Looks like we made it...

OK, OK… lets get the preliminaries out of the way. We arrived safely and on time in Cali, only minus a few bags. We got those Tuesday, so overall, it was a successful trip. A guy was waiting for each of us, identified by a sign with our name on it (we had separate flights due to my circuitous frequent flyer ticket). I’ve never had the guy waiting with the sign with my name on it before. I always thought I’d feel more important. I didn’t.

When I got to the hotel, Jessica was already there. You can see our temporary digs below (Jessica has an obsession with showing you foreign bathrooms; luckily for you, unoccupied). The hotel is fine, and is in a great part of town. My cooking is suffering, given the fisher price cookset I have, but I will remedy that.

Cali has a lot of palm trees and foliage, and couldn’t be less like Mongolia. It rained for two hours yesterday. I am pretty sure that is longer than the sum of all rain activity over the year and a half we were there.

Jess has a good feeling about her job. She got a warm welcome, and the school appears very organized, well-established, and well-supplied. As we speak (or as I speak, I guess) she is teaching her first class. I, on the other hand, have no job, no prospects, and no way to ask about it much (porque mi espanol es muy menor). I am enjoying strolling about during the day, doing some grocery and supply shopping, tracking down various things, and making an ass of myself while I attempt to speak Spanish.

Case in point, when people come up to me to panhandle (it appears that there are a number of homeless in the city), they often begin with a long explanation in Spanish telling why they need money (I assume). Because everyone here speaks Spanish, this is perfectly reasonable. I however, have difficulty understanding when people talk quickly, and string a lot of sentences together. For my first few days here, my stock response was “thank you… no,” instead of the “I’m sorry… no” that I had planned. This drew strange expressions from the panhandlers as they struggled to understand what I was thanking them for.

In any event, I’m sure we’ll have many stories to tell about my fumblings and bumblings in Spanish. For now, let me give you some of my quick thoughts about our new surroundings (please take them with a grain of salt, as we have only just arrived):

1. Spandex is popular among the women here, for both tops and bottoms. Tube tops are especially popular.

2. We arrived on a holiday weekend, and the city seemed calm. Now that I have seen a typical day, I can see that this is a vibrant city. Music pushes in at you from multiple directions. People flow through streets narrowed by street commerce like blood cells. I saw a student march today aimed at keeping education affordable. They chanted and marched in perfect unison, and the strength of their voices was invigorating.

3. Learning Spanish well will be difficult. Walking through the streets, attempting to transact and interact show me that it is much easier to say “I’m going to learn Spanish there” than to actually do it. Luckily, the fact that most of my job opportunities depend on it should keep the fire stoked. I think it is just easier for Jess.

4. We again find ourselves in a valley of mountains, however, unlike Ulaanbaatar, these mountains are steep and green with trees.

5. One of Jessica’s co-workers today told me that they have something like 2,500 fruits here. If we stayed here for a year, we’d have to try 6.8 fruits a day to try them all. On a side note, they do not have the 2,500 varieties of dairy that Mongolia boasts.

We’ll leave you with a few more pictures from our first few days here, and the promise of more to come.

here´s the shower head, electrical wires exposed but the water is hot so who cares?


our hotel room kitchen, nicer than our mongolian apartment kitchen!


a view from our kitchen window of a hill, 3 crosses glow all night, every night.


the bathroom - small, but oh so normal.


a view from the kitchen (no other windows in our room!) during the morning.


City streets on a holiday weekend.


Another city street with Jessica walking ahead, not wanting to stand next to the tourist taking photos.

It's been a great summer!

We leave for Colombia in 2 days. We just wanted to thank everyone who went out of their way to help us out this summer, or took the time to visit once or twice! It was great to see so many people while we were home, and I think everyone has heard enough about Mongolia for a while! :) Here are some photos of the rest of our summer - we've enjoyed all your company, and hope some of you will come visit us in warm and sunny Colombia!

here's clayton opening his birthday present - 12 hand selected specialty beers. I think he liked it!


We got to reunite with our kittens (now manly cats)! But I don't think they remembered us.


We went for an overnight visit to Virginia Beach to spend time with my sister and her family. It was great to see them, and fun to play in the ocean too!


Me with 2 of our nieces, before having a nice dinner on the boardwalk.


Me and my sister Elaine!


Clayt and Paul during the very fun DC monument bike tour, enjoying each other's company.


We went camping for a weekend at a state park in Kentucky with my brother, sister and her family. Here's me and bella hamming it up while playing frisbee.


Here's Clayt, being the ever antagonistic uncle!


Me and Hannah -- it's a rare thing to get this sort of smile on camera from her!


Here's all of us, except Bill (he was taking the picture) - Hannah, Miranda, Clayton, Jessica, Bella, Dawn, and Brian.


And lastly, we went to Annapolis last weekend to visit friends Molleda and Koy. Here we are after a few hours of singing karaoke!


We'll post again once we're settled in Cali. I start work on Tuesday and we need to start apartment hunting right away, and find a place for Clayt to take spanish lessons. So, once things are under way, we'll post with details on everything!

Congratulations Mongolia!

Here is (part of) an article from ESPN describing Mongolia's first ever olympic gold medal!

Mongolia has won its first Olympic gold medal ever with Tuvshinbayar Naidan's victory over Kazakhstan's Askhat Zhitkeyev in men's 100-kilogram judo.

Naidan, who upset defending Olympic champion Keiji Suzuki of Japan in his opening bout, scored a waza ari with just under two minutes remaining, then added on two yuko to seal the victory Thursday in Beijing.
Azerbaijan's Movlud Miraliyev took bronze by scoring a waza ari over Poland's Przemyslaw Matyjaszek. The second bronze went to Henk Grol of the Netherlands, who defeated Georgia's Levan Zhorzholiani.

Naidan, 24, who switched to judo in 2000, used a traditional Mongolian wrestling technique to humble Suzuki in their opening bout, and then trounced Zhitkeyev in the final.

"There are no words that can describe my happiness," Naidan said. "After winning this gold my first thought is to thank my parents, my coach and all the people who have supported me in the past."

While not lacking in skill or technique, the burly Mongolian achieved success largely through his brute strength and determination.

After arrogantly throwing Suzuki off the tatami for ippon and automatic victory, Naidan bullied, barged and bruised his way to the final, where a hapless Zhitkeyev was the victim of three scoring throws.

Mongolia, wedged between Russia and China, has a population of only about 3 million. It is probably best known as the home of 13th century warrior Genghis Khan.

Zhitkeyev's silver gave Kazakhstan its first judo medal, and added to an already impressive haul by central Asian athletes.

"This medal has been a long time coming for my country … And now there it is. I am thrilled and happy," Zhitkeyev said.