Miracles Do Happen

Well the seminar actualy happened and it went really well. Thanks to the help of Alli, Beth, Brenden, Fahd, Joe, Salomon and of course our translator Baska. About 15 kids ended up participating in it and I think (well I hope at least) that they got alitlle something out of it. My favorite part of the entire seminar was when Salomon and Fahd proceedd to to tell the kids that it was alright to lie during an interview as long as they thought themselves capable of making that lie true in the near future. So that is done and to celebrate Brenden, Fahd, and myself went up to Lake Hovsgul for the day and had a real good time. Next week Alli and I are leaving for UB to get our yearly med checkups and then off to Darkhan to get ready for the M19s who will be here in just about three weeks now.

The Seminar of Doom

Well work is starting to wind down and at the same time speed up. For maybe the first time in the history of TEFL or CYD I am actually teaching more than a TEFL. Totally not what I signed up for, during CYD training all we did was practice making balloon animals. Which may sound easy but you go ahead and try to make a balloon sheep. This weekend I am putting on a seminar for graduating students and it is not going well so far. My original budget has been cut to a fraction of its former self and students keep ripping down the posters in school that I have made, oh and no one has signed up yet. Not gonna lie, Im freaking out about this whole thing. All is not lost however, Salomon and Fahd are coming up to help me teach the seminar and even if no one shows up it will still be fun. That and for the most part I have solved the crippling shortage of money that the seminar is suffering from, and most Mongolians wont sign up until the last possible moment. So who knows we still may pull this thing off. Did I mention that I have no idea how many people are going to show up? I mentioned that no one might show up, paradoxically that is not the worse senario. What is worse is if hundreds show up and I have no where to put them, this is a very real concern as my school has over 300 graduating students. Well stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to THE SEMINAR OF DOOM.

April, my arch nemeisis

Hello everyone. Well I am officially on my way to turning thirty. Thirty! AHHHH. I had a nice birthday because of my wonderful wife and great site mates. We made a bunch of pizza and Joe and Brendon brought over a bottle of whisky, which is a nice change from vodka. Things are going pretty good here, I feel a bit more respected in town now due to my advanced age. My math may be a little off but I am older than 70% of the population. Alli and I only have about four weeks of work left before we leave for the capital to train for training the new volunteers, so we are pretty excited about that. It is going to be real nice to have a toilet for a month and a half. On that note.

OHH Spring

Mongolia got us again. Just when you think winter has finally left, it plays a nasty little trick on you. The other day I was boasting about not having to make a fire in the morning for the first time since October. Of course MIke and I just happen to switch jobs during this week of blistfully warm weather (I had to chop wood, make fires and get water) and (mike was in charge of cooking, cleaning and dishes). So of course after my hands were beaten up and full of splinters we switched back--hahahaha it snowed today. We got about 3-4 inches of snow and Mike is once again enjoying making morning fires! Of course this does mean that he has to go back to swallowing my sometimes horrible cooking. I think I have gotten the best side of the deal all around.
Love Allie and Mike

Packing List- What not to bring

Because of some emails and posts we decided to update the packing list with stuff you dont need to bring.
1. An extra sleeping bag- you get issued a great sleeping bag from PC. We live in a ger and have never had a problem with being cold (while we were in our sleeping bag).
2. Do not bring a bunch of clothes- the clothes that you bring should be versitile, casual and business. Do not waste space with a bunch of clothes. You are going to have to drag those suitcases with you around the world so only bring what you really want.
3. Survival gear- you are going to be fine! PC takes good care of you the first three months. You are not going to need iodine tablets or magnesium strips or flint or anything like that.
4. If you are a woman skirts are nice when you have to tinkle outside ( says alli)
5. Travel gimicks- this is the same as the "survival gear". you probably wont need a solar battery charger, or an emergency radio (all the stations are in mongolian anyway).

Well we have to go to work now. Have fun getting your stuff together.

Packing List

Well its about that time for the new volunteers to start their packing. I cant believe that we have been here for allmost a year now. So because we had such a hard time packing and deciding what to bring we thought that we would give a little bit of advice to the M-19s. First of all pack two seperate bags, one of those bags is going to be kept in storage for the entirty of your training and you will not have access to it. In that bag put all of your winter stuff, you will not need it during training. The only clothes that you aregoing to need is something to sleep in two business casual outfits and two casual outfits, thats it, do not burden yourself with tons of crap during training. Besides for that here are a couple of things that we are really happy that we brought or that we really wished that we would have.
1. Our laptop- the best thing that we brought.
2. Camera- you are definatley going to want to bring this
3. A photo album- Mongolians love looking at pictures, you dont even understand.
4. really good shoes- you will be walking everywhere you go, do not cheap out on this!
5. Whatever over-the-counter meds you like- Nyquill, alkaseltzer... alkaseltzer saved my life last summer.
6. An iPod- if your married bring one for each of you because you will be split up during training
7. A knife- I brought a mid-sized buck and I use it for everything, but I also have a leatherman which is nice
8. Bring a gift for your host family. It can be anything- I brought my family a bunch of pictures of Chicago and assorted change and they liked them alot. They are not expecting anything huge.

Lets keep it real though, your going to be fine no matter what. Bring what makes you happy and make sure to bring a book, a big book. Looking forward to seeing you in june.

WTF?

So the olympics are over. Guess who's students took 1st through 4th place in 11th, 9th, and 7th grades? I'll give you a hint, it wasnt my students. Alli's kids cleaned up 85' Bears style. It was sick, one of her girls beat the next closest student by 50 points on a 200 point test, and this was the best students from the entire state competing. If I didnt personally judge the competition I would have said something was going down here. So now her three kids that took 1st will go to UB for the national competition, we will keep you updated.