Photo journal of the breath-taking Selenge

		Selenge VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

A short weekend

Saturday was a day very similar to Friday. We visited more wells (that watered 16000 head of livestock and the entire village), another school and more fodder storage. We ate more mutton soup and drove around a lot. On the way back we visited a dairy farm that insures itself. It’s not a common thing over here – our project is trying to increase insurance availability. Turns out the entire area never has dzud bad enough to kill enough livestock to claim: they insure themselves because they believe they are insuring themselves for the future, when the climate changes and they get worse dzud. The idea behind the concept is great – the practicalities are not. They’re paying money to insure themselves against something that is statistically unlikely to happen. They would gain more from investing that money in diversification of their farm. But what would I know; I’m just an inexperienced geologist.

After a long drive back to the city, it was an even longer drive through the ger district to get home. The main road in to town has been cut off in order to fix it. I doubt it will ever get fixed. It’s not possible to drive on the road at all – it winds in between and over the braided river system of western UB and therefore has a lot of bridges over the river. The bridges are gone and it’s a 5m drop on to the river bed. So we had to drive around it. It took 1.5hours to get about 5km. I was so ready to scream.

On the drive back I chatted to my boss about Brisbane (he used to live there), his children, public holidays…… He makes his 15yo daughter sit and watch ’16 and pregnant’ which is a tv show on cable over here. Even if the soccer is on, he flicks channels to find the tv show and makes his daughter watch it, as a risk mitigation strategy I guess. I laughed so hard when he told me that. I also talked to him about Nadaam: he said under his breath I could take the last two days of the week off (the beginning of the week is a public holiday) – so I’m busy trying to figure out where in the world I can go with one flight from UB. It’s only one week after I go to Khovsgol with dad but it’s important to take holidays when you can get them. And when you’re given an entire week off, and you’re already getting to see the countryside for free with work – the best option is to high tail it out of town in order to get a non-Mong fix. I am especially aiming for somewhere that eats lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Ideally I’d love to go to Russia so I’m heading to the embassy today to see how long it’d take to get a visa. Else we’ll head to Seoul or Beijing or Hong Kong. It’ll be easier to go to Seoul or Hong Kong. The only issue will be clothes. I don’t have any summer clothes.

Dad’s arriving this week some time –at least, I imagine he still is. I haven’t heard anything from mum because I imagine she’s busy organizing Tegan and I to come home in November, packing for dad, working, doing things with Nikki, making sure Ebony’s okay and…. Everything else. I’ve got no problem with it because it would all be organized – but my boss is desperate to know because he wants to invite dad over for dinner. Great – more mutton (okay, that’s a bit harsh. It’d be lovely – I just wish I had advertised I was a vegetarian from the start) (of which I am not, by the way. Far from it. I just don’t like mutton, guts, coagulated blood products, offal or bones).

We’ve been having housemate issues of late: paying of rent (2months late, might I add) and bond. Last night we hopefully figured it out. Unfortunately my other housemate and I are generally non-confrontational, so together we don’t really complement each other in that regard. Anyway. Together we sorted it out and hopefully things will start to look up.

I also got a parcel from Ashleigh Webb! Parcels and letters are so great.

Yesterday was a tricky day. I had so much to do – being away in the field makes it hard to do much. And then coming back to only one day at the weekend to organize things makes it harder. I had a list but it was too long and I couldn’t prioritise things because I didn’t know what to do. So I went to the markets to get some material for some dresses.

One of the volunteers here had a horrible drama yesterday. Mongolia is just such a remote country, and everyone’s nightmare is for something horrible to happen – and it did. Her mum died in Australia and the best she could do was Skype her brother. I just can’t imagine. There’s an amazing support network here and she was looked after to the n’th degree, thank goodness. Our insurance is such that she gets whatever flights home that are available – and she was on a plane by the afternoon. It’s a 30hour flight at best with lengthy stopovers where ever you fly to. What an unthinkable journey. She would almost be home now, thank goodness.

Kindergarten Ger

Please excuse the change in tenses. I was going to edit this so it read smoothly, but that takes the fun and the real-ness out of it. So you get it, retarded bits ‘n all.

