Meet me in Mongolia!

Finally- blog update of the most amazing country yet- Mongolia.

I flew from Beijing to Ulan Baatar on a Tuesday night. Although it’s only a 2 hour flight, there are few flights and I had to take a late one. I was excited though- Mongolia for teacher training and time to visit with the lovely English Language fellow there, Judy and her husband Woody. I had no idea what to expect and had no time to do any research ahead of time but I was ready (ish). At least ready for a week out of China. The schedule- arrive at 1 am. Get 5 hours of sleep to wake up for a one day conference, following day an evening lecture on jazz at the American Corner, and then an English lesson with a visually impaired group; not to mention two days to explore on my own!

(just me and a yak. NBD)

My first Mongolian experience was the driver who met me at the airport, aptly named, Chinggis Khan International. (They love Chinggis here). We made it to the car and I went to get in, only to discover that the steering wheel was on the right side. I thought to myself, “Rose you are so stupid! You didn’t know that they drive on the other side of the road in Mongolia?” However, much to my surprise- they don’t. Yes. You read that correctly. Apparently many cars were sent from Japan super cheap (especially Prius!) and so some cars have steering on the right and other have it on the left- Totally trippy when you are in the passenger side! Anyway, the driver was wonderful. Spoke three words of English and a bunch of Russian. I dazzled him with my pronunciation of “здравствуйте”- That’s hello in Russian by the way. UB is really a city. People are surprised by this but there are apartment complexes and traffic and public transportation and markets and lots and lots of people!

(tradition meets modern in UB)

Surprise number 2- Mongolian alphabet is no longer used. It’s all Cyrillic baby! That was a fun surprise. The influence of Russia over the years before Mongolian independence, followed by an influx of kazakh and other northern asian peoples has abruptly changed the country. Quick fun fact- there are three million people in Mongolia, two million who live in UB proper, the rest are scattered around the hundreds of thousands of miles of mountains and desert.

(horses grazing during a hike i took)                            (a ger-traditional mongolian nomadic house)

So outreach was pretty great actually, minus the lack of sleep! My wonderful foldables workshop went well (what is a foldable? only the coolest graphic organizer ever). The deputy secretary of the public affairs office at the US state dept was in UB and came to the workshop- pretty cool stuff indeed. But what was really great were the next two things. I gave a lecture for the UB American Corner at the local library. These are free lecture series for anyone in the community who wants to come. So I spoke about jazz music in front of a diverse group of 30 people- from an 11 year old boy fluent in English to an 80 year old woman who barely spoke. At the end I opened it up to Q and A and the first question a young woman asked me was if I know Postmodern Jukebox. “Um, that’s my brother’s band!” I exclaimed. Of course, the next question:”Can you sing for us?” So I did. Now 30 people in Mongolia have heard my rendition of “My Funny Valentine”. Go figure.

(foldable workshop)

(me, lecturing)

The next day I had the honor of visiting an ESL class for visually impaired. These amazing individuals meet every Saturday morning and get English lessons from a Mongolian English teacher (also blind by the way). I was overwhelmed by their motivation and completely in awe of their abilities. They even rent bikes in the park and ride around on Sundays. Truly inspiring.

(me and some students)

For one of my days off, the other fellows and I rented a car and driver to take us to a famous rocky national park, the giant Genghis Khan statue (world’s tallest statue of a horse!), and a beautiful monastery in the mountains. The moment you leave the city of UB, you are surrounded by mountains and plains that seem to go on forever. They even appear airbrushed, like they aren’t really there. Horses wander along the side of the highway (and in the parking lot!), men herd their sheep, and yaks cross the street in front of us. The national park was full of rock formations that appeared like another planet. At the monastery something felt different than the many temples I'd been to in China. i couldn't figure it out at first but then realized. there were so many photos of the Dalai lama! I had actually forgotten how important he is to the Tibetan buddhist tradition, something that is put down in mainland China. Not to mention the view of the mountains. Wowzaa!

(Genghis!   )                     (real lamas drumming)      (crazy rocks  )            (  what a view!)

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the countryside but one thing is certain- it was damn beautiful! And everyone along the way was friendly and kind. We even got to stop for traditional Mongolian mutton dumplings…mmmmmm. 

(well, yes, it is a parking spot i suppose)

And so, I urge you, if Mongolia isn't on your list of places to visit, add it! An incredible country full of beauty and charm. I can't wait to go back!