a trip to the countryside and other adventures

Yesterday we went on our eagerly (huh!) anticipated TRIP TO THE COUNTRYSIDE! The temperature was minus 20 something, and there was an icy wind, same old Mongolian story.  We trundled down to the VSO office to get on the same bus we go to school in, in order to be driven out into the countryside.

The drive was long and very bumpy, and looking out of the window was punctuated often by wiping ice off the inside of the window.  We had snacks for the journey, and were traveling with VSO people that we hadnt met before, so it was quite a cheery journey, despite the loss of feeling in the toes.

On the way, we stopped to look at a Shamanist Ovoo, like  cairn, a pile of rocks with a rag-festooned stick, that we walked around thrice for luck, making a wish at the end of the third circle. I wished that my complexion would be spared the ravages of the weather.  I am going to come back to the UK looking 40 years old at this rate.

 

When we got out of the bus, we were in a little Ger encampment that had one Ger for tourists to hang out in. It was very warm and cosy inside, being heated by a wood burning stove in the middle, the smoke from which went up the chimney.  it is tempting to get very close to the stove.....it is even more temptig to touch it....and I melted my socks - but avoided melting my actual feet, thanks be.

In the Ger we were brought boorch and hoshoor, these are meat filled dumplings that are either steamed (boorch) or fried (hoshoor).  I must make a note here about the mongolian words i write, the mongolian alphabet is like the russian, and it is impossible to write in english letters what the words sound like.

Anyway, the dumplings were very nice, I have liked all the mongolian food i have eaten so far, but I think that living in the city, I have escaped the truly horrifying dishes - I have heard that in the remote countryside, dinner is a bucket of roughly chopped animal in salty milk, and a diner party is passing the bucket around so that everyone can take it in turns to fish for eyeballs, trotters, tails and other delights.

After lunch I went on a little stroll and had a very nice chat wth a bunch of cows that were eating sticks.  here i am

and here are the cows

and here is some scenery what I saw

cool huh.

After our walk we piled into the bus to head home, stopping a few times to ogle a cople of camels (!!! my new favourite animal, they were fab) which we were not able to take photos of unfortunately as the herders with them didnt take to us goggle-eyed foreigners at all.  However, I discovered later that one of the girls had managed to sneak a photo through the window of the bus, it is slightly blurred, but check out how lush these Camels are, to ride on a Camel has become my new ultimate ambition.

  We also stopped to view a huge boulder named Turtle Rock.  Can you tell how it came by this particuar monniker?!

Homeward homeward we headed, tumbling out of the bus at Sukbataar square to hobble back to the guesthouse via the Minimart where we picked up some Mongolian beer, which is very nice.  Re-ensconced in our little sanctuary, we sat around chatting and laughing.  I was reminde again of the Bg Brother house, especially since we were all paying particular attention to our new arrivals.

Today, sunday, i had a blissful lie in and leisurely morning.  I went for a Berlin Burger with K and G, and then wandered of fon my own to the Mongolian National History Museum.  It was free entry today in honour of a cultural day of celebration, but the Museum was surprisingly quiet, and I was able to spend over an hour perusing the really very interesting artifacts.  From pre-historic finds, cave drawings and burial sites, to the end of the 21st century when Mongolia broke away from Russian influence, the history of Mongolia is artfully covered, and, helpfully, almost all of the information about the exhibits is proveded in english.

One whole floor of the Museum is devoted to the traditionl dress of the different Mongolian ethnic groups, of which there are about 20.  They are wonderfully ornate costumes, which I realised looking at them, had been the inspiration for the costumes of Queen Almidala in the hideous travesties of celluloid which were the latest "starwars" movies.  I tried to take a picture, but was sternly told "NO" by a very scary Mongolian woman.

I have more to say about this, but my computer keeps freezig up, and i have to go get some groceries and drop my computer at home before heading out again for a VSO social dinner (groooan) where I must be jovial and friendly, which is not really my natural disposition, but it wouldnt be fair on them to be my true grumpy self.

how time flies when you're learning Mongolian

It is minus 24 today, so cold that my breath becomes ice crystals on my snood.  Indoors however, the heat is as ferocious as a fire ball, and I cannot whip my four tops off quick enough.  Today I put into practice my quite brilliant plan of wearing my thermal top OVER my normal top, thereby circumventing the inevitble heat exhaustion that strikes when inside a building, yet still managing to avoid the hypothermia that inevitably accompanies venturing outside.  Magic.

I have been going to language classes this week.  at 8am my collegues and I trundle out to get our school bus, a minature van, with no seat belts, that ratttles through the city, depositing us at the (minature) Brigde International College, where we split into classes of five to try and learn Mongolian. 

Our classroom is teeny, a sis our teacher.  We break for a snack of fried rice (Yesssss) or meat dumpling, with a sweet instant coffee.  I love school, I love my teacher, and I love being an unashamed swot.  I have learned the 35 letter alphabet, and am going ok with my pronunciation.  I evn managed to have a stilted conversation with the teacher which went as follows

her: Hello, how are you
me: I am fine, how are you?
her: i am fine, are you a teacher?
me: no I am a student
her: what is your name?
me: my name is catherine
her: do you speak mongolian?
me: a little bit.  I am english.  Do you speak english
her: a little bit.  well, nice talking to you, see you around, bye!
me: bye!

if I could work out how to get the cyrillic on this computer I would have written it in mongolian. Suffice it to say that afterwards she said "mas sain!" which means VERY GOOD.

