The Shanghai Aquarium

Shanghai Streets - Crowded with people and neon lights.

Happy Holidays!

right now we are in shanghai. we are having a great vacation so far! the first few days we both admitted to feelings of anxiety - coming here from mongolia is a little overwhelming - there are endless options for food, shopping, things to do, and there are tons of people everywhere! the typical amount of people walking around (or riding bikes) is equivalent to the crowd you wade through leaving a stadium after a big football game. And its everywhere, all of the time! Surprisingly, despite the fact that there a loads more people here than in Ulaanbaatar, they somehow manage to not to push us, touch us, or ram into us with their shoulders.

we've done a bit of sightseeing, but i have to say our main activity so far has been eating. we've eaten at pizza hut twice, and had something from mcdonalds every day. i've also had sushi twice! We have enjoyed having hot water in the bath whenever we want, and most days have taken 2 showers! The beds are comfy, and the electricity doesn't go out. one of the best things is the weather. we wear jackets, but don't need the longjohns, mittens, scarves and hats.

so here is a list of some of the things we have enjoyed since arriving that we haven't had in over a year:
- a swimming pool
- reading lamps
- riding the subway
- parmasean cheese
- pizza hut
- cheesecake
- potato chips
- oreos
- fish fry
- shopping malls

Photos will come later, probably after we get back home. We are here until Sunday, and then we will take the train up to Beijing. We are excited to see the great wall of china. We will fly from beijing to ulaanbaatar on the following Saturday.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season at home. Our Christmas day activities included visiting the aquarium, some shopping, going to dinner at a pub (fish fry!) enjoying some live music and then going to a nightclub (really busy for a tuesday night) for some dancing. Nothing like christmases past, but unforgettable all the same.

I get no respect

CM - So, I have wonderful students. See below the report some of my students turned in about a music survey they did of teachers. Don't laugh. It is not funny.

Grade8 - REPORT
Made by Heechan, Hosoo, Batzorig
WARNING:  This report is hardly made by grade 8.  You are not allowed to copy it for your own profit.

From now on, here’s our report that we interviewed from many people.[Thank you for your help principle Ally(x) ,Ali(o)]

We interview about what types of music does the different teachers likes. We worked really hard. You sure you don’t sneer at us. Even though there is lot of mistakes in our report.

Let’s talk about our main issue now.

Interesting thing was that Clayton teacher and Jessica teacher answered exactly same when I asked ‘Which kind of music do you like?’ Both of them answered ‘All types! It was quiet interesting. I sure that they have same hobbies also. Our ugly Clayton teacher said he’s favorite singer is ‘Rage against the machine’ what a long name. Actually I don’t know who ! the heck they are.

Jessica teacher said her favorite singer is ‘Javhlan, Christina Aguilera. They have different idol! Kkkk that’s interesting.

Now it is time to talk about interview with Principle Ali. He likes classical music for a best. And he’s favorite singer was ‘javhlan’ I also know him because I could hear he’s song everywhere in Mongolia. He’s song is quiet famous, right?

Next is our ICT teacher. He’s favorite type of music was POP and folk. Actually I don’t know what is folk music. Ugly Clayton teacher, do you know much thing about them? He’s favorite singer was POP singer.
He didn’t tell us exact name.

And our last is Music teacher. Her favorite type of music was Jazz. Even though I don’t know what is Jazz I like it. Its name has dignity. And her favorite singer is Dian. I don’t know even that is man or woman.

Well! These things were about different types of muse that different teachers like.
Our report ends here! Bye!
1.December1,2007 Fin…

So, if you don't know who Javhlan is, check out his video below. He is THE MAN here in Mongolia. Jessica and I saw him live, and Jessica almost cried. I threw my panties onstage.

Another box of gifts from Friends back Home!

Wednesday we received a box from our friends Wyatt and Laura. Along with some great things for us, they sent medicine, crayons, hats and gloves for the kids at my volunteer job. I added them to the items my students collected, and I am sure they will all get used very soon. A big thank you to both of them for their help!!! They also sent me the Rudolph movie, which my second and third grade students LOVED. Thanks for helping us spread a little Christmas cheer here, in more ways than one.