Friday June 17 2011

Nothing better than a single stale piece of bread for breakfast (no butter, no toast).

We jumped in the car for a 200m drive (yeah, I know - ?!), arrived late and…..

Christ almighty. No one told me this would be fancy! I put the same clothes on as yesterday – bloody practical North Face gear. I brushed my hair – only because I had dreadlocks from the car ride yesterday.

F*** a dude is filming me writing! Hopefully he doesn’t see detail. I covered it with my hand…. This is not dissimilar to a room at Parliament House in Canberra. It’s obviously a rich soum – there’s a copper mine in town that helps a lot I imagine.

This morning at breakfast I said to my boss ‘that’s brave of you – to wear a white shirt in the field!’ (he was wearing a long sleeved, button up white shirt). Turns out he KNEW and he didn’t tell me! There’s a film crew going around (five cameras in total). I attempted to make my ponytail look fancy and am so glad I washed my face this morning!

I rolled my pants and sleeves down in order to look semi-respectable. THIS is why I DO NOT WEAR practical gear. Shit.

This soum is very grateful for the work and money our project has given but I imagine it’s just they’re capable of showing it. They’ve got the facilities and the capacity. All other soum centres I’ve visited have been nothing short of a pokey room in an old soviet building.

The main camera man is sucking a lollypop. I mustn’t look too bad because the cameras are definitely spending a lot of time pointed at me.

Meeting over, we moved to an emergency hay storage area. They’ve used money from our project and ideas as well – to mitigate livestock risk during winter. Herders volunteer time to cut and bale hay in a neighbouring soum (this one is too small with no native hay pasture). They pay 1400tugrik per bale to be able to use the land. It’s three times cheaper than buying the hay at market. The hay is stored in the storage facility – along with donated grain from Russia. The price is regulated by the same guy that guards the hay. The price fluctuates with changing conditions (bad winter = less food for animals = higher demand for hay = higher price of emergency hay).

I tried some handmade yogurt. Once I got past the pungent smell of cow fat/hide, it was really yummy sweet yogurt. We were given a copper bowl as a sign of appreciation – this area obviously rides off the back of the copper mine. The bowl is engraved with the date and location. It’s just the loveliest thing ever.

We moved from hay to a community centre – an ex-Russian military base that’s been refurbished and is used regularly by locals. It has a (tiny) gym, a theatre, snooker table, basketball court, small library with two computers and general space.

Lunch beckoned (after a school visit) at a kindergarten ger (kindergartens are often held in a ger as they’re transportable and can follow herders around, or are just practical to pitch in the back yard of a school). Oh man. What could possibly be cuter than twelve Mongolian children sleeping on the floor of a ger in individual sleeping bags, perfectly lined with having their nap?

Khorkhog was on the menu. We ate at the kindergarten’s meal ger on their tiny chairs. A big sheep in a pot with potatoes and hot stones. I managed not to eat mutton again – instead I had a potato, 2 nectarines and stale bread.

I’ll let the photos of the kids tell their story.

 

Post-lunch were more visits – to a school full of wholly passionate teachers, another fodder storage joint and a dormitory for school kids (from age 6) who live too far away from school.

On the road to Dharkhan – arrived at 8:30pm. In bed by 10pm. No hot water, and 2 minute noodles for dinner.

I feel I’ve overused the terms amazing, beautiful, spectacular, fantastic – the landscape, the experience – is now made to sound much less than it is as my vocabulary and writing finesse does not accurately describe: the feeling of helplessness. Alternatively the feeling of instilling empowerment. The breathtaking scenery. The patriotism. The staunchly Soviet mannerisms, customs and processes. The whole-ness of the feeling of seeing malnourished children be cared for, and watching them enjoy child’s play as opposed to child labour. The tugging of your heart strings to know that if you took that child, you could offer it a life not only of love but of opportunities. Alternatively the thought process of knowing if I gave them $100AUD, that child’s life would change truly forever….

Back to reality tomorrow night. These trips are so short in time but feel like an eternity of experience. It’s so surreal: a two night, three day trip encompasses more than years and years of learning and studying the topic.

The road to Selenge

Please excuse the change of tenses. I'm not too crash hot at it at the best of times - and I wrote this as things happens/at night time/spare time. It's not the easiest to read but you'll get the picture.

