These are a few of my favorite things

Gifts are not the most important part of my time here, but I have been gifted alot of things. I will tell you a few stories about them.

Spontaneous - I got invited to a Russian teacher's house. Its really fun visiting a Mongolian's house by the way. Usually about five people live in a house. (Me living alone in a ger is really strange by mongolian standards) So the person who invited me is busy cooking food while I talk to the rest of the family who I don't know. They showed me their photo album, the little daughter sang some songs. And I learned that the Russian teacher's father is an artist. After a nice filling meal, I saw some of his paintings and to my surprise, he decided to give me one of his paintings. I have also been given alot of other gifts randomly. While I was walking down the street one time, a little kid that I didn't know ran up to me and gave me a coin. That was actuall really nice of him because I like to collect coins and they are not readily available here because Mongolia stopped making coins a couple years ago.

Puzzles - Mongolians sometimes make some outrageous claims about things that they invented, but I totally believe that this puzzle made out of bones is Mongolian. I saw this in a school fair and asked if I could buy it, but they gave it to me for free. Also, somebody gave the puzzle with the metal rings to me as a birthday gift. When I brought these to school with me, it automatically draws me into a conversation with teachers that I usually don't talk to. They are the ones who taught me how to solve them.

Gifts from my school teachers and workers. My school has done alot for me. Way more than I ask. For example, I invited my counterparts over for my birthday last year, and I made them tacos. My school teachers decided to get me a bottle made out of stone. Mongolians use these during holiday events. The stone bottle usually has some tobacco powder in it. When going to new house parties or visiting people during Tsagaan Sar, Mongolians are surprised and thrilled that I have my one "horog."

Its nice to have American friends to be here with me. Its a good way to vent frustrations/exitement about Mongolia - because even if you try to understand what I'm going through, you won't really understand it unless you live here. I wrote down a poem that one of my sitemates made for me last year.

Although were not from the same state
I'm glad that you are my sitemate
Us M23s must stick together
Because those M22s may haze us forever
From site announcements, Halloween, to this day
We will survive the winter, I pray
Time is flying by so fast
Before we know it Mongolia will be in our past
So lets make our time here worth it
For this will be an experience we won't forget
I hope your birthday will be memorable
because you my friend are unforgettable