Happy Thanksgiving!

I went to my friend Christa's Thanksgiving Day for a tasty dinner with chicken substituted for very difficult to find and expensive turkey and cowboy potatoes (mashed potatoes with cheese, corn, and carrots- yum!), as well as traditional items like stuffing and sweet potato casserole.

Woke up this morning to this picture: my family back in the U.S. celebrating Thanksgiving and "eating" some potatoes in honor of me.

Note: the ketchup bottle...a crucial part of the turkey eating experience for me



I miss my wonderful, goofy friends and family back in the U.S., but I'm grateful for the community I have here in UB as well. And I even get a second Thanksgiving meal this year, with the Peace Corps/Fulbright celebration tomorrow. Fingers crossed that I don't mess up the mashed potatoes too badly :)

Full Circle

I came to Mongolia for the first time when I was 19. I've come back at the age of 25, after studying Mongolian for three years, to complete my dissertation. There are some days where my brain seems to throw up its hands in defeat at the constant barrage of Mongolian, and then there are days where I really feel like I am understanding and learning things I couldn't have without all of the time and energy I've invested in my studies. There's still a lot more to do for my dissertation data collection, and I need to be better about keeping track of what I already have and my interpretations.

But for now, I want to share a few special moments.

Getting back in touch with my 2007 group leader and the possibility of her returning to Mongolia this summer for her own research

At the Norman Rockwell exhibition, I saw an older Mongolian woman who looked so familiar to me. I managed to rather quickly memorize everyone at the Arts Council, but I've met a lot of people at SUIS that I don't always know/remember their name. After staring at her furtively for about fifteen minutes, I associated the name Hongorzul, and after fifteen more minutes I worked up the courage to approach her. In 2007 Hongorzul was incredibly helpful to my field group, and she took us on a trip to Sainshand in the Gobi region so I could visit the Danzanravjaa museum and monastery.

Here she is in 2007 ringing the great bell.

It was very neat to see her again and to be able to say that the experience inspired me to start studying her language and then return for my PhD.


But the person I was most excited to run into was my museum mentor and all-around great lady, Nara from the National History Museum. It turns out she now works at a research center of SUIS, and I never might have known if I hadn't gone to a Cultural Heritage conference this past Friday. It was so good to see her, and a little funny to remember that I said at the end of 2007 that I didn't think I'd return.

Nara and I in 2007 :) We'll have to get a 2012 picture together

There are still times where Mongolia feels overwhelming and/or frustrating, but it is a very special place. I feel incredibly fortunate to have gotten so much support over the years to continue my research and so lucky to have re-met old friends :)

I have no idea when and where I'm doing what, some days

I want to post a quick apology for not updating more often, but you see...

I planned to last week, after fulfilling my SUIS efforts. And then I got ridiculously sick and basically didn't move from bed for three days.

Then I had ACM business and all of the craziness that is planning for the 10th anniversary

Then a surprise national holiday for Chinggis Khan's birthday, which meant my office days got wonky

So finally, I planned to write on Friday or Saturday or Sunday...all free days, right?

Wrong

Tomorrow I am either going to a dress-maker or a cultural policy conference or both

Saturday I am going to a photoshoot and a play...if everything works out

Sunday is maybe another photoshoot?


Basically, I don't know what is going happen from 9 am tomorrow until Sunday at 5 pm

This is life in Mongolia. There are reasons nobody plans ahead much.

Also, beefsteak with fried egg is becoming my new favorite Mongolian lunch. Some local color for you

Freedom of Speech

Today I sat down to lunch (meatballs in gravy, rice, beets, shredded cabbage, and shredded red pepper) with the director of the NGO I work with. As we prepared to dig into our meals, she casually says "This is a big week for America, isn't it? The presidential election!"

I voted absentee this year, as Ulaanbaatar is a bit of a commute to the polling place. I can even be fairly confident that my ballot has been properly received and counted, as I voted as an Ohio resident and my parents are no longer receiving phone calls and mailers directed at me in an effort to sway my valuable-Ohio-state-citizen-vote.

Out of curiosity, after lunch I went and looked up voter turn-out rates in Mongolia and the United States, respectively. Mongolia was the first Communist country to transition to democracy, and it did so very peacefully. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of discontentment about political corruption, and the former president was recently arrested on charges of corruption just before the latest parliamentary elections. This year Mongolia had its lowest ever voter turn-out: 65.2%.

This is, of course, a regrettable slide as Mongolians increasingly lose faith in their elected officials and the election process. But I was curious to see when the last time was that the U.S. had such a high voter turn-out rate. The answer: 1908.

I know there are a lot of problems facing the American democratic process, and that the electoral college system is not ideal. But honestly, that's even more of a reason to vote, to be active and engaged in our political system and our communities.

This Wednesday kicks off an exhibit of Norman Rockwell's artwork, a project through the Arts Council that is funded by the U.S. Embassy. Walking through the gallery today and seeing the paintings hanging, I stopped in front of the four freedoms. My Mongolian colleague was next to me as I pointed at the painting, "Freedom of Speech". I vaguely remembered a few of the other pieces, but this one, "This one is famous in America. It is the Freedom of Speech."

I am not usually struck by a profound sense of patriotism, but to see that painting just before the election...to know that when I come to the opening party on Wednesday night that we will have selected our next president...this painting really spoke to me in a new way.

Tomorrow, please remember it is not just your right as an American to vote, but that it is also your responsibility.

Projecting

Apologies for the lag between posts, I came down with another cold last week that turned me temporarily into a very lethargic snot-monster. I have never used so many tissues in a single day...I'm almost impressed. TMI aside, last week I was out and about on Arts Council business six days out of seven...impressive and definitely not expected.

Thursday I got a chance to do a site visit to the "Trash is not Trash" up-cycling project, combining arts education and environmental outreach. The kids were an enthusiastic and good-natured bunch, and they had been working on a lot of cool projects. I have a whole write-up about it the English language newspaper "Mongol Messenger", but of course that is at work. For now, here's a picture

Friday I slept in and then went to my friend Hannah's art show at the Red Ger Gallery. There were a lot of fantastic pieces, so I'll put those pictures up on facebook. Here's a group shot that Ganaa got of us though.

After viewing Hannah's show, I went to a school with Oyunaa and Daria to give a presentation on Halloween I'd thrown together last week for an English language class. After a traffic-jam filled drive, we arrived at the school to discover they had no power. Twenty kids were sitting in the semi-dark waiting for us, so I just told random factoids about Day of the Dead and popular Halloween costumes. Afterwards some of the kids gathered around to talk pop music. It is always embarrassing to realize you don't know the beginnings to some of your "favorite" songs but can still sing along to Taylor Swift.

Saturday then was the Halloween Party for three different schools, including the one from Friday's outing, at a bowling alley located in an amusement park. Luckily the Zorig Foundation and their American worker Ned took charge of most of the games. There was a mummy costume contest and an apple-eating contest. Plenty of candy, of course. And then there was some bowling, with too many kids for too few bowling balls and shoes. They still had a blast though. I only got to throw the bowling ball three times and got the gutter each time. Not a proud day for America, but oh well.

Oyunaa and I modeling our Halloween stickers

Overall it was a scattered but good end to the week. And on the seventh day, she rested and watched much "The Legend of Korra" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender"