Ulaanbataar

10-5-07
I had a conference in UB (Ulaanbataar) last week. Upon having the knowledge that I will be traveling to the city, my mind automatically starts forming a list of all the things I want to buy while I’m there. I was a little nervous knowing this would be my first time traveling in Mongolia on my own. I boarded the bus at 8am after it was completely packed with containers of airag. Immediately, I could pick out the people who would be staring at me the whole ride probably thinking "where are you from? Why are you here?, etc…" all the normal questions.
There was one point in the trip when I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. I often see my life as a movie, here’s the scene:
A small Mongolian bus packed with people. There’s jugs of airag and luggage filling the isle, so whenever the bus stops people climb over the luggage and each other to get out. The bus is a little cold due to the open windows, letting in the dust from outside. The landscape is that of beautiful fall in Mongolia, mostly brown hills, and frequently passing hearders with their animals. People are bobbing up and down with the bumps of the unpaved road. In the front of the bus, there is a row of five people facing everyone else. One Mongolian man keeps his eyes fixed on the only white girl on the bus, who is seated only a few rows in front of him. She sits silently, obviously by herself. She puts down her headphones for the first time in the trip and reaches into her purse. She pulls out a book, "Genghis Kahn: the making of the modern world", of course. So this girl sits in the bus packed with Mongolians, the only white girl, completely oblivious to the fact. She is concentrated on getting to her destination and passing the time as best as she can. She sits reading about Chingis and the history of the land and the people that she finds herself immersed in. The bus bumps, she looks up from her book, looks out the window, looks at the man that has been starring at her since they boarded the bus, looks back down at the book in her hand and can’t help but smile at the cliché she has just created.
After about 10 hours of mostly offroading, and one lunch break, we pulled into the "Dragon Center", which is the main bus station in UB. Why it’s called that? I don’t know. It’s a pretty intimidating name for a parking lot. About 5 taxi drivers wanted to take me all at once. After discussing the price with them, I got in a "taxi", which is really just a car and made my way towards the guesthouse where I planned to stay. I’m really not good at getting around big cities, but I was lucky to have someone on the phone telling me how to get where I needed to go. After checking in, I met up with some of the other peace corps volunteers. The next few days were filled with delicious food, spending lots of money, going to bars, my conference, visiting with friends, and wandering around the city. It was nice to see the people that I trained with and to discuss our sites and our jobs. It was also comforting that EVERYONE’S Mongolian has gotten worse…if possible. UB is an interesting place. I found myself in restaurants trying to squeeze by with my Mongolian, only to realize that I didn’t have to. There are so many foreigners that pass through UB that being foreign is not weird there and you don’t experience people practicing the only English they know (hi) on you. I was actually amazed by the amount of people that knew really good English. All the people in Arvaikheer that "know English" say they studied in UB, but something must have went wrong, because the people I encountered in UB really do know English.
After a while, UB gets tiring due to walking all over the place trying to gather the things you’ve been dreaming about. For me, once I got there, my list of things I wanted to get went out the window. I had my mind on three things, good food, beans, and movies. These were all things with a purpose. I wanted to eat non-mongolian food and was SUPER excited when I was able to get a chicken Caesar salad, delicious Indian food, close to real pizza, and many other things I can not get anywhere else in Mongolia. I wanted to get beans for their nutrition value. In Arvaikheer I don’t cook meat at my home because I do not have a refrigerator. Technically, I could buy single portions of meat from the market, but I don’t know how much that would be and the meat market is pretty intimidating in itself. I only eat meat when I go out to eat or when all the Americans get together on Fridays to cook dinner. And, finally, Movies are an absolute necessity around here. There is a place where you can purchase bootleg DVDs for equivalent to about $1.50 US dollars. Of course, I am not using American money, so it is a little different, but they are still very cheap. Basically, one movie is just under the price of a beer. They also let you view them to make sure they are a good copy. I should have paid more attention while I was there, but after sifting through all the movies to find ones I was interested in, my patience level was pretty low. Anyway, I bought 3 movies which will serve to be a very good investment.
After being in UB for about 4 days, I was more than ready to head home. It was funny because I was talking to someone online and I said, "I just wanna go home" and I realized I had to clarify, "…to Arvaikheer".
In the past, I have discussed with people the meaning of the word "home". The way I see it, ‘home’ is where my things are. It’s where I don’t have to live out of a bag. Arvaikheer is my home for the next two years. I still refer to anywhere in California, or even the U.S. as ‘home’, but it is a different meaning. This meaning of home is of a place that I am familiar with and know the language.
After the longest 10 hours bus ride of my life, I arrived back in Arvaikheer. It was this bus ride where I learned the importance of getting up early to get a ticket for a good seat the day before departure. I went at about 11 am the day before I left UB and got the last available seat on the bus. It makes sense that it was definitely the worst seat on the bus. By the time I got home, I was excited to get off that bus and get to see my animals.
My dog literally doubled in size over the course of those 4 days!!! After realizing that he’s going to be a huge dog and watching him chew at my walls, my feet, and my phone, I made the tough decision to find him a new home. I knew I had to get rid of him, but I couldn’t just put him back on the street where I found him. He came to work with me and ended up going home with ‘the driver’ (I don’t know what his job is). Tony (my dog) is going to be given to Zorgoo’s (that’s his name) brother and is going to become a khudoo (coutryside) dog. Yesterday, I went home for lunch, only to find Tony waiting at my door. At first I was confused, but it only took me a minute to realize I had given the dog to a Mongolian, which means he will always be outdoors now. I brought him in for food, he played with the cat, and then he started to get rowdy. I made him go outside when I left. At first I thought he was going to walk with me to work, but he stopped at the end of the stairwell. I was hoping he wouldn’t be there when I got home last night. He was. He ran down to meet me and started walking up the stairs with me. I can’t help it, I got a soft spot for the little beast, and I was going to take him in for the night. He got distracted by some people walking down the stairs and followed them out. He disappeared after that. I am at work now. I wonder if he’ll be there when I go for lunch. We’ll see…..
Ok, so that’s what’s been going on over here. Sorry to say, nothing real exciting. Mostly my days just consist of going to work. However, I have found that I actually enjoy work. I like the things that I work on, and on the days that there isn’t much to do (today), I still don’t mind being here. I have had a cold since I got back from UB. In California, with the slightest hint of illness, and I would call in sick to work. Here, I had things that I had to get done and was eager to do. I came in to work, did what I needed to and left a little early.