Women's Day Celebrating

International Women's Day is a big holiday in Mongolia- there's no work on March 8th and even the days before there are office parties and the stores stock lots of fresh fruit, flowers, and chocolate. We don't have any men in our office right now (traditionally they would procure the food, etc.), but it was nice to have a real women's day celebration. I wish it was more of a holiday in the U.S. although it reminded me a bit of Valentine's Day, except Women's Day doesn't have any of the weird romantic pressures/stereotypes.

Wednesday we left work a little early and went to a special art exhibition, supported by Minister Oyungerel, of Mongolian female artists. There was a lot of diversity, and since I had an official invite I got a free booklet about all the artists and their featured works (interestingly enough it was printed in english). Here's a picture from the event.



The 976 Art Gallery is located on the 5th floor of a mall, which I still find weird, but it was a nice time.

Thursday evening then (the day before Women's Day) we had a really nice office party- lots of fruit and a delicious cheesecake, everyone received presents (a gift certificate to a salon, a gift card to a bath & body store, and a rose), and there was of course some drinking and girl talk (someone brought baileys, which was awesome and unexpected). A few of the girls went out for karaoke/dancing afterwards, but I headed home at midnight.

Friday I had a nice lunch and then toured the National Museum of Mongolia with Nomi and a visiting professor from the U.S., which was a lot of fun. I really love traditional Mongolian clothes, so I especially like the costume hall and descriptions of the different ethnic minorities in Mongolia.

Overall, a very nice holiday :)