And we didn't take a picture of any of them! Biggest photofail of my time in Mongolia.
To explain, we arrived back in Choibalsan a few weeks ago, walked into the apartment, and found fifteen dead, dehydrated bats strewn about the place. One of them lay right on our pillow. It was if Dracula had been taking a nap and forgot to pull the shades before sunrise. Fortunately, they were so dehydrated that there wasn't any real odor. Just batdust. Lots and lots of batdust.
To add insult to injury, shortly thereafter we found out that our landlady wanted her apartment back and we had to pack up all our batdust and move. The next three days were a frenzy of apartment-searching, packing, cleaning, and preparing for/attending the first day of school. It was very unpleasant, but I'm relieved to say that we're now all moved into a new place. It's a bit farther away from downtown, but it's bigger, nicer, and just as close to school. We even have a TV that gets BBC World News, which means I get to listen to my favorite apocalyptic rave whenever I want! God I love that booping noise.
Baagii seems happy here, and if Baagii's happy, we're happy. We were so stoked to get him back. The summer seems to have done nothing to stop his progression into the best goddamned cat that ever lived. He's such a sweet little guy. You can see him below getting ready to pounce on me from the bathtub. Strategic genius.
Before coming home to bats, we of course arrived back in Ulaanbaatar safely from America. We spent a week in and around the big city, getting medical and dental check-ups and attending Mid Service Training. It was ostensibly a time to reflect on our first year of service and prepare for our second, but it was actually a chance to see all our friends again, which was really nice. It was held in Terelj, a gorgeous national park northeast of UB. Always nice to see another part of Mongolia.
The last few weeks have seen a lot of cooking, cleaning, movie-watching, etc. School has been... unreliable to say the least. The first month or so is crazy with schedule changes and the like, so it's tough to get any real work done. We've also met the new sitemates! Krista, Koty, and John arrived in Choibalsan a week before we did after training for the summer outside of Darkhan. We don't know them all that well yet, but they seem nice and hard-working, and all three of them joined us for the long walk out to the Pilot's Monument, as pictured below. Tomorrow, John is coming with Kaede and me on the year's first trip out to Division 5. Hopefully he'll fall so in love with those adorable little kindergartners that he'll be begging to take over after we leave.
It's definitely a different atmosphere around here this year. I'd be lying if I said I don't miss all my buds who've moved on from Choibalsan, but it's tough to complain when I have my lovely wife here with me (below you can see the adorable effects of the squid ink pasta Kaede's mom sent us for her birthday... thanks Kayoko!). Between Kaede and Baagii, I've gotta have one of the bestest homes in all of Central Asia!
To explain, we arrived back in Choibalsan a few weeks ago, walked into the apartment, and found fifteen dead, dehydrated bats strewn about the place. One of them lay right on our pillow. It was if Dracula had been taking a nap and forgot to pull the shades before sunrise. Fortunately, they were so dehydrated that there wasn't any real odor. Just batdust. Lots and lots of batdust.
To add insult to injury, shortly thereafter we found out that our landlady wanted her apartment back and we had to pack up all our batdust and move. The next three days were a frenzy of apartment-searching, packing, cleaning, and preparing for/attending the first day of school. It was very unpleasant, but I'm relieved to say that we're now all moved into a new place. It's a bit farther away from downtown, but it's bigger, nicer, and just as close to school. We even have a TV that gets BBC World News, which means I get to listen to my favorite apocalyptic rave whenever I want! God I love that booping noise.
Baagii seems happy here, and if Baagii's happy, we're happy. We were so stoked to get him back. The summer seems to have done nothing to stop his progression into the best goddamned cat that ever lived. He's such a sweet little guy. You can see him below getting ready to pounce on me from the bathtub. Strategic genius.
Before coming home to bats, we of course arrived back in Ulaanbaatar safely from America. We spent a week in and around the big city, getting medical and dental check-ups and attending Mid Service Training. It was ostensibly a time to reflect on our first year of service and prepare for our second, but it was actually a chance to see all our friends again, which was really nice. It was held in Terelj, a gorgeous national park northeast of UB. Always nice to see another part of Mongolia.
The last few weeks have seen a lot of cooking, cleaning, movie-watching, etc. School has been... unreliable to say the least. The first month or so is crazy with schedule changes and the like, so it's tough to get any real work done. We've also met the new sitemates! Krista, Koty, and John arrived in Choibalsan a week before we did after training for the summer outside of Darkhan. We don't know them all that well yet, but they seem nice and hard-working, and all three of them joined us for the long walk out to the Pilot's Monument, as pictured below. Tomorrow, John is coming with Kaede and me on the year's first trip out to Division 5. Hopefully he'll fall so in love with those adorable little kindergartners that he'll be begging to take over after we leave.
It's definitely a different atmosphere around here this year. I'd be lying if I said I don't miss all my buds who've moved on from Choibalsan, but it's tough to complain when I have my lovely wife here with me (below you can see the adorable effects of the squid ink pasta Kaede's mom sent us for her birthday... thanks Kayoko!). Between Kaede and Baagii, I've gotta have one of the bestest homes in all of Central Asia!
Please make more pictures with the Division 5. What was left of Soviet buildings? I'd like to see. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAt the monument to the pilots was also a Soviet military base. What happened to her? Please take a picture and show it to ruins. Here she is on the map - http://wikimapia.org/#lat=48.0779786&lon=114.5824242&z=16&l=0&m=b&search=choibalsan
I always wait your blog to come ... please write more about Khan-uul school i once been in Dornod and so it's nice to hear about my old school and hometown.Good luck with your work and life..
ReplyDelete