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We are the World

Last night was sort of a going-away party for me and our friend Sunmin (she left this morning). We started out at the apartment with me, Jaspal, Sunmin, Mandkhai (a recent Cal grad who just moved back home to Mongolia), Amraa (whose family owns Jaspal's apartment), and Amraa's two-year-old son, Sonor. He and I had a great time playing a game of tabletop soccer with peanuts.

After that, we hit the local karaoke bar (we left Sonor with his grandparents, unfortunately), ending the session with a rousing rendition of "We are the World." It was great.

Our final stop of the night was Metropolis, UB's newest and most popular club. This was my first time really going out in UB, and Jaspal says that now I've seen everything. It was kind of insane. Clubs here don't close until 4 or 5 in the morning, so when we showed up at 1am, things were just getting started. Let me tell you, they sure do love techno and strobe lights here. I felt like I was at a rave in 1996. There was a good set with some Snoop Dogg, Daddy Yankee, Beyonce, and Cypress Hill, but then the techno came back with a vengeance, so we called it a night (I think Jaspal could have stayed and danced for another hour, but Sunmin had to head to the airport at 4am, so I felt bad).

Speaking of 4am, that's what time I'll be heading to the airport in the morning. Not looking forward to the long flights and long layovers, but I'll be back home about 24 hours after I leave here. It has been a great trip, and I'm really glad I came to Mongolia. Something tells me that Jaspal will be making at least one or two more trips here in the future, so who knows -- I may be back. Sunmin and I were creating a list of things we'd love to see changed here by the time we next visit (for her it's only a year). My number one was for the roads and sidewalks to be fixed, and my number two was for people here to stop polluting. It's common to see people throwing trash anywhere they want, both in the city and the countryside. Plus the air pollution in the city is terrible. My number three is for more business to be conducted over the phone or Internet. Sunmin's main request was that people regularly schedule and keep appointments, rather than saying, "Yes, let's meet now," and then showing up three hours later.

We'll see. Jaspal says that often the good changes bring more bad ones, so maybe it's best to just see what happens and not expect anything.

Thanks to anyone who's been reading my blog, and especially to those of you who've left comments. I hope to see you soon!

Photos

I've posted all my pictures so far on Picasa. In an ideal world, the slideshow I tried to imbed would appear here.



If this isn't working, click here to see them.

Deep Breaths...

The countryside trip got scrapped. We couldn't find a driver who was a) available or b) willing to drive 14 hours over dirt roads in one day. Go figure. The best part was that we arranged for a driver, went to this guesthouse to meet him, waited 30 minutes for him to get there, checked out the car, and then were told we couldn't go. I've noticed a trend here in Mongolia of only wanting to conduct business face-to-face. Not over the phone (see my last post) and DEFINITELY nothing can get done online. This seems to be very time consuming, as deals fall through a lot.

Right now we're waiting for the DSL guy to show up. He was supposed to show up yesterday. He just called because he couldn't remember where we live (there aren't really any street addresses here. It's more like, "I live behind the building that used to be called the third Russian School."), even though we went through the details already. Then he said, "You live there? Oh. It might not be possible for you to get DSL."

The phrase "not possible" is very popular here. You just have to take deep breaths and deal with it, I guess.

On a brighter note, I successfully made banana bread in Jaspal's rickety oven (no temperature gauge -- just levels 1 through 4) with a bread pan made from tinfoil. It turned out good!

We had dinner the other night with Jaspal's friends Bayar and Mugi, who are very famous artists here. They came to California for an exhibit a few years ago, which is how we met them. Check out their website. Bayar paints mostly horses and Mugi paints mostly women. Their art (and their apartment) is amazing. We told them the story of the countryside spiders, and even they were disgusted. I don't feel like such a wuss now.

Yesterday we went to the Museum of National History, which had some lovely sunflowers out front. My favorite display was a hall of traditional costumes worn by all the different ethnic groups in Mongolia.

I think tonight we are going to check out Gandan, the largest monastery in Mongolia, just outside UB. It is supposed to be really incredible.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga of the DSL...

***DSL UPDATE***
The guy finally showed up and said...

"Not possible."

