Daily life in Mongolia, especially on Thursdays and Fridays when I'm not technically working for the Arts Council, are a continuous reworking of hierarchies. Take today, Friday for example.
Early in the week, I had no plans for Friday. I thought perhaps my friend Kip and I might go the the black market, since I want to buy a belt for my deel.
Wednesday my friend Erika called and said the best day for lunch would be Friday. It's been a while since we talked, and I wanted to pick her brain more about the Amarbayasgalant trip, so that jumped up in the hierarchy. Maybe in the afternoon we could go the black market.
Not half an hour later, I discover at the staff meeting that the training my Mongolian advisor is giving for our leadership program will now be on Friday. Since I hadn't managed to meet face-to-face with her since December, this moved waaaay up the hierarchy.
Thursday, I get the schedule from my coworker and decide lunch at noon isn't enough time. Thursday afternoon, I go over to my affiliated university to start exit visa preparations and lo and behold, my advisor stops in the office. We briefly talk about how I will see her tomorrow at the training. I text Erika and reschedule lunch to 2 pm.
Friday morning dawns, and I go over to Red Ger for the training. While I'm heading over there, I receive a call from the office assistant that today is our director's birthday!
I arrive at the training, and it's starting very late. My coworker informs me that we are all going to lunch for the director's birthday after the training. I text Erika very apologetically and reschedule the late lunch to an early dinner.
The training goes well, but we have to leave before the second half to go to the birthday lunch. I manage to give Dolgorsuren a copy of my research progress and tell her I will write a Mongolian paper next semester when I'm back at school, she gives me her updated email address. Good to have for staying in touch! I call Kip to apologize, I now have no free-time this Friday.
We go to lunch, a nice time is had by all. Lunch is winding down, and I now have two extra hours before my rescheduled dinner. I go the supermarket since I'm almost out of food and tomorrow is children's day (pure chaos, don't want to try shopping then). I return home and make bread pudding for weekend breakfasts.
While the bread pudding steam cooks in the rice cooker, I write a few postcards. Bread pudding (mostly) done, I unplug the rice cooker, scoop up the postcards, and race out the door, 20 minutes to 5. I'm at the post office, just about to mail my postcards when Erika calls. Her sister needs to stop by, so she doesn't know how late she'll be. We reschedule our early Friday lunch for the third time to early Sunday dinner. I go ahead and buy more postcards and stamps, figuring I can mail a last batch out on Sunday.
While still at the post office, I receive a call from my coworker that our Monday morning interview won't work since she just got a meeting with the Canadian embassy. However, she's found someone else free then so I won't lose time finishing my staff interviews.
I return home. It is 6 p.m. This is why I have trouble remembering what happened on Monday.
Life. Hierarchies of priority and necessity. The futility of planning. Mongolia.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Guantanamera
Some days Mongolia, some days
Monday I get into the office, end up fussing with my USB for waaaay too long before discovering that it is unusable
Nomi drops by my desk, "So you know about lunch?"
:Blank stare:
"Yeah, to celebrate how well the membership event went all the staff are going to lunch at this Cuban restaurant. And then we'll probably just go home"
Oh, ok then?!
So we work for a bit...and it's almost 2 but no one's left yet...and then, boom, we all head out to pile into taxis
We end up in a location just down the road from where I lived in 2007 and 2011...right off the bridge where that drunk guy got hit by a car trying to follow me across. Memories!
But yes, right there is a little Cuban restaurant called Guantanamera that boasts quite a robust menu and makes mojitos.
To cut the story short, there were two rounds of mojitos. Most got a third (I abstained). I had a delicious, delicious meal of beef in a creole sauce, with brown rice and carrots and pumpkin...sooo good.
Four hours later... it's almost 7, and we're trying to decide our next step. I'm just trying to catch a taxi heading back to Peace Avenue. Oyunaa suggests going to Zaisan memorial, but it's too windy. Instead, we go to my co-workers house, where we eat leftover homemade pizza, split two bottles of wine, and have a dance party (including the song "guantanamera", some JLo, some backstreet boys, and some camerton)
Camerton, the Mongolian boy band of the 90s
Rumor has it that the Backstreet Boys might still be doing a concert in June....we'll see
In any case, after a not-working work day, my coworkers put me in a taxi and I headed home. I really, really hate taking taxis by myself, but this was one of the more pleasant experiences- we chatted about his home aimag and the changes in the city, and he complemented my Mongolian and didn't overcharge me.
A few days later, we're all humming "Guantanamera" around the office...
Crazy days, fun times.
Monday I get into the office, end up fussing with my USB for waaaay too long before discovering that it is unusable
Nomi drops by my desk, "So you know about lunch?"
