, Mongolian beef salad, apple pie, mashed potatoes and more.
December 2011 - helped my friend Jess create a nativity set. Got my first cold that lasted for almost 3 weeks. I now think it was two separate colds. Oh well, bought stock in Kleenex. Christmas party with the team, cookie decorating contest, pizza, and food food food. Received a fantastic Christmas box from the parents and another from friends/family at church. Celebrated Christmas day at church with the roommate and Pam/Kevin, had Indian food for lunch (delicious), and walked home past some ice sculptures in front of the Louis Vuitton building. Celebrated the New Year with friends, ate mexican pizza, played games, watched the Wrath of Khan and promptly fell asleep at 12.30.
So far the year has been pretty good and am starting to plan for vacation in Thailand later this month. So, until then, have a great year!
