how I spent March-June 2011.

20 June 2011

First thing in the morning we all had to move the ger because it was flooded. So I was bare footed and up to my shins in water and was carrying stuff out of the ger to a random spot about 50 feet away. They knew it was gonna flood so they had moved everything to above the floor…

We stuffed everything in uncle’s car and drove to a different spot like 3 minutes away.

There ended up being a guy in a russian van that came by. He helped us move stuff? ….. -_-

Bro and I went out herding for a while. He commandeered my camera and took a bunch of pictures.

I had to sit in an actual Mongolian saddle. It was pretty uncomfortable. I have no fucking idea how male people can sit in this.

Or my butt is just too huge.

The family and I and some visitors went through all the pictures on my camera…. Some pictures of Zaisan and of Ulaanbaatar and things? Mungunmorit, Delgerkhaan… There were definitely some pictures with Jesse though, because everyone recognized him. And they were all like “ooooo Jesse pivo durtai” hahahaha. They asked me how he was and all I could manage to say was that he was good/in Korea.

11 June 2011

farewell dinner.

Nathan and I were kinda the only ones around at the hotel all afternoon… He came over to my room and asked when I was leaving for the farewell dinner and said to let him know, but then he came back to my room like two more times to show me the souvenirs he bought. when we started walking to SIT we ran into Bethany, who was already on the bus we were getting on.

we took this awkward picture at the war memorial thing:

It was me, Bethany, and Nethan for quite some time when we got to school. We talked to Ulzii Bagsch for a while, and met Sam, a former SIT student.

Once mostly everyone arrived, we watched a slideshow, prominently featuring Laura haha. All the students ate at the table like we always used to. I sat between Nick and Kayla. Across from Bethany. In front of the tea.

Khanda and Bolormaa came, an hour late. It was kinda awkward but whatevs.

The dinner was really fun. There was SO MUCH food. It was sortof awkward to be around my UB host family after not having seen them for so long? I ended up just talking to them about all the pictures on this board:

Other pics from that evening:

(favorite pic of Bethany/Nick):

When the dinner was basically over Caroline and I played volleyball in the driveway for a while. Then she went back inside to get her grades or something, and Nathan and I played soccer for a bit. Then Laura came out and we played monkey-in-the-middle.

Pictures of the last time walking away from school, by Sam? or Laura:

Afterward we went to Dubai with Sam.

When we were almost there Kayla called me and I had to give my sweatshirt to Laura and the volleyball to Bat and stop to dig my phone out of my bag. and people stopped with me and I remember being like “sorry! I can walk and talk” and Nathan was like “aww what the heck” because I literally said the other day when I was walking home with him and Jesse that I could not walk and talk…

I look completely deranged in this picture lol.

Nick and Tyler and I started talking about democracies and benevolent dictatorships but Nathan wanted to talk about something else haha. …him Nick Laura Tyler and I (who got there first…) split a bottle of vodka. Yum.

and then we stopped at the minii zakh near the Anuujin and then chilled in the hotel for a bit, and then went to Miracle Bar. Baigal joined us!

Everyone was there except Elisabeth. And we were joined by two of Kayla’s host sisters.

She kept trying to play “matchmaker” so to speak. She put me and Sam together because we were talking earlier about how our birthdays are only a day apart haha.

Jesse tried to teach me how to set my hand on fire.

My first ever sip of whiskey:

Bethany wasn’t drinking because she was taking medication for her injuries.

Then we did karaoke.

We sang the Boxer and idk, some other stuff. Basket Case. Aavaa Zorino (HAHAHA). Piano Man probably. We attempted to sing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” but the version that came on was WRONG and everyone got upset.

Jesse left mid-session because he had to leave for his flight to Korea at like 4am. It was very emotional, he said bye to everyone individually… yeah. We sang “Here Comes the Sun” and then “Hey Jude” and then he left.

I remember having my arm around Nick most of the time? and he gave me a kiss on the forehead and called me “the virgin Mary of the group” hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Sam took this picture when the rest of us decided to back to the hotel:

I love this picture. It reminds me of this one from the beginning of the semester:

~~Except Nick’s hand is in my hand instead of on my head, and Caroline’s arms are around all of me instead of just my arm. ♥~~

Baigal left and was crying, she said she had been closer to our group than any group previously, just because her language skills had improved so much.

…

This night ended with me being so upset at Bethany and Nathan. For different reasons. But just drunkenly upset. I forgot everything by the next morning, I’m never upset at anyone for long, it’s never worth it. Especially not on the last last day.

The end. (Almost literally this time.)

10 June 2011

Bethany and I walked around a little in the morning, exploring.

I remember later Jesse walking with his arm around my shoulders, saying I was the perfect height for this. We were fetching water or something.

