Mongolia -- Arrival and Day 1 (Ulaanbaatar)

The day of our departure was among the busiest days I have had in a long long time. Our flight was at about five in the evening, but I had to go into work that morning because Kristin had taken the day off, and I had classes to cover. I was scheduled for class in every period until lunch, but fortunately the first two periods were rescheduled, and I had some extra time to prepare information and such for Mongolia. (And to steel my nerves for third and fourth period, which were two new classes that I was teaching with two new teachers, one of whom I'd only even met the day before.) In the end, the classes went okay, and I was amused to see that I'm now teaching a kid who lives on my street, and has just moved up from another local junior high. His name is Ryoma, and I think he's going to prove to be a funny character.

Fourth period ended at 12:35, and I was in a hurry to go get my luggage and get on the train by 1:08. Fortunately, Hosoi-sensei had kindly offered to give me a ride. He was waiting at my desk when I got back from class, looking a little sheepish, and he said to me, "Are you ready? ...Actually, I forgot, I don't have my car today, because there is a party tonight." (Meaning: he intended to drink, and was using the train to avoid Japan's zero blood alcohol law.) There was a moment of surprise on my part, but before I could even process the problem enough to be distressed, he hurriedly told me that Kawabe-sensei, the funny PE teacher, had agreed to take us, instead. I guess Hosoi-sensei felt obligated to come along, even though he wasn't actually driving anymore, so all three of us piled into Kawabe-sensei's van.

To make a long story short, I made the train and my connection at Kyoto station for the airport express, and arrived at the airport around 3:45. Fig was already there, and after checking in, we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner and hopped on the plane! It was about two hours to Seoul, where we found out that our next flight had been delayed about two or three hours. So we mucked about in the airport, had an encounter with a really sketched out Korean Air clerk who looked incredibly nervous as if we were hydras come to devour him, and finally got on our next plane. We arrived in Ulaanbaatar after one in the morning, and were met by Idre, the guy who runs the guesthouse where we stayed.

(I'd like to take a moment to comment on an advert we saw in the UB airport. It was for one of the major banks -- maybe Khan Bank -- and the tagline was, "Your inevitable business partner in Mongolia." Um, WHAT? They sound like the mafia!)

The drive into UB was strange and vaguely post-apocalyptic. It was really dark, and there were these huge smokestacks with orange lights looming over the city. There weren't many people on the street, but there were some wild dogs, a whole group of them besieging a parked SUV.

The guest house, though, was very nice on the inside, with computer access and laundry service, a kitchen and several public sitting areas. Plus, we were the only two in our room. Not bad for four dollars a night!

The next morning we got our first daylight look at UB. Outside, we could see a battered playground slide, dirt, broken concrete, and some pretty miserable looking buildings. My first reaction was, "It looks like Soviet Russia!" Which was in some ways accurate, but probably a little harsh. The city was just much greyer than I was expecting, and maybe moreso than any other place I've been. (It was even more intimidating than my first visit to Wittenberg, in which we accidentally drove through the south side of Springfield.)

The first thing we did was exchange our yen for tugrik, the Mongolian currency, and set out to explore town. We had tasty dumpling soup for lunch, did a little souvenir shopping at the State Department Store, and each picked up a beautiful tablecloth from this tiny hole-in-the-wall quilting shop we stumbled across in the ubiquitous apartment complexes. (I hesitate to call them tenements, because like many other places in UB, they were probably nicer on the inside. ...Probably.) We looked at a lot of cool antiques, but they were unfortunately out of our price range. Our quest to find the North Korean restaurant listed in our guidebook ended in failure (though we did pass a bar that claimed to be, "probably the most stylish lounge in UB"), so we ended up at Dublin, Mongolia's first Irish pub.

At the guesthouse that night, we befriended the young housekeeper, Nasaa, and a little boy named Urnuun, who lived en suite with his mother, who also worked there. We sort of taught them gin rummy, and then they taught us a Mongolian card game, which we played for hours. Urnuun had amazing English, even though he was only about ten. I guess it came from living in the guesthouse, where English was the most universal mode of communication. As a person, Urnuun reminded me of no one more than Short Round, the mischievous wise-cracking kid from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." He continually used his abracadabra black magic to curse us other players into being "jumpers," which is about the worst thing you can do in the game. And he changed the words to "We Are the Champions" to make a new composition -- "We Are the Jumpers."

Of course, he beat us all in the end.

in which my students continue to be hilarious

Here's some recent greats from the genius minds of my students! If these kids were any more adorable, I might just have to hug them to death. I mean it...to death.


One of my all time favorites. When asking students to look at a picture of an umbrella and make a sentence using 'though':
“Though I put out the umbrella, my body got wet because the umbrella is a picture.”

On Yoko Ono:
“She and John Lennon gave their massage to the world.”

“I have no time to enjoy because I got many homework. I have to finish the homework. So, I didn’t go somewhere. But, I went to stroll with dog lover. When I go there, I looked dandelion fluff. I think, I want to fly to not homework world.”

“I couldn't visit any places because of many many homeworks, from 3 to 6. But I had to catch some crayfishes or big frogs for Creation Rika, so I and Isojima went to drains between fields near the Kameoka station on May 2. After a while, we hadn't found any crayfishes. And I asked to a woman working in the field where crayfishes are. She said “They will be seen in the rice-planting season.” Oh my god.”

Well, it's the first time I've seen that word as a verb.
“People tend to have prejudice against people who coffin a dead person.”
“Someday we will been coffined.”

“Track and field athletes use their cerebral, too.”

the rainy season

It is supposedly the rainy season in Japan right now, though actually, it's only rained about twice. However, I became too lax and made several cardinal mistakes yesterday.

