Sain Bainuu

Well everything is going good, and I know everybody has been patient for some details and I just happen to have some time. Right now Alli and I are in a town north of the capital city beginning our training. We along with the rest of the peace corps trainees [pct] are staying at an old soviet hotel in this town. We have it good because our room is relatively clean and bug free. Otherwise it is exactly what you would imagine an old soviet hotel to look like. Other pct's dont have it so good. Our day consists of breakfast around eight thirty then language training for an hour and a half then all types of other training till about six with an hour or two lunch break in there somewhere. It is overwhelming but we are dealing with it. On Sunday we move into our host families Hasha. A Hasha is basically a family compound that is surrounded by a small fence and usually has a guard dog which we are not to pet. It will be nice to get to a permanent location and not to have to live out of our back packs. Hopefully one of us will have access to the internet so we can update over the next week or two. Love Mike and Alli

Land of Blue Sky

Whoever named Mongolia that was the most uncreative person in the world. But when you get out here and see it there really isnt a better way to describe it. The country is spectacular plain and simple. Alli and I are at a training site right now with the rest of our group of volunteers adjusting to Mongolia and learning about what we will be doing for the next three months. On sunday we all split up for our host families in different towns and to begin our training. Alli and I will be seperated but our host families only live about 5km away from each other so it isnt to bad. Our first night in Mongolia we stayed at a tourist ger camp and met the american ambasador the next morning, who seemed like a real nice guy.
Overall everything is going great here and we are almost 50% sure that we made the right decision to join the peace corps.

Pre-Service Training

Well, we said all of our goodbyes and ate all of the White Castle that we could until it was time to go to Atlanta.Thank you to everyone for the gifts, thoughts and words of wisdom. We are lucky! The flight out was good and our first day of orientation was great. There are 48 other volunteers going to Mongolia with this group and they are all very nice. Training all day tommorrow then off to Seoul, South Korea where we are staying for a night. Can't wait to eat some sushi in Seoul. On a seperate note we can't believe that this whole thing is starting, kinda wierd. We are actually going to Mongolia!

Our Address until September

Allison and/or Mike Prelaske,PCT
Энx Тайвны Корпус
Тов шуудан
Шуудангийи хайрцаг 1036
Улаанбаатар 13
Монгол улс

Allison and/ or Mike Prelaske,PCT
P.O. Box 1036
Central Post Office
Ulaanbaatar 13
MONGOLIA
(via China)

Anything that is sent to us with only the English version on it will reach us. However, we were told that if you include the Cyrillic version it will reach us quicker, a lot quicker.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Well, just sixteen days left before we head off to Atlanta for pre-service training. It's getting real close. Alli and I have both quit our jobs and are now finishing up our packing and really turning up the language lessons. As busy as we are getting ready, not working is very nice. Very very nice. Although we do miss our students, well, we miss most of them. Family time has been great! You know it's getting close when all of your family starts coming in from all over the place to see you "one last time" or to "say goodbye." As a matter of fact, seeing friends and family is about the only thing that we have left to do. So we will see you soon.