Life in Mongolia

My dad is in the blue and my mom is all the way on the right.

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Chengis Khan's Foot

The River we get to swim/bathe in.

Sonin you bain? Or whats up in Mongolia. Life here is going pretty good, I can’t believe its already been almost three weeks. We have class everyday for about four hours; language for the first four and culture or job training for the last four. This language is not an easy one to pick up, and even after 20 hour weeks, it is difficult to carry on even a simple conversation. In fact, being confused is a constant mood these days. While sharing a bottle of wine last night (really good red wine is here!!), I was completely lost for two hours in a room full of Mongolians. Most of the time I can try to carry on some dictionary pointing conversations, but not for longer than a few minutes. It becomes frustrating, but it will start coming around sometime, I hope.
On a more positive note, I’ve milked a cow or two. I’m not as skilled as my fellow host family members, but I say by the end of summer I’ll be milking cows as good as any Mongolian. I also road a horse, albeit it was being pulled by a young child and it was only around my hassha, I still road it. Further, some other volunteers, some little Mongolians and I hiked a beautiful hill on Saturday morning. Later that afternoon, we went swimming in river. I’ve also visited a Buddha shrine and natural spring that our town has with my host parents.
I’ve gotten to meet a lot of the extended family, apparently there are about 51 in the entire family-- and I thought my family was big. Some of my cousins are very good looking, very muscular these Mongolian men. And I also have the cutest little cousins in the entire world!
Will post the pictures here up to date-- expect many more to come.