First, on my way to school in the morning, I considered taking an umbrella, but then decided not to, because the weather report wasn't predicting rain until after 6. MISTAKE. Then, when leaving the teachers' room that afternoon, I glanced out the windows and thought, "Oh, it looks like rain." MISTAKE. Next, as I was changing my shoes at the teachers' entrance, I smelled coffee from the infirmary, and thought, "A hot drink would be nice. Oh, no, that's silly - by the time I get home I'll be so hot that tea is the last thing I'll want." MISTAKE. And, finally, the last nail in the coffin. As I walked through the parking lot to the gate, I thought, "It would be a nice night for a thunderstorm." MISTAAAAKE.

Literally within ten seconds, as I was still crossing the lot, it started to rain. And I don't mean sprinkle. These were huge, fat drops, which hit so hard that I momentarily wondered if it was sleet. But they were widely dispersed, so instead of going back into the school, I hurried onwards. By the time I'd gone a block, it was an out and out shower. Even occasionally dodging under awnings when the rain moved from steady to torrential and back again, I was completely drenched by the time I was halfway home.

At one point as I sped along in the wet, I was considering all the aforementioned mistakes, and realized that all the conditions had been fulfilled - it was raining, cold, and I definitely could use some hot tea. The only thing missing was the thunder, and even as I thought it, there was an ominous rumbling from the sky. I actually laughed aloud and said, "No kidding." It was like some bored kami had just decided to mess with me.

Of course, I eventually made it home in one piece, though that was a particularly wet one piece. The bottom well and truly let out about a block from my apartment, and I gave up the ghost and ran the rest of the way. Of course, when I got to my building, I duly discovered that all my second floor neighbors were out in the hallway with their children, and were having a good laugh at my drowned rat expense. When I came up the stairs, looking like someone had thrown me into a pool with all my clothes on, they just lost it. (They lost it again when I came out of my apartment in dry clothes ten minutes later, at which point I said in Japanese, "Wow, it's really raining, huh!" That really set them off.)

The moral of this story is don't tempt fate, and especially don't tempt it a good four times.

how to make a silent blog

One part busyness, two parts laziness. Shake with ice and serve with a sprig of mint.

Really, though, it's Mongolia that's holding me up here. So much happened, and it was all so utterly different from Japan, that I feel compelled to share the trip in excessive detail...and it's taking forever.

But somewhere in the semi-near future, I intend to finally put up the series of posts recounting our adventures with the Mongol hordes. So please continue to be patient!

Thanks,
The Management

off to join the hordes

Two more classes, and I'm off to Mongolia.

WHAT?

rolling along

Classes are finally getting into full swing! ...And I am totally confused at all times. Our schedules have finally been more or less decided, but it's a totally different dynamic in almost every class we teach. (Excepting certain junior high classes, which are thankfully still headed by the indomitable Nakatani-sensei.)

But not to worry, I'm slowly getting a handle on things. It helps that I now have the schedule in writing.

Last week we had club introductions. All the new students were gathered in our mini-gym, and then every single club at the school gave a short presentation to entice new members. It was a pretty charming experience, and I couldn't help but have a running list in my head of which clubs I would join if I could. The HS girls' soft tennis club was hilarious, for one -- their attempt to demonstrate volleys really just resulted in a lot of their own members cowering and shrieking, a near constant chorus of "FAITO!" and one stray tennis ball that got tangled in some window blinds near the ceiling. The brass band was also charming, playing a rendition of Dreamgirls with fully choreographed dance moves. Plus, the adorable Kaneshiro-sensei briefly marched around with them, playing his trumpet. (So cute, ha ha ha!)

Of course, some clubs were legitimately cool. Imagine my surprise, for example, when the JH girls' basketball team did a demonstration, and the shortest little girl on the team was suddenly dribbling between her moving legs like a pro. It was like a little Japanese Mugsy Bogues, or something! And there's some kind of dance club that involves fans and katanas, which was altogether pretty sweet. (Even when one girl hit herself in the head with a spear, bless her heart!)

Last Friday, in the midst of an already (and unexpectedly) chaotic afternoon, Kristin and I also had to go get chest x-rays in this little portable clinic that had parked itself on campus. The look on the poor young doctor's face when the two of us stepped inside was pretty humorous -- it clearly said, "Oh no, foreigners! I'm going to have to use English! Help!" But we understood enough of his Japanese to get by with the help of gestures.

My weekends have been mostly just shopping and hanging out with friends, with a little more flower viewing thrown in. But already the cherry blossoms have done and gone for the year, so I guess that's that!

The most exciting thing going on right now is probably this super adventure that Fig and I have been planning. (And by that, I mostly mean Fig.) You see, there's something called Golden Week coming up, which is three national holidays in a row, making for a five-day weekend. It is the most, the MOST popular time for traveling in Japan. No kidding. It's going to be crazy! (Especially living in Kyoto!)

So Fig and I are taking advantage of the days off to take a trip. In fact, we're taking a great big 11-day trip...to MONGOLIA!

It happened really suddenly. Apparently, Fig just up and decided she wanted to go, and I was lucky enough to be invited along. To make a long story short, it essentially went something like this:

Fig: I'm going to Mongolia.
Anna: Mongolia, huh?
Fig: Yeah. Do you want to come?
Anna: Sure. ...What's in Mongolia?

Evidently, there will be markets and museums and horses and yurts.

Especially yurts.

priorities

It's raining with intent today, and so it was during my walk to school.

At one point, I passed an old man walking what appeared to be an equally old dog. And despite the rain falling on him, the man was bent over, holding the umbrella over his pet.

:)