Now we're going to go to another provider who thinks it IS possible (or so they said last week).

Beegii, Beegii, Beegii, Can't You See...

So we know this guy, Beegii (pronounced "Biggie"), who is a driver that Jaspal became friendly with after once riding in his cab (again, if you know Jaspal, this does not sound odd). Jaspal asked him to drive to the airport to pick me up, so he was the first Mongolian person I met here.

He's very friendly and jolly and loves to ask questions that poor Jaspal has to translate. He's come to our aid before when we needed a native Mongolian speaker to help a friend sort out a money issue (a weaselly driver who wanted more money than he was owed).

But...

There's something a bit odd about him. Could be the fact that he calls at least once a day (sometimes three times an hour) for no real reason. Maybe because whenever we try to hire him to drive us somewhere, he insists on coming over and hanging out in order to discuss the deal, but he generally manages to be unavailable to drive us (we don't quite know why he can't just tell us over the phone). Also perhaps his obsession with documenting our presence. When MB & K were here, he took numerous photos of us all together, and he once recorded Sunmin and I singing on his cellphone. Last night he brought his video camera and filmed us looking through guidebooks and drinking tea.

Weird. Now we're waiting to see if he can drive us to Bayankhongor. He's supposed to let us know by 1:00, which is in 8 minutes. Seems doubtful.

On a totally unrelated note, BBC News is doing a series of articles called "Partition: 60 Years On" that is really interesting. Check it out.

Only one more week...

Wow, only one more week until I leave Mongolia. I will be really sad to leave Jaspal, but hopefully the next five months will speed by and then he'll be back, too.

I am, however, looking forward to getting back to my "real life" in San Francisco. Much of this includes watching American TV (I'm sure the the thrill of that one will last about an hour), hanging out with my friends and family, driving, having a whole closet of clothes to choose from, and eating lots and lots of Mexican food.

If you know Jaspal, it will come as no surprise that he's already thinking about the places we'll go to eat when he comes back home. Taqueria Cancun is high on that list, as are Zachary's Pizza, Gordo's Taqueria, In-n-Out Burger, Tandoori Chicken U.S.A., Juan's Place, Mitchell's Ice Creamery, Swensen's, Mario's La Fiesta, Chipotle, Picante, the Vietnamese Sandwich Shop around the corner, Papalote, Avatar's, Sophie's Crepes, Krispy Kreme, Fenton's, Top Dog, Kingpin Donuts, Lanesplitter Pizza, LittleStar Pizza, Gelateria Naia, Cha-Ya, G-Gate, Burma SuperStar, several burrito trucks around the bay, IKEA (I'm guessing for their cinnamon rolls)...

"That's a good start," he says.

Mongolia is not exactly foodie heaven (especially for a vegetarian), but there is one food I've definitely grown attached to: бууз (pronounced "boze"). They are these litle dumplings that are generally filled with meat, but I found veggie ones at a hippie vegetarian cafe called Ananda (it's also a meditation center). They are really tasty. I think I might try to make them at home with Grillers Crumble. I love that stuff.

We're taking one last trip to the countryside (ok, so it's only trip #2, but whatever) before I go. We'll spend Thursday through Saturday, along with our friend Sunmin, in Bayanhongor, where the Health Department is having an anniversary party that Jaspal needs to attend.

I'm hoping there won't be any spiders there.

Fluey

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I got the flu! I have been mostly lying in bed or on the "couch" (MB & K will know what I'm talking about, since it was their bed for the time they were here) since Saturday evening. I am definitely on the mend, but still not feeling up to much. I listened to Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban for the first two days of my illness. We went to a music & DVD shop yesterday that was having a big sale, so I got a few DVDs to entertain me (13 Going on 30 and Elf).

We may be going to the countryside again next week for a couple of days. I'm glad I'll get to do that again before I leave on the 20th.

Big news -- Jaspal signed up for DSL!! This is major. We have been operating on dialup. It sucks. It also means that we can't use Skype to talk when I'm in the U.S., which would be very convenient. Keep your fingers crossed that the install will be successful. There's always the possibility that it won't work, because we're more than a mile from the center of town.