Friday 16th June 2011

5:30am wake up. I’d run out of milk so I had steak, egg and leftover noodles.

It took a good 1.5hours to get out of the city as there’s no direct road and it rained last night so there were ‘puddles’ (up to the top of the tyres) everywhere and some that we couldn’t get through.

Because the sun goes down so late (10:30pm), I’m finding it really hard to sleep. I don’t fall asleep until maybe 1am. Needless to say I’m a little sleepy as I still wake up just as early.

Anyway, we finally got out of the city and stopped at an ovoo to bless our journey. There’s nothing quite like a shot of vodka at 8am.

We were blessed! With a fully paved road! It still wasn’t smooth enough to drink a takeaway coffee (no, I did not have a takeaway coffee), but after my last delusion filled journey that lasted days and days, this one was a breeze!

Arriving at the aimag centre of Selenge (Sant Soum), the birds were chirping, trees blowing their fluff in the breeze and kids meandering around. We were to resolve a complaint. I’m not sure if I act as a ‘mediator’ by minimizing the risk of blow-outs (because I’m a girl and because I’m foreign), or if I’m genuinely a tagger-along. Probably a bit of both.

Either way, it’s boring as I don’t speak Mongolian. I know when they’re talking about money as I understand numbers and occasionally I catch a:

Bus: and

Tend: that

Ner: name

Meanke: thousand

Tim: yes

Bish bish: no

The talking went for an hour and a bit. Chatting about the problem, the politics involved (literally, one party member against a different party member) – and how to solve it.

It’s amazing how different food becomes. Now it’s just a fuel. I don’t want lollies or chocolate – I’m starving! I’m not craving anything in particular as I know I don’t have access to it. I just need food. On the contrary, I’m not hungry enough to eat mutton. It’s weird because usually when I’m hungry I crave something in particular. Right now, I’m just hungry.

Lunch was more mutton but I managed to get out of mutton rib/fat soup. I only eat vegetable soup at the best of times – and rarely at that (drinking the byproduct of slow cooked bones freaks me out). Therefore rib, fat and mutton soup makes me want to puke. No one ever wants to sit next to me either. There’s always a spare seat either side of me. I don’t take it personally.

Our driver works for Anglo Coal’s exploration (or, did – before they gave up apparently) so was keen to talk to me. Unfortunately my general knowledge is rather finite, but my common sense isn’t too bad. I was asked: how deep is the deepest underground mine; how many kilometers around the world; what’s the deepest open pit? Man, where’s Simon when you need him? I knew the circumference of Earth. The others I made up (educated guess).

Apparently a 200m deep well has been dug in Sant Soum to function as a geothermal well. It took a while to piece it together, but no – it’s not 100degrees C at 200m depth, it’s 22degrees C at 200m depth which makes it the perfect temperature for cycling water through a house as a heater. What a fantastic idea!

Post lunch we jumped in the car and drove to see a public bathhouse and school, funded by our project (two showers for the entire soum). Then on to see the three contentious wells. Funding was given but was the leader of the communist party scabbing the money without drilling the wells, or was the Democratic leader being a dibber dobber? Fate: unknown but the wells were certainly dry.

I’ve been trying to think of an appropriate phrase to describe how spectacular the scenery was. It all involved swear words beyond what should be written. Crikey Moses, wholey shitballs it was SPECTACULAR. I know I use that a lot but today was by far the most beautiful part of Mongolia I have seen thus far.

Wells aside, we stopped in to check out some shearing. Small yards. Sheep caught, feet tied and then they’re shorn. With blunt scissors. The fleece comes off whole – resembles dags more than a fleece. I was freaking fascinating and the backdrop was jaw dropping.

Shearing in the yards by their house

It was amazing. Another one of those ‘I’ll remember THIS forEVER’. Unfortunately we’d been racing all day so I was busy filming and taking photos as I knew my window of opportunity was short.

Breathtaking.

We moved on to a temple. Built for Mongolia’s Dalai Lama of the time. The temple itself is pretty speccy but the backdrop was what did it for me.

Temple and the view

 Say what?! I’m in MONGOLIA bitchez!!!!!

