Tuesday, December 24, 2013

My Apologies

I am sorry for the long break since my last post.  I have been preoccupied with other things in my life and haven't had the right moment to write a blog entry!  When I started my blog, I decided that I would endeavor to give a full picture of my life, while still trying to stay positive.  I have had a rough past few months for many reasons, and so I didn't feel that I could do a blog post justice and keep with my main goals.  I hope to be better about this in the future, and find the positives even when day to day life has made me a little glum.

That being said, I am feeling very happy and well settled even on the eve of most important family day of all, Christmas.  I am very sad to be so far away from my family and our many awesome traditions this time of year, but I believe we have done our best to keep in touch.  No one ever told me that Peace Corps will be easy, and as my site mate says, everything that is difficult (or cold) builds character.  Man, are we going to have so much character by the end of the winter!!

I will spend the next month catching all of my readers up on my last few months in Mongolia.  I have grown more accustomed to my surroundings and work, and I also attended several neat events, from the renaming of my town (I now live in Chinggis City!) to a great week of Peace Corps training with my coworker, Zoloo.
Since Mongolia is a Buddhist country, Christmas is not a big holiday here, but rather gets lumped in with the glitz and parties of New Years.  I plan on spending my Christmas baking, spending time with friends, and maybe rolling into work for a few hours!  My office has a big New Years party (which is called Shin Jil) on Friday, so I will use my relaxing time on Christmas to paint my nails and assemble a sparkly and snazzy outfit for the party.

I would love to have some snail mail or email pen pals, so please let me know if you want to get some mail from Mongolia!  Send me a message or email if interested, or otherwise my mother has my contact information.

And to end, here is a picture of me and my friends this past weekend, when my site mates and I hosted a Christmas celebration.  We had a great time, and now I know I can fit 10 people on my bed!



I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a happy, sparkly New Year!