Reflections

Looking back on our summer journey, it doesn't quite seem real. Many of the experiences that I had in Mongolia were so unique and different, that they do not really have a place in my normal memory. They are disjointed and strange, and never the less incredible. And I wonder how I will think on them a year, five years, fifty years (provided I am still alive) from now. I can describe aspects of our trip to friends, but no description can do justice to the actual experience.

Why did I decide to go to Mongolia? This question has been a major theme of the past six months of my life. I am asked by my friends, my family, strangers (who have no business knowing), and frequently by Mongolians and other people during our travels. I think my response is a little different every time. Though this question has been so important to everyone I've talked to, at no point have I thought it necessary to justify this decision in my own mind. Why does anyone do anything? Because they are trying to make the best of their time, aiming at what each considers to be good, and working toward it.

One thing that the trip has reinforced in my mind, is the idea that human life is so variable, so contingent upon the situation and circumstance into which one is born, ant yet humans, as far as I have witnessed, share similar experiences through their emotions. The beggar and the king spend their time quite differently, and yet at the end of the day, each has his own regrets, longings, and fears, neither one's more or less real than the other's. As a new school-year beggins, I have my own apprehensions. I wonder what are those of the people I shared time with in Mongolia.

Bulgan, Naadam, and Aerig

After Naadam in UB, we, nix Tim and Yelena, as mentioned below, traveled across the countryside to Bulgan City (Bulgan Hot). We stayed with a lovely woman named Ganaa, a former Fullbright who taught us Mongolian language last spring. She obviously loved Bulgan, from all the things she told us about it. We were ridiculously excited to be able to go and see the place she called home.

One of the most important things about Bulgan, she had told us, was the aerig. Aerig is fermented mare's milk. And Bulgan, it turns out, makes some of the best in the world. Bulgan is so proud of their aerig that part of the opening ceremonies to their Naadam celebration was a dance tribute to the drink, the making of it, the consuming of it, and games played while consuming it. During the summers, many people give up solid foods, according to Ganaa, and just consume aerig.

This hadn't been the first time aerig had been present during this trip. While in Inner Mongolia--or was it Saen-Shed?--we'd had the opportunity to try camel aerig. This is an experience I don't intend to replicate. Along the research trip to the countryside I went on, we would stop and get aerig from everywhere we could. Well, once the other girls learned I hadn't really had it before.

The drink itself tastes a bit like watered down milk and yeast. But it's better than if you took watered down milk and mixed it with yeast. The milk here just has flavor, moreso than American milk anyway. The drink also reminds me a bit of yoghurt. When I first had it, I wasn't a fan, but it grew on me.

We brought some back to our apartment from Bulgan. It was supposed to be for Allison, Tim, and Yelena, but it was really for everyone. It lived in the fridge for a while. I kind of like it cold, but I think that's not really how you're supposed to drink it.

Where will we be next? (Russia Plans)

Hi,
Here are our plans for Russia. Please remember that we may or may not have internet or phone access between July 21st and July 31st. As always, if you have an emergency and need to contact your student you may call Karen Billingsly at the Honors College (412 624 6880). Otherwise I will try to force all of the students to write or call home before we leave Mongolia.

We will be traveling with Hongorzul Sodnom from the National University of Mongolia. She attended University in Moscow in the 1970's and has taken this train route back and forth between Moscow and Ulaan Baatar several times (and she is fluent in Russian, which is a great help). Currently, Hongorzul directs the Mongolian Center for American Studies at the National University of Mongolia.

So here are our plans:
July 21st depart Ulaan Baatar at 9.10pm on train 363
July 22nd arrive Ulaan Ude
Ulaan Ude accommodation at Baikal Ethnic Hostel
www.baikalhostel.com -
We will be visiting with students from the University of Buryiata and see Lake Baikhal

July 26 depart Ulaan Ude at 10.22 am local time on train 7
July 26 arrive Irkutsk at 17.17 local time
accommodation at Irkutsk Downtown Hostel
www.hostel.irkutsk.ru

July 27 depart Irkutsk at 16.10 local time on train 9
July 30 arrive Moscow at 16.42 local time
accommodation at Mini-Hotel Sukarevka
www.suharevkahotel.ru

July 31 depart Moscow for the US!

We'll be home soon! - Allison

Naadam Hits the NY Times!

Hey check this out. This is a slide show from UB's Naadam horse races.
Don't worry, the Pitt crew was in the crowd catching it all first hand!

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/10/world/0711-MONGOLIA_index.html

And this is just a related article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/world/asia/11mongolia.html

More on Archaeology!

Well, I should be putting last minute touches on my paper right now, but I think I've earned a break. I left off talking about my trip by saying that we had to leave our site and search for a new one. We were camping in a national park and our professor found a area near by that looked promising. The new site was still in the national park, but our professor works in the office that issues permits to archaeologists. Essentially this meant we could work where ever we wanted and he would issue his own permit. Suddenly the the fact that it was a national park didn't matter! the next day we were digging away at these large piles of rocks. The Professor didn't know what group of people made these and he didn't know roughly when they were made. Our goal was to find any artifact that we could so that it could be taken to a lab for dating.
At first the digging only turned up more rocks. Yes, they were most definitely positioned by humans so they weren't just some random rocks. Still rocks got boring after a few days. We thought that these formations were burial sites, but even after we moved the rocks and kept digging we didn't find any skeletons. The sites could very well be grave markers to honor the war dead that died far from home, but that still only left us with rocks to uncover...tedious! When our professor decided to stop working on these units, we started working on a new unit that formed a small mound in the landscape. A pedestrian survey (very technical...involves people walking around) turned up a few pottery sherds. We started getting excited!!! Working on the new sites came just in time to keep everyone enthusiastic about the dig. We found lots of potsherds, some that were bigger than your hand. And we even found a whole pot!! Well, it was broken but all the pieces were still there and in its original shape. Another interesting aspect of this unit was that we found some kind of foundation. Yes, it was still made out of rocks, but suddenly these were much more interesting! Mongolia is historically a culture of nomads, so a piece of a building is a pretty big deal.
All in all, this trip was a lot of fun. Even with its ups and downs we found quite a few artifacts and I know I learned a lot. I had had the opportunity to try to work with an American dig, if I didn't go on this one. I'm so glad that I decided to go with the Mongolian dig. The language barrier gave me a whole lot of time to think. Going off by myself, allowed me to learn not only about archaeology, but I learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of doing. I'm proud of myself!

The Rain Is Gone!

The rainy season finally seems to have ended. Happily, the weather has been dry and sunny for at least three days. Of course, this also means that the mud has dried up and turned into dust again. I suppose you can't have everything.

The group packed up and went to Bulgan over the weekend, visiting Ganaa, who taught us Mongolian in Pittsburgh. Tim and I, alas, were laid low with an unfortunate stomach bug, so we spent a lot of time sleeping and eating plain bread. Therefore, I can't divulge any details of what went on in Bulgan; that's classified information, and it's out of my hands.

My advisor and I met last week for the last time before he took off for the countryside. I administered a few more surveys. So far I have about 50. The questions I ask are related to foreign language experience and loanwords in Mongolian. "Do you think that foreign words are fashionable?" I inquire. "When foreigners come to Mongolia, should they learn the language?" "Are there too many loanwords in Mongolian?" "Do you ever use the word ___? Is it a real word?" (Bodybuilding, apparently, has entered the lexicon here, and I've seen it written in Cyrillic on many signs for gyms.)

That, of course, is an oversimplification, and in fact I ask more detailed questions about a few specific words. I am finding that a large proportion of people under 30 have studied English, along with a sharp dropoff in the number of schoolchildren studying Russian. This fits my expectations.

The black market was closed during Naadam but reopened again today. I plan to make a final trip to buy souvenirs and a needle and thread to mend my skirt (which ripped spectacularly when it caught on a metal fencepole).

As far as illness is concerned, I am feeling almost entirely better. The summer has gone by without major sickness in the group until now, and probably we should be grateful. We seem to have avoided food poisoning for the most part, yay! Good health is priceless. And that's enough empty philosophizing out of me -- it's off to work on my paper again.

