7/1/13
It is currently almost midnight in Darkhan, Mongolia, and I
have some time to work on a blog post after our first full day of Mid-Center
Days, which is a Peace Corps training workshop halfway through Pre-Service
Training (PST). I spent most of my
evening after our sessions were over looking for nice black shoes or flats in
my size (US women’s 10, or Mongolian 42), and was unsuccessful so far. I underestimated how many shoes I would need
during PST, and I don’t want to wear out my one pair of nice tan boots so
quickly by wearing them every single day.
Mongolians all have small feet, and several of the shop ladies told me
that Mongolians don’t wear my size, looking at my feet like they were deformed. Hopefully I will have some more luck
tomorrow, when I plan on going to the State Department Store, which is a more
expensive place but seems to have more variety.
It is pretty crazy to think that I have already been in
Mongolia for an entire month. One
current volunteer summarized how time passes in Mongolia: the days are long and the weeks are
fast. Training is going well so far, and
my host family is great. My host mom
called me this afternoon to check up on me—she is feeling pretty sad today,
since my host brother left for a few weeks in the countryside yesterday, and my
host sister left tonight to go to summer camp near Erdenet, the third largest
city in Mongolia.
It has been a while since my last post, and I want to talk
about some things that happened a few weeks ago. On our second weekend in Sukhbaatar, a group
of the Health and TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) volunteers went
for a hike up the mountain range just north of the town. The mountains of Mongolia are very old
mountains, leveled by time and the elements, and so they are not high peaks
that are difficult to climb. It was a
great time, and although I was really tired by the end, but the views were
completely worth it.
Cute puppies like this are all over Sukhbaatar. I just want to grab them all up and take them with me!!
Cute puppies are not the only animals around town. I always walk by pigs or cows on my way back and forth from school as well. They eat all of the grass around town, so no one has to mow.
There are beautiful sculptures and shrines all over the area, and it is fun to go to new areas, because you never know what unexpected surprise awaits.
Up the first mountain with a great view of Sukhbaatar Soum, or Sukhbaatar town.
Farther north, the mountains get a bit more rockier. The mountains themselves were beautiful, and the Mongolian sky is always so perfectly blue.
A panaramic view from the top of the highest mountain I climbed (not the highest one around, but I got tired).
Sukhbaatar was pretty far away at this point!
At some point after the mountain adventure, Sukhbaatar had a
few rainy afternoons that led to some amazing rainbows and beautiful
sunsets. My family and I often walk
around in the evenings, either going to the store or visiting friends. My mother doesn’t have a car or a license,
and says walking is good for your health.
It is really great to see more of Sukhbaatar, and see family friends
around as well.
After a rainy afternoon, a huge rainbow appeared in my back yard!
The rainbow was so intense, you could see all of the colors, as well as multiple rainbows close together. I have never seen such a bright and long-lasting rainbow before.
On the walk home, the sky was full of pretty blues and pinks. I am convinced that the Mongolian sky is always beautiful!
I will try to sneak online again during my next few days in Darkhan if I can use internet during off-times. When all of the Peace Corps Trainees are trying to access the internet at once, no one can get anything done. I will try to get up to my current times before the exciting events of the next few weeks: American Independence Day on July 4; and Naadam, Mongolian Independence Celebration on July 11-12!
