Breakthrough!

The interviews have officially begun. Today I had an interesting conversation with a Turkish organization. I ended up staying an hour more than I had intended, talking about heritage and development and other cool things like that while sipping traditional Korean lemon tea (delicious, btw). Back at the office, I got some behind the scenes details on the “culture and development” forum that will take place this week, and I’m all registered with the government palace like an actual person. Not sure if the lectures will be any more comprehensible than the other conference I went to (listening comprehension is still my worst skill-set, great for an anthropologist), but it may be more interesting talking to people about the forum and analyzing the speaker list anyways.

This afternoon I made two unexpected advances. First, a great talk with my NGO director about my time in Mongolia (past and present) and how I can be more engaged with 2013 projects. She is a really lovely and intelligent lady, and it was wonderful to talk through the reasons why I am here and to remember why I am excited about my project. Second, I not only heard back from the State Registration Office about my request for a list of arts, culture NGOs in Mongolia, but they went ahead and sent me a print out. It raises more questions than it answers, but it is definitely excellent data!

Every day and every week has a few rough patches, but I really feel like I’m starting to gain traction here. The more I learn, the more I also know that this is the right time for me to be here and be asking these questions. Even though the winter is cold and the night is very black when the power goes out in the office (ah, UB), I have bright hopes for the next several months.

As for this holiday season, I have a few packages/letters on their way to me to go under my little artificial Christmas tree, and I’m hosting a cookie decorating and cookie swap party this weekend. Overall, life is indeed good :) Thank you for sharing it with me.