blog #1 from mongolia

Blog #1
This is my first update on what’s going on over here. I’ll start out with a quick little recap of the major things of the past week. Starting out in Atlanta, I got to hang out with Myiedra and my friend Lee-Ora from my Israel trip. It was nice. I got there one day early. The rest of the Peace Corps people came and I started meeting all these new people. It’s really neat how most of the people I have encountered have done really interesting and exciting things in their lives. I feel like I am just starting my rap sheet, and I am excited to build with every experience. Staging was basically just an introduction into the Peace Corps. Then we left for the longest plane ride ever! Destination: Korea. I was so happy when I found out I was going to have 28 hours in Korea. I took the time to go out on the town and see what I could. A group of us went into the city of Seoul at night and walked around.

There were all these street vendors and many people in the street. Luckily, we had one natural Korean speaker with us. He found a traditional Korean restaurant where we filled our stomachs with delicious meat, salads, and crab. That’s right, I tried crab for my first time! Not a fan, but at least I tried it. After eating we walked around the street and found this huge crowd of people. There was a stage set up and a dance contest going on in the street. It’s crazy! It doesn’t matter where you are, everyone loves Justin Timberlake. We watched for a little while and continued walking. We found a bar to sit it, but it was empty. So the girls went down to do what we do best…..shop. And the boys stayed upstairs to do what they do best….drink. My friend and I bought Korea shirts. Mine is really cute and has these little Korean characters on it. I made sure not to buy one with writing because I didn’t know what it said. My friend didn’t follow the same selection process. When we got back to the boys, our designated Korean speaker informed us that the shirt said “belly fat”. Not until this moment did we realized the character on the shirt was squeezing his belly fat.
We laughed and I thought of those people who bet random tattoos in different languages and end up with the wrong word. At least hers was just a T-shirt. The next day, me and a group of people arranged to go on a tour of the beach, a monastery, and the fish market. I was really excited to see the beach and the monastery. Dead fish was not going to be my highlight. We went to this beach, but it was low tide. This was lower tide than I have ever seen where the water was really far away. So, we walked around where the water would be when high tide came and played with the little crabs and snails. This beach is called ‘fairy beach’ because there is a rock that supposedly looks like a fairy. I’m not so sure I saw the fairy but I took a picture, so you be the judge.
Maybe somebody saw a fairy in the rock one night when hanging out on the beach with there friends, enjoying their favorite past time and decided to name the beach. If naming beaches in California was so easy, I know one that would be called Puff the Magic Dragon beach…..but it’s not…instead it’s Laguna. How boring. Anyway, after the beach, our cute little tour guide (who is probably the sweetest person ever) took us to the monastery. We got to hear the monks praying, which was really neat.
She also showed us how Buddhists pray. She told us that if you have lots of wishes and lots to pray for, some people with pray up to 3000 times a day!!! That’s nuts! Personally, I think the time would be better spent taking actions towards achieving the things that they want, but ‘to each his own’. So, after the monastery we proceeded to the fish market, which was a lot cooler than I thought it would be. It’s insane all the different things people eat out of the ocean. People were there buy their food to feed their family, but I just wanted to play with all the cool animals. I walked around looking at everything, but really I just wanted to poke everything and see what would happen. I felt like a little kid at the hands on part of the aquarium, but I wasn’t allowed to touch. I could have…but I felt it would be rude to play with people’s food. I learned something valuable at the fish market, octopus still moves after you cut him up. Many people eat the octopus and it is moving in their mouth. I think these are the type of people who should go on fear factor. After the fish market we went back to the hotel. It is interesting how in Asian cultures, people do not accept tips.
The trip to Mongolia:
The flight to Mongolia was only about 4 or 5 hours. I was so excited to finally be on my way to my final destination. The lady sitting next to me was the first Mongolian I met. She asked me if I was working in Mongolia, I told her I’m volunteering. I was pleasantly surprised when she asked if I was in the Peace Corps. She teaches nursing at a university and has worked a lot with the Peace Corps. She seemed very pleased with her interactions with the Peace Corps and was happy to see a group of 48 coming to her country. Up until this point, I had been told the Mongolians were open to having the peace Corps, but I had subconsciously wondered if that was just what they said. We arrived to Chinggis Khan airport in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia around 10pm. We gathered our bags and walked into a screaming group of current Peace Corps volunteers. They were so excited to see us…why? I still don’t exactly understand. Upon asking, I was informed that I would find out in a year. It was kind of cool to meet the girl I have been talking to on Myspace. A little overwhelmed by the crowd I got on the bus and waited for our departure. We arrived at a Ger camp for our first night in Mongolia at around 12am.

