Mongol Wedding

The plague quarantine was lifted on the 12th so we were able to go to Altai's wedding and hold the trade fair as scheduled. You can check out pictures of both on my Flickr Page. The wedding was really just a big party. People do an official ceremony then go out to the countryside, set up some gers, and receive visitors. Family members visit the first night, then friends in descending order of closeness. It's sort of like how Tsagaan Tsar works. We went on the last night, because the quarantine had just ended. There was one main ger for the party and a couple others where people could make food and sleep. Part of the tradition is to have two bowls in the middle of the ger with, one with mare's milk and one with Mongol vodka (a liquor made from whey). There is also plenty of real vodka going around and they fill various smaller bowls and pass them around. Once you drink, the bowl goes back to the middle to be topped off, and then passed around again. I tried to drink as little of the mare's milk and vodka as possible. The Mongol stuff is much weaker so I stuck to that. I don't know how the wedding party lasted three days, but they seemed ready to get out of there. The tall white guy in the pictures is the groom, Chris, and Altai is the little Mongolian in the red deel. They're probably moving to Switzerland were Chris is from. He already has a ger set up.

The Trade Fair went really well too. I was gone for a whole month before it happened, so I didn't get to help prepare. The staff had been working with other aimag staffs and the local government so they were on top of everything. There were over 70 businesses from the aimag and UB selling everything from vegetables to electronics. I got to help out a little and take pictures. There were some competitions like wrestling and mare's milk drinking, but I missed those. I'll try to put up some other pictures later.

In other news, we're driving to Zavkhan on Monday morning. We'll be there for a week to help with their trade fair and I may stay on another week to work with their clients. I also might go to Bayan Olgi to see the Golden Eagle Festival, but I won't know until next week. I'll keep you posted.

It's my birthday, my b-b-b-birthday!

As you can see from the subject, today is my birthday. My 27th birthday to be exact. It seems like only yesterday that I was 26... My site mates and I did some celebrating last night and Nasaa is coming over tonight. She has to help me finish the ger shaped cake my awesome mother ordered from Fairfield. It's huge and chocolatey and delicious. I uploaded a new set of pictures from our party last night so click on the Flickr link on the left. The pictures speak for themselves. The new guy is Don. He's working in the children's center here in Tsetserleg. You can still order me stuff of my wishlist and my parents will send it along.

In other news, we are unable to leave town because of a quarantine. It seems a student at the Teacher's College came down with the plague after coming into contact with a marmot. Mongolians really like to hunt and eat marmots and they harbor fleas which carry the plague. Peace Corps always tells us to stay away from them (marmots not Mongols) and this is why. There are only three people sick in town and if they are all confirmed to have the plague the the quarantine may be extended. All the volunteers are fine and Peace Corps is on top of the situation. I'll post an update later after I talk with my coworkers and hear from Peace Corps again. If they extend the quarantine, we will have to postpone our trade fair which is happening this weekend. That would suck, but oh well.

Oh, one more thing. My blog has been included on a site called Peace Corps Journals. It lists Peace Corps volunteers' blogs by region and country. Check it out to see what other volunteers are up to. Enjoy the new pictures and check out the wishlist too.

Pardon Our Dust

As you can see, I switched to a new blog template as part of an upgrade to Blogger Beta. There are a few new features that make finding old posts and adding links eaier. And I even like the color. The link list is now on the left and I've added links to my mailing address, Flickr photo page, and Amazon wishlist (my birthday is on September 10th) plus some political blogs and sites I read. Hope you like the redesign.

In other news, my office just got full time high speed internet. Add that to my free hot water heater and having Fairfield nearby, and I have it pretty good. I am so, so spoiled. Work has been slow this week, but that's ok. I was putting in 12 hours days trying to get the catalog finished and traveling a lot. Now the first ones are being printed and we're planning other trips to make more catalogs for RASP clients. The whole office is going to drive over the mountains to Zavkhan for their trade fair next month. I'll probably go on my own later to work with clients. I've been looking all year for something special that I could contribute to Mongolia and I finally found it. All those years assisting my dad on photo shoots and hanging out at ad agencies really paid off. The free lunch and movies didn't hurt either.