A Meaningful Way to End the Semester

About halfway through the first semester I talked with my 10th grade English class about the living conditions for people in Mongolia. Over 36% of the population here live below the poverty line. I suggested the idea of raising money for a charitable organization, and they were interested. I set our goal at $300 and 200 items. They brought things from home, and gave money from their wallets. We also had a very successful raffle, the first in our school, and raised a good amount of money from that. Today was the deadline, and we took a field trip to hand over the items and monetary gift.

We decided to give our gifts to the Christina Nobel's Children Foundation, as I already know the people there and could make logistics of a visit easier. Today we got to visit their main office and learn about what they do, and then took a trip to their Ger Village, to see some of the kids and see where gifts like ours are put to use.

Here are the grade 10 students in their classroom, surrounding the chart I made to keep track of our progress. On half was for money, the other side was for items. At the top it says "PARTY" as I promised them if we met the goals by the deadline, we would have a party to celebrate. We'll have a pizza party next thursday.


Here's the class president handing over our $300 to the Director of CNCF.


Here are some of the kindergarten students decorating their classroom for New Year's/Christmas. They all have sad histories. The little one in the white shirt was being forced to eat poison tablets by her mother. The grandmother brought her to CNCF.


Here is the whole class with Ozkan, their homeroom teacher, and Mr. Thornton outside the visitor's ger. Hopefully our fundraising project and our visit to the Ger Village will have an effect on some of the students and they will continue to try to help their fellow Mongolians in the future.

Christmas and Beyond

On December 22 we will be heading to China for our 2 week christmas break. We are going to Shanghai for the first half, and then to Beijing. They don't really celebrate Christmas there either, but at least the weather will be warmer. Right now here its minus 13 degrees and in Shanghai its 55 degrees! That sounds just right to me. We can't wait. It will be great to do some sightseeing and eat western food for a while. And sleep in a comfy hotel bed, and have hot water whenever we want it (for the past 2 or 3 weeks here our hot water has become a scarce resource).

So, many of you are on our christmas list. We weren't able to find a cheap way to send things home from here, so we are bringing your gifts to china with us and will ship them from there, where it will be much faster and cheaper. This means you should be expecting something in January.

Our one year anniversary for living in Mongolia has come and gone, and now we have only 6 months left until our new contracts expire. We are now in the exciting process of planning out where we head to next. There is an internship possibility for Clayt at Mercy Corps which would keep us here through most of the summer, but we have no idea whether or not that will happen. We have been contacting people we know to help find us some work in Central or South America. One of Clayt's contacts (a man who was the translator for his group when he was doing research in the Dominican Republic) works at a school there now and said if we sent my resume to him he would pass it along with a high recommendation. So we did that, and hopefully we will hear something soon. It would be great to get things squared away early so we can plan out everything else. We are hoping to be home for a few months to visit everyone, regardless of which jobs we end up taking.

Now people here (our bosses and coworkers) have been asking whether we will be staying here, and when we say no, they want to know why. Oh, the list of reasons is very VERY long, but we tell them just the main reason. Clayton doesn't want to be a teacher. He has enjoyed it, but its time to move on to a place where he can continue working toward a career he is interested in. This means getting international experience working for an NGO or other development organization, and becoming fluent in a second language. He has to get his hands dirty in his field of work before he can be sure of getting a good job back home. And who knows? If we find a place we really love, we may become expats indefinitely!

Happy Thanksgiving, and other stuff!

J- Our Thanksgiving this year was in no way traditional, although we did try to include some elements from home. We had our celebration at our friend's house, Meghan and Chris, two americans who work at MercyCorps with Clayton. We had mashed potatoes, green beans, onion salad, biscuits (which turned out badly thanks to our 500 year old russian oven), stuffing (clayt made from scratch!) and mutton. No turkey here in Mongolia, so we settled for a giant leg (and they threw in a neck piece for free, yum) of mutton, and had mutton gravy too. Everything was good, but you know its just not the same as being home with everyone. Then for dessert we had apple pie - square apple pie, since I didn't have a round pie tin. Here's a photo of the work in progress.

