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. 

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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. 

Jesse freestylin’: 

I don’t know what Jesse is doing or where he is going with that

(Tyler.)

favorite picture of me/Nick.

25 May 2011(Wednesday)

I felt a bit ill today but then in the evening I had ~5 shots of vodka with Emily and Nathan and I swear to god it cured me.  I was worried too because I thought I was going to have to start a manhunt for antibiotics. but the Mongolian vodka apparently killed all the germs.  Like I seriously had a wicked awful sore throat, my ears hurt, and I was starting to cough up shit…. but by the end of the night I just had a hint of a runny nose and zero signs of illness for the rest of my time in Mongolia. 

ALSO. Jesse came back today! Which was the occasion for the drinking. and Bethany’s sister arrived.  I randomly remember sitting on the bathtub with Laura, talking to Jesse about things…

I had Nick play Weezer’s Blue Album over and over today/forever.  But all of a sudden thinking about “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” made me want to cry. 

Four of us squished into the bed: Bethany, Bianca, Nick, and me. 

Part 1: Burkhantyn Hondii (11 April 2011)

FIELD TRIP DAY.  [part 1: the monastery]

We all met at my ger because it was the closest to our first destination.  So I was the last to be “picked up.”  I did not know this at the time though. So I remember Onruu (driver) pulled up and came into my ger and had some tea, and I’m just sitting there.  And then after a while he makes some sort of indication that I should go outside, my classmates are out there. And I was like “hot damn!” and pretty much ran out of the ger. To find Bethany and Nathan and Nick climbing on my family’s rocks.

Elisabeth and Walter wore their dels:

Group picture that Elisabeth (’s host mom?) requested for some reason:

Everyone decided that my ger was the most beautiful/awesome/rocky place to live.  Scenic and lots of good places to poop.  Walter was jealous I had so many rocks to climb on. … Which made me proud? I don’t know why.  Happy at my luck at least. I wonder if nomads take into account the beauty of the landscape when determining where to live. 

And then we were on our way. 

School(?) across from the monastery.

Ulzii Bagsch tells us about the insane lady that “guards” this monastery.  She is uneducated but speaks fluent Tibetan somehow.

Museum:

“усны нэг өдөр” … roughly “a day in the life of water” … in the style of Mongolia’s most well-known picture (depicting a day in the life of Mongolia). there are countless contemporary variations of it…