Not going to swearing in proved productive. Nasaa and I took a car out to visit Michael in Ih Tamir. His school director (who he lives next t0) also owns a ger camp so they moved him out there for the summer. We hung out and got to see this big rock called Tiger Choloo. It's just sitting in the middle a field. I blame aliens, aliens or a glacier. Check out the Ih Tamir set on my flickr page. Also check out the Ming Wax Museum that was part of our Great Wall tour. All the sets are lined up on the right and the newest photos are in the middle.

There are a few people visiting Arkhangai for vacation and the new volunteers get here today. It should be a fun week.

Home Sweet Home

The main catalog is done, but won't be printed until after the aimag level ones are finished. We will be distributing those at aimag trade fairs being held in the next month. The one here in Arkahngai is September 15-16. I was figuring out little quirks in PageMaker right up until we sent the files to the printer, but I guess that's the best way to learn. There's been a good repsonse so far. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I'm back in Arkhangai now a day earlier than I expected. There was a Mercy Corps Land Cruiser headed this way with and empty seat and you don't pass up a chance like that. It's a matter of 10 hours on a bus and 7 in air conditioned comfort. It'll be quiet here until new volunteers and my site mates arrive on Sunday or Monday. I think I made the right decision by not going to swearing in. Nasaa is going to the city for a week on Monday, so I would have just missed her. Plus, I'm looking to save some money after spending 3 out of the past 4 weeks in UB.

As promised, I posted galleries from my trips to Beijing and Hovd. Here are some samples to click on for links to the Flickr galleries.










That's all for now. It's good to be home.

Homesick

I'm back in UB (as if I ever left) finishing up catalog stuff. We're making one main catalog with all seven aimags represented and seven smaller ones for each aimag. We should have all aimags and the main one to the printers this week. I had a welcome break last week and went to Hovd in the far western part of Mongolia. I worked at the local RASP office and produced catalogs for a sausage maker and two furniture makers. I could almost spend the rest of my service doing catalogs, but I'm sure I'll find other stuff I'm good at. The mongols understand the concept, but most have almost no idea how to put them together. Plus, there's really no quality printing outside of UB. That will change eventually. Hopefully my work will encourage businesses to spend more on marketing and maybe even demand local design and printing services. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

There isn't as much work to do here as I thought there would be, so I'll go home soon. I haven't been in Arkhangai in over a month and I want to see Nasaa and get back to work in my office. My friends are trying to convince me to stay in town all week and go to the M17's swearing in ceremony, but I really want to go home. I can still see everyone as they come through town on their way up to Darkhan. The only attraction would be to go to the ceremony and I've lived through one already. We'll see.

In other news, I ended my summer losing streak at Dave's pub quiz thanks to a nautical round and a table round about US license plates. We also went to a free Scorpions concert on the main square which was quite an experience. I haven't had a chance to post any pictures lately, but I'll put some up once I get back to site. Until then, enjoy these ones my friend Mike sent me from our trip to Beijing.


Mike, Curtis and I at the Summer Palace

Mike's friends from Orlando and I at the Great Wall


Mike and I at Starbucks...ah Starbucks


Mike and Curtis having a private moment at the Summer Palace

That's all for now. Look for some new Flikr galleries next week.

Flickr link

I thought I'd just post a link to all my Flickr sets. This page should be updated automatically. With the uploading tool I'll be able to put up more photos at a time. Enjoy.

Smile and Naadam

Hope you enjoy the new town pictures below. This past week was Tsetserleg's Naadam. In case you're not familiar with it, Naadam is the annual festival of the three manly sports ie wrestling, horseracing and archery. I'm always surprised how laid back the Mongols are about Naadam. They come out to watch it the first day and on TV from UB, but by the second day you're just as likely to "Europe people" as Nasaa would say. Anyway, it was good to see Naadam in a new aimag and I missed the crush of people in town for the UB's Naadam. The city seems oddly deserted now. Guess it's because most of the banks and government offices are closed. As per usual, follow the picture to picture to the gallery.


We also took some visiting tourists to the mythical cave bar located in a nearby ger camp. You really have to see it to appreciate the glorious ambiance. Hope the pictures do it justice. It was definitely worth the trek up the valley to get to it. Hopefully the kareoke is working next time we go. Follow picture the the gallery.