School begins tomorrow. We've been in lots of meetings this past week, and everyone we ask for information has been extremely helpful. The school is a beautiful building with lots of light and looks out onto the mountains and the face of Ghinggis Khaan formed by stones on the mountain side. After 20 years of teaching in one place, it is great seeing how another school prepares itself for the beginning of the school year but also a bit bewildering not knowing where things are, learning new software systems and understanding the IB system all within the matter of one week. We'll survive though especially with the other faculty's support. Most everyone is very upbeat and very much enjoy working at the school and are excited about the new administration that has arrived. We found out that in the Mongolian culture Tuesdays are bad luck days and some of the shops don't open. I wonder if it will have the same periodic effect on the students that we tend to blame on those full moons. School starts at 8:20 for the students and goes to 2:50 and then there are one-hour after school activities that all teachers must participate in. Activities range from sports to knitting to additional ESL time.
Pam and I walk to work in the morning. School is about a 15 min. walk from our apartment. If we're feeling lazy, the cold is unbearable or if we are suffering effects from post school refreshments, we can grab a bus the school sends to the apartments at I believe 7:00 and then again at 7:30. At the moment the mornings are cool (60's) but the afternoons have been in the 70's and 80's. Our walk takes us past lots of construction of buildings and sidewalks. Workers are in full noise making mode when we pass them at 7:30 and, frequently, we see the same people at 7:30 at night. There is a need for manual labor here because many of the Mongolians move to other countries like Korea for better paying jobs. Many of the manual laborers are Chinese. The infrastructure is in the process of being put into place. Guys with shovels and pick axes hack and shovel away at the rocky terrain producing narrow troughs to lay the pipes. We really need to constantly pay attention when walking for new troughs, open man holes, broken sidewalks and traffic that maneuvers itself to any micro opening that will gain them that additional millimeter towards their destination.
We had a great team building activity last week which was a play on the Great Race. The staff was broken into teams of four with a new teacher, a Mongolian and then two more staff. We were given clues that took us around the city with an inanimate object that needed to be in various pictures. There wasn't a lot of enthusiasm at first for the activity because people were feeling stressed trying to get ready for school, but once someone said "go" the competitive juices flowed. People ran for their cars or taxis that were quickly called. By the time we got to a bank whose exchange rate board we were supposed to take a picture of, we were met on the steps by 2 bouncer looking types and a woman who told us in English to go away. The end point was the Irish Pub which one brilliant team guessed was the final destination and decided after a bit to head directly there.
I'm heading into the market shortly in search of a vacuum cleaner so I'll get some new photos and post them later. Bayartai.
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