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. :)