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Blog 7-27-07

I haven’t really had much to write lately. I have 1 week left with my host family and then I’m off to new places. First I will be in Darkhan and then in Ulaanbatar, where I will swear in. I kinda wish I could just skip ahead to site placements. I am tired of people asking me what I expect and then telling me not to have any expectations. I really don’t have many expectations, so I want them to stop asking and just tell me where I will be and who I will be working with. I’m also curious to find out which Americans will be in my same area. Other than this stuff, I really don’t have much to say. I am wrapping up in Sukhbaatar. I have been trying to go hiking as much as possible because I don’t know where I will be next and I don’t know if I’ll have the mountains like I do here. My ech (Mongolian mom) made me a beautiful dell (Mongolian traditional clothing)!! It’s almost finished and I am so excited. It is an awesome shade of blue. Don’t worry; I’ll post pictures up when I have it.

Sometimes I find myself torn between thought and experience. I don’t want to think too much or try to analyze things because I feel like this is the time to experience everything around me and just go with the flow. I need to make sure to find the balance.

8-1-07

One sweltering hot day, we took a trip out to the country to visit a Buddhist monastery. It was really neat to see the beautiful painting and all the different Buddha figures. I enjoyed walking around, but I think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about Buddhism in Mongolia. It would have been nice to walk around with someone who really knew what they were talking about and could have explained the significance of things and answer all my questions. I’m going to try to learn more about Buddhism while I’m out here. So far, it seems it is almost more cultural in Mongolia than religious.

8-1-07

I really don’t have much to say lately….so what do people do when they have nothing to talk about? They talk about the weather…or baseball. Well, I don’t get to watch ANY Angel games, so the weather it is. I have decided that I love Mongolian summer! You really get the best of both worlds. It will be sunny and beautiful for a while, which leads into a hot spell. And right when you think it can’t get much hotter, it does! Only to be followed by a few days of refreshing rain, leading right back into the beautiful, pleasantly warm days. Here, one month covers the full span of weather change that we get in a year in Southern California.