Also, the other night the power went out just as we were about to make dinner. It was out for about half an hour or more, in which time we got really bored sitting in the silent darkness. This is just one of many photos that were a product of this boredom.

Last night one of the teachers from our school was over to borrow our dvd player. The box with the speakers inside was way in the back of a cupboard where we couldn't quite reach. Just then our little neighbors came up to visit, and the littlest one was a big help.

So this is the newest teacher at our school. He is a science teacher from Zimbabwe. He has a wife and baby at home, and is pretty lonely and bored here so far. So we took him to dinner last night, then showed him how to use our dvd player and let him take it home with him. Clayton enjoyed the chance to talk about life and politics in Zimbabwe with someone who has experienced things firsthand.

Here is Munkhtuul, showing me her contortionist skills. I wonder if they learn this stuff in gym class?

And here is Munkhtsetseg and Munkhtuul. They are such sweet, helpful girls. I love goofing around with them when they visit.

And, here I am trying to get in on the contortionist act. I don't think I'm cut out for the Mongolian circus just yet.

So, what's up with you?

C - Hello. I have been letting Jess handle most of the heavy lifting on the blog lately. I make no excuses or apologies... but I know you missed me. I know that my prose gently lulls you into fond remembrances of the mellifluous tones of my voice, and the wonderful times we've had together.

So, lately I have been busy. I am teaching from 8:30 until 12:40, then making a quick run home for a 10-minute lunch and off to Mercy Corps until 5:30. Then Jess and I are off to the gym (or, as Steven corrected, the fitness studio) - that's why my muscles be all big. In the evening I am often studying about something that has me boggled at Mercy Corps (such as finance in the 3rd world, the finer points of InDesign, value chains, etc.). Somewhere in there I try (stress try) to read some books, do some writing (currently talking with Steve Yahn once a week about this), and pay some mind to my beautiful wife, see some folks, and think about the future.

Some people have asked what I do at Mercy Corps. Mostly, I am put in situations where I feel pressure to learn in a hurry. There are a lot of great people around who know a lot more than I do, and that helps. I recently completed a report on business development services (BDS) in rural mongolia with the BDS officer. That involved going to the countryside over the summer and collected data, then analyzing it. Right now I am helping a team develop an assessment of gaps in financial service provision in the Mongolian countryside to inform the services of a forthcoming NGO that will be spun off our organization (thanks to Dave Petro at ICBA, who was kind enough to chat with me about the subject the other day). I also write content for the website and produce print and web publications, and edit a bunch of reports. That is that.

On a related note, for anyone who doesn't already know: Jessica and I have forgone our current opportunity to join the peace corps. We got an offer for a placement as teachers in Asia (kinda big isn't it?), but I don't really want to put another few years into being a teacher. I got this internship at Mercy Corps, and Jessica is already teaching, so we decided to stay here a bit longer - its already kinda like peace corps.

So, on to more interesting brain fodder:

Today, winter became real for me. It was the first day that my face was stung by the morning air. It was the first day the cold ate through my pants and bit at my thighs. It was also, incidentally, the first day I put down my earflaps on my hat. And a fine hat it is. Another surefire sign that it is winter? When we came home this evening some people were hauling a frozen, skinned sheep onto the elevator. It is now cold enough outside that the animal will remain frozen out on the porch. We'll be seeing a number of carcasses going up the elevator now.

[changing gears abruptly] So, there are some wonderful things about Mongolia. I got off the bus today with a man that looked like he just stepped off the silk road. Jessica and I encountered a gentleman the other night who looked like a Mongolian buddhist deity - he had a long white beard, full traditional mongolian outfit, big white eyebrows, and a look of complete surprise, or possibly enlightenment... or possibly drunkenness. These states can be surprisingly hard to distinguish in elderly Mongolians, with faces like an old baseball mitt.

Some things, however, can be perplexing. For example, when you go to the grocery store the clerk always piles all of your groceries into one bag. If the bag is too heavy, they double bag it. I have commented to Jessica on many occasions that they could make this easier (and easier on my arm) by just splitting the groceries into two bags in the first place, but they NEVER do. I don't know. A small inconvenience. I guess it only bugs me because of my extremely efficient, Taylorist bagging training at Quality Markets. Maybe that's how I can make a difference here. hmm.....