More photos. Departed, stopped at a river so the driver could have a bath (literally). I washed my face and then remembered about bugs in the water and now I’m worried I’ll have worms crawling out my eyeballs or something.

MORE vodka on the way back to celebrate the journey/having solved problems (I managed to get out of it). 

We arrived in Erdenet at 8:30pm and I am STUFFED! Dinner was delicious chicken (Mongolian standard) with a piece of plastic cheese melted on top. I piked on drinking with the crew (I’d had enough of listening to Mongolian conversations and I’m SO tired).

Shower time. Oh – wait. No water. Go check another room. 30mins later, no hot water. Back to my room. Strip off to have a wet washer bath. Still naked and lady knocking incessantly at my door. She wanted me to see another room. Back to my room. Sit on loo. Another knock at the door. Pants up pre-pee (SO angry), plumber’s here to fix water. I still need to pee. Plumber fixes water AND I get an adapter to charge my phone.

10:30pm and I’m in bed. I’m pooped! Will edit photos on camera; rehash some rudimentary Mongolian and go to sleep!

May I reiterate: today was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I complain about the Mong but I don’t regret it and I’m SO grateful to be here.

I had my breath taken away so many times today, I’m surprised I am still breathing. I heart you Mongolian countryside. xox

had my breath taken away so many times i am surprised im still breathing at all.

late night blogs

Oh man. I haven't even been busy. This is what happens when I slow down. So does my efficiency.

It's been storming of late - it's so lovely. Rumbly thunder, big strikes of lightning, rain on the roof. And muddy wet ground courtesy of no (I mean none at all) drainage.

I've been working and organising stuff for when dad gets here. Organising flights to Khovsgol, organising myself for my imminent trip (in 6 hours) to Selenge. I'm not even sure what's in Selenge but I know I'm leaving at 6:30am for another long drive. It's only three days and the director is coming so we get to stay in hotels. With showers!

Tegan, Ebony and I are a bit closer to organising Christmas. I'm also going to head home for a couple of weeks in November. I haven't asked for time off work but it'll have to be okay. I'm going to hopefully fly in on the same day as Tegan so we can be picked up together to save mum two trips.

I've had the house to myself which was surprisingly lovely. I don't know why, it hardly made a difference - but it was just nice. I had lots (okay, two) visitors and we sat and ate dinner and watched movies and ate icecream on a couple of different nights. It's really nice to do that with friends!

I got my parcels - that was exciting!!!! I got my patterns from the USA so I can start to make some pretty dresses. Mum's parcel with my bracelet (that I ordered in February - it went from China to Brisbane to Mudgee to Mongolia and I've finally got it!) and a magazine; Gma's parcel with a cute lil egg warmer and some much-needed pink Mary-Kay cream.

I don't have anything worthwhile to report, I just won't be reporting back until Sunday because I'm not taking my laptop with me. I considered it but .... nah. I should survive without blogging or facebooking for three days. I'll just write my daily updates down, and then when I get home I can type them up and you'll get the same thing just a delayed response.

oh, and the Blues beat the Maroons. Sucked in!

An overall win of a day

Hiking just out of UB VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This morning was great – this afternoon was greater. Dad’s coming to Mongolia!!!!!

I left work after lunch today to go to talk to the Mongolian students. There were 30 of them – all my age and older which was slightly intimidating but only a little bit. They all spoke perfect english. I just talked about me and where I’m from – and showed videos and photos of Australia. They asked some questions and I talked to them – quite openly – about Aborigines, how to get a job, what university is like, where to live in a city, how to go on holidays for cheap….. Mongolians don’t seem to mind talking when others are talking. To me it’s extremely rude. Nevermind. I took a different approach and just stopped talking until they all listened, and if they started to chat I’d change the topic as it obviously wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

The course conveners were surprisingly happy to see me. I don’t know why. I mean, I’m a nice person and all but I’m not THAT exciting. I have a feeling that it was nice for a young professional (me) to talk adlib (is that a word?!) about things that are relevant to the students.