:Blank stare:
"Yeah, to celebrate how well the membership event went all the staff are going to lunch at this Cuban restaurant. And then we'll probably just go home"
Oh, ok then?!
So we work for a bit...and it's almost 2 but no one's left yet...and then, boom, we all head out to pile into taxis
We end up in a location just down the road from where I lived in 2007 and 2011...right off the bridge where that drunk guy got hit by a car trying to follow me across. Memories!
But yes, right there is a little Cuban restaurant called Guantanamera that boasts quite a robust menu and makes mojitos.
To cut the story short, there were two rounds of mojitos. Most got a third (I abstained). I had a delicious, delicious meal of beef in a creole sauce, with brown rice and carrots and pumpkin...sooo good.
Four hours later... it's almost 7, and we're trying to decide our next step. I'm just trying to catch a taxi heading back to Peace Avenue. Oyunaa suggests going to Zaisan memorial, but it's too windy. Instead, we go to my co-workers house, where we eat leftover homemade pizza, split two bottles of wine, and have a dance party (including the song "guantanamera", some JLo, some backstreet boys, and some camerton)
Camerton, the Mongolian boy band of the 90s
Rumor has it that the Backstreet Boys might still be doing a concert in June....we'll see
In any case, after a not-working work day, my coworkers put me in a taxi and I headed home. I really, really hate taking taxis by myself, but this was one of the more pleasant experiences- we chatted about his home aimag and the changes in the city, and he complemented my Mongolian and didn't overcharge me.
A few days later, we're all humming "Guantanamera" around the office...
Crazy days, fun times.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
A week in the life
Monday:
-Oversleep my alarm because I stayed up until 3 reading
-Discover how to get administrator access on my computer and download a few programs that make research so much easier
-Start attempting to make a flow map
-3 hours later (and another solemn vow to learn some basic coding skills): success!
Question is, which color scheme and whether or not to have straight lines or bundled...
-Staff Meeting, which turns into...
-Birthday celebration, which turns into...
-Teresa can get tipsy from a paper cup half full of wine if it's 9 oclock and she hasn't eaten dinner yet
Tuesday:
-Still get up later than I meant to
-Work on an animated flow map that shows changes over time...which means doublechecking the easiest datasets for the past three years, then trying to understand file paths and how they differ from my template vs. what java will understand and run
(no visual of it working, since it's an animation and still incomplete, but huzzah)
-head home for a skype interview about the Tsaatan/Dukhaa reindeer herders
-decide that after waiting an hour and a half, something has been miscommunicated and start making dinner
-begin eating dinner, then interrupted by skype call
-get interesting interview
-one and a half hours later, finish eating dinner
-skype with parents
-write blog post
-eat nutella (future plan)
(future schedule)
Wednesday:
-work
-1 pm lunch with a friend at French Bakery (and possibly purchasing some chocolate croissants)
-attempt to set up an interview for thursday morning
-write more emails about the fall mongolian music tour to the u.s.
-go home
-9 pm skype interview about a transnational NGO
Thursday
-grocery shopping for restock the usuals
-interview at National University of Mongolia?
-stop by ATM
-buy minutes for phone
-return home to shower and change into party dress
-go over to office
-6:30 pm membership night "Secrets of Zanabazar" starts
-? go home
Friday
-go to Good Price for frosting for friend's birthday cake
-bake birthday cake
-2 pm phone interview with AusAID, assuming nothing goes wrong and my minutes last....see if speakerphone actually exists on my old nokia
-evening Karaoke/birthday celebration?
Saturday
-Khustai national park day trip?
Sunday
-brunch at Nayra with a friend
-buy two more months of internet service
Still five more days of the week to go and much to do...
-Oversleep my alarm because I stayed up until 3 reading
-Discover how to get administrator access on my computer and download a few programs that make research so much easier
-Start attempting to make a flow map
-3 hours later (and another solemn vow to learn some basic coding skills): success!
Question is, which color scheme and whether or not to have straight lines or bundled...
-Staff Meeting, which turns into...
-Birthday celebration, which turns into...
-Teresa can get tipsy from a paper cup half full of wine if it's 9 oclock and she hasn't eaten dinner yet
Tuesday:
-Still get up later than I meant to
-Work on an animated flow map that shows changes over time...which means doublechecking the easiest datasets for the past three years, then trying to understand file paths and how they differ from my template vs. what java will understand and run
(no visual of it working, since it's an animation and still incomplete, but huzzah)
-head home for a skype interview about the Tsaatan/Dukhaa reindeer herders
-decide that after waiting an hour and a half, something has been miscommunicated and start making dinner
-begin eating dinner, then interrupted by skype call
-get interesting interview
-one and a half hours later, finish eating dinner
-skype with parents
-write blog post
-eat nutella (future plan)
(future schedule)
Wednesday:
-work
-1 pm lunch with a friend at French Bakery (and possibly purchasing some chocolate croissants)
-attempt to set up an interview for thursday morning
-write more emails about the fall mongolian music tour to the u.s.
