Alli and I are at the Internet cafe right now together and in a couple of minutes we are going to check out this cafe that is supposed to have cheeseburgers. I dont want to get to excited because cafes tend to run out of stuff on a regular basis, or dont have what they say they have in the first place. Example- We went to a cafe two weeks ago that had a big picture of a pizza on the front of it and we walked in and tried to order a pizza and they were like "we dont have pizza you must be crazy". Just one example. So if this place actually has cheeseburgers ill freak. Then Im going to eat seven.
Things are definatley busy here we have tons of work to do but it helps the time go by. Alli is staying with me this weekend and we are going to learn how to make buzz tonight(mongolian pierogies). We recieved two packages so and made coffe for the first time in three weeks this morning. It was fantastic. Tommorrow we are going to make my host family mac and cheese, should be interesting.
-Brandon your last post was great I laughed all night.
-Grandma I am going to try to call you tonight, wait for me to finish speaking before you start because of the delay.
-Dad glad to hear that you are still married and didnt forget nancy's birthday.
-Mom send us some pictures on our email of the sunflowers.
-All parents, calling is tough and expensive. We are only going to be able to make a few phone calls until august 9th when we finish training. When we get sworn in as volunteers we will get a cell phone and you can call us whenever you want but for the next month and a half I will most likely only call grandma and alli will try to call lavonne. We love everyone and think of you often.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Week 2
Sain Bain uu? This is the blog that Alli and I wrote together over the weekend. We will also be able to see each other this weekend. She covered some of this in her blog so if I repeat her, forget about it ohhh.
As a reward for making it through the first week with our host famillies Mike and I were able to see each other and had a sleep over. We feel like were 16 with our families. Mike came over to my Hasha and met my family, and we ate.. alot. everyday here is like being at grandmas, we are forced to eat until we are full and then presured to eat more. Its funny that the mongolian word for eat is "ead" so all we hear at the dinner table is ead ead oo ooo. ooo is drink. Alli's host family has cows so her mother goes out and gets fresh milk for every meal. As far as the booze goes neither of our host families drink, which is good.
Before we get to farahead of ourselves we just wanted to thank everyone who has been writing and sending care packages. They really make our day when we get something. We are sorry that our posts havent been that frequent but we are both over an hour walk away from the internet, and the other day I walked all the way here and it was down. And that sucked.
So what is life like here? Will the exact opposit of what our lives were like in the states work? Probably not huh? Our schedueles are pretty similar so this is for both of us. The roosters start crowing at 530 but that doesnt matter because the sun comes up at 430. We lay in bed and try to sleep but its like god is sitting outside your window. We get up and then go poop in a hole, then spend about an hour writing, doing homework, trying not to go crazy. We eat breakfast around 800 and leave for school around 820 because we both have a 30 min walk to school. Language from 900 til 100 walk 30 min home eat lunch walk 30 min back to school for our technical training. TEFL for Alli and CYD for Mike. School is done for the day around 530 then a 30 min walk home. We try to spend as much time as we can with our host families but our brains are usually mush by this time and we have tons of reading and studying to do. Dinner is usually at about 800 we hang with the fam until about 900 and then back to our rooms until we fall asleep at around 1000. Of course the sun doesnt set till 1100.
Its hard being split up but the days have been going fast and we can see each other on the weekends.
Oh yea on my way to Alli's last weekend I was on a reality tv show. It was like an "amazing race" show. Agroup of people were hitchhiking from moscow to beijing and just happend to be on the same road that i was walking down. One of the contestants saw me and asked if I spoke english and then started talking to me on camera. He was trying to hitch a ride with me to alli's neighbor hood and i told him that i havent seen my wife in a week and i wasnt going to get kicked out of my cab for letting him in. Then i told him to mind the dogs and was on my way.
Have to go now. Love Mike and Alli
As a reward for making it through the first week with our host famillies Mike and I were able to see each other and had a sleep over. We feel like were 16 with our families. Mike came over to my Hasha and met my family, and we ate.. alot. everyday here is like being at grandmas, we are forced to eat until we are full and then presured to eat more. Its funny that the mongolian word for eat is "ead" so all we hear at the dinner table is ead ead oo ooo. ooo is drink. Alli's host family has cows so her mother goes out and gets fresh milk for every meal. As far as the booze goes neither of our host families drink, which is good.
Before we get to farahead of ourselves we just wanted to thank everyone who has been writing and sending care packages. They really make our day when we get something. We are sorry that our posts havent been that frequent but we are both over an hour walk away from the internet, and the other day I walked all the way here and it was down. And that sucked.
