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!