It's a Girl!

My host mother's sister just had a baby girl. Both the mother and baby are doing well. Naturally this is cause for celebration.

Check out what they did to celebrate here, here, here and here. Disclaimer: Click at your own risk, not recommendation for the faint of heart or those with week stomachs.

It was awesome.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo were hanging out at the square today.

Photo by Warren Olsen.

Morin Khuur

The Morin Khuur is a 2 stringed instrument that is native to Mongolian. It used to be made entirely out of horse parts. In 1930 it was adapted to be similar to a violin, so now the base is made out of wood instead of a horse skull. I think this is kind of a bummer. Last weekend I took a lesson.

This is what the instrument is supposed to sound like.

We sounded exactly like Elmo.

China

I leave for China on the 30th of September. Naturally, they are all very excited.

Check out what they are doing to prepare for my arrival here.

IT'S SNOWING!

It is snowing for the first time this winter in UB. I think the seasons work like this.

Spring: June
Summer: 6 weeks in July and August
Fall: The rest of August
Winter: Everything else

It's a good thing I like snow.

Interesting Uses of English Around the City

My first lost in translation moment came early in my trip. I was out having drinks with several Mongolian anesthesiologists which was a lot of fun. (One of them gave me a 1 Togrog note which is worth about 1/15th of a cent and kind of difficult to find). I was speaking with one of them who spoke pretty much every language but English. He kept telling me has was pathetic. He told me this over and over until someone else interjected and said, "I think he is trying to tell you he works in pediatrics." Then they explained to him what pathetic means.

There are plenty of great examples of poor choices of words around the city. My favorite part of the signs and t-shirts around the city is they are generally grammatically correct but inappropriate for the situation. Some of my favorite t-shirts have been:

Patronize your local merchant, he's your neighbor. While the message here is a good one, especially due to our current climate problems, I still wonder if the wearer knows exactly what is on their shirt. This shirt is also incredibly popular, I see it all the time.

No Paint, No Gain. Maybe they were trying to make shirts that said: No Pain, No Gain. Maybe they are paint ball enthusiasts. I will never know.

Honk If You Love Skateboarding. One of the doctors at work was wearing this. I laughed.

And as Kate reminded me, Some Call it Stalking, I Call it Love.

Ping Pong

Last weekend we had a ping pong tournament. I had always heard that the Asians took their ping pong seriously. Seriously enough that numerous people corrected me when I called in ping pong rather than table tennis. I expected we would be going to a rec center with a few tables but we went to a real training center. It was so funny to see all of the little kids with their coaches and the old men that get upset when your ball rolls over towards their table or can't have the exact table they reserved. It reminded me of playing tennis growing up. :)

Last night in the Gobi

The last night on our Gobi trip we stayed in a family's ger. They were a really awesome old couple who work way to hard. They are traditional herders and have a fairly large herd of sheep, goats and cows.

We had a fun night playing cards, playing with their dogs and trying to talk to the couple using the 2 phrasebooks we had with us. I got to try out my Mongolian and successfully said, "Мал сурег тарган тавтай юу." Which means, "I hope your animals are fattening up nicely."

My favorite part of my time with this couple was when the man found out I was American. He said, "Barack Obama" and gave a big thumbs up. Then he said, "Bush, Iraq" and did the Mongolian equivalent of giving the finger (an American sign language j). This made me quite happy. :)

My blind date

The most common question Mongolians ask me is, "Are you married?" After I tell them that I am neither married nor have a boyfriend some of them get a little worked up. I think this response is natural because they simply don't want me to become a crazy cat lady and I am almost over the hill at the ripe old age of 22.

My first supervisor at Shastin hospital would consistently introduce me to the young male surgeons. If one was already married she would shake her head, disappointed at the loss of a prospective husband for me. One of the other anesthesiologists also told me I needed to get married because to a Mongolian because I am here for so long. He also told me that I couldn't become a neurosurgeon because that is "men's work" and how would I take care of my family. However, eye surgery is still open as a career to me because he dubbed that "women's work." I still haven't figured out why he makes that distinction. When I asked him why he considered it women's work, he promptly changed the subject to teaching me Mongolian swear words. He also decided that this was best done by writing them down on random medicine boxes in the operating room.

