Summer Recap

Ok, ok, I know I’ve been slacking! Here’s a July and August recap.
Summer in Mongolia is wonderful and relaxing and makes you completely forget about the whole “winter” thing. At least in my town, everyone seemed to disappear as soon as June came around. A lot of people take time off work to go to the countryside and enjoy the good weather/hang out with sheep.
In July I taught with my sitemates at an English-themed summer camp in Kharkhorin (the city in my province that was the capital of Genghis Khan’s empire). It was hosted by Babila’s director, who owns a ger camp there (a ger camp is a group of gers that tourists can rent instead of a hotel room if they want to have the experience of ger beetles falling on their faces while they’re sleeping). We only had 16 students, but it was so much fun. We had lessons, but we also played dodgeball and ultimate Frisbee, did a scavenger hunt, watched movies, visited the Erdene Zuu monsastery, and had a barbeque/horhog (horhog is Mongolian-style barbeque, where you cook a sheep or goat in a container with really hot rocks). Some of the students were from Turkey so the kids really did have to speak English all the time to communicate with each other. It was a blast, and I think the students really learned a lot.
One evening we went to see some horse stuntmen who were practicing in Kharkhorin and putting on performances. Actually, we almost missed it because, while it was free for Mongolians, they wanted $25 a person for foreigners. Babila, Jo, and I were annoyed because that’s racist, but also because we don’t have $25. His director ended up talking them down to 5000 tugrugs and then paid it for us. Anyway, it was really impressive. The guys, who usually perform as stuntmen in movies, dress up in Genghis Khan-style military outfits and put on a show: jumping on and off the horses while they’re galloping, shooting arrows at targets from galloping horses, doing handstands on the horses, etc. (They came to our Naadam to perform at the opening ceremony, so I’ll post some pictures and videos.) At the end, you could pose for pictures with them. I went for the guy with the falcon. After we took the picture, he shook my hand and said a collection of English words that didn’t go together at all. I gave him my confused face, so he just said, “I love you.” Babila told him how to say “What’s your phone number?” Everyone was watching and laughing, so I gave it to him. His name is Boldbaatar (“Steel Hero”), and he is quite the Romeo! I had to get Babila to help me translate some text messages (I still get them occasionally). My favorite was: “Thanks for coming to my show. You are extremely beautiful. I saw you from my horse and straightaway I fell in love.” Wow! Pretty sure no one’s ever fallen in love with me from 200 yards away before. The next day he rode up in full Genghis armor to where we were having our barbeque and kissed my hand. I don’t think I’ve blushed so hard since middle school.
July 30th was Ovorkhangai’s big 80th-anniversary Naadam celebration. I’ve never seen so many people in my town! Thousands of people from all over the province came to watch. The Mobicom network was so clogged that I couldn’t make calls for a few days. Of course, this meant that there were thousands of new people to gawk at the foreigners. Absolutely everyone was really excited to see us, though. I’ve never gotten so many handshakes in my life. I even got quite a few hugs, which Mongolians normally do not do, but those people were generally from people who were celebrating the holiday by drinking in the afternoon. A lot of people also requested pictures with us. The strange thing, though, is that the people requesting them never have a camera. They want me to take a picture with them with MY camera. Why?
The main event was the opening ceremony. Jo, Allison and I got to the wrestling stadium early to make sure we got seats. I thought it was going to be a little chilly and dressed accordingly, but it turned out to be unbearably hot. About 30 minutes into waiting for the ceremony to start, I lost all regard for dignity and started shedding layers. I took off my sweater, shoes, and socks, and rolled up my jeans. Then I put my hair up, sprawled out, and tried not to die of heatstroke. I looked a little out of place because all the locals wear their best dels to Naadam (they are just tougher than I am when it comes to all forms of extreme weather). A little while after that Allison and I started getting text messages from our students: “I just saw you on TV! You’re at the Naadam stadium!” Oh, perfect. Even my counterpart who was in Ulaanbaatar at the time and watching the ceremony on TV told me when I saw her again in September that she had seen me on TV. So now I’m probably famous around Arvaiheer as “Sweaty White Girl.”
I’m including pictures at the bottom of this post, even though I know you’ve definitely seen enough pictures of guys in speedos wrestling each other and children racing horses. I will never get tired of it, though! Never! So bear with me.
Summer was also the time for my 11th-grade students to take their concourse exams and apply to universities. Concourse exams are subject-specific and kids usually only take 2 or 3. The good news is you can choose your best subject. The bad news is that you only get one chance and your score as compared to all other students in Mongolia determines which university you’ll go to. All my students took the concourse in English (which I thought was a bold move for some of them), but none of them plan on studying English at university. That makes me a little sad, but their reasoning is that they already know enough English from studying it in high school (this is true for some and not so much for others). Most of them did well, though, as far as I know. 2 of my students got 2nd and 3rd place in the state, so I was really happy. One of them was Ulzii, whom I’ve mentioned here before (the girl who claims to have learned English from the Disney channel). She decided to study Japanese at university, which I don’t approve of (she should study English!), but I majored in Ancient Greek and Anthropology, so I certainly can’t judge.
Before she went off to school, I had dinner with her and 2 other students—sisters named Ariunzaya and Saranzaya. They both go by the nickname “Zaya.” I asked them, “Isn’t that confusing?” and they said, “No.” Ulzii and Zaya had both gone to Japan on a school trip as a reward for placing in the Japanese Olympics. They talked about some cross-cultural issues they had, which I was happy to hear, because I thought maybe they would understand why I’m so weird. Their first complain was that Koreans in the Seoul airport would hold their noses when the Mongolian students walked by. So they asked me if they smell bad. Honestly, no, but maybe Korean people think I smell bad, too. Then they talked about some German students they met there who asked them questions like, “Oh, you’re Mongolian? Have you ever eaten cake?” and “Do you know what a computer is?” But that’s what this blog is about. In addition to being an outlet for me to talk about funny things my students say and strange things I have been forced to eat, it’s an opportunity for me to tell the rest of the world that yes, Mongolians eat cake and know how to use computers!
Finally, in August I went to America for 2 weeks and saw my lovely family (and some of you!). My parents bought me things and I ate and ate and ate. It was amazing.
Next up: a post about the new school year!

Camp games:




The camp--gorgeous!



Stuntmen:



Horhog--mmmmm:



Trying my hand at archery at camp:



The "Great Wall" in Kharkhorin:



Kharkhorin:



People hanging out at Naadam:






Taking formal family pictures at Naadam:



Archery at Naadam:



Lady archers:



Naadam evening concert in the square:



This is from when Leah, Andrew, Allison and I went to nearby town's Naadam. On the way, we stopped to see some herders' sheep and asked to milk them. They were really gracious about it, but it must've been strange. As Andrew put it, "Imagine if you were in your yard gardening and some German guy came up and asked to help you."



The VSOs and PCVs got a formal family shot at a photo studio. We took it Mongol style--no smiling!