Naadam Plans

Tomorrow officially starts the Mongolian national holiday of Naadam, or the festival of the "three manly sports" (wrestling, archery, and horse racing). There are Naadam celebrations all throughout the country beginning and ending at different times. The black market has been especially busy and the street traffic has gotten worse as everyone leaves for the holiday. Most Mongolians get their vacation during this time and venture out of UB to visit friends and family in the countryside.

Our plans are as follows:

Fri - we are going to see the opening ceremony of the Naadam in UB followed by some archery and wrestling competitions
Sat - we are going to take part in "Culture Naadam" a sort of fair put on by the Arts Council of Mongolia... this is also where some of the horse races take place so we will watch some of that and then head out to the Bulgan City in the countryside to visit Gaana, our language teacher from Pitt last semester
Sun-Tue - we will be visiting with Gaana and then see the opening ceremony of Bulgans Naadam before returning to UB

Love, Emily

two nights of clubbing in UB

so the past few nights we have taken to trying some new clubs around UBtuesday night ninj took us to a place called Strings. it was a very classy place -- we went early so we wouldn't have to pay the 8000 tugrig cover charge. they had a live phillipino band, that melissa was really excited about (she's the phillipino girl on the trip). the band performed mostly american cover songs, with a few mongolian and phillipino ones too. they were seriously amazing -- there were two girl singers and one guy -- and they could conform to make their voices identical to who they were covering. one minute you would think you were listening to shakira, and then it would be the black eyed peas, then maroon 5. it was really impressive. we had a really fun time -- and it wasn't even a sweatbox every other club we've been to is. there was this really crazy old mongolian dude that kept trying the dance with allie and melissa.... it was pretty priceless because he obviously watched one too many michael jackson videos -- and he though he could dance like mj. clearly not the case.

last night we went to Metropolis with zula, solongo, and munkho. they're the ladies from the international studies office, so they also brought a group of students who just arrived in UB that they're working with. they were korean and friendly enough, though they told me it was the first time they've ever been to a club -- and their dance skills confirmed that statement. i mean don't get me wrong, my dancing abilities are illustrative of stereotypical tall awkward white boy syndrome -- so when i call somebody a bad dancer... it's pretty bad. it kind of looked like they were doing jazz-aerobics or something. the club only played techno music, which got pretty old after a while, and the bright flashing lights and smoke machines have probably caused seizures at least once or twice. all in all though, it was a decent night.

The Del Lady Returns, Molly

Mongolia functions on a system based around the idea of "I know a guy." That is to say, everyone always knows someone who can help you or accomplish what you wish to accomplish. When you want a del, if you happen to know Allison, she mentions it to her friend Ariel who, in turn, introduces us to her friend: The Del Lady.

The Del Lady, I am sure, has a name of her own. However, we never caught it. When the Del Lady comes, with her comes the Del Lady's Assistant, who is her younger sister. The former is a seamstress, the later someone learning how to be a seamstress. She's good, quick, and, most importantly, cheap. And, when you get something from her, you feel as though you made a difference in someone's life rather than when you buy a del from the State Department Store, which is both expensive and kind of intimidating.

According to the internet, a del is the "traditional dress of Mongolia." I think this is a poor description and about equal to calling "an ugly sweater your senile aunt gave you one Christmas" American traditional dress. Everyone here seems to own a del. They're useful. They're warm. Mostly older people wear them, but around certain holidays, everyone brings their dels out. Except dels are more comfortable and generally have better useful uses than as a doorstop, Halloween costume used to scare small children, or piece of blackmail. They have many purposes, several of which I won't outline here, I'm sure you can fill in the mental gaps when you learn that people take dels to the countryside, but they're quite similar to how Douglas Adam's describes a towel:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth...you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches...you can sleep under it beneath the stars...use it to sail a mini raft...wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat...wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes...you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

You can also do all of those things with a del as well as look -damn- good.

So, of course, being the fashionistas we are, we all wanted dels. Allie and Emily researched for hours and days the prices and options for buying a del before we were introduced to the Del Lady. The Del Lady came to our home with books of designs and swatches. She took our orders, our measurements, and our money. Everyone began to talk to her with vauge ideas of what they wanted and she, being not just a talented seamstress, but an artist, discussed and drew. All parties, the Del Lady, us, and Ariel, who was acting as translater, slowly grew more and more excited as ideas began to take shape into what would become beautiful clothing. Today she delievered.

We weren't expecting our orders till after Naadam, because of how busy she is at this time of the year, when everyone wants new clothes for the holiday. As she took out each piece, we went "oooh!" and "ahhh!" in appriciation and approval. We had a mini fashion show. People took turns trying on one another's new clothing. It was fun. Some people got dels, I got a jacket, and Allison got a pretty spiffy dress.

We look -good-.

My Countryside Research Trip

For my independent project, I am looking at the interactions between tourism and the environment. One of the lectures we received from the National University was on the ecosystems and natural landscapes of Mongolia. The professor, Uuganbaatar, who gave us this lecture was a member of the ecology department, and had just started a program on Eco-tourism. He offered to let me tag along on a field research trip he was taking with his students to Bogd Mountain Strictly Protected Area. He was leaving the next day for another field trip, but said he would call me when he got back on the 25th or 26th.

Flash forward 2 weeks to the 25th at 9:15 am. My phone rings and it's Uuganbaatar:
"Hello, Emily are you ready to leave? Meet at the University in front of building 2 at 10:30."
"AM?"
"Yes"

So, I packed my bag, Allie and Allison ran to the grocery store to buy me some food, and off I went. In true Mongolian fashion, we did not leave the city until 1 even though scheduled departure time was 11. We arrived at the university field station in Bogd Mountain, set up our camp and talked about what we were going to be doing for the rest of the trip. While I was there we went on 2 day long hikes. The first was to the highest point in the park and to a very large ovoo nearby. The second was to an old Buddhist Temple that was mostly destroyed during the purges, but historically housed over 1,000 lamas. The students were looking at the accessibility of each location to tourists (trails, markers, information available, camp sites, tourist camps, etc.) In addition to the hikes, we had classes outlining problems in the area and challenges that the park faces in terms of tourism. What I found from these discussions (or at least the parts that were translated for me), is that the teacher and students were very good at looking at the short falls of tourism in the area, especially from a biological perspective, but struggled a bit in thinking of solutions. Some alternatives were put forth, but the implementation then proved nearly impossible.

In addition to classes, we had a lit of free time. I had a lot of fun interacting with the other students. Even with the language barrier, we could communicate pretty well. Among the things we did were cooking group meals (the Houshuur assembly line was quite impressive), showing the students my pictures, and playing volleyball. However, my favorite was our soccer games. Even in my Chaco's I gave most of the guys a run for their money. All the students were quite impressed with my soccer ability. I guess the 10+ years of experience comes in handy, even in Mongolia.

