car rides and weddings and Teshig, oh my

One day last month, I was in the teachers lounge listening to all of the teachers talking about something. I was studying for the GRE so I wasn't really paying attention until I heard the words "wedding" and "Teshig." I instantly tried to start following the conversation because Teshig is supposed to be the prettiest soum in the aimag and my reaction to cultural events in this country is a bit like this. I spent the next two weeks telling everyone that I wanted to go and eventually the school's director agreed that I could go.

The plan was a little something like this:
Friday - leave early, drive to Bulgan and visit two schools there then continue on to Khutag-Ondor (maybe)
Saturday - visit Khutag-Ondor's school, drive to the Khongor district a couple hours away for a wedding, then continue on to Teshig.
Sunday -  visit Teshig's school then head home.

Reality was nothing like that.

To start, we left 5 hours after we were supposed to which threw everything off and set the tone for the remainder of the trip.

The first day we drove out to Khutag-Ondor soum and stayed with a former teacher from our school who lives about 10km outside of town. That was a pretty uneventful day. The next morning's breakfast was boiled horse intestines/innards which I don't eat, so I escaped the house and went and played in the snow by myself. Well, almost by myself. Once when I was messing with the timer to take pictures of myself, this happened:

biggest. dog. ever.

One time he stood up on his back legs, put the other two on my shoulders and licked my face. We were best friends. Other than dog "attacks," it was super pretty out there.

the house we stayed in

From there we made a quick stop in Khutag-Ondor to pick up the rest of our group and continued to our next destination - the wedding. The wedding took place in a district of Khutag-Ondor a couple hours away from the main village. A former teacher's son got married and they invited his former teachers. This was a different former teacher than the one we stayed with overnight - don't worry, I was extremely confused for a solid day about this. There was singing and copious amounts of vodka, both of which I try to avoid, so basically I just sat and ate a lot of potato salad. This is my usual m.o. at Mongolian parties, except usually there's dancing so I feel less bad about eating all that potato salad. It's just so tasty!

inside the wedding reception ger

toasting the bride and groom

me and a teacher outside the ger

I have never actually seen a Mongolian wedding but I've gone to two receptions. On our way out of town, our car got stuck trying to go up a little hill. Fresh snow is terrible for travelling in this country and snow/winter tires do not exist in the hudoo. It went a little like this:

"Oh no, our car is stuck! Whatever shall we do??"

"Let's push it!"

"That's not working? It's okay, we menfolk will lift it out!"

"Maybe we need all hands on deck for this one..."

"We're unstuck! Happy! But I've fallen on the ice. Sad."

We drove for awhile, took pictures on a bridge over a river, then continued on until Teshig.

And this, my friends, is where my narration ends. Teshig is incredibly beautiful, I'm glad I was able to go, and I'll share my pictures. But if you've talked to me about this trip, you know it was not a terribly pleasant trip for me. If you ask nicely, I'll tell you all about it but I can't do it publicly. Enjoy Teshig, I wish I could transplant its buildings to my soum.

the sign welcoming travelers to Teshig with the soum in the background

Teshig's 9 year secondary school

the school's on the right, the dorm we stayed in are on the left

PUPPIES! living in the construction site by school and will probably all die during the winter

cultural center

all of the houses/buildings in town looked like log cabins. I WANT THEM

there were TWO karaoke bars. my town has none. I nearly cried

the lake outside Teshig

the Mongolian contingent from my soum outside the Teshig Ovoo

And with that, I bid you adieu. Sorry for having two long ones in a row but it could be awhile before my next one. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and go be especially violent at Black Friday sales for me. That's my favorite part of the holiday season. And pie, of course.