The Micke¥ Mao Club

The