I woke up in morning to go to the bathroom. I took care of my business and decided to look outside. I opened the door and it was seriously surreal. I knew at that moment that I had come to the right country. Here’s my first view of Mongolia:
I don’t have a picture of them, but there were horses grazing on the bottom of the hill to the left of this picture. We had lunch with the American ambassador and left for our next destination: Durkhan, the third largest city in Mongolia. (which doesn’t say much) The bus ride was long and hot and I was exhausted from the jetlag, but couldn’t sleep from the bumpy roads. The scenery as we drove was absolutely beautiful. I wasn’t hoping to see a yak, but I’m still waiting. We passed by sheep, cows, people bathing in the river, saw stray dogs and miles and miles of scenery. This country looks so different from home. It seems untouched. There is so much land that just exists. We checked into our hotel in Darkhan and have been staying there for the passed few nights. Now I come to the present. We have been having all sorts of safety and security, cross-cultural training, and language classes. Mongolian is not an easy language, but my familiarity with Hebrew has helped me to make some of the sounds. There was a Welcome ceremony where we were introduced to traditional Mongolian dances, clothing, and throat singing.
And we were presented with a Mongolian scarf that they use as a gift for people who are respected and welcome. We have now had the first 8 of our 14 shots in 30 days. Luckily, I’m not afraid of needles. Everything that we are doing here are just preparing us for our host families and the next 3 months of training. I am really excited to get started. We have heard many awkward and embarrassing stories from some current volunteers. I am so excited, even if I am going to be the weird American.

Today we had a meeting with our individual sectors. Mine is CYD, Community Youth Development. I am really excited to start my 3 months of intense training. I still don’t know my exact job, but we got our handbooks and this huge resource guide. I can tell that the work I will be doing is going to be challenging, has a lot of room for flexibility and it is going to be an amazing beginning to the rest of my life. It is right up my alley to be working with “vulnerable youth”, summer camps, and after school programs. I will be working with an organization that is already established here. Aside from the details of this job, I hope to come up with a secondary project that will benefit the kids and be fun. A very important aspect of feeling productive and being a successful volunteer will be how well I learn the language. I am a little nervous about this because it’s not really my strong point. I think I will give it the time and effort needed because I really learned how vital language is while I was in Israel. While in Israel, my language barriers were the main cause of my frustrations. Some current volunteers are helping with our training. I am impressed at their language skills and I can only hope that I can learn enough to communicate what I want to say. With each step of this process and each new experience, I get more excited about the next 27 months. It is going to be amazing and I really feel like this is where I’m supposed to be right now. Of course I will miss my family and friends at home and it is sad to miss out on certain events, but I am confident that I have made the right choice.

The food has not been bad. Mutton is a common dish here and is served in many different forms. Basically, it is lamb meat that is taken from an older animal. It is tougher, but tastes good if cooked right. The cheese and yogurt are really good. I have a feeling I will be eating a lot of rice and meat and I’m ok with that. I haven’t anything different yet. I did see some cow tongue, but I didn’t eat it. I’m pretty sure people eat it in the US also. I was nervous about the lack of spices, but I have been pleased to find out that they do use salt. My diet will change when I get to my host family…