Within seconds of me arriving I was offered marriage – I declined and continued to show photos and videos. I started with a photo of me and the girls and then progressed from there. In hindsight I would have done it slightly different and now I feel….. dirty, I guess – for talking about myself for so long. I was hardly talking about myself (maybe the first 10mins) and I was hardly talking about my experience – it was just my basic Australian knowledge they were after.

1.5hours later we wrapped up and I think they were grateful. I feel like I hardly scratched the surface of what they need to know. Hopefully, if they liked what I had to say, I can go back and we can do smaller group work that is more specific. But, oh man – what an amazing opportunity. They were all so cool – I hope I get to see them again!

I ducked home to get changed and caught mum and dad on Skype (such an amazing invention, by the way!). I told dad I had to leave because I was going to book my flights to Khovsgol and he said ‘you better book me a ticket too’ and I almost cried. It’s going to be GREAT! I knew it’d be a last minute thing and if I left the decision to its own devices, the right answer would prevail. This time it was totally in my favour! And now, after an hour of figuring out flights, times, prices and people, our flights are booked ($260 return)!

I also managed to score myself a winter coat and boots (important to get asap as once you’ve got it, you don’t need to worry about it and it is definitely necessary!). I think I’m almost all set!

Birthday parties and hikes

Dessert - lots and lots of cakes, cupcakes, icecream and fruit salad

Cake cutting time!

The dinner party went off like a fire cracker. Maybe? I'm not sure that's right, but it was a lot of fun. We had about 15 people over and feasted on home made salsa, green curry, beef stirfry and lots of dessert. We drank beer, wine, vodka and lots of tea (okay, maybe I was the only one that drank lots of tea).
We sang happy birthday. Unfortunately I was a little too happy and upon setting up my video camera to film the singing of Happy Birthday, we promptly found out all chances of that happening were ruined because we had no battery.
We ate and talked and chatted and drank tea all night being merry and laughing and having a lovely time. By midnight the house was empty and most things were clean. I slept well - I was pooped! Sarah got some great presents and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself! All in all, a successful night!
Saturday was the laziest day I've had for ages. I didn't get out of my PJ's until we went out at night to a farewell.

Sunday was going to be a nice quick hike and then a day of rest. Rest it was not. We hiked up a mountain behind UB. We hiked up and and up and up and up. I'm fairly fit - unfortunately not hiking fit. Anyway, after hours of hiking UP we made it to the top, sat and ate lunch for a minute and continued on. We started going down and down and down. My knees got sore and sore and sore. And then we saw a marmot who was a long long long way away but was still cute. Marmots carry the plague (as in Black Plague) and are thought to be the originating source of the plague, so a long long long way away was fine by me.
Seven hours is a long time to hike for and I am definitely feeling it today. The beauty can only be described in picture; I will do my best to add a couple more you haven't seen.

Wait. sorry. I'm running late, I'll have to put more photos up tonight. xox

Lots of wins!

Lots of wins! I'm at work today - it's an Australian public holiday (Queen's birthday long weekend) and most volunteers have organised the day off. I didn't. Half because my boss is away so I couldn't ask, and half because I don't really believe that we should be getting Australian public holidays when we're living and working in Mongolia. But I kind of contradict myself - when it comes to Christmas and Australia Day, I'll be taking the days off.

So that doesn't seem like a win. But in the space of 20 minutes, I just talked to my kind-of-boss about getting time off to go to see the Reindeer Herders (Tsaatan people in Northern Mongolia). He also updated me on what our field trip is on, I got an actual itinerary WITH our hotels (which means we're getting a shower!) and found out we're diverging a little to go and see something different. Originally we were going to go to see a hospital, vet practice and some kindergartens (the group I work with supports different projects to do with Mongolian livelihoods; I just work in the farming sector). Instead we're going to see a group that have kicked up a stink and are making a complaint against us. Not as much fun and not as interesting but definitely more related to work.
Next win: I ordered some business cards AND figured out what I'm going to do with my time this week. I met the aimag (like, state) coordinators of our projects. I introduced myself (it was translated) and one lady asked to see some videos of Australia. Prepared I am - videos galore. I will make some decent videos and make a little powerpoint to burn to CD and send to ALL 21 aimag coordinators. It'll be a little bit of 'Australia' with a little bit of sheep, cows and dogs (courtesy of dad). I'm pretty excited. Apparently they will be too.

