Host Family

June 8

There has been a lot of talk about the host families that each of us are about to meet. I am naturally anxious about everything, and there is no way to really prepare for it. The village that my small group was going to was not that far from where we had been staying, and things happened very quickly. One funny but cool part of the process was that our whole group visited each house where a trainee would be staying, and the families offered us snacks or little candies at every place. One of my friends mentioned that It was kind of like Halloween, which was very true. The house that I will be staying at is a family of three: the parents are in their 50's and the daughter is about my age. I hadn't met her yet, but she just walked in while I was typing this. I call them “mom” and “dad” - the words are short and pretty simple to pronounce. “Mother” sounds just like when we pronounce the letter “H” from the alphabet, Father sounds like “avv.” They are very friendly and eager to help. I forgot to bring a couple things with me such as a clock (I never ended up getting a watch) and slippers/sandals for walking around in the house. Not knowing the language and trying to have a conversation makes me feel paralyzed. I often resort to flipping through my notes or showing them a word from the dual language dictionary I have. Ever since I got here to Mongolia, we have been fed a lot. Its pretty good food, but I have not had a huge appetite. Don't get jealous Mom, but the soup that I had tonight was unbelievable. The only way I can think of explaining the taste is that its the best chicken noodle I've ever had (except it didn't have chicken in it). Though I think that I've had a head start in language learning regarding the recognition of pronunciation and a little grammar, my ability to use the Mongolian language is very slow. I have a lot of work to do. (sorry guys, the rainbow photos do not look nearly as magnificent as it looked in real life)