Winter is Coming *shivering*

Winter appears to have made its way back to Mongolia or is at least right around the corner. The temperatures have been dropping, the days are getting shorter and negative 40 degree temperatures are coming. In addition, to make the impending winter more exciting, the H1N1 'epidemic' appears to have caused a bit of chaos in Mongolia. School was cancelled this week and has been cancelled for next week. I wasn't allowed to conduct any of my classes at the children's center this week and since there is no school next week as well, I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to teach. In other work related adventures, I'm attempting to reformat one of the work computers at the moment. I backed up all the documents, pictures, etc. today and I'm hoping to reformat and set the computer up with antivirus, antispyware, etc. that my mom gave me a while back. I think one thing I need to do before I leave next year is have a few sessions showing my coworkers how to keep the computers updated and protected.

I purchased my ticket to Thailand for my vacation trip in December. I'm really excited about that, only two months away.

Not a whole lot going on right now to discuss but I added a few new pics to my Flickr account. I just realized I didn't upload more pictures from the eagle festival so I'll try and get that done soon.

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

Great Song From a Great Movie

I just recently watched the movie 'Garden State', one of the better films I've seen recently. I thought it had a great soundtrack so I looked up some of the music on youtube and found this video. It's a great song with some scenes from the movie, check it out. :)

'Draw a Monster' with my 7th graders..

I teach/run a couple of English clubs for seventh graders at one of the local schools two days a week. These lessons are pretty laid back and fun, allowing the kids to practice their English, learn some new games, and learn a bit more about American culture, people and holidays. Yesterday we did a fun lesson that I learned during our Mongolian language lessons last year. I did a quick review of body parts vocabulary, something that most of the students know. Then I passed out paper and markers and had the kids draw a 'monster' according to what I'd describe, i.e. two heads, six arms, ten legs, wings, horns, etc. It's pretty fun to hear the kids react to certain things and to see what their interpretations and artwork look like at the end. At the end of the lesson we reversed roles and the kids came up with the description while I drew a monster on the board.

A Couple of Sojourners: Ashlee and Scott

http://www.sojourningcouple.blogspot.com/

Here's my M20 site mates' blog. Scott and Ashlee are a young married couple from California. Scott works at a school as an English teacher and Ashlee is a health volunteer. They've been in Olgii since August.

Music Video: Some Canadian Hip Hop

Canadian hip hop artist 'Classified', cool song called '5th Element'

Olgii: Views from the Center of Town

The weather in Olgii has been perfect, absolutely beautiful since Eagle Fest. No wind, sun's been out, blue skies, and temps in the 60's and 70's. Rike, the German volunteer who's been here since last November just left to head back to Germany. On her last day we spent some time hanging out in the main square in the center of town and I took a few pics of my friends and of different things going on around the square.

Slideshow: Photos from the End of Summer

I'm still in the process of getting caught up on photos from the end of summer and recently. I'm uploading pics onto Flickr as fast as I can and I should be caught up soon unless I exceed my monthly limit. I took a lot of pictures during the Eagle Festival and around Olgii recently that I'll be putting up asap. Take a look at this slideshow or click on it to just sift through all the pics I've uploaded over the past few months. :) This is July and August. Enjoy.