This afternoon I'm going to talk to a group of Mongolians who are moving to Australia courtesy of the Australian government - to study for a couple of years. It's a wonderful program and delivers so many opportunities to people who wouldn't otherwise have them. They've been learning english and I'm just going to chat to them about me and Australia. Whoah. Tricky. The lady organising it is very grateful - I'm not sure she knows what she's in for. I do have a time limit though, which is good or they could get their ears talked off.

I have a time limit because myself and two others are going to book our flights to Khovsgol. It is the northern most aimag of Mongolia and is where reindeers roam free. The Tsaatan people RIDE the reindeer, eat the reindeer, use the reindeer for everything. We are going in the last week of June and I am also hoping (with fingers and toes crossed) that dad can come too. It's short notice but it's the best way. He'd LOVE it. But he knows it so hopefully it'll happen.

Major win of the day will be dad saying yes to coming to Mongolia. It would just be SO much fun. It's okay if he can't come - but it just means he'll have to come at a shittier time of the year.

Oh yeah. ANOTHER win - I got THREE parcels! I haven't received them yet, I get them tomorrow. I am showing restraint and learning to be patient and will pick them up tomorrow when it's easier for everyone. There are two from Australia and one from the USA. Two I imagine are from mum and Grandma, the other one is my patterns from McCalls, which means I can make dresses very soon! I will have to wait until I get back from the field but that's okay. I'll get material on Wednesday and then think about how I'll make everything. I always seem to sew better if I've had 'thinking' time.

Three hour hike

Excuse my lack of commentry; I am POOPED. Our three hour hike turned in to a seven hour hike. And it wasn’t just ‘hiking’. We were practically racing up a mountain littered with angular, fresh, colluvially deposited rocks. My legs hate me right now and my head’s so close to hitting the pillow I could zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Dinner party!

'

Another chat–Sally to infinite audience

‘sup!

I got up early to make curry and bake a (packet) cake in preparation for tonight. Turns out I was WAY too organised because I’ve sat at home getting pissed drinking $5/bottle wine since I left work at 1:30 (directly after my manicure).

The bosses are away, so the atmosphere at work is great and no one seems to work. They play cards a lot and then they drink whisky and vodka. No one came to work today because they all got too pissed on whisky last night and were hungover. It was fine by me as I don’t have anything to do anyway! I have some research to do but I’m kind of stumped because I don’t know where to go to get any information beyond high school level. Hmm.

On Monday I’m going to talk to a group of Mongolians that are preparing to move to Australia. They’re being sponsored by the Australian government. It’s an amazing opportunity for these people. They get their family shipped overseas, and get a masters or something equivalent. They have to come back to Mongolia and work, but geez. I’ve met a few and I haven’t met one who has a bad word to say about it.

The hot water system has me beat. I’m looking up instructions and it says the electricity has to be installed by a professional, but it’s just a plug that goes into an outlet. Hmmmm.

Trivia last night was silly. The questions were so hard I’m sure Simon and Lai and Connor would have had no chance. They were so specific and so American. I actually got a few questions and then I just got bored. The bloke that asked me to go didn’t talk to me which was pretty boring – he was on another table. So my friends and I played with my toy camel, ate hot chips and made up silly answers. Then I came home and tried to sleep through the second stupid party below my bedroom. Blah. I dreamt I spat at them, I’m sure. I hope I didn’t – what a way to get beaten up!

Above: The funny menu. And Temmee the camel and his self portrait. He ended up getting too tired and we had to take him home straight after trivia was marked. We remarkably came third out of seven. Don’t ask me how. It certainly was no thanks to me and my Desperate Housewives knowledge.

I haven’t decided what I will wear tonight. I know what I WANT to wear, but it’s a bit OTT for a Friday night dinner party. I can’t wait for my patterns to arrive so I can make some new cool dresses. I just need a couple of fun party dresses (yes, I did bring a lot but they’re not exactly what I’m after).

I can’t believe how easy it is to waffle. I will stop now, before it becomes too prolific.

xox

Share my joy

I've always known that in my family there's been a few people with the addictive personalities that leave you vulnerable to becoming addicted - to anything. I'm becoming increasingly aware of my personality of late, and I definitely have been gifted with quite an addictive personality.

