I love how weddings (and most holiday gatherings) include displays of talent. There were several dancers, a few singers, and some traditional Mongolian music on the horsehead fiddle. After the wedding, Cory was told to grab his camera and get in the car. The wedding party (in the decorated car below) simply pulled over on… Read More Chinbat & Pagma’s Wedding!
Cory’s got a camera and he knows how to use it. Our friend Pagma asked if he could take some pictures of her and her fiance to be used in a slideshow at their wedding. He was happy to. They went outside the city and spent about 10 hours driving around, avoiding rain, finding good… Read More Chinbat & Pagma’s Prewedding Photo Shoot
I’m seeing posts of friends at BBQs and pool parties from my friends in the USA. I’m seeing parades and fireworks and flags on Instagram and Facebook. And I’m not there to experience any of it. It’s one of the first times I’ve felt very disconnected from my home country since moving overseas nearly a… Read More Our 1st 4th Overseas
Our language school celebrated the end of the year with a trip to Terelj National Park. We rented a rustic ger for the day (but it did have a flushing toilet nearby so that’s a win) and got to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL scenery, delicious food, and great company. After driving through a couple rivers (there’s… Read More Terelj National Park
Because our normal (sort of Western style) grocery store had a fire a month ago we’ve had the opportunity to explore other shopping venues. After crowd sourcing how to buy meat at a butcher on Facebook, we gathered our diagrams and our courage and went to shop like a local. We went toward the end… Read More At the Meat Market
The store we buy our meat at had a fire and is closed for repairs so I can’t buy meat there. So I have to buy it somewhere else which is considerably more stressful because most places don’t have both Mongolian and English words in their meat sections. I realized that the tiny place I… Read More What Part of the Chicken is it?
Our whole family was out of Mongolia for one week, June 8-15, spending time in Thailand. During that week our hot water was shut off and our eMart had a fire and has been indefinitely closed. These two things have created a few complications for us. The Hot Water that Wasn’t First, we left Thailand… Read More While We Were Gone
People often ask what Mongolians eat. There are a lot of places you can find information about traditional meals and national foods (like what you’d prepare if you have guests coming over or are celebrating holiday) but what about the every day normal foods? I recently spent a week outside the capital city with a… Read More What Do They Eat in Mongolia?
When you have a head cold and someone offers to bring you soup, what kind is it? In the US, it was always chicken noodle. In Mongolia we’re more likely to be offered horse soup (flavored with garlic and ginger). Meat is a HUGE part of the Mongolian diet so, not surprisingly, there is more… Read More Mongolian Meats
One great thing a out living in Mongolia is that restaurants are less expensive here than in the USA. Today we had a lunch date. For the equivalent of $12 USD we got two giant burgers with fries, a salad, and two Cokes. The burgers came with gloves because they get so messy. My burger… Read More Food is less expensive here.
On Friday I couldn’t convince myself to get out of bed or go to school. All of the stress of visas, ever-changing inconsistent information from nearly every institution we’re connected to, frustration about how slowly language learning is progressing, and the details of upcoming travel, combined with not enough sleep just about crushed me. Today… Read More S’mores Can Lie if You Let Them
I wish that I had read Fluent Forever before I started learning Mongolian. Instead, I was 4 months into language school before I picked it up. So now I’m trying to change systems while I’m using them, when I could have set them up well from the beginning. I’m sharing what I’ve learned (and am… Read More 7 Tips for Learning a New Language
Ellisons in Mongolia 