Love, Emily

perfect day out in the countryside (without leaving UB)

so yesterday, our friend ninj invited us out to her sister's house out on the border of UB at the edge of the ger district. we met her at 10am in front of the tinggis movie theater and took a microbus out to the northern ger district where her sister's summer home is.

quick notes about a mongolian microbus -- they're the cheapest way to get around UB. they cram way to many people into them. the drivers are usually borderline psychotic. all-in-all they are an entertaining way to get around. the morning ride there wasn't bad at all, because the buses weren't busy yet.

riding through the ger district though was a bit surprising. the descriptions we have heard about ger districts make them out to be slums, that are too dangerous for foreigners to go to. however, i didn't really find that to be the case. maybe the mongolians that live in the ger districts are not as wealthy as those who live in the city, but there were some damn nice houses in the area. if you know nothing about ger districts, they are where the overflow of people who come from the countryside looking for jobs settle down. land is not regulated, so people just pick a plot of land, claim it for themselves, build a fence around "their property," and then put up a ger or build a house. the ger districts stretch for miles outside of the main city of UB, kind of like a makeshift suburbia. all the houses are complete random colors ranging from an acid pink to a vomit colored orange-green, which could potentially make more sensitive types break out into a seizure. but in all honesty, i think its a nice change of pace from the drab brown-grey buildings of pittsburgh.

ninj's sister lived in a gated community though, specifically for wealthier company workers who want to move out of the city during the summer. ninj's sister (who is also named ninj; ninj is both of their short names, they have different long names but those are harder to spell/remember) works for the mongolian equivalent of the U.S. FCC, her husband works for the USF (which i think is sort of like the U.S. FDA). the take-home message of that is that they're fairly well off compared to the average mongolian couple. they have a daughter who was one and a half, named heeshkai. i think she was not used to seeing foreigners though, because she was very shy around us.

ninj took us hiking around the area -- which was amazing. it was a beautiful day. if you reference my past blog entries, you'll notice that i've never actually experienced a nice day in the countryside, only sandstorms, rain, etc. this day was PERFECT. blue skies, not too hot, seriously amazing. we hiked up a few mountains and talked to ninj about her favorite movies, music, that type of thing. she'll be coming to stay at pittsburgh pretty soon, so we also taught her some necessary slang terms to know in america, like "bring it on" which she had heard but never understood from that corresponding awful movie with that exact title.

there was a freak rainstorm that blew in, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes. we had dinner after we were finished hiking. ninj's sister cooked us some sort of mongolian stirfry that was pretty awesome. we decided to head back to UB around 6pm. it took a while to catch a microbus back. this one was not as empty as before. in a van that should not seat more than 9 people in the back, we fit 16. impressive yes, comfortable no. luckily i was near a window so my clausterphobia didn't kick in too bad. plus when you are crushed against the wall with two people on your lap, you don't notice the manic driving as much because you can't move.

we got back to the apt around 7pm, and we were all fairly tired and sunburned so we decided to have a calm night in, in spite of the fact that this was the first night we could go out without a curfew. i've been following the wimbleton tournament since i've been here (seeing as how it's one of the few stations we get) but i fell asleep before i saw who won the championship match between federer and nadal -- apparently it was a really exciting match that nadal won after a gruelling 4 hrs and 48 minutes. i caught 15min of it and passed out... oh well, there's always youtube for the highlights.

A Mongolian Anthropological Experience

I've been away from the group for a couple of weeks but finally found my way back to UB on the 2nd. My independent research project took me on a wild adventure hundreds of kilometers from UB with a group of 15 Mongolians. I left UB with one days notice and found myself piled into a massive truck thundering towards Kharkorum. I was sandwiched in the front of the truck with the driver and a graduate student, neither of which spoke much English and we all know y Mongolian is terrible. This made for a rather quiet drive. However, when we stopped for lunch the students were more willing to make an attempt at talking to me. My favorite was when one of the boys came up to me, extended his hand, and said "Let us meet!" His name was Erueka and it turned out that his English was very good. Between his translations and my pocket dictionary, communicating got easier and easier as the weeks progressed. At first I didn't put my dictionary down, but by the time we came back I was leaving the book in my tent for days and only referencing it for something particular. Slowly, my Mongolian improved too! I learned words that were important for the dig, such as: pot, rock, shovel, bucket, and brush.

As for the actual digging, this experience was everything I had hoped it would be. We worked on a site that was on top of a mountain and near several ovoos. One of the structures was a very large rock pile that was about 80 m in circumference. however, we were working on some of the subsidiary structures that surrounded this main one. We believed that the rock formations may have been burial markers. Sadly, I won't know if they were or not. After three days of digging, a few local herdsmen came to the site. They were very upset about us digging so close to the ovoos, and literally grabbed our shovels from our hands and threw them to the ground. The even picked up the newly uncovered rocks and threw and kicked them out of place. So much for keeping them "in situ!" Our Professor tried to talk to these men and even went to a town meeting to beg these people to let us stay. They wouldn't hear of it. So that night, we packed up camp and moved into a National Park to stay the night and try to figure out where we could go to finish our excavation... and by that I mean start a new one!

I was away for over two weeks so it may take more than one post to explain it all. Look for the rest of my adventure soon!

Love,
Amber

Happy 5th of July

happy belated birthday america!

today to celebrate the day after the 4th (aka the 5th) we attended a party coordinated by the U.S. embassy. the place was at this apt complex where i suppose all the american ambassidors, important people, etc live. it seriously looked like they took a condo development in tampa florida and moved it to the center of UB -- a bit ridiculous.

they had patriotic music, imported american picnic food, milkshakes for a dollar (melissa was all over that one), everything necessary for a 5th of july celebration (minus the fireworks -- probably not allowed during the current state of emergency anyway...). we were actually a little overwhelmed being surrounded by that many americans... it was like a preview of the reverse culture shock to come.

we also entered a tug-o-war contest -- 5 people to a team. it was me, allie, emily, yelena, and molly. the last thing i said before we started the contest was "let's just not embarass ourselves" sadly enough, we weren't able to accomplish that. we were decimated by a team that consisted of 1 girl, 3 men, and a massive beast who tied the rope around his waist. we didn't stand a chance.

even if we would've won, it would've just delayed an inevitable defeat by the unstoppable force of the "storming mormons." it seemed like they had been practicing for weeks to prepare for this small little contest. they had the perfect tug-o-war technique, and matching short-sleeved white button-down and black khaki uniforms. i wasn't impressed.

anyway, hope you guys lived it up in the states -- not going to lie, the 4th of july made me miss the pirates games tailgates. later

-The crew eating dinner together in our living room. Baked Ziti!

-Swan Lake at the Ulaanbaatar Opera House.

-Conversation class... last meeting with our teacher, Sarul.

-Washed out picture in front of the opera house... proof there is sun in UB- haha.

-Our apartment!

National University of Mongolia

National University of Mongolia. (Building one and two)

The 4th of July... In Mongolia

Today is the 4th of July. In Mongolia there are (obviously) no parades, no BBQ's, and no fireworks! Instead we have the remnants of the state emergency, extra cops patrolling and the burned / abandoned MPRP building. However, we are not deterred. The celebration must go on!

Despite our stove top being out of commission, we are planning to celebrate the 4th of July the American way (minus the fireworks as they are illegal and would probably get us in a bit of trouble with the cops/military). We are planning on making hotdogs, hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, jello, etc. (or the closest equivalent to the classic American picnic food we can find in Mongolia).

In addition, the US embassy is hosting a party on the 5th. This should be a good chance to mingle and talk with other Americans!

I think that one of the hardest times to be away is when you know you are missing out on gatherings and celebrations that all of your family and friends are attending. Our Mongolian 4th of July will be well worth the hours of hunting in various grocery stores for ground beef and paying through the roof for a block of cheese. It will make us feel a little more a part of the celebrations at home.

Love, Emily

All is quiet

Hi,

The protests/riots finally made the pages of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Ironically, by the time the US papers were reporting the event it was all over in Mongolia. The State of Emergency was officially lifted at 8AM this morning. The police have left their posts at the street corners and people are going back to work.

It looks like things have settled down. There was a good deal of damage to the Communist Party Head Quarters and the attached cultural institutions (the entire National Horse Head Fiddle Ensemble was looted, all of their instruments and costumes were stolen) and the Children's Library was destroyed.

Overall, Mongolians seem sad that things came to that. Some are still very enraged at the government, but they are planning more peaceful ways (election re-counts or a reelection) rather than more protests.

~Allison

an


First: Smoke seen from out apartment from the rioting on Tuesday night.
Second: Allie, Allison, and Yelena waiting in front of Los Banditos... the only Mexican/Indian restaurant-- so delicious. :)
Third: A view from above of Sukhbaatar Square.

We are all inside and safe

Hi! You might have heard (or well soon) that the Mongolian election results were announced and resulted in some rioting. The Communist party won again, in a stituation that seems to have involved quite a bit of corruption. The only real rioting is targeted at the MPRP (communist) party headquarters in the middle of the city. Our appartment is a good 4km from the square and we are staying inside until the National University gives the go-ahead to go back out.

