Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving Number 2, Christmas Decorations and Fusion: Beer Bottle Innovation

This week we had a second Thanksgiving dinner, this time with just Olgii people. It was me, Laura, Scott, Ashlee, Kala, and Lauren, a Fulbright scholar and falconer who's here studying and hunting with eagle hunters. Laura and Ashlee put together an amazing dinner of chicken pot pie, mac and cheese, stuffing, yams and marshmallows, biscuits, green bean casserole, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and three different pies. It was amazing and we had more than enough food. Everyone got seconds and we still had plenty left over. We had some wine, beers, good conversation and even played a couple exciting hands of 'Disney Princess Edition' Uno. O_o

Thursday was a day off that just happened to fall on Thanksgiving. November 26th is Mongolia's Independence Day. In addition, today (Friday) was a Kazakh/Islamic holiday so work was pretty much nonexistent. I still managed to meet with one of my seventh grade English clubs for a fun afternoon lesson, with five of my older students for some grammar testing and speaking practice, and to tutor a hospital worker.

Ashlee leaves for UB for her IST (inter service training) tomorrow morning and she'll be gone for a couple weeks so tonight we had our Olgii 'Christmas get together'. We ate the leftovers from Thanksgiving, decorated Laura's house, and put up our sweet Christmas tree. It was pretty fun and with the combination of two plates of delicious leftovers, beers, and the warmth of Laura's fire, I pretty much went into a food coma.

Small success today: I picked up my plane ticket for Ulaanbaatar in December. I'm going in a few days before Christmas to get my flu shot and for a dental appointment. Shortly after that I'll be leaving for Thailand for a little over three weeks with my girlfriend Hanna. I'm pretty excited...never been there before and it will be really nice to spend some time with Hanna after being apart for four months. Warm weather, the beach, and delicious food will be a nice temporary break from the Mongolian winter. :)

Fusion: Mongolian beer bottle innovation. Check out my short video describing and demonstrating the awesomeness.




3 comments:

Hanna said...

I love the detailed Thanksgiving feast. Reminds me of reading the Little House on the Prairie books. The music in the background of the Fusion vid is perfect. Doo doo doo~

Tracy Fuller said...

I LOVE the beer bottle opener! That's amazing. I can't believe no one has done that in the US. And I can't wait to utilize the handy innovation once I arrive in Mongolia. That made my day, thanks!
Tracy - future PCV, Mongolia

Unknown said...

I have been spreading the word about the awesome beer bottles... let's see if we can get something started!