Mother's and Children's Day

In Mongolia, June 1st is 'Mother's and Children's Day', a day to celebrate and show appreciation for mothers and children all across the country. In Olgii they had a big ceremony in the main square which consisted of a bunch of speeches, award presentations, and musical and dance performances. The weather was perfect today, probably around 80 degrees, a light breeze and barely a cloud in the sky. There were some vendors set up all around the square selling food, snacks, and all sorts of other things. I took a lot of pictures of the dancing and the ceremony, which I just added to the last facebook album on the list.(2009 part 7) Later in the day, Laura, Rike and I went down and hung out by the river, just enjoyed the great weather and got some sun. This is our (Laura and I) last week in Olgii before we both head to Ulaanbaatar and then to the U.S. for our vacations.

Above are a few pictures from today but click the last link to look at the rest of the pictures. Sometime in the near future I am going to start uploading new pictures to another photo sharing website, make a few slideshows and add the links to the blog. I think this might be a little bit of an improvement over just adding all the pics to facebook and putting the links up on here.


Oh yeah, here's the music video of the week. :)

Another Saturday hike/picnic

Memorial Day 2009

This Memorial Day, try to take some time to remember our fine servicemen and women who get the job done consistently, despite huge mental and physical sacrifices, and who are often misused and unappreciated by our elected 'leaders'. Let us remember and honor those who have given their lives in service to our country.

Music Video of the Week!

DJ Smash - Moscow Never Sleeps (original)

Saturday 'End of School' Picnic

So today Laura had planned a picnic for the end of the school year with her 7th graders. We took them to a spot near the river on the west side of town. We had some food and snacks, played hacky sack, played football, soccer, team tag, and had a huge water fight. I'm pretty sure that I'll end up with pneumonia this week but it was a lot of fun. Laura's students were pretty crazy and a lot of fun to hang out with. It was pretty windy and that made it chilly at times but other than that the day was perfect. Pictures are in the picture links list but here's a few random shots from today.







I'm thinking it might be fun to plan something similar with my students for a day before I leave for Ulaanbaatar in June. I will talk to my students this week and see if they are interested.

Pics from the hike in Hovd

Birthday weekend, etc.

This past weekend Laura, Rike and I went to Hovd to visit the Peace Corps volunteers there and celebrate my birthday (May 17th) and Rike's birthday(May 18th). We left on Friday afternoon and got in late that night. The drive was absolutely beautiful. The countryside between Olgii and Hovd is just amazing. My camera's pics do not do it justice. On Saturday we helped a couple PCV's out with a small project and then had a picnic by the river. We ate stir fry/lettuce wraps, played softball, threw a frisbee around and just had a good time enjoying the amazing weather. That night we went out partying and dancing and had a blast. On Sunday a few of us went on a really good hike just outside the city. The hike involved a lot of problem solving/rock climbing and was really fun and challenging.

I added two more picture albums and there are almost 120 new pics from Olgii and Hovd. I will put up some more pictures as soon as I get them uploaded.

In the meanwhile, here's a few more pics of my students and I from last week.
First pic (left to right): Abdullah, Bakhai, Muhammad, Akjol, Erku, Erdos, Allazi, Janbubi, and Kunnur.