I am at a friend's appartment and have internet access. However, the students do not have internet access and might not think to call home. If you need to contact your child you are welcome to email my account (allibunga@gmail.com) and I will have them call you. I will also be incontact with the Honors College, you can call them at 412-624-6880.

Thanks! Allison Hahn

Internet killed the video star, Molly

The title was that or "pop culture popped," but that one didn't make as much sense as it did in my head.

Through sheer luck, or a lack of it, we have cable television. There are a handful of English channels: AXN, Cinemax, HBO, Cartoon Network, Star World, Nickelodean, CNN, BBC, and MTV. We also get a bunch of Mongolian channels, or did before the media blackout brought us down to only getting the state channel. This has allowed us to keep up with the western world thanks to up-to-the-minute news coverage. This has also allowed me to watch "Friends" and become acquainted with a form of American pop-culture I knew existed, but never had more contact with than a commuter relationship. I would pass it on the street, we'd make brief eyecontact, but we'd never have a moment.

I now know "where my party people at," and don't even complain about the use of the word "at" at the end of the sentence. I can sing along to "Girlfriend," use lines from "Take a Bow" in everyday conversation, and drop appropriately to the Flo Rida song "Low." I've watched Punk'd and have even finally seen an episode of "The Real World." Utt is my new homeboy. He's ever replaced Chinggis. (Or not.)

Yeah, I'm cool like that.

Warren Ellis, British writer, once said that "you can learn everything you need to know about a culture through their television," or something like that. This is true. I've learned a lot about a bit of Americana that I rejected back in 7th grade cause I was "too smart" to "waste my time" with "such nonsense." Now, I think I wasted a lot of effort trying to -not- learn who the members of N*Sync were and have realized that, while Justin Timberlake does still sound kind of like pre-pubescent boy, his songs are kind of catchy.

Plus, there's all the music videos.

MTV Asia, the one we get, is full of music videos. I love music videos. They play the same ones except in special countdowns--an 80's and 90's Countdown, for example. I'm pretty sick of the "hip hop" countdown. If I never have to hear "Love (In This Club)" again I'll be pretty happy. I think Scarlett Johansson should stick to acting and that the video to "Warwick Avenue," Duffy, is pretty lame. Occasionally there's a real treat, like Vampire Weekend's "Oxford Comma" or Fallout Boy and John Mayer covering "Beat It," which is just totally weird.

A lot of this stuff has, in my experience, been replaced by the internet in America. This is one of those cultural differences, or just might be a part of my culture. If you want a long rant on these matters, such as why internet killed the [music] video star, hit me up. I won't wax philosophic on it now, it's just a waste of space. And time.

Cause, come on, we've only got four minutes to save the world.

Mongolian nature. Wow.

COLD WATER! And the survivors- haha.

Melissa, Tim, Allison, Emily, Yelena, Evan. Nice legs? Yikes. Getting ready to cross a river over the weekend.

Ten Days in Five Parts, Molly

Introduction:

I have a lot to say about our time in the countryside. It was one of those experiences that changes a person--much like this whole trip. I have lots of ideas rolling around in my head, but my mom said she was going to check the blog, so I felt the need to write something. Therefore, I offer you a silly story, a serious story, and two poems.

Part Two, a Silly Story,

After wearing hiking boots for several days, my shoes weren't smelling so great. I decided I'd give them a break and wear my flipflops. It was sunny, we'd be in the van most of the day, it'd be fun. Then it started to rain. Then we were lost in the rain. Then we came to a muddy hill we needed to conquer in order to get unlost. Our van, a beautiful whale of a creature named "Grace," could not climb this hill alone. So we pushed. Well, my hiking boots, disgusting monsters they'd become, were packed up in my bag, hidden somewhere in the massive piles of luggage. I pushed in the flipflops. They didn't work so well and my feet kept sliding out, so eventually I gave up. Not pushing, mind you, just with the flipflops. I left them in the mud behind the van. We get to the top, leave the van, go down, push up the other van (there were two), and the process is about the same. My legs are pretty much mud. I look like a rejected incarnation of the Swamp thing. My clothing is splatted from the van wheels pelting me with mud because I was the genius who decided to stand behind them. I have a flower in my hair ("chichikeen tinger tsetseg"--little blue flower) that has been devolved back to "mud." But I smiled, pleased with myself for helping to push not one, but two vans up a steep, muddy hill in my bare feet.

We all piled back into the vans, went about twenty feet, and then were told "Oops, wrong way!" We drove back down the hill and I explained irony to the girls. (The trip was twenty Mongolian girls--coincidentally the junior psych class at MYIC is all girls, four drivers, three professors, and Michael and me. More details later.)

Part Three, A Serious Story

This isn't as much a story as a paragraph. Most nights it was cold and raining. One night it was just cold. We were on top of a mountain. We set up camp in the dark. We were tired, miserable, and wanted to sleep. I take a moment to wander off on my own to brush my teeth, with plans to trundle myself back to the tent to curl up and sleep. Tired. Hungry. Then I look up. Big mistake.

I have never seen a bigger, clearer sky in my life. There were so many stars I couldn't pick out my favorite constellation. I fought with my memory to name the stars, but the handful I had grown up with were washed out by all the rest. I'd look for one, my eyes would focus, and then I would see a hundred more.

I saw the Milky Way.

The sky never turned black, but instead was the blue of Superman's hair in the old comics. The darkest blue I've ever seen. There were glowing clouds across the sky, like someone spilled silver paint and smudged it in attempts to clean it off. Constellations got lost below the horizon line. I've never seen so many stars at once.

All the cliches about the night sky are true. I guess that's how they become cliches. It was one of those things so amazing, to quote Miss Anna Quider, that if you keep it to yourself you're going to explode because it's too big to stuff inside of yourself. I got my Japanese-savvy Mongolian friend and we told each other stories, in Japanese spotted with broken English and Mongolian, about the stars. She told me about the Seven Gods, the fixed star, horses that ran across space. I told her about the Great Bear, Cassiopeia, the Seven Sisters, and American slaves.

Parts Four and Five, Poems

The two most important things I had with me on this trip were my stuff sack and my bandana. They were so important I wrote poems about both of them.

Ode to My Stuff Sack

Oh, stuff sack,
Black.
Waterproof.
eating up all of my things,
Holding them inside--
(the best way to carry anything).
Closing your mouth
around
My life, what I need
to Survive.

Bandana
My bandana is red
It can hold:
my hair, water, my bowl and spoon.
It can protect:
my face, my lungs, my eyes.
It can repair:
my ankle, my wrist, my bag.

a few pictures

Hi!
I generally think it is better that I stay off the blog, otherwise it becomes a long list of reasons that Mongolia was better in the "good old days". I just sound old and everyone is bored. I do, however, have a few pictures to contribute....



First: The last time that we saw Amber. This picture is good proof of who she is with. her driver is the man in the hat sitting in the background. Amber is in the red shirt, Taylor in green and Alli in the black t-shirt. The truck? that's what we sent amber off in. Dont worry too much, she got to ride in the cab while all of the Mongolian students crammed in the back.

Second: Group tour of Erdenet mine. You can see the open pit in the background. The students are clustered around a rock with a high copper content.










Third: Alli and Munkhtegsh (a wonderful lady from the foreign studies office at the National University) display 2 of the 4 varieties of choco-pies.






A breif note: PLEASE DO NOT panic if your favorite pitt student is not in these pictures! They were taken over the last weekend while 4 of our class members were on thier own research trips.

Whereabouts

For all of those following our trip with the blog, it may be hard to distinguish where everyone is and what they are doing. Here is a current breakdown of what everyone is up to:

Amber: Went to the countryside for an archaeological dig. She changed locations after being kicked out by locals, and is currently at a new location (near Kharahorin). She will leave separately from the group if they extend the dig, and will return to UB on June 29th. If they finish the dig on schedule she will finish with the group and return around July 6th.

