First Day in Mongolia!

Mongolia is amazing.  We arrived late last night, and it was impossible to see anything beyond the windows of the bus that took us to the ger (Mongolian tent) tourist camp we are spending our first three nights at.  When I woke up this morning and stepped outside, I was blown away by the beautiful peaks of the hills surrounding the camp.  I have loved the food so far, and we have eaten a lot of the cultural Mongolian foods so far.  More pictures of food to come later!  They have been giving us huge serving sizes, I think because it is a tourist place and we are Americans, but I haven't been able to finish the food at any meal yet.  Mutton is definitely an acquired taste, but it's growing on me.  I really like the Mongolian meat dumplings, they are delicious!

Here are some pictures of my first day, especially the hike up the hill across from our camp that I just came back from.

This is the top of our tourist ger. I love the decorations on the wood, and it was nice to have the sunlight stream in in the morning to start the day.  This is not a traditional ger in many ways, but it looks similar to one.  I will post more pictures of a traditional ger when I get to experience one!

This is the meeting place at the ger camp, where we have eaten our meals and had some training.  The inside is more ornate than I was expecting, with chandeliers, nice wooden furniture, and bright windowsills with lots of plants.

We climbed the hill next to camp, this is a view off of the other side.

This Ovoo is at the top of the hill, I don't know too much about them, but they are a shrine that you can tie a scarf to as an offering.  Hopefully more will come about Buddhism and Shamanistic beliefs in Mongolia.

I'm in Mongolia!  Right behind my head is another ger camp (not the one we are staying at) and the beginning of sunset as well.

I caught a jump pic of some of the other volunteers, they are a great bunch!  There are 46 of us, and we have been spending a lot of bonding time together.  Even though I am awful at remembering names, I am doing my best to try to remember everyone's name.

Here is a shot from the bottom of the hill, of the sunset's rays hitting the hill.  The picture can't do justice to the beauty of the Mongolian sunset, even on an overcast evening!

Another picture of the gorgeous Mongolian sunset, I hope to see many more!

Today, we received a bit of spending money and our Mongolian cell phone.  We also had more safety training, met the country director and a bunch of the PC staff, and discussed what the rest of pre-service training (PST) is going to be like.  Tomorrow, we are going on a trip to the actual capital, which we are staying right outside of at the ger camp.  I am excited to see Ulaanbaatar, as I have heard many great things about the city!  I will update again next time I have internet. 

[We learned goodbye in Mongolian today, but I don't know how to spell it, so just imagine a cool Mongolian word here for now (: ]