Our classes finish at 12.30, and after the bus drops us at Sukbataar Square we have the afternoon off.  Today Kate and I went to the most expensive restaurant we have found so far, lunch was 10,000 tugruks, which is about £5, and waaaay over our budget.  But it was very nice, I had a burger and chips (bad caffers) and a real coffee.  Real coffee is very expensive, I am going to have to learn to love the 3in1 instant stuff wich is less than a tenth of the price.

Because of the drop in temperature, the coal smoke pollution has worsened.  I cough as soon as I get into the 'fresh air' and I can feel the soot in my mouth like the after-grit of a filling, or the sand you get in your sandwhich on the beach.

The traffic in the city is quite literally mental.  Cars weave around oblivious to lanes, trffic signls and pedestrians.  Horns beep CONSTANTLY.  If I was asked to describe the sound track to UB I would walk to the nearest car and press down on the horn for a few hours.  Crossing the road is always fraught with danger, more so when wearing a hat, scarf, snood and hood, which gives one tunnel vision and mutes ones hearing.  My life preserving tactic has been to run really fast with my eyes shut, hoping really strongly for the best....this is working fine so far.

we are supposed to be going on a countryside trip on saturday, but the weather is forecast to get even worse, dropping to -26 and snowing, so the trip may be cancelled.

next week we are invited to  social evening to meet the staff of the british embassy here, as well as the peace corps, and other NGO's.  I forgot to bring fancy shoes, so will be in a lovely dress, red lipstick, and big bovver boots.  But I am more worried about my huge spots than I am about altitude sickness, pollution poisoning, road traffic accidents and hypothermia put together.

First days in UB

SO!  here I am in UB, a city that has to be seen to be believed.  Very soviet in appearance, some very battered depressed appartment blocks (one of which will be my new home soon) but yet some absolutley majestic buildings.  There is a big road , Peace Avenue (which always makes me think of Neil from The Young Ones), running east to west through the cuty, and in the middle the large central landmark, Sukbataar Square, with the sublimely impressive parliament building, and other stately buldings.

parliament building

i have only been here for two day, and am jet lagged into incapability.  I have struggled through today, being nudged awake by my colleague during a meetng, and crashing out at 6pm as soon as we got home, awaking at 9.30pm to come and join the melee out in the sitting room.

'home' at the moment is a guet house north of Peace Av.  It is teeny but very cosy and cute.  there are ten of us here, all vso volunteers, from the UK, INdia, The Phillipines and Kenya.  I am sleeping in the 'traditional room' with three others.  we have wooden cot beds, painted bright orange with colourful patterns.  I am SO glad I brought my pillows, I am very cofy in my bed, although sleeping in crimson satin sheets has taken a little getting used to. And the bed is actually one inch shorter than I am.

my bed (the messy one)

We have been out and about in the city - and all agree it is a surreal experience.  Small colourful shop fronts line the street, but there are no windows into them, so they appear as if cardboard cut outs.  Then abrubtly, you will see a big brand shop, like Addidas, North face or Nike.

The super State Department Store is an imposing building of 6 floors, inside it very classy and high end, with - I was shocked to see - an IKEA store, and a huge collectin of playmobil. It has a supermarket on the first floor, which is very well stocked, and I have been spending many Tugruks on snacks here.

state department store

In the city I have seen a range of people, from the young beautiful mongolian women in very snazzy skinny jeans, high heeled boots and shiny tight puffa jackets, to the scruffy drunks with yellow wizened faces, arguing with eachother and if they chance to spot you, calling 'hello hello!  money!', to the young boys posing and posturing, playing tinny music off their mobile phones, like POKER FACE!! Is there no where the ga ga hasnt reached?  to the mongolians in their traditional dress, a full length Deel, with large fur hats.  And the cutest kids I have ever seen.

Tomorrow, my language classes start, and I hope I will begin to emerge from the fug of jet lag, and write somehting a little more coherent.
Oh and the food is LUSH. 
Ciao for now.

preparing to depart....

I leave for Mongolia next friday........

I will be living in Ulaan Bataar for a year, working for a hospital as a nurse trainer.  I am going with VSO, and I don't know at the moment where best on my blog to put the disclaimer, not being technology savvy (I recently came into possession of my very first, and very own laptop computer, I joined skype but managed to reject my first call as I thought it was an internet pop up...and I then spilt coffee all over the lap top, which miraculously survived, but seems to eye me with nervous anticipation every time I use it now...) so I will put it in here for now - I cant remember exactly how it goes, but the gist is that I am volunteering for VSO, but the views expressed in this blog are my own and so if I come across as dodgy, then thats my business not VSO's so dont blame them if I say stupid things....

Um...at this stage there isnt much to write about - so far my preparation has mainly consisted of stock piling thermal underwear, as the temperature will be minus 20 or so when I arrive, I am also stock piling herbal sedative tablets, Valerian, Hops etc, as I am anticipating being overwhelmed and bewildered for the first few weeks.  I also anticipate experiencing massive culture shock.  One of the reasons I am going is because I really WANT to experience a different culture, and I plan to really try to go with the flow and respect and learn about what goes down out there, but all the same, it is still going to be a shock to the system at first.

I cant wait to meet the people I will be working and living with, and I am looking forward to getting stuck into the job.  I want to see the sights, hear the noises and smell the smells of mongolia, but I do hope I will have a nice bed out there with nice pillows because when it comes to where I sleep I am the princess and the pea.  Its an unfortunate trait, I ken, but I cant help it, I can put up with almost any discomfort or deprivation except for a lack of pillows.  In fact, I am going to bring a couple just in case....

So - there ends my first post.