Emily: Yesterday she received a phone call at 9:30am to leave for the countryside at 10:30am! She is with a group led by an ecology professor from the National University of Mongolia, who knows quite a bit about the relationship between tourism and the environment. She is located fairly close to UB, and I think will be gone for about 10 days.

Michael/Molly: Yesterday as we were leaving the apartment from dinner, Molly and Michael returned from the countryside after spending 10 days with students/professors from the psychology department. It seems like they had an extremely positive experience and made some great friends. Look for more stories to come from them! Now they are back in the apartment, and will probably spend there time exploring UB and reviewing the surveys they conducted while they were away.

Tim: Tim's adviser is currently in the country side, so his travel plans are unknown at the moment. Eventually he will meet with a red hat Buddhist monk, so he may have to travel some where in the future with an unknown location and time. Additionally, he met a woman last night that owns a travel company that may help him travel to the Hinti province, where he could see another monastery. Oh yeah, we cut his hair last night- yikes! Haha.

Yelena: Yelena is working frequently on her project with her adviser, Dandi. I don't think there are any travel plans in her future, but her project seems to be going well. However, Dandi is leaving for the countryside soon, so she may find another expert to work with for her project.

Melissa: Melissa is no longer traveling to the country side after being rejected by Germans who were funding the University's field work. (Just not Mongolian enough -haha!) Last weekend we were able to get a tour of Erdenet's Mine, and maybe she will be able to see another one in the future. In the mean time she is working her way around UB making contacts with mining companies, and looking for information for her research.

Evan: Evan also doesn't have any travel plans, but has been devoting some of his time to the preparation for Allison's debate camp. His project is still focused on Japanese aid in Mongolia, which has been interesting to learn about here. They are the biggest donor! They helped establish the bus system here, and are planning to improve the infrastructure further with an airport, roads, and a railway, maybe? Whoa!

Allie (me): I also had plans to go do field work with the University, which were unfortunately cancelled for the same reason as Melissa. While I am in UB I will continue researching projects conducted by various NGO's, mining companies, and other scientific institutions that are testing Mongolia's water quality and quantity. I want to compare and contrast the methods the groups use to test water quality with limited funding and resources and few educated/trained participants. We'll see what I find...


That makes 7 of us in the apartment now, and everyone is healthy and well! Our trip is already half way over. Time is going way too fast, but I guess I predicted this would happen. Still so much to see and do... better get to it.

Rain, rain go away?

In Mongolia most of the year the weather is dry. However, the precipitation that Mongolia receives falls from June to September. Now that the rainy season has begun the air is moist after passing over Asia into the interior of the continent from China's summer monsoons. In Ulaanbaatar, there isn't a sufficient drainage system for this period of intense rain. As a result, the streets and sidewalks flood and make it difficult to get from place to place without getting completely soaked. Mongolian girls still trot around in the heels, but they can't be comfortable. Melissa learned a valuable lesson as to not stand/walk on a side walk that is next to flooded street with passing cars. She got hosed. She was a good sport though, and has reminded us on several occasions to be careful, or we'll end up nice and soggy. The Tuul River that was diverted around the city was full when we got back from Erdenet. It is refreshing to see that the city is not bone dry and dusty, but the rain makes transportation a hassle. We'll make the best of it though, puddle jumping anyone?!

Parliament

For one of our many field trips sponsored by the National University of Mongolia we got to tour the Parliament building, one of the center pieces of Sukhbaatar Square. This year is an election year, so on June 29th, 76 new Parliament members will be elected. Once those are determined, the leader of the party that holds the majority is appointed Prime Minister. The Presidential election is not until next summer, so his position is safe for now. The main parties are the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and the Democratic Party. There are also a large number of smaller parties such as the Green Party (whoo hoo!), the Motherland Party, Nazi Party, and other individuals unaffiliated with a party. Traditionally, the MPRP has held the majority, but this year it is forcasted to be a very tight race. As the date gets closer, more campaign cars roll by and more posters go up.

On our way to see the Parliament building there were a couple of road blocks:

1. Tim, because he is traveling to India after this, needs an Indian visa. To get a visa you need to send your passport away but to get into the Parliament building you also need you passport. Unfortunately, he did not have time to make photocopies before he left either. Despite all this, he did get through the first round of security checks but...

2. Because Parliament is a fancy government building, you need to dress in proper attire to be allowed in. Tim had a dress shirt and tie, but no jacket and cargo khaki pants. This is apparently not permissible. Also, Allie had hurt her ankle and knee while running in the morning, so was wearing her Merrel hiking boots for maximum support. This apparently was not acceptable either. Allies situation was remedied by Allison, who had seen the building before, giving Allie her dress shoes and sacrificing herself. But Tim, who had no alternative clothes had to turn back with Allison. In addition, there was another factor that exacerbated this situation...

3. We are at the height of the rainy season and it was pouring rain. This is good for the drought conditions, but there is no drainage system in UB, which makes huge puddles (really, mini lakes) all throughout the city.

Once we (Melissa, Allie, Yelena, Evan, and Me) finally got in, we started our tour complete with guide and security guard escort. We saw various official looking offices, and people in business suits. There was some cool art depicting the traditional Mongolian lifestyle. We saw Mongolian white horse hair flags built on a foundation made from soil from each of the different ethic groups. We got a group picture in front of the Chinggis Khaan bust and saw the hall full of portraits of past Prime Ministers. Eventually, we entered the hall where Parliament convenes to make all the important decisions.

One of my favorite parts was seeing the large ger located in the middle of the building. This is where all the diplomats and foreign visitors stay when the visit Mongolia. None other than President George W. Bush stayed there when he came to Mongolia in November, 2005.

All in all it was a good trip. It should be excited to find out the outcome of the elections!

Love, Emily

weekend update -- end of last week and erdenet

hey all -- dawn, my sister-in-law had the baby while i was gone this weekend. baby boy, Blake Patrick. just sucks i couldn't be there for it. everything sounds like its going good though :)

so since wednesday we've been pretty busy. thursday night we went to a foreigner pub called Dave's place -- run by some british guys. melissa is doing research on mining companies, and we were told that that bar would be a good place for her to make some contacts because they all go there. every thursday at dave's though is a quiz bowl -- so we entered the trivia game. it can be on anything -- from british pop culture, to rugby, to movies. sadly, my rugby and british culture knowledge is limited so we didnt win (the only question i knew was that hugh grant's famous affair with the prostitute named divine brown.... thank you vh1). we came in 5th out of 8 -- i guess not a bad first showing.

friday night, we went to another club called oasis. we had previously met the woman who's going to be teaching mongolian to students at pitt next spring, her name is Ninj. we invited her to come out with us gave her the option of picking the place, so we ended up at oasis. its run by french people (which means the mongolian police don't like them very much apparently.....) and its got to be 100+ degrees in there. we stayed there for a good three hours or so until it was so hot we couldn't take it anymore. met a few of ninj's friends and other random people, including a guy from canada who has been travelling around asia -- it was a pretty crazy night.

funny sidebar -- mongolians don't sweat as much as americans do though i guess, so the four of us, Emily, Allie, Melissa, and I, were literally drenched by the middle of the night (it was a bit gross). ninj and her friends kept pulling out napkins and wiping the sweat off of us..... so disgusting. we walked home so we could dry off before the night.

saturday we woke up REALLY early to head out to erdenet. it was rainy and cold but there was a paved road to the Amerbarcalon monastery for 90% of the time..... that other 10% was quite an adventure though. we got stuck in the mud at least 4 times -- so after pushing the van a lot and fording a river on foot (yes that was an oregon trial reference) we made it to our ger camp.

the monastery was within walking distance of the campsite so we went right over. it was impressive, even after being at quite a few monasteries. this one was a bit more interesting though because they've broken away from mainstream tibetan buddhism because of a falling out with the dalai lama. he didn't approve of their main deity that they worship. we tried to get more info out of the monk showing us around -- but he wouldnt break and tell us more. munkhteej, who was interpreting for us, said that we need more training as a buddhist before we could be trusted with such "confidential" info. Amerbarcalon was so impressive -- maybe because there were less tourists around, or maybe because we saw it at dusk, but it had a more authentically mystic aura around it.