On a side note, I forgot it was veterans day the other day. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. I celebrated the hell out of soldiers day here. Does that count? You know that during WWII, Mongolia sent 35,000 horses to the Soviet Union to fight fascism? There is a monument in Russia of the Mongolian horse - the same horse that served Chinggis Khan so well...

Fire Fighting, Mongolian Style

Yesterday while we were putting away groceries I looked out the kitchen window and saw a pretty big fire down the street. We couldn't tell what exactly was on fire, but it had happened pretty recently (or maybe not) as there were no firefighters on the scene yet. So, naturally we grabbed the camera and quickly made our way towards the fire to see what was going on and snap a few photos. When we were almost there, the firemen showed up, and in the time it took us to cross the street, the fire had been put out and all that was left when we arrived were giant billowing clouds of white smoke. Notice the firemen here aren't as lucky as the ones back home: no special wardrobe (unless you count the little cape that says FIRE on it) and no masks or oxygen tanks to help them breathe. These poor guys were just in there, in all that smoke wearing what looked like costumes of canvas. There were more spectators earlier on, but after getting sprayed with the hose accidentally (in 20 degree weather!) they dispersed.





Graffiti in Mongolia is fairly tame compared to back home. We have seen these various messages: "Pussy Cat Dolls" "Bone Thug (singular) and Harmony" "Sega" and the mind puzzler on our own building, "Life is a death, death is a..." I have to say however this little guy might be my favorite. We get to see his bellybutton, nipples and silly smile every morning on the way to the bus stop. We feel so lucky. Imagine if someone sprayed a picture like this on a building with your name and an arrow pointing to it - Whoever "Todoo" is, I wonder if this picture does him justice.

Wears you down sometimes...

So, we really don't like to complain on our blog here. But sometimes it just builds up and we feel like sharing our frustrations with you, so you can feel happy about where you are and happy that you aren't where we are...

Clayt went to get on the elevator the other day. The doors open and there is a woman and her kid standing right inside the doors. Clayt waits for them to move back or move over so he can get in, but they don't move at all. So, he had to just push through them to get in. Elevator etiquette is non-existent here in more ways than one.

This little story goes back to when we were out in Bayan-Olgii. We had lost our cell phone and needed to call our boss about our schedule and so went to the central post office/communications place. You had to go up to the teller desk and tell the lady the number you wanted to call and she would dial it on the computer and hand you the headset. Well, I went to the window and told the lady I wanted to make a phone call (with caveman speaking and gestures, but understandable). I tried to hand her the phone number, but she just looked at me and then shooed me away with a gesture and turned her back to me. Didn't say one word. (I didn't leave, and just bugged her until she gave in, but boy it was irritating to be shooed like that!) :)

2 weeks ago I saw a semi-violent fight out in a lot behind our school. It involved grown men attacking each other - one guy had blood all over his face and was barely able to stand and 2 men showed up and began to kick him and punch him. A third guy showed up with something he had grabbed out of his car and hit the guy in the face with it. Then the fight moved over to next to the car, where a man stood outside the driver's side talking to the guy inside the car. One of the men came up behind the guy with a big rock and hit him over the head with it. Then the fight moved out of my line of vision from the school window, who knows what happened next...

So the very next day on the way to school we saw a dead man lying in the road. The police were there, but hadn't moved the guy, just had a shirt over his face, lots of blood along the whole side of the torso. We got a clear view as he was still in the middle of the road and we drove right past him. My third graders (who had all seen the same sight) informed me he was hit by a bus.

