Winter isn't that bad...yet

After my hasha family's dog had puppies a couple months ago, most of them disappeared  We were going to keep one, but that one also was nowhere to be found - until one random day the puppy came back! He's not so cute now though, I might add a photo of it later.

I went to the store last week and got myself a sweater made out of camel wool. When I wore it to school, I got bombarded with compliments. People are proud of Mongolian clothes. I was going to have someone make me a big winter dell, but that might not happen this year.

Meanwhile, it hit 50F over the weekend. I actually went to the store without my jacket and wore my hooded sweatshirt instead... and then my training manager happened to see me and chided me for not wearing my jacket. Oh well, I was warm. Yeah - and I thought January was going to be much colder (crossing my fingers).

I've had a couple Morin Khuur lessons now. I can play the F major scale and 2 little songs. It doesn't sound very good, but I can play them. Still working on the fundamentals - my teacher often me that my hands need to relax. It reminds me of the piano teacher I used to have.

And English teaching? Well - there's still a lot of Mongolian spoken and a little English spoken. I think that's my official goal now - more English speaking.

happy holidays

I'm writing a couple weeks after the fact because its been ridiculously busy coordinating around work and planning parties. December in Mongolia is a little different than in America - they don't celebrate Christmas, but New Year's is a big holiday. If felt strange though because they use "Christmas" decorations, we eat "birthday" cake, and people dress up as if it is a "prom." - and most of the new years parties are not celebrated on new years - on new years eve, families are spending time home together. It was nice that people wanted me to take part in their celebrations. I probably went to about 5 parties, and they were pretty fun. I wasn't that homesick except for wishing that it were alot warmer.