Example one: I loved tomatoes so much I ate too many and burnt the business out of my insides and now I don't function properly

Example two: I joined the gym and prioritised it over everything and now I can lift heavier weights than some boys

Example three: I couldn't figure out how to make handmade pasta so spent two entire days and lots of eggs and flour practicing until I got it perfect

But that's the only examples I can think of so maybe it's just a minor detail.

What made me think of it was how hungry and sore I am from going to the gym too much. Silly girl. I went last night and again this morning - but if I didn't go this morning I wouldn't have had a chance until Saturday and that's too far away. So now I'm just hungry and weak.

Above: The hot water system I found in our cupboard. I am determined to make it work. I found it at 10:30am which meant I was already SUPER late for work so had to just leave it....... But tonight. The battle begins. I must admit, I'm a bit partial to the shower at the gym. The shower head is literally the size of an A4 piece of paper. It's quite lovely! So, share my joy - HOT WATER!!!!

Fingers crossed I never become super famous because this blog will reveal things I'm likely to get burned at the stake for.
Mongolian's hate Chinese - they've spent thousands of years swapping ownership of different areas of land, building walls to keep each other out and making war against each other. Now the Mongolians like to blame EVERYTHING shit on the Chinese.

Oh - your food tastes like shit? The ingredients MUST come from China
Oh - your house is falling down? It MUST have been built by Chinese
Oh - your car won't work? That's because it's a crappy Chinese one

Oh - you can't get a job? That's because the Chinese took them all

Oh - your toy broke? That's because it was a cheap Chinese one

I had a big conversation with my Mongolian friend the other night re: China taking over Mongolia. I tried to say that China will (might) take over Mongolia some way or another - to me it's inevitable because of all the natural resources here.
 He completely and utterly disagreed (he's very worldly so was easy to talk to about this, which is why I was surprised he was so vehemently against the idea). The excuses ranged from NO - it won't happen because Mongolian's won't let it. [what, 3mil Mongolians are going to put up a fight against the largest, most powerful country in the world?!] To NO it can't happen because Russia won't let it; China won't want to come here because it's too cold to live in anyway; Nato will step in and fight against them; USA won't let it happen.........
Moral to that story is that if push came to shove, Mongolians - from what I have seen - are more patriotic than any culture I've ever seen before and would much rather die in battle against the Chinese than be assimilated into their culture.

Loving Hut

For lunch today I tried the 'Loving Hut' restaurant around the corner. I feel like I'm adventurous when I go there because I'll eat anything on the menu. I'm pretty picky so usually I won't eat at least half of a menu. But not at Loving Hut! It's 100% vegan, including their waitresses. I don't need to worry about getting served shaved sheep scalp or salad with bits of mutton in it. I ordered a 'potato pancake' and it turned out to be MORE than just potato in a deep fried pastry. That plus an apple juice that TASTED like apple juice was 2000T which is approx $1.25AUD. It's the cheapest meal I've eaten so far, and I even ate too much.

One time when I was staying with Ashleigh Webb we had minor problems with mice and major problems with maggots. Hah. The beauty of living on a farm. The maggots were easy. The mice was not. I saw this mouse just sitting in the corner checking us out. I remembered catching a mouse in a tea towel when I was little and feeding it to the chooks. I was obviously a brave child as I was not brave this time. I got a tea towel, caught him in it and then freaked out. WHAT DO I DO WITH IT NOW. I thought I could suffocate it but for some reason I couldn't. So we ran a bucket of hot-ish water and thought we'd drown him. But he kept swimming. So we took the bucket outside and put Redback work boots on each hand, slowly tipped the bucket out and BANG hit him once he poured onto the grass. He was still moving so I hit him again and the Ashleigh decided that he wasn't dead enough so she JUMPED on him and he POPPED. Oh man, it was so disgusting. Then we had to hide him from the puppy which meant we had to PICK HIM UP (as flat as he was) and put him in the bin.

And now he's in mousey heaven.

