13 June 2011

I woke up at 7:30 after setting about 8 alarms, starting at 5:50.  It was so hard to get up.  I didn’t go to sleep until 1am last night, trying to clean up people’s rooms [YES THEY WERE THAT BAD].   I also felt the need to salvage people’s vodka and peanut butter.  This is what my room looked like before I went to sleep:

Anyways. I had wanted to get up early to finish packing.  Ulzii Akh called me and came to pick me up at 9:30. We went to the immigration office (by the airport). Ulzii Akh described it as “a prison.”  It took a long time to get there and then it was a lot of lines and running around to different people.  At one point I got a ticket saying “there are 69 people in front of you”… But a lady from California let me cut her.  I can’t remember why.  

The entire fiasco was a result of me asking for the wrong day for an exit visa? I said I’d be leaving on the 13th when we were asked sometime in May. But then I decided to stay in Mongolia until the 25th.  …  I had to borrow Ulzii Akh’s phone card to ask my parents to buy a ticket for me for that day?  So weird, I can’t remember why it came to that. I had to pay him back 3000 tugrik later. 

It was super painful driving back to the hostel. We drove the same way we did on the day I arrived.  I was near tears comparing winter/summer, coming/going… 

9:39pm

I am sitting alone in the hostel room…  thinking about what Bethany/Bianca said about how amazing it is to always have someone to come to.  I can’t remember the last time I was this alone.  … Will I miss people when I get back to America? Because I won’t be in Mongolia so it won’t be like that place is lacking them, you know?  We’ll see. 

I kindof wish I was still in the Anuujin.  I guess there it felt like there were ghosts to comfort me. Here (at least right now) there is no one and nothing. :/ 

Thank god I’m living in the same area as Sam though.  He seems really cool, and I’m glad I am here with a potential friend. 

11pm

Esther just got back.  She’s friendly enough, but I really really miss sharing a room with 8 other people that know me extremely well and who I don’t have to be formal with.  :(  I wish I could put into words how awful and traumatic this feels. 

I don’t want to go back to America and have my memories of my time here be just a souvenir.  So much reentry stuff that we were given says to be prepared for people to not give a shit :/  

My arms look ridiculous, all the capillaries in my forearms burst from playing volleyball with Caroline at the farewell dinner. 

11:46pm

Sam just got back, he was out having a drink with a professor.  We had a nice chat.  Seriously, thank god he is here. 

Although him and Esther are playing the mouth harp right now and I keep thinking it’s Nathan because he used to play that all the time in the apartment. 

12 June 2011

Everyone left today. :( 

I had breakfast with Emily and Bethany in the…breakfast room. We sat at a table by the window.  Emily said she wasn’t sad about leaving because it’s not like people will still be here and she’ll be missing something?  I guess that makes sense. 

Some people joined us after a while but I cannot remember who?  I think Nick at least, because we must have made plans to get tattoos. …

In the afternoon Bethany, Laura, Nick, and I went to Cafe Amsterdam. Then I went with Bethany and Nick to get tattoos. 

We went to the Matrix but had to wait for the guy to show up.  We sat in the salon reading magazines for a while, then went to get food at…a place. 

Nick got an outline of the state of Michigan on his side.  Bethany got a feather on her shoulder blade. 

We got a beer afterwards (or while waiting?) at the orange leafy table cloth place.  We talked about what it meant to “twiddle” one’s thumbs. There’s a video of it haha. [I maintain that twiddling one thumbs is just a metaphor for being idle/fidgeting, so really anything you do with your thumbs while bored is “twiddling.”] Nick said it was a mistake to get beers but Bethany and I were both like “noooooo don’t use this word ‘mistake’…”

Yeah.  We walked back home and stopped in some electronics places bc Nick needed headphones.  When he couldn’t find any though I said he could just have mine, I had more time to find some later and I knew it would suck for him to be traveling for 24 hours without them. 

blah blah. 

We all hung out at the Anuujin for a bit. 

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Kayla sang some songs. “Angel of Montgomery” and that one song that’s like “give me one reason to stay here and I’ll turn right back around”  :( 

I spent quite some time just kicking the volleyball up and down the hallway. 

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Caroline and Kayla came by to say goodbyes too.  Them and Laura and I were staying in Mongolia for a while longer. 

Ulzii Bagsch and Ulzii Akh and Baatar Akh came to drive people to the airport at 8:30pm.  It has just started raining. For like the second time since we got here. Very auspicious.  It was SO HARD.  I remember giving Tyler a hug and Emily a hug and Nick a hug and Walter a hug and Nathan a handshake, saying I would see them all in the States for sure, and I had my arm around Bethany and we were both sobbing the rest of the time.  And then they all boarded their cars and Nick put his arm around me and gave me a kiss on the forehead.  And then they left.  And then one car came back because Bethany forgot her laptop.  And then they drove away again, Bethany screaming “I love you Coty” out the window. 

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Ulzii Bagsch stayed and helped me book another night at the hotel. 

Laura, Kayla, and Caroline left to stay with their UB host families. 

I stayed at the Anuujin and I cleaned up the huge mess that everybody left.  Walter had forgotten a chopstick that I returned to him at Amherst in September. etc.  It felt so weird to be walking around those rooms by myself. I felt like a ghost, like I left with everybody else and only a wisp of me remained. :(  Everyone left a ton of vodka though, so. Actually that probably only made things worse. :/ 

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:

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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:

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Other pics from that evening:

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(favorite pic of Bethany/Nick):

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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:

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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

My first ever sip of whiskey:

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

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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:

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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….

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

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[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.  

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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. 

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Nathan gave Emily a ride back to the van:

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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:

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We talked about it: 

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

Favorite picture:

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Took one last group picture:

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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.

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