August 4, 2015
To begin, a special
congratulations to Matt and Joce, and Taylor and Kelly on their
respective weddings. We're extremely disappointed that we had to
miss, but we will be around for many anniversaries and celebrations
to come. Cheers to absent friends!
A lot has happened in the
past two weeks, but I'll try to condense it as much as possible.
First, Wilco came out with a new album. It's really, really good. You
should give it a try if you're a fan of loud, noisy guitars and
addictive hooks. I especially like “More...”.
Second, we had a big ol'
picnic over the weekend. It was not without its controversy,
especially in the planning stages. One of our Mongolian teachers and
cultural facilitators made a lot of plans by him or herself with no
consultation from virtually anyone else, and conscripted my host
father into planning the whole thing. For example, this person told
all of us to be ready to go at 6 a.m., but didn't show up until 6:40,
claiming that that was when he or she said to be there. It wasn't. He
or she also decided that it would end at 8 p.m. So, yeah.
Long story short, we went
to a river, ate food, played volleyball, and drank Mongolian
traditional vodka, which is apparently made from tarig, a Mongolian
yogurt that is super tasty. The vodka is... well, it's... I didn't
care for it. I got sunburned, and got to that special place where I
was telling everyone I loved them. All things considered, it was
nice.
More important, though:
Emily came to visit this weekend! Granted, it was the last weekend
before the final weekend (August 8 and 9), and she had to come with
us to the picnic – which started at 6 and went until 8 – but we
still had fun. She's a saint, that one.
This past week and this coming week
(starting today, actually), I and several of my fellow PCTs traveled
to Darkhan to plan a seminar for about 50 Mongolian English teachers.
It gave us a chance to work directly with Mongolian teachers, which
is apparently the main focus of our teaching endeavors. I neglected
to mention this, but a big part of what we (the TEFL trainees) will
do here is help to implement a new curriculum in Mongolia,
transitioning from a Soviet style of education (lecture-based) to a
more Western style with 'activities' and whatnot. Frankly, the
activities bent is a bit out of my experience, and I don't
necessarily agree with its effectiveness, especially on the
University level. Nonetheless, Peace Corps people reading this blog,
I am here to do a job, and I will do it with enthusiasm to the best of my ability. This is as censored as I can get on this one.
It's confusing, I know.
Even more so to me.
What else? Uhhhh mostly
it's been studying language and teaching English classes and worrying
about where we're going to live for the next two years (we still
don't know). We all took what's called the “LPI” (Language
Proficiency Indicator – I think I mentioned this in a previous
post). The ranking system is fairly simple; novice, intermediate,
advanced with each category broken into low, medium and high. Emily
and I, for example, both achieved intermediate low, which is as high
as anyone got (so far as we know). Most people got novice high, and
the minimum to “pass” was the same. Suffice it to say that Emily
and I are fairly pleased.
Everything is winding
down, and it feels that way. We're excited to get to site, and that
will likely be the next post we make. Until then, we send our love.
August 17, 2015
I hope
you'll forgive me if this isn't the most interesting post; I want to
get to everything, and my brain and body are wrecked from an illness
yesterday.
At the moment of writing,
I'm sitting in a college dormitory in Ulaanabator (UB) waiting for
tomorrow, when Emily and I will fly out to our site, Uvs1.
A far-western aimag, Uvs is rich in natural beauty, sporting the
largest lake in the country and a large portion of the Altai mountain
range. It is also, apparently, one of the coldest aimags in the
country, averaging -40 in
late January/early February, already my favorite time of the year.
It's also been one of the hardest-hit aimags where climate change is
concerned, having demonstrated a 2 degrees Celsius increase since
record keeping began 2.
