Sept. 18, 2011

                                 

 This was a traditional dance staged at our apartment complex to celebrate something???  We heard that it was the 5th anniversary of the apartment complex.

 The excitement was contagious.

I thought I had that light pointing in the right direction.

  Life here is starting to get cold.  Yesterday it was 0 degrees C.  There was a fall festival at school, and it was a bit chilly, but when the sun finally came out things were tolerable.  There were 2 performances during the festival.  One was a native North American dance done by an Inuit from Canada who was on a cultural exchange.  Our director is from Canada so I suspect that he has some pull with the Canadian Embassy to get this guy to come to the school and perform.  The other was a local Mongolian group playing contemporary music with traditional instruments and doing some throat singing.  Amazing!  School is going well.  The atmosphere is so positive, the kids work hard for the most part and, for once, I feel appreciated by the admin and staff for the services I'm providing.  Talk about knowing how to treat the staff,  starting last Wednesday there are 2 massage therapists who come to the school and offer 20 min. massages for 8000 Toogrig (about $6.50) to staff during the lunch periods.  Last week I was occupied but I'm clearing my schedule for this Wed.  Pam has been struggling because the school had to take the other ESL teacher and move her to 1st grade when that teacher suddenly left.  Pam's responsible for providing services to students from 1st to 5th grade and the numbers are LARGE.  She did get word last week that the school just hired another ESL teacher from Chicago, so she should be arriving in country in the next 3 weeks if the visa process goes alright.  I'm headed into the mountains for an overnight with a group of kids this weekend.  There is a club called the YACS (Young Adventurers Club) that an English guy and I are running.  Thankfully my winter sleeping bag just arrived because the weather is changing fast here.  On that note, we've been told to get out of town over the 3 week holiday break beginning in December, so we took people's advice and are going to Bali to meet up with a friend of Pam's who lives in India.  We did initially consider heading to Japan to do some skiing, but we have free lodging in Bali for part of the time plus the opportunity to see Pam's friend tipped the scales.  The weekends here are spent usually hanging out with other staff from school eating, drinking and sharing stories from all parts of the world.  The experience is so stimulating, and we're meeting all sorts of people working in the mines, the embassies and NGO's.  There is a lot to learn from all these other cultures that could definitely benefit life back home.  In a pinch, if there is nothing scheduled, there is always one of many Irish pubs to head to for a Guinness or a Chinggis.  The new turf is being laid at school this week so it will be nice to have the soccer team practice on something other than blacktop. If you want to see what UB looks like go to Google Earth and you can see our apartment complex (Bayan Mongol) and the school and well as many of the other points of interest.  Cheers to one and all!