Fungolia at it's finest.

That's not Ham.

Last night we went to a great performance at the National Drama Theatre. It combined a bunch of different types of traditional Mongolian performance art: dance, singing, instrumental music, etc. I liked all of the performances, but I think my two favorites were a dance that involved contortionists and Buddhist mask dancers, and a rendition of "O Sole Mio" by an orchestra, a tenor, and a throat singer. The (rude) people behind us were laughing when the throat singer took up the tune, but I thought it was awesome. If you've never heard Mongolian throat singing before, try to find a clip online or rent Genghis Blues. It is a crazy sound.

The Mongolian love affair with meat is always present. A few nights ago we went out to dinner with our friend Sunmin and I ordered a "grilled ham and cheese sandwich." I asked them to please make it without the ham -- just grilled cheese. It arrived with meat on it.

I said, "I asked for it without ham."

"That's not ham," the waitress replied. "It's bacon."

What can you do besides laugh? (And pick off the meat)

In other news, I may or may not have met the Emir of Kuwait at the state department store today. I spotted two men by the elevator, one in a traditional Arabic looking outfit. They spotted me too, and I could tell they were wondering where I was from. After a brief meet-and-greet, when it was established that I was from the U.S by way of India and they were from Kuwait, we all went our separate ways. When I came home and told Jaspal, he gasped and said that the Emir of Kuwait is in Mongolia right now, to discuss the purchase of some hunting falcons (really).

A final note about our latest obsession -- "Arrested Development." I have been a huge fan of the (sadly cancelled) show since it premiered, and we found the complete series on DVD in China for a mere $15. Now Jaspal is more into it than I am. We even found ourselves in a situation that reminded me of the show: on our return flight from Beijing, we were traveling with at least 30 Bangladeshi men. I asked one of them if they were a team, and he replied, "Yes."

"Why are you traveling to Mongolia?" I asked.

"Exercise. Conquest."

CONQUEST??? I was extremely nervous on the flight. Who were these men and what type of conquest were they after?

Once we landed, they were greeted by an envoy from the Mongolian military.

Today on a news website, we read the headline, "Military from U.S., Bangladesh in Mongolia to Participate in Khaan Quest 2007."

Oh. "Khaan Quest" (as in Genghis Khaan). Not "conquest."

Las Cucarachas

Unfortunately, I learned a new word in Mongolian today: ЖООМ (pronounced "jome") -- it means cockroach.

We (I, actually) have found two cockroaches in the apartment since we returned from Beijing. One, alive, in the (empty) kitchen trash can. The second I discovered today (dead) in the sink while I was washing dishes.

Ew. Ew. Ew.

Genghis Blues

It has FINALLY started raining here, bringing the temperatures down. I love it. I miss the fog and chilly gray days of San Francisco (I know many of you are thinking I am crazy, but I can't deal with it when the weather just stays the same, day after day. Especially when it's hot. I like a little variety.)

The day before we left for Beijing, the hot water went out in the apartment. Apparently they are doing (much needed) street repairs in UB and different parts of the city have had their hot water turned off (without warning) all summer. We were hoping ours would be back by the time we got back from Beijing, but no luck. We have to heat up water in an electric kettle and pour it into a bucket to shower. Very India-esque.

Last night we went to a going away party for a friend of Jaspal's who's also been here on a Fulbright. It was a potluck with all kinds of tasty food (we brought pasta salad). The apartment that it was hosted in reminds me of a UB version of the Fell House. It's huge and has had foreigners living in it for years, with numerous roommate rotations. I felt right at home!

One of the housemates is a musician from the U.S. (by way of about a dozen other countries) who put on an impromptu performance with some of his Mongolian friends. There was traditional dance, a swan-head fiddle, an upright bass, and throat singing (by the Mongolians and the American -- he was really good!). It was great.

The dancer proceeded to give Jaspal a drunken lecture about the links between Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian music and dance. He was very earnest about the importance of respecting your culture, but I think a lot of what he said got lost in translation (and vodka).

For those of you who are wondering, I finished Harry Potter yesterday (Harry's birthday, appropriately enough!). Anyone who wants to get into a deep discussion about it can email me!