We ate leftovers? That can’t be right. But we ate something.

Then Bethany and Kayla washed dishes.

We went to where the Secret History of the Mongols was finished.

And then a little museum thing.

And then left.

We stopped and had a picnic.

burned some poop to keep the bugs away?

Kayla posing.

[Walter where is this picture???]

Then drove back home. I was in the green van with Jesse, Nick, Bethany, Laura, and Nathan. 90% sure.

9 June 2011

horseback riding interspersed with individual meetings…

Everyone (except Bat and Emily) rode horses for a while. it was terrifying. we all left at different times, Nick left right before me and I tried to stay as close to him as possible…. People left to go do their meetings… So it was just me with Liz, Bethany, Walter, and Kayla….

We went to the naturally carbonated place with one of our younger hosts…

~~[He gave us all brochures about it, I’ll scan mine later]~~

then Bethany and I went back for our meetings. … I remember Ulzii Bagsch liked my comments about student led discussions and the ISP but hell if I remember what I actually said.

Later we went to the soum center and to a nearby “lake.”

I rode there with Nathan and Laura and Emily in Tugso’s van. We got to listen to some awesome music. Everyone else rode horses. I brought peanut butter along, don’t ask why.

At the lake we all went swimming, ish. I wrestled with Liz and lost AGAIN. Walter wrestled with our host person. I was in just my underwear and my light blue shirt and for some reason I was okay with this.

Nathan gave Emily a ride back to the van:

I changed into jeans but left my wet tee on. It was alright. Ulzii Bagsch offered to let me borrow a dress of her’s but I was fine just borrowing Nick’s sweater…

Also I had a blister from wearing Laura’s flip flops from a while ago at the apartment, and the one between my toes hurt like a mother and it kept getting sand in it. So I borrowed Laura’s shoes for the rest of the day and she wore my orange flip flips.

I got my hair wet though, while swimming. and surprise surprise, I have curly hair. This entire trip it’s been straight, I’ve made sure it dried straight after every time I washed it, just because it’s easier to take care of that way? It made sense at the time. But everyone was like “holy shit your hair is curly” haha. Oh well.

We went to…a place. There was a lot of bad luck in the soum, a bunch of people committed suicide or something, so the town built this:

We talked about it:

I don’t know what Caroline and I thought was so funny.

Favorite picture:

Took one last group picture:

I wish I had been looking at the camera haha. I can’t remember why Bagana told me to put my elbow on his knee.

We rode back home, Nathan, Emily, Laura, and I took the van while everyone else took horses. …Bethany fell off hers on the way home. … Bat, Laura, and I were sitting in the party ger prepping dinner (peeling potatoes and carrots) and Ulzii Bagsch came in and told us but didn’t say who it was. It was nerve-wracking. Ulzii Akh drove to pick her up and she came back with Nick. I think. Bethany was cut up pretty good but thankfully nothing bad enough to require hospitalization or any advanced medical treatment…

We made ourselves dinner… Ulzii Akh asked us what we wanted to make for this back in Ulaanbaatar and he bought/brought the ingredients.

So we made cheeseburgers and tsoivan. … It ended up being a bit much. I helped Jesse cut the meat for the tsoivan, which was tricky because we were both drinking. It was even trickier to actually eat the cheeseburgers. …. The tsoivan was the way too much part. and it was kinda gross bc Liz and Tyler disagreed on the recipe and something went awry.

… Kayla had way too much to drink haha. I was a bit drunk as well. I remember standing outside with Nathan, Jesse, and Kayla, standing in a square with our arms around each other, discussing a class Nathan once took about humanity and nature and just looking at the stars. I remember Bagana was around for a bit.

We offered Bataar Akh a shot, which he took. Kayla was calling everybody women haha. And apparently slept outside.

8 June 2011

Moved out of the apartment in the morning.

We moved all our bags to the Anuujin storage room. I took a cab there with Emily, Laura, and Jesse.

We left for a retreat at around 9. I was in Ulzii Akh’s car with Kayla, Nathan, and Elisabeth. Bat taught me a…hand game? ha.

We stopped at the Chinggis statue again. This time we went inside. And watched a hilarious video about how it was built. Everyone (everyone) is “mad” that it is owned by a private citizen, that this guy is making money off of what should be a public national historical site. The video was so hilarious but I can’t remember why.

I don’t remember who took this picture for us^^^

I remember standing outside the entrance when we were about to leave and Nick and Elisabeth were having a heated discussion about what alcohol does to blood.

….

We got to the camp and it was so so so beautiful. We had a little pow wow under a tent. And then we set up a ger all by ourselves. We elected to not have any help (at first). We were told that the average Mongolian family could set one up in 45 minutes or less.