Em and
I are very excited to live there – it wasn't where we were
expecting to be placed, but we requested natural scenery, and knew we
would be in a city. I'll be teaching at a college in the city and
Emily at a secondary school, and we have both already met one of our
counterparts (CP). The two of them speak very good English, and are
very friendly, which is a relief. Uvs apparently also has reliable
internet available, and we'll be living in a three-room apartment –
with a refrigerator and a kitchen and running water and central
heating! I suppose we lose a little bit of street cred for not having
lived in a ger in -40 degree weather, but honestly, I'm okay with
that. Emily seems to be, too.
We're
in UB currently after having spent a few days going through more
excruciating seminars in Darkhan, our training hub. This was after
having said goodbye to our host families, but before being sworn in
(which happened on the 15th).
Some of our colleagues stayed in Darkhan to travel to their sites,
but most of us had to go to UB for more accessible travel
arrangements. Emily and I are scheduled to fly out tomorrow, among
the latest to depart, so from the 40-some Americans who were here,
there are now something like 10 of us.
It's
somewhat bittersweet to say goodbye to all of these people. Most of
them are younger, and personally I have trouble making friends (a
constant problem, as most of my friends and family already know).
Nonetheless, these are mostly good people with their hearts and minds
in the right place (even if one of them did use the not-at-all-a-word
“irregardless” the other day). I feel privileged to have known
them, and when Em and I complete our service, I'll feel honored to
call myself a Returned PCV.
Yesterday
was Emily's and my one-year anniversary, which is cool, except for my
getting violently ill. Coming-out-of-both-ends ill. Still not feeling
so hot, but it's better than it was. Regardless, my love for this
woman has done nothing but grow, and the fact that we'll celebrate
our first two anniversaries (possibly three, depending on our
departure date) out of the country just reflects how lucky I am to
have found her.
Swearing
in was... nice. I don't know what else to say about that; it was a
ceremony with a few speakers and some “cultural performances”
including three speeches by some of my fellow PCVs – quick note,
we're no longer PCTs, as in trainees, but PCVs, volunteers! – in
Mongolian, a dance performed by one of the training groups, a song by
a few other colleagues, and a stirring rendition of a traditional
Mongolian song by one of the more vocally-gifted PCVs. The actual
taking of the oath lasted, maybe, five minutes out of a total of
about an hour and a half. Most of the rest of the time outside of the
ceremony was taken up with photographs, some of which are already on
Facebook.
A
quick word about my host family: they were extraordinarily kind to
me, and I'll never forget their hospitality, patience, and kindness.
They were sad to see me go, and I was sad to leave them. They even
gave me a mug with a picture of the five of us together3.
That
said, Mongolian people are so unbelievably friendly and accommodating
that it kind of became a burden, at times. I know, I know; this
sounds like an interview response to that question where you're
supposed to list your weaknesses but actually make them strengths,
right? But seriously – constantly making sure that I'm eating, that
I'm not bored or lonely, that I'm not sick, that I'm safe and sound,
that I'm doing well in school, that I'm happy with the bed or the
food or the country in general. It's a blessing to have someone watch
out for you like that, but for my part, I've been on my own for years
now, and the transition back to that sort of structured, controlled
life was very jarring.
What
else? I don't know. Uh... yeah, I don't know. My brain is fried. Even
Emily is passed out next to me, and it's only 3:15. We're looking
forward to getting to site and getting to work, and I hope we can
share some pictures with you soon. In the meantime, keep us in mind,
and we'll do the same.
Oh,
and Jaron and Matt and probably Alex: check out this band Haunted
Windchimes if you don't already know them. A good song to start with
is “Out with the Crow”.
1
You'll probably see me refer to this as “site” from here on out.
I apologize for using jargon, but it becomes part of your vocabulary
if you're exposed to it long enough,
2
Sorry, still no interwebs to give you a citation.
3Hilariously,
Mongolian people absolutely refuse to smile in pictures. There were
about ten pictures taken of the five of us, and in ONE of them, I
sort of smirked instead of smiling. Sort of, as in the corners of my
mouth were slightly upturned. That's the one they chose. They all
look like they're angry about the whole thing.
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