So what is life like here? Will the exact opposit of what our lives were like in the states work? Probably not huh? Our schedueles are pretty similar so this is for both of us. The roosters start crowing at 530 but that doesnt matter because the sun comes up at 430. We lay in bed and try to sleep but its like god is sitting outside your window. We get up and then go poop in a hole, then spend about an hour writing, doing homework, trying not to go crazy. We eat breakfast around 800 and leave for school around 820 because we both have a 30 min walk to school. Language from 900 til 100 walk 30 min home eat lunch walk 30 min back to school for our technical training. TEFL for Alli and CYD for Mike. School is done for the day around 530 then a 30 min walk home. We try to spend as much time as we can with our host families but our brains are usually mush by this time and we have tons of reading and studying to do. Dinner is usually at about 800 we hang with the fam until about 900 and then back to our rooms until we fall asleep at around 1000. Of course the sun doesnt set till 1100.
Its hard being split up but the days have been going fast and we can see each other on the weekends.
Oh yea on my way to Alli's last weekend I was on a reality tv show. It was like an "amazing race" show. Agroup of people were hitchhiking from moscow to beijing and just happend to be on the same road that i was walking down. One of the contestants saw me and asked if I spoke english and then started talking to me on camera. He was trying to hitch a ride with me to alli's neighbor hood and i told him that i havent seen my wife in a week and i wasnt going to get kicked out of my cab for letting him in. Then i told him to mind the dogs and was on my way.
Have to go now. Love Mike and Alli
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
We Found Each Other
Happy Belated Father's Day- dad, Don and Brian! We love you and wish we could have been there to celebrate. Happy 50th Birthday fancy (disguised in case you don't want anyone to know)We wish we could have been there to celebrate and eat American food with you.
Sorry it has been a couple of days. Mikes aab(father) delivered him to my house on Saturday!!! I was outside sweating bullets hand washing my clothes and bamb in walks Mike and his aab. We had a great weekend. My family loved Mike and Mike loved my hch (mom) food. He was able to stay until Sunday night. We are both dropping weight quickly. I guess thats what no preservatives and walking everywhere does for you. I am however loving the food. Dairy products all day long.
Days are long but the weeks are moving fast. Today we didn't have afternoon class so my friends and I walked the 1 1/2 walk to use the Internet and I will be meeting up with Mike here in a little while. Next weekend we are going to climb one of the mountains near by, as long as my fear of heights dosen't get in the way.
I will try my best to give a description of what I see daily. In my som there are only dirt roads where animals and cars have the right away. There are quite a few Delgerrs (family stores) that have icecream and such. I walk to school with herds of cows- it is absolutely amazing. The sky seems endless and the sunlight is abundant. There are mountains in every direction. I/all the Americans are quite a sight for the Mongolians although the longer I am here the less they stop and stare at me. Also the more I am able to communicate with them the happier they get. The Mongolian children in my area are simply adorable and love to say hi and hello as I walk down the street.It is also not uncommon to see kids popin a squat anywhere, anytime. Time does not really exist here that I have noticed. It is morning, afternoon or evening. It is alot like the south- patience is a virture. Waiting for the cows and horses to pass takes up a good portion of my day. Yesterday I was able to see my mom and brother shave the sheep by hand. I was getting tired watching them. Dogs in Mongolia serve a purpose and are not to pet so learning down dog is an important phrase. I will try to prepare more for next time we write- we wrote a long blog but I gave it to Mike and have noticed that it hasn't made it online yet! If there is anything you would like to know about let us know... next time Mongolian culture. We miss everyone and love to hear from you- keep'm coming! Love Alli
Sorry it has been a couple of days. Mikes aab(father) delivered him to my house on Saturday!!! I was outside sweating bullets hand washing my clothes and bamb in walks Mike and his aab. We had a great weekend. My family loved Mike and Mike loved my hch (mom) food. He was able to stay until Sunday night. We are both dropping weight quickly. I guess thats what no preservatives and walking everywhere does for you. I am however loving the food. Dairy products all day long.
Days are long but the weeks are moving fast. Today we didn't have afternoon class so my friends and I walked the 1 1/2 walk to use the Internet and I will be meeting up with Mike here in a little while. Next weekend we are going to climb one of the mountains near by, as long as my fear of heights dosen't get in the way.
I will try my best to give a description of what I see daily. In my som there are only dirt roads where animals and cars have the right away. There are quite a few Delgerrs (family stores) that have icecream and such. I walk to school with herds of cows- it is absolutely amazing. The sky seems endless and the sunlight is abundant. There are mountains in every direction. I/all the Americans are quite a sight for the Mongolians although the longer I am here the less they stop and stare at me. Also the more I am able to communicate with them the happier they get. The Mongolian children in my area are simply adorable and love to say hi and hello as I walk down the street.It is also not uncommon to see kids popin a squat anywhere, anytime. Time does not really exist here that I have noticed. It is morning, afternoon or evening. It is alot like the south- patience is a virture. Waiting for the cows and horses to pass takes up a good portion of my day. Yesterday I was able to see my mom and brother shave the sheep by hand. I was getting tired watching them. Dogs in Mongolia serve a purpose and are not to pet so learning down dog is an important phrase. I will try to prepare more for next time we write- we wrote a long blog but I gave it to Mike and have noticed that it hasn't made it online yet! If there is anything you would like to know about let us know... next time Mongolian culture. We miss everyone and love to hear from you- keep'm coming! Love Alli
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