What made me think of that was the tea bag I just flavoured my hot water with (that tastes like jasmine tea with that blue smelly toilet stuff in it). I threw it in the bin and it didn't make it and it fell 'flop' on the floor like a dead mouse does.

I just ordered some meat from Joel the butcher. Order as follows:
3kg diced UN-marinated chicken breast (smallish cubes if possible)
1kg pork loin steaks marinated
1kg fillet steak marinated
2x UN-marinated chicken breast (whole)
1kg ground beef mince

We're having a dinner party on Friday night. A little unexpected and I feel slightly unprepared but if anyone can do it, I can! (right?! RIGHT!)

It's Sarah's birthday so we're having some people over. A friend of ours is conveniently an ex-chef so between him and I (and Sarah's grocery shopping skills), we'll cook up a storm on Thursday and Friday. We will mise en place (that's French for prepare) on Thursday night and then cook on Friday night. I will bake a cake, make some tomato salsa (I promise I won't eat much), make green chicken curry, clean my room (oh yes I know, I could just shut the door. I probably will) and serve lots of tea. You could choose from: Lemongrass and ginger, peppermint, lemon, pink tea, pink tea with ginger, jasmine tea or boring black tea.

There will be approximately 15 people at our house on Friday night, which I feel is a good number. ALSO, great news - our Mongolian friend's sister has had a baby. A nameless little girl (yes, I offered Sally- what a good name) who weighed 3.9kg and is very healthy and all the rest. I'm pretty excited to meet her.

I have also decided that instead of writing Trevor a book (sorry mum, my writing skills aren't good enough - it would be setting a bad precedent for him), I will make a blanket. Out of pretty Mongolian material. Sucked in Nikki, you'll have to use it even if you hate it. If it turns out like I'm thinking, it'll be nice anyways. A good picnic rug if nothing else.

Perhaps it won't work though. I have a piece of shit sewing machine. That cruise control that I was bragging about the other day is more efficient than I want it to be. Imagine pressing 'cruise' on your car, driving at 100km an hour for a good period of time and then pressing the button again to stop it. BUT IT DOESN'T STOP. That's what I'm facing, except it's a sewing machine and I feel it's just as dangerous. Digits (ie fingers) are super important and every time I need to stop the machine I feel like I'm putting my digits in jeopardy.

I'll give it one more garment's chance before I round up a Mongolian/English speaker and take it back to demand one that works.

Sooooooooooo many boogers up my nose. I can't imagine winter time. I don't WANT to imagine winter!

Still no hot water. At the gym or at home. My hair is getting stinkier by the day.

I am after someone that may want to meet me somewhere full of VitaminD (read: tropical) in February 2012. It's a long time away, but keep it in mind. I will need a winter respite.

I am also taking nominations for accompaniment. I need/want someone to catch the Trans-Siberian with me at Christmas this year. It would be probably 19 December, starting in Ulaanbaatar (stay with me a bit too if you want, beforehand) and going all the way to St Petersburg. I'd be flying from there to London. You could come too if you wanted.

So far it's taken 6 weeks for mum's parcel to arrive - if you have sent letters or parcels, allow at least 2 months for them to arrive. Literally. It's bloody crazy!

What's happening on the block

Read: Potential delicious crepes for breakfast just downstairs (opening soon)

My apartment is on the RHS, top level.

This is why we don't have hot water - there are no pipes at the moment

This is why we won't have hot water for at least another month: they're digging up the entire block's water pipes and replacing them. They've finished one side and are on to the next. Boo. I <love> warm showers.

Please note all the green on the trees. It's so beautiful around here when the leaves start to sprout. There's a general feeling of happiness, which I'll be sad to see go when the air becomes too cold to function.

I was showering at the gym. The gym's now got no hot water either. Cold showers are okay if you're in a HOT climate, if the water is cold but not 1 degree from freezing (I'm not joking; this water is like glacial melt and wholey dooley it is FREEZING. For example, when I try to wash my hair a. the shampoo doesn't come out properly because the water is too cold and b. I get brainfreeze of the kind you get when you eat too much ice cream too quickly. But it's from the water. Only worse because I don't even get to eat the ice cream.

Trial talk

Just another hello. A trial blog. Instead of writing, I talked. :)