so the next morning we went to the mining site closer to erdenet city. it was impressive how big the mining site was -- although basically is was environmental carnage. i mean, i don't necessarily consider myself a tree-hugging "go green" all about the environment kind of person... but he outright told us that the company dumps all their detergent and quartz dust waste into the nearby lake. he also explained to us how the site used to be a huge mountain that they decimated into a huge valley. i dunno, obviously environmental ethics aren't that important to miners....

the actual mine itself was creepy. seriously -- i have never seen so many different ways to be injured or killed in that condensed of an area. huge machines, narrow staircases, boiling metallic liquids are just some of the noteworthy ones... i also felt like i was breathing in cancer as i was walking through the site. but oh well, made me pretty glad i hadn't decided to transfer to the engineering school when i was thinking about it my sophomore year.

we had lunch in a korean restaurant which was AMAZING. i thought i had lost any hope of liking korean food after my last experience but this completely renewed a love for it. then we started on a long journey back to UB and didn't get back til late at night. another awesome weekend in the countryside

trip to hahoorn

so i realize its wednesday and no one has talked about our weekend in hahoorn yet (spelling might be a bit off -- thats my best attempt)

we stayed at another ger camp. quick summary -- countryside = amazingly beautiful; van ride getting to the countryside = long and uncomfortable. about 2 miles out of UB, the road just stops. from that point on, you're driving across very bumpy, natural terrain. they're currently making roads around the countryside -- so the terrible thing is that you can see an actual road as you're driving along, but they won't allow you on it. so the ride basically felt like a roller coaster -- with a few stops when the tire went flat, or we got stuck in wet sand, or there were sandstorms. it was good for some laughs on the way there -- the way home was just painful. surprisingly enough, no one got car sick -- we must have stomachs of steel.

we get to the ger camp and there's just sand dunes everywhere in the middle of a grassy plain -- which is apparently an ecological phenomenon. we went hiking around on them and jumped down a few sand dunes (or pushed each other down them). then we went to a nearby lake to look around. then there was a torrential downpour. michael broke the door to our ger. we played cards with zula and solongo (two women from the mongolian international studies dept). also met some creepy russians. all in all it was an interesting night.

we wake up and go to the nearby monastery -- i thought it was fascinating, though apparently everyone else is slightly monasteried-out at this point. i guess they're experiencing a bit of tibetan buddhist overkill, but the place was pretty amazing. they charged $5 to take pictures, but i shadily took a bunch of pictures anyway when people weren't looking.

we left the monastery and went back to the ger camp to eat before we braved the neverending journey through a sandstorm back to UB. we didnt get back til pretty late, so everyone pretty much just crashed when we got back to the apartment.

regardless -- going to the countryside is completely worth the pain and suffering you have to endure to get there.

From Airag to buuZ (by Yelena & Evan)

On our myriad travels through the wild forests and deserted deserts of the magnificent Mongolian landscape, Evan and Yelena have duly noted some of the more delicious traditional foods. Toward the enlightenment of inquiring minds everywhere, we hereby post a few recipes to tickle your imagination and tantalize your palate! Ahem.


Airag (fermented mare's milk)

milk
yeast

First, find yourself a horse. Then, milk it; careful not to anger it. This is important as a kick to the mouth from a disgruntled horse can inhibit enjoyment of this famous Mongolian delicacy. Put the milk in a container and add yeast. Wait a few months. Enjoy!

Karakorum is world-renowned as the Airag capital of the world. Mongolians journey across the country for the chance to imbibe this alcoholic beverage. There are stories of locals subsisting on nothing but Airag for months at a time. Kids, do not try this at home. Seriously.


Yummy Potato Salad

potatoes
cucumbers
tomatoes
peas
yogurt/sour cream
onion
sliced meat

Dice or cube everything into small bits, then combine. Serve cold.


Milky Rice (Sootay Bodaa)

rice
milk
butter
sugar

Boil rice in milk (if whole milk, then thin it by adding water). Add butter to prevent sticking and enhance flavor. Sweeten to taste. Serve hot.

Optional: cook with raisins (until soft). Might also benefit from sliced apple and cinnamon! Mmm.

Personal note: This is one of my favorite foods of all time. It is simple and tasty!

Rice is sometimes served with raisins and no milk. This is all very well, but I prefer the milky rice, of which milk is an essential component. It contributes sweetness and warmth to the meal.


Boortsog

sugar
oil
soda
1 liter water

Add flour; cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Then knead, roll, and cut into tablespoon-sized pieces. Fry in oil. When warm, these are delicious with sugar; they also store well despite getting stale.


Milk Tea (Sootay Tse)

milk
water
tea (leaf or block)
salt

Boil milk and water. Break off a piece of tea from a block and pound it until it comes apart. Then add to the water and steep. Add salt to taste. Strain and serve hot.




Tsoivang

flour
water
oil
sliced meat (mutton)
sliced carrots
sliced onion
sliced potatoes

Combine flour and water to make dough. Roll and flatten into thin circles; cook briefly until dried. Cut into thin noodles (1/4 inch or so). Those for whom authenticity is not a priority can save a lot of time by buying prepackaged noodles.

Cook all ingredients in water. Depending on whether soup or pasta is intended, add more or less water. This makes a phenomenal dinner after a cold day outside. Serve hot! Yum!

Khosher (hooshoor)

flour
water
meat
oil
(carrots
onions
cucumbers
tomatoes
garlic)

Mix flour and water to make dough, then knead until soft. Cut into tablespoon-sized pieces and flatten. Fill with meat (ground beef works well) and/or vegetables. Pinch the edges of the dough together to make a flat dumpling (approximately the size of the palm of your hand).

Fry in oil. Serve hot. This is a traditional Mongolian food and is often found in fast-food restaurants. Beware, as hosher are tasty but rich; don't eat too many at once!

These would probably be good with sour cream or ketchup.


Buuz (Bohts)

flour
water
meat

This Mongolian favorite is similar to khosher, but usually smaller in size, similar to the dumplings that you get at that Chinese restaurant, you know the one. Unlike khosher, it is steamed instead of fried, but is no less delicious.

On a related note, the Mongolian national fast food chain mentioned earlier is named "Khan Buuz," a name which does -not- derive from "Burger King," really, I don't know why you would think that ;) . Never mind the suspicious-looking crown emblem.


Restaurants

Ulaanbaatar has an extensive variety of restaurants, bars, and cafes. Many of these serve Mongolian food, but a substantial number serve foreign food. Evan and I have been to several cafes, a Ukrainian restaurant, several Korean restaurants, a Russian cafeteria, and an Irish pub. Most of the food is reasonably priced (and less expensive than similar food in the US). Sometimes the restaurants will serve free tea, the way that American restaurants bring water to the table without charge. Other times, we have to order drinks separately. I am particularly fond of tea, water, and orange Fanta. We also cook a lot of food in our apartment.

The authentic Mongolian food that we have had here suprised me in being destinctly un-Chinese, often having more in common with a Russian style. Much of this food is easily made from scratch, and can be prepared in under an hour, making it especially useful for our busy American schedules back at home. The emphasis on meats, carbs, and dairy is especially in-tune with typical American cuisine.

Much luck in the kitchen!
From Yelena and Evan

And then there were six...

As classes are winding down, our apartment is getting quieter. Today Molly and Micheal left for the countryside with the University's Psychology department. They will be gone for at least two weeks in order to conduct their surveys. Tomorrow, I will be heading out with the Anthropology department! I finally get to start digging! The exciting news is I'll be going with a group of Mongolian students and will have ample opportunity to improve my language skills. I got some bad new from home this morning, so this may end up being a long twenty days of personal reflection. Hopefully, I will be kept occupied and busy for a while.
The apartment will soon be missing a few others as everyone is venturing out to other regions of Mongolia. Allie and Melissa will be heading out to do some biology field work, testing rivers by using plants and animals indicators to test water quality. Emily will be starting her Ecotourism research when she goes to the countryside. Evan and Tim will be heading out of UB soon too! Almost all of us are planning trip out of the city. Just Pitt's effort to off set this problem of urban migration to UB!!

