Colin's Mongolian Adventure: You Never Know Where You'll End Up in Mongolia.

So this weekend didn't seem like much, but in retrospect, even the mundane chores of life contain some fantastic stories. On Thursday, John, Christina, Cat and I decided to hit up the Black Market (I never knew it was an established location). After much walking around, trying to find moderate essentials and some slight luxuries, we ended up with a fair amount of purchases. John and Christina had left early with some fabrics, whil Cat bought a humidifier, a robe, a jacket, and various other small items. I went for the bare necessities, getting a rug for my front hall, a microwave, a cd of modern Mongolian music and a rockin' traditional Mongolian suede jacket. We hailed a fake cab, since they cost substantially less than the real ones, and found that the driver spoke decent English. We found out that he is 20, married, and has a 2 year old child. He, like many others helped me with the pronunciation on the words for left (zun), right (borun), and straight (chigeraa). That night we went to Dave's Pub, an English joint for Quiz Night. THis is the only place you can be sure to meet other English speaking people.

Friday night, the lot of us took over an out-of-the-way Thai restaurant. I have now tried the Mongolian version of Chinese, Korean, Irish, and American, and have been to the German and English restaurants, but didn't eat while there. The food was good, and we decided to stop at Khan Brau (th

e German place) for a couple drinks. While were there a homeless man was selling postcards, so I bought one for 500 (stamp included), when he suddenly wanted me to buy 6, then 9, all because I wanted to see what he had. I never got to look at the selection, and ended up with some dancers that I have never seen. 10 minutes later, he was back trying to sell me more. The panhandlers seem to forget who they've hit up a lot. There are also random fireworks on some days. No one really seems to know why, but they are as extensive as our annual Canada Day fireworks in Sarnia. We figure they must just really love days that end with a 'Y' and go nuts on the celebration every few days.

Saturday was my easy night in. I went in to work for a couple of hours in the afternoon, then got a big haircut at Charming Beauty Hair Salon for about $6. Not a bad price for the best haircut I've ever had. We grabbed a quick bite at Grand Khaan Irish Pub and wandered over to Happy Shop to buy some $2 movies that are bootlegged and mass produced by the Chinese Army (seriously).

Sunday, I again went in to work for a couple hours. Terry and I decided to go for a hike up the Mountains to the immediate West of Zaisan. On the way up, we met some of the teachers from the International School of Ulaanbaatar. After a brief, but pleasant conversation, we parted ways, and we continued to the peak and ate a quick dinner of cheese, tube meat, bread and the greatest wine ever. This wine cost 2800 tugrug ($2.20) was 17%, and contained some kind of fruit, that we decided to call "Goldenberries." We packed up the rest, and after a steep descent, we happened upon some men drinking vodka just in the middle of nowhere, at the side of the road. They waved us over, and we decided this was an experience, we couldn't pass up. THe men offered us some vodka, and we accepted, as it is rude to refuse here. in return to dished out the rest of the meat and cheese from dinner, and the apparent ring-leader, Merbukht, chipped in some of the greatest bread I have ever tasted (I call it Mongolian Circle Bread). We chilled out for a little while with Inkhbut, Merbukht and their friend who Merbukht told me was drunk, and I was unable to figure out his name. Eventually his daughters had to come and drag him home. We were able to establish that they live near the ger camp, and have lived there for about a year. We returned home around 9, to the realization that we had just climbed a mountain and drank with some locals all on a whim. It turns out Dan, at the same time, was off herding goats with one of the neighbourhood goatherds.

Today was the first day of school. My class spend most of the day practicing lining up, since they prefer the "Mongolian line-up" which really just sonsists of a mass of people trying to get to the same spot first. The kids don't seem to understand why it's a big deal to just bugger off and do whatever they feel, like go out and run around the school yard, or just choose not to come in from lunch. Despite some disorganization, we figured things out, and the kids are pretty reasonable. Most of them have a grasp of English, but some still have no English skills at all.

I have 25 children, almost all of them are Mongolian, and the names are sooo difficult to pronounce. I have 1 boy from Tanzania, who is incredibly polite, and very bright, and a couple of South Koreans.