We got on the bus this past Saturday night to go to dinner. The bus system is strange here - if someone doesn't pay the bus fare, it's the job of the bus fare collector to either shame them into getting off the bus or physically remove them. Unfortunately, more than a few really drunk guys like to try to ride the bus for free, and the fare collector is usually a woman. Well on this evening the woman was rather young, and small. She was trying to yank this guy out of his seat, but he wouldn't budge. Not only would he not budge, but he continued to smack at the lady's arms. So, Clayt just got out of his seat, picked the guy up by the collar of his coat, tossed him out the door, and sat back down. The men sitting around us just kept staring at Clayt with not-so-friendly looks on their faces. We were surprised that with so many men on the bus none of them would try to stop someone from hitting a woman. And even if not for moral reasons, didn't anyone care that this guy got to ride for free while they all had to pay?

After that dinner we went to see some live music at a nightclub and saw 2 fights within the few hours we were there. Surprisingly, after being removed, everyone involved in the fight was allowed to reenter. In fact, one of the girls that was in one of the fights came in the bathroom after I did - I was waiting for a stall to open and when one did she just stepped in front of me and went in. She looked right at me and said, "Sorry!"

On a lighter note, I taught at my volunteer job 5 nights last week. On the last evening, I was trying to teach the young ones fruits and veggie vocab out of my picture dictionary. It didn't go so well, since they basically didn't know what most of the items were, and have no word for them in Mongolian. Avocado? never seen. Broccoli? What's that? Blueberries? Don't know! raspberries? asparagus? eggplant? They were all mysteries to them. I know a shop where you can get some of these things, so I think we might need to have a food party one of these days and let them check some of this stuff out!

alright, enough complaining for now......(the weather is now below zero at night)......

A nice start to Autumn Break

Friday was the last day of school for the first term. Now we have a week of vacation before the start of the second term. Friday during lunch we had a Halloween party for the little kids, and had fun. We played "Pin the pumpkin head on the headless horseman", listened to halloween music, ate lots of candy and played a game that involved popping lots of balloons. Here is clayt in his costume.


Then on saturday we had a teachers' picnic. We went to a really nice location in a valley with an old monastery up the hill. It was really cold however, and even snowed a little. Here are some of the photos from the day.




In the picture below you can see the ruins of where the old monastery once stood. The guide told us it was one of the many monasteries destroyed when the communist regime began.

A Big Thank You!

We just wanted to write a quick post to tell you about what a great week we had. Within 2 days we received 3 packages from home! They were full of medicine, treats and supplies for the children at Christina Nobel's Children Foundation. I took the gifts into their office on Wednesday afternoon, and the director was really appreciative. He said gifts like the ones our friends were sending were always welcome and always put to good use. So thank you so much!

Thank you Kristi Miller for almost 40 children's story books and kids winter attire, among other things!
Thank you John and Vicki Kotlar for a wide variety of kids medicines, fever reducers, and school supplies!
Thank you Kim Hayes and Dave Pollard for the Stickers, food, fun halloween stuff and other various items!

The things you sent will help some homeless children have a healthier winter (physically and mentally)!

A good thing to know also is that things now arrive here more quickly. At least one of the packages sent took less than 2 weeks!

Getting back to Winter Time

So now its cold here. Not extremely cold, but cold enough for the coat, hat, gloves and scarf. Only 2 weeks left until Fall Break, a week of no classes.

So things haven't been so exciting here lately, but we've snapped a few photos here and there, and thought we show you some of the more ordinary (?) things we see.


This is a building that is being built right behind our apartment. We were so excited that it didn't come any higher, but were rather disappointed when we saw the color they chose to paint it...


And speaking of paint... the whole building is being painted by these two guys with their little roller brushes! Notice one false step and there is nothing to stop them from falling all the way down...


This is one of the more famous buildings in the city here. This is The Wrestling Palace. Its where big concerts take place as well as of course wrestling tournaments. We don't really think its looks live up to its grand title.


Read the fine print inside the bubble. They don't want to held accountable for false claims.


We like their choice of words for this ad. "Inevitable." You can't avoid it. Just hand over your money, its going to happen sooner or later apparently.


This is the oh so pretty view we see as we walk to the grocery store. Notice you can see 4 construction cranes in the shot. This city is growing and springing up new buildings all around us at an amazing pace.


This is my third grade class this year. Aren't they cute? Please admire the nice way I decorated their board with the colorful paper Josh and Char Maring sent us...


And this is the second grade class this year - just as much little devils as they were last year...