how has it already been a year?!

One year ago today, I was in San Francisco for staging and the beginning of this crazy adventure. I stole everyone else’s pens, most of which I still have because they’re surprisingly good pens, and met all the people I’d spend the following two years with. All of us M22s landed in Mongolia on June 5^th and began this great adventure. In honor of the M22 one year anniversary, I thought it was time for a slightly clichéd post about the things I’ve learned, things I’ve experienced, etcetera. We’re going to do it in list form – things I like about Mongolia and things I don’t like about Mongolia, except I’ll categorize them into positive and negative because, let’s be honest, some things in the positive category I don’t exactly like (i.e. winter). And now, without further ado (that’s spelled right, right?) and in no particular order, here is my One Year in Mongolia Reflective Blog Post:

Positive

• How pretty everything is with green grass and trees
• How pretty everything is covered in snow
• Goy juice
• Sugar free apple juice
• My 5A 5^th grade class
• The predictability of winter weather
• Watching the young male teachers’ boy band get coerced into performing
• My furry kitty friend
• The arrival of chicken in my soum
• The feeling I get when I successfully have a conversation completely in Mongolian
• Spending PST with my Dkhan crew
• The group of 11 PCVs of the Greater Erdenet Metropolitan Area
• Everyone who was willing to help me out when I sprained my ankle and had to hop everywhere
• My counterparts and all the teachers at my school
• The women who own businesses in town
• Work parties
• The sound of a fire in my stove
• My mommy and daddy calling me about once a week
• Letters and packages from home (thanks to everyone who has sent something)
• Having a shower house in town so I don’t have to tumpen bathe
• Getting to know someone new from my group at every PC conference
• Walking outside after a horrible day of work and being blown away by how gorgeous it is here
• My students’ excitement when they realize it’s time for English class
• The Italian man who opened a pizza place in Erdenet…and his pizza
• Understanding the gist of some conversations in the teachers’ lounge
• More students passing one test than the previous test
• Knowing I’m not the only one driven insane by some parts of life here
• My host mother’s mantuun buuz
• The rare feeling of accomplishment
• Seeing a definite improvement of my CPs' English abilities
• Exploring all the different areas of the country - steppe, desert, and mountainous/forested
• Being able to use less water in a week than most people use in a day
• Cooking some impressive meals with only a limited variety of food

Negative

• Sand
• Sandstorms
• Leaky/flooded gers
• High school boys (apparently it’s a global phenomenon that teenage boys behave horribly)
• Spring weather – sandstorms, forest fires, rain
• Summer weather – rain, hot, cold
• Summer bugs – MOSQUITOES ARE EVIL
• Fall weather – rain, snow, horridness
• The temperature in January (-40 anyone?)
• The lack of vegetables and eggs for sale in my soum
• Falling and hurting myself (outhouses, holes, etc)
• Getting mistaken for a Russian (they’re not terribly popular)
• Still getting stared at despite having lived here for around 10 months
• Saying goodbye to the M21s
• Getting fat after a year’s diet of mainly pure starch
• Only having the choice of crappy beer or cheap vodka to drink
• The prevalence, acceptance, and even encouragement of cheating
• Getting fed meals with intestines as the meat
• Going to a store during posted business hours and the store being closed
• Seeing a forest fire from my yard
• Walking into a “restaurant” and having them say they’re out of everything
• No matter how many people are in a taxi/bus, Mongolians can always manage to fit 5 more (it is impressive though)
• Repeatedly being told that I need a husband and need to start having babies REALLY soon
• Mutton

That's all I can think of. It's certainly not a comprehensive list, but it's adequate. And to further add to today's landmark statues - the new class of M23s arrive in country today! Definitely looking forward to what next year will bring and meeting the 23s.