So back to the real story. I made a joke about all of these people who want to find me a Mongolian husband to my tour guide Goto. What I didn't realize is that sarcasm is probably not the best idea with a non-native speaker. He asked what my criteria for a Mongolian husband is and this is what I came up with:

1) Between 22 and 28 years old.
2) Doesn't smoke.
3) Has a large herd of camels. 100+ is preferable.

One morning in the desert Goto walked into the ger and while I was still half asleep told me that I have a date tonight. He was completely serious.

That night I had a date with a 22 year old tour guide named Mugu. We walked to the cliffs and I invited him for tea in my ger.

The positive things about him are: He is 22, doesn't smoke, speaks English and studies computer science.

Best thing about him is his full name means Eternal Hero. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

The negative things about him: No camels (big strike against him) and he believes death is something women should never see. Earlier that day he stopped me from seeing a sheep being slaughtered which was something I was mildly interested in seeing. Do to this belief, I don't think we are going to work out long term. My (hopefully) future career as a doctor and him not thinking women should see death don't really match up.

Perhaps it is best if I don't come home with a husband. Especially because it is a Mongolian tradition that the bride makes the felt for the new couple's ger. I really don't know if my felt making skills are up to par.

The Big Picture

The Boston Globe has a blog called The Big Picture where every few days they post about 30 pictures based on a common theme. The most recent one is Inner and Outer Mongolia.

Two Mongolias.

The Gobi Desert

I just got back from my trip to the Gobi desert. I went for 8 days with 3 other girls, Marijke(from Belgium), Louis(from France) and Maeva(from Switzerland). We had a great time. We were accompanied by Ultse, our driver, and our guide, Goto. He is the only Mongolian I have met who really likes to stick to the schedule. I am pretty sure the thing that came out of his mouth most was "official time." It was fairly amusing.

We got to see the White Cliffs, the Dinosaur Flaming Cliffs and the Singing Sand dunes. If I either a) liked geology or b) knew anything about it, it would have been absolutely fascinating. Since I don't, it was fun to see everything and do some hiking. It is also quite amazing to be able to drive for miles without seeing anything or anyone. It is considerably more desolate than driving along I-40 through Arizona and New Mexico which is really saying something for anyone who has done that drive.

We had a lot of fun together riding camels, climbing the sand dunes, visiting families, learning more Mongolian and playing cards. We also had some interesting times getting the van stuck in the mud and fixing flat tires (both our own and other van's).

Check out the pictures.

Rafting

Some friends and I rented a raft and went rafting on the Tuul river. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. Some of my companions had never been rafting and were a little nervous about the adventure. Marcel decided it was necessary to wear both a lifevest and a helmet (and to paddle frantically for most of the trip) on what turned out to be a very lovely float trip. I think he was afraid of running into the very devious looking yaks.

Genghis Khan

Mongolian's really like Genghis Khan, I when I say like I mean really really really like Genghis Khan. Enough to put a 131 foot statue of him in absolutely the middle of nowhere. Definitely one of the more amusing things I have seen in my life.

Tahki Horses

A couple of weeks ago I went to Hustai National Park to see the Tahki horses. They are a rare breed of horse and there is an ongoing debate about whether they are ancestors to the modern domesticated horse or a subspecies of the wild horse. They disappeared from the wild in 1966 and in 1985 were reintroduced into the wild in Mongolia. There are around 300 horses in Hustai and 1200 elsewhere in the world. All 1500 of these horses descend from 9 that were in captivity in 1945.

They do look different from other horse breeds, the description that Wikipedia gives is, "Przewalski's Horse is stockily built in comparison to domesticated horses, with shorter legs. Typical height is about 13 hands (1.32 m), length is about 2.1 m with a 90 cm tail. They weigh around 300 kilograms (660 lb). The coat is similar to dun coloration in domestic horses. It varies from dark brown around the mane (which stands erect) to pale brown on the flanks and yellowish-white on the belly. The legs of Przewalski's Horse are often faintly striped." They also have two extra chromosomes.

The day we went it poured, which put a bit of a damper on searching for the horses. Despite the rain we found some of the horses and hiked up to see them. Once we got close, each horse looked at us like we were absolutely insane to stand in the rain and look at horses. I must say, I kind of agree.