Our ger camp from this past weekend. Check out the rain in the background. Thanks for checking out my pictures-- I have to go to class now, but stay posted and interested. Love, Allie

The vistas are beautiful, but the van rides are still long to get anywhere.

Our group has fun. Everyone is laughing here.

Our ger camp in Terelj... the rocks behind provided hours of entertainment.

Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels.

Amber, Emily, Allie. Buddies in Terelj... check out the dirt on our faces (particularly mine- opps).

WHOA!

My favorite Mongolian food: Tsoyvan!

SANDSTORM! Hurry, close the window!

Erden zuu

Another storm! Dramatic weather.

After the storm.

Mongolian sunset.

Allie and Zula!

Molly, Michael, Amber, Tim, Melissa, Emily having fun on the sand dune over the weekend.

Trip to Terelj! Beautiful scenary from the temple.

Advisers... finally!

The long anticipated advisor reception has finally happened! Almost all of us (sorry Amber) met our independent research advisers. The event was very high class. It was held at the Indian restaurant in the Puma Imperial Hotel. There were many highlights of the evening. The food was quite yummy, but I think the group favorite was the huge amounts of delicious leftovers we got to take back to our apartment! So far instead of buying food for breakfast and lunch, we have been able to raid the seemingly endless containers of chicken curry, rice, and nan.

On the business end, I think there was a collective sigh of relief that we have met our advisers and have a little better idea about how plausible some of our project ideas are. Some people will be leaving for the county side, for digs and survey work, with in the next couple of days... i think. You never seem to know plans here more that a couple days or even hours ahead of time. Form what I've heard, most of the advisers speak English fairly well. My advisor studied in New Zealand for 3 years and speaks nearly perfect English. On the other hand there are a couple, like Evans advisor, who speak next to no English. At least in that case, they both kinda speak Japanese!

Right now we are in the thick of classes, busy memorizing Mongolian vocab and grammar, attending lectures on history, politics, biology (yay!), and economics, visiting every museum in UB, and spending the weekends in the countryside. This schedule keeps us pretty, the way I like things, busy. However, the advisor reception definitely made me, and I think everyone else as well, excited to start independent projects!

For now it's back to the flashcards!
Love, Emily

Maintenance

I thought I would share a few of the day-to-day occurrence's that go on in our deluxe salmon-colored apartment called "The City Apartment."

Boiling Water- We decided it was too much of a hassle to buy a bottle of water from the store every time we want to drink it or brush our teeth, so we set up a huge process every other day. First we boil the water, cool it, and distribute it into used coca-cola (not Pepsi :)), aloe, and orange juice bottles. Needless to say, we will be more than thankful for a faucet when we get back to the US.

Washing clothes- Without a washing machine, washing clothes is a continuous chore- you can never catch up on it (especially since we have so few articles of clothing). We have to soak our clothes in a basin, scrub with Dr. Bronner's, wait for the water to turn brown from all the dust and dirt, scrub some more, rinse thoroughly, and find a location to let it air dry. With nine people doing laundry the pickin's are slim for a spot next to a window, so you can find a piece of clothing tucked in every nook and cranny.

Line of Shoes- Upon entering our humble abode we have a rule: you MUST take off your shoes before trekking dust, dirt, and miscellaneous city street particles through the rest of the apartment. Now, let's do the math. There are 20 pairs of shoes in the line. 9 people= that's about 2 shoes per person, right? Well, I account for 5. Oops. They all seem necessary, but I guess if everyone else is getting by with two I should cut back. Nah.

Cooking- Dinner time! We have successfully been able to share groceries and cook for the whole crew in a peaceful manner. No one is emaciated or underfed, by any means. It's become apparent that we have some naturally born cooks in the group! On the other hand, we have discovered some naturally born dishwashers. Amber has been revoked of her cooking rights, but she can still boil water and chop a potato, but that's the extent.

Water, Us, or Yc, Molly

Water is, in Mongolian, written like "yc" and pronounced "us," if there was an umlaut over the u. "Oos" might be a better interpretation. If you're concerned, pleace check with the linguist from below. Mongolia, according to Allison (a legitimate scientific resource), is running out of water. There's a projected date by which the country will be dry and that date isn't too far off. It's said that we (they) are currently in a period of drought; however, I always thought that droughts were supposed to end. The "rainy season," something that had been described to me as having been "two weeks of torrential downpour" is, I am told, sporadic at best and can last as little as a few days. (This is my spotty memory here, not actual facts.)

Pennsylvania, dear land of my heart, is much more wet than this. Back in high school it rained every Thursday. Totally serious. I made a chart. In Pittsburgh they say there are more rainy days than sunny days a year. I think this is positively wonderful

When it's too dry, I feel like I am going to dry up into dust. There is something intrinsically right in being submerged in water or caught in a heavy rain. I have this theory that everyone imprints on a kind of non-urban terrain--the place where they would be without civilization to shield them, the place where they feel natural. Mine involves trees, so much green your eyes hurt, and vast oceans of water. So, pretty much New England.

Mongolia is very dry. Here, my water addiction, a silent force driving and destroying my life, becomes obvious. I need to drink it, to bathe in it, to breathe it in to feel whole and alive. I search water out, stalking across the land like a lone, uhh, stalker looking for water, if just to look at it. We use water to wash our clothes in the bathtub, filling up basin after basin. We boil it, store it in the fridge, and consume it later. We fill our nalgenes with boiling water and night and wrap our bodies around them to stay warm. I eye the rivers and lakes, judging whether or not I can swim in them, how safe it is, and if I'll let myself risk the dirtiness of it.

When it rains I stand outside as though I can soak it up and hold it all inside of me.

I think I notice here a lot more how much we use water and how we need it. Every day we take turns boiling water. We fill up our electric kettle and then empty it into large bowls where it cools. We put it back in old juice containers and use it later to drink.

We didn't have hot water for a while there. When this happened we'd take turns boiling water and filling our laundry basin with it, washing our hair and bodies in these strange, careful ways. It took me times to get used to it, but I never really felt clean until the day I first tried dumping it over my head to rinse off. I think it's the psychological sensation of being doused in water that makes me feel clean.

Water is still my favorite thing to drink, it always has been. Ask my parents, I always preferred water. I never liked soda, still don't--the bubbles tickle too much. Water is pretty great. I'm going to go let my stomach appreciate some right now.

Fun Linguistic Tidbits

Being a linguistics major, I enjoy language-related phenomena. Seems pretty straightforward. I have included some notes for the curious. (Because the phonetic/Cyrillic symbols might get garbled, I've used English letters whenever possible.)

Modern Mongolian, as written in Outer Mongolia (where we are staying), uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Under Soviet influence, Mongolia hastily switched from the Semitic-based Classical Mongolian script to Cyrillic. (See Wikipedia's awesome article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_language for more information about writing systems and the structure of the language.) Mongolian is a Turkic-Altaic language, distantly related to Turkish.

Mongolian has seven vowels. Four of these correspond to [a] as in "car," [e] as in "egg" (but slightly higher - somewhat like "is"), [i] as in "team," and [u] as in "boot." The others are a high back unrounded vowel, a mid-low back rounded one (as in "aww"), and a high back rounded vowel something like the "u" in "put." The last two are spelled with a plain O and an O with a line through it, respectively. All vowels come in short and long versions. Mongolian has vowel harmony, which means that the vowels in each word will tend to be similar to each other. There are two categories of vowels, masculine and feminine. The "masculine" vowels are produced low and back in the mouth, and the "feminine" ones tend to be high and fronted.