-go home
-9 pm skype interview about a transnational NGO
Thursday
-grocery shopping for restock the usuals
-interview at National University of Mongolia?
-stop by ATM
-buy minutes for phone
-return home to shower and change into party dress
-go over to office
-6:30 pm membership night "Secrets of Zanabazar" starts
-? go home
Friday
-go to Good Price for frosting for friend's birthday cake
-bake birthday cake
-2 pm phone interview with AusAID, assuming nothing goes wrong and my minutes last....see if speakerphone actually exists on my old nokia
-evening Karaoke/birthday celebration?
Saturday
-Khustai national park day trip?
Sunday
-brunch at Nayra with a friend
-buy two more months of internet service
Still five more days of the week to go and much to do...
Monday, May 6, 2013
An ideal weekend
Friday evening birthday party- over early to help out and feel useful, lots of tasty food and interesting new people, an ending dance party with a few close friends and lots of 90s songs, and a short, safe walk home
Saturday trip to a new and interesting place with two good friends, taking lots of cool photos, enjoying the spring sunshine, long walks and good exercise, baking
Sunday lazy day, breakfast of bread pudding, ends with watching the original Star Wars trilogy and drinking hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows
Monday, no power at work so we all go home early, I receive a care package full of treats, and take a cat nap watching the ewoks bash some imperial stormtroopers
I am grateful for this strange, unexpected life of mine...the next few months will go so quickly
Saturday trip to a new and interesting place with two good friends, taking lots of cool photos, enjoying the spring sunshine, long walks and good exercise, baking
Sunday lazy day, breakfast of bread pudding, ends with watching the original Star Wars trilogy and drinking hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows
Monday, no power at work so we all go home early, I receive a care package full of treats, and take a cat nap watching the ewoks bash some imperial stormtroopers
I am grateful for this strange, unexpected life of mine...the next few months will go so quickly
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Heritage as a social process
On Saturday I did something rather different from my usual weekend plans- I took a bus out to the northeast of the city, to the edge of the ger district, and visited a Buddhist monastery built in the late 1700s. A friend/colleague of mine has been tasked by the Minister of Culture, Sport, and Tourism to develop a proposal for the restoration of the monastery and to start women's crafting collectives that can sell their work to tourists, and she had asked me for advice. As part of the process, Zula, my friend Kip, and I headed out to see the site and to do some photodocumentation.
After asking directions from a guy at the corner gas station, we twisted our way to the door and just walked through- no visiting fee, no guard, nothing. It was a big disconcerting after months of experiencing monasteries as museums, but Danbadarjialin is very much a community heritage site.
Artists, schoolchildren, and old men enjoying their alcohol (and leaving broken glass everywhere) all use the monastery grounds as public space. But it is also a practicing monastery and has been active since the transition in 1990. There are maybe ten-fifteen practicing lamas there now, compared to the 100 that lived there before it was closed in 1937 by the Communist government. They only use the main temple in the summer because there is no heating system, the rest of the year they use a specially made ger.
Temple ger with the ger district in the background
We were able to meet with an administrator of the monastery and discuss the proposal process, so it will be interesting to see how the next steps proceed. Since I am leaving in a few months, I of course will not able to help with any implementation if any grant is successful, but I'm pleased to be part of the process and found Saturday's visit fascinating, as I saw several more types of structures at the monastery than I've seen before.
It was a sunny, hot day and a long trip back home again, but it was a great experience.
After asking directions from a guy at the corner gas station, we twisted our way to the door and just walked through- no visiting fee, no guard, nothing. It was a big disconcerting after months of experiencing monasteries as museums, but Danbadarjialin is very much a community heritage site.
Artists, schoolchildren, and old men enjoying their alcohol (and leaving broken glass everywhere) all use the monastery grounds as public space. But it is also a practicing monastery and has been active since the transition in 1990. There are maybe ten-fifteen practicing lamas there now, compared to the 100 that lived there before it was closed in 1937 by the Communist government. They only use the main temple in the summer because there is no heating system, the rest of the year they use a specially made ger.
Temple ger with the ger district in the background
We were able to meet with an administrator of the monastery and discuss the proposal process, so it will be interesting to see how the next steps proceed. Since I am leaving in a few months, I of course will not able to help with any implementation if any grant is successful, but I'm pleased to be part of the process and found Saturday's visit fascinating, as I saw several more types of structures at the monastery than I've seen before.
It was a sunny, hot day and a long trip back home again, but it was a great experience.
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