Tasty Cheeseburger Recipe, Real Mongolian 'Barbecue' and the Joys of Being Thrown in a River

On Friday morning, one of my coworkers came to my apartment and told me we'd be going out to the countryside children's camp for a couple days, leaving that afternoon. I ran a few errands, packed my things (including books, frisbee, etc.) in anticipation of spending a weekend with a bunch of kids, teaching, playing games, etc. After a two hour drive southwest we arrived at the camp. When we got out and started walking around I saw a few people here and there but quickly realized there were no children around. I talked to my coworkers and they informed me that we had come out to the camp to spend a 'holiday' or vacation weekend and we'd be sleeping in tents by the river and pretty much relaxing. I was pretty surprised but happy nonetheless. The weekend was filled with milk tea, water fights by the river between me and my coworker's seven year old son, a little dancing at the makeshift disco, a lot of reading, listening to music and relaxing in the sun, and a short hike up a small hill/mountain. On Saturday we had real 'Mongolian bbq' which is nothing like what you'd expect. Basically they take meat, season it with wine and some other spices, add potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc. then heat up rocks in the middle of a fire, and put the rocks in with the meat, cover it and let it cook. It was really good and although I've been here for over a year, the first time I'd tried it. On Sunday in the afternoon before we left my coworkers decided that since I hadn't been in the river yet, they were going to put me in the river. I was picked up by five or six people and dragged over to the river and thrown in. I managed to pull two of them in with me but unfortunately I lost my glasses and was blind for most of the rest of the day. I have an extra pair but I'm hoping I can get the other one replaced in Ulaanbaatar next week when I'm in for a mid service training session with the other volunteers from my group.

Not much going on in Olgii outside of my weekend adventure. I'm going into the office this week to meet with my coworkers and practice my Kazakh. Another thing that came up that I'm interested in getting started soon is the idea of a website for Olgii. My friend Jason, who was a PCV in Hovd, helped to develop a website for that city which has a lot of good information for travelers. I'd like to do something similar and talk to some of the local hotels, businesses, tourist orgs, etc. about putting their information on the website. A decent amount of travelers and tourists make it out to Olgii in the summer and fall so it would probably be a helpful resource and would make navigating around Olgii and Bayan Olgii a bit easier, plus it could possibly get a bit more exposure for Olgii and educate the curious on what the Kazakh culture in Mongolia is all about. This isn't really related to my primary work assignment but I will probably start working on it with my friend Nurbol soon in my free time. I'm also hoping to meet with a local school before classes start to talk about helping out with some of their lessons and possibly organizing some life skills and English language clubs.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend in the countryside. I will get more of them uploaded to my Flickr account as soon as I can and then post up a slide show.

Back in Olgii

Well after two weeks in Ulaanbaatar, three weeks in the U.S., another week in UB, and a two day bus ride...I'm back home in Olgii. It's really nice to be back in my apartment, in my town. I've been running into neighbors, friends and coworkers the past few days, getting readjusted to life back here. My boss and many of my coworkers are out in the countryside vacationing and many students are either in the countryside visiting family or in the summer camps outside of Olgii, so work has been pretty much non-existent. I also got pretty sick this week, possibly food poisoning, so I'm trying to take it easy until I feel better. Next week I'll be heading around town more to meet with some new people and talking to my students about when we'll restart classes and start working on some projects.

We just found out that we'll be getting two new Peace Corps volunteers in Olgii in August, a married couple from the M20 group. I haven't met many of the M20's yet but it will be interesting to have some new PCV's in Olgii for the last year that Laura and I are here. Hopefully we can all work together and maybe put together a project or two that will benefit all of Olgii.

I think things will be pretty slow until the first week of September when school starts. In late August I will be going back to Ulaanbaatar for a Peace Corps M19 mid service training session, should be about another week away from Olgii but when I come back, I'll come back with Laura and it will be right before school starts.

I haven't taken too many pics lately, just pics with friends and family from Ulaanbaatar and the U.S. I will try to put a few of the good ones up. I've got a new computer and camera and am still getting things organized. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well back home. To those I got to see and spend time with, it was great seeing you and I look forward to seeing you again whenever I make it back to the U.S. To those I didn't see, there's always 2010/2011. Stay in touch. :)

America = craziness

Too much of everything. I almost don't know what to do. Pennysylvania and New York were a lot of fun, in Colorado now....pics from UB and the U.S. to come soon.

Surviving Ulaanbaatar/Erdenet Chaos

Long time since I wrote an update. I came to Ulaanbaatar last week and have been enjoying the big city life, spent a few days up north in Erdenet (Mongolia's 2nd or 3rd largest city depending on who you talk to), and now back in Ulaanbaatar. I fly out to the U.S. on Tuesday. Really looking forward to seeing my friends and family. Nothing new to report for now. New pics coming soon.

Last classes before my vacation

I put up all the pictures from this weekend in my new flickr photo album but the above pics are from the picnic.

Well this was my last week of work and classes before my vacation. I met with most of my students this week and we reviewed some of the lessons from the past few months and talked about what we'll be doing starting in August. I went over what I wanted my students to study and work on while I'm gone, talked about the planning and costs that the children's center needs to figure out while I'm gone, and spent time with friends.

On Saturday Laura and I took my sixth grade students on a picnic. We played soccer, football, threw a frisbee around, played a few other games and ate spaghetti and grilled cheese sandwiches. The weather was really nice and we all had a really fun time. That was the last time I will see my students and friends until late July. Tomorrow afternoon Laura and I are taking the bus to Ulaanbaatar, where we'll spend time with friends, discuss a few grant details with the Peace Corps, greet the new group of volunteers (M20's, Mongolia's 20th group of Peace Corps volunteers since the program started here) and get read to head to the United States for vacation. Laura is leaving on the 16th I believe for a couple weeks in Florida and I leave on the 23rd for my trip. I'm flying into NYC, going to my close friends Andy and Debbies' wedding in Pennyslvania, flying to Colorado for just under two weeks, flying back out to Penn to spend some time with the my mom's side of the family, and then flying back to Ulaanbaatar. I've been in Mongolia for just over a year now and I'm pretty excited about coming home to visit family and friends and of course enjoy some delicious, unhealthy American cuisine.

Flickr

I've created an account with Flickr and I will start uploading new pictures on there and have the link up on my blog, along with the occasional slide show for people who like to view pictures that way. Here's the first set of pics that I took on a hike this past week. There's not many pictures up so far but I'll start getting more pics up soon. Check it out.



Also, here's the link to my Flickr photo albums.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbeckeradventures/

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. :)