Basically, there are two vowels for U where English has only one, and there are also two for O. Many people learning Mongolian, regardless of their native language, have trouble telling these four vowels apart. In our conversation classes at the National University, our teachers patiently repeat the difference between "yyl" and "YYl." We hear the difference when they say it, but it's very difficult for us to distinguish vowel sounds that don't exist in English.

Diphthongs are written with the vowel plus a short [i]. The diphthongs are usually pronounced as a single vowel that's been raised - A is pronounced [a], but A plus short [i] is pronounced like the "a" in "can" (in casual speech).

Consonants are a little easier. Mongolian has many sounds that are similar to English. It also has the [x] of German [lachen]. The Cyrillic alphabet has many specific spelling rules, some of which are completely arbitrary and exist only because the Soviets wanted the Mongolian language to include every single Cyrillic letter. An interesting difference between Russian and Mongolian pronunciations of Cyrillic is that Mongolian sometimes has affricates where Russian has fricatives. For example, the letter Ж is pronounced in Russian as the "ge" in "beige," and in Mongolian as if it has a D in front of it ("bridge"). The letter З is pronounced as [z] in Russian but [dz] in Mongolian. Fun!

The sounds [w,v] are often interchangeable in Mongolian. Words that are spelled with the V sound are often pronounced with W. This is a bit frustrating for English speakers because we have a phonemic contrast between the two sounds (meaning that the words "wet" and "vet" mean different things).

Interesting gaps include a lack of the P sound and the G/K sound that we have in English. For the latter, Mongolian has a uvular stop rather than a velar one, meaning that it's produced farther back in the mouth. This is the same sound that's often written "q" in transcriptions from Arabic. Mongolian has [f] only in foreign loanwords. Native speakers of Mongolian will often pronounce "Pittsburgh" as [fitsburg] because the sound P doesn't exist.

Sweet! More will come soon. Please comment on this post if you have any particular interest in the Mongolian language or linguistics in general, and I'll try to answer the questions. (A quick caveat: I am a student, not an expert! However, I will do my best to be knowledgeable.)

Being Smacked in the Face with Reality, Molly

In the past twenty-four hours I've realized two things

1) There is a meal of champions that can be eaten any time of the day.
2) I am in Mongolia.

Now, to explain.

1) Mongolia is a haven for people with particular unique dietary tastes. It's a positive paradise for fans of novelty food, flavored drinks, ice cream, meat, and bread. I only have interest in the first three (as you can probably tell.)

Okay, I also like bread.

So, in short, I like the food here, except for the meat--I'm working on eating it. In order to ensure I wouldn't keel over and die the first time I ate meat to be polite (having beena vegatarian since 4th grade--I just finished 16th, you do the math), my darling Soviet friends put me on a training regime of dead-animal-products.

But that's neither here nor there.

During today's lunch break I played the fool at a meeting with one of the most amazing women I've met in Mongolia (Hongorzul), the head of the psychology department (I think), and two psychology doctoral candidates who will be advising my project. This was all mediated by Allison. My presence mostly consisted of me being quiet, occasionally doing or saying something, and then everyone else giggling at me. Affectionately, I tell myself. Afterwards, without enough time for a real meal, I debated food and then came upon the Meal of Champions: Goe (there's an umlaut over the 'e' and it rhymes with 'boy') and supercontik.

Goe (imagine the umlaut for me) is one of the many "fruit drinks" available in Mongolia. These drinks are positively amazing. 'Goe' is one of the multipurpose Mongolian words that functions quite like "bella" does in Italian, if you happen to know the language. Goe can mean beautiful, great, wonderful, pretty, and just about any other positive word you can think of.

Supercontik is one of the novelty foods Allison was smart enough to introduce us to. Now, may I digress--if this whole thing isn't me digressing--for a moment and explain novelty foods here.

When I said Mongolia is a haven for novelty food enthusiasts, I wasn't joking. They get junk from China, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Russia. I'm sure other places as well, but I don't care about them right now. Most delicious things somehow combine pastry, chocolate, and occasionally "fruit flavored substance." There are wafers. There are varieties of thin, unsweetend crackers that are lightly complimented with equally thin layers or coatings of chocolate. There are lighty, puffy pastries filled with cream. Earlier, we had a trip to Naran Tuul and found these eclaires, fifty cents and big enough to constitute a meal.

Junk food here rocks.

My absolute favorite thing so far has been supercontiks. Imagine a droxie--that's a bootleg oreo for the uninitiated--but make it a size that fits comfortably in your palm (unless you have very small hands, then it's bigger than your palm.) Now, you can get these filled with chocolate, hazelnut, or vanilla. Then take the whole thing and dip it in dark chocolate, package it with between one and three more just like it, and writer 'Supercontik' on it in large, friendly letters.

Allison made a reasonable point when introducing these to us: They're not really that good. They -sound- good, but they're of a mediocre quality, all in all. However, they're everywhere. Little old women sell them on street corners. When you're hungry and have between 200 and 400 tugrok to blow on food, they're prefect because they're right there. After a while you get used to them and begin to love them. They become a comfort food just like kraft mac-n-cheese or ramen.

This is an amazing combination. It has enough sugar to keep you going untill you crash in a useless heap after spending close to an hour deep frying potatoes and garlic over an electric stove.

2) I'm in Mongolia.

This seems like a fairly obvious, and fairly stupid, thing to say. If you, dear reader, do not happen to know me as intimately as some of our other dear readers do (so if, for example, you're Michael's mom as opposed to my mom--I think only our moms read this), then here's a useful fact: I am a total flake.

Seriously! I am a huge, huge flake. Once I twisted my ankle and the general response to it was "Were you looking in the sky and daydreaming or at your feet and daydreaming?" (That time was thwe sky, which is why I twisted my ankle and fell rather than ran into something painful.) I don't notice much in the world around me and fail to feel the import of situations.

I've never been particularly profoundly affected by travel. I enjoy traveling, I like how it feels, but I've never really had the sensation of being some new and amazing. Sure, I like architecture and doing cool stuff, and occasionally I recognize that I'm not where I've grown up, but the feeling fades quickely. I recently had one of those "Wow, I'm so not anywhere I know."

I needed to get some passport photos taken. I found a place, walked in, stood in line, stood in line, and stood in line. Eventually, after having far too many people show up, say five words to the guy behind the counter, and move in front of everyone else, much to the chagrin and annoyance of other people in line, it was my turn. Then someone showed up.

Oh no, I was raised in Philadelphia! I can be just as obnoxious as anyone else. I said in my best Mongolian "Uchlare," which means "excuse me" or "I'm sorry," not sure which. The guy, who looked something like the star from an 80's cop drama in a track suit, turned to me, smiled, and said something I didn't understand in Mongolian. In response to my blank, deer-in-the-headlight's expression he pointed to himself and held up one finger then me and held up two. I shook my head, pointed to him, held up two fingers, and then myself with one. He smiled and nodded.

I like to pretend I won here, but am now expecting an admonishing text-message from Allison. (P.S. My phone number here is in my facebook profile. Skype-call me!)

The man behind the counter said something in Mongolian and my American tourist expression returned. He pointed to his digital camera card reader and then the picture options. I didn't see what I wanted so I mumbled something that I hope was "passport photo, please" in Mongolian. Something worked because I got four of them.

The 80's-Cop made small talk with me, as did the rest of the crowd there, commented on my picture, complemented me on my moonlight-tan skin, and giggled whenever I tried to say something about myself in broken Mongolian. (These expressions were limited to "I am a student at the National University" and "I'm an American" and "My mother is forty-two," mostly because I don't remember how old she is right now and we said she was forty-two for more than a year.)

I left, successful, clutching my pictures. I was proud enough of my accomplishment that it probably was sinful in some religion. I decided I would reward myself with a supercontik. Then I realized that in this situation normally I would call Josh, one of the three people I call "best friend in the world." I also call him "Short-pants." Feel free to laugh if you ever meet him. However, because I am in Mongolia and it is super-long distance I could not call Josh. Defeated at this, my pride dissapeared and I, once again, realized that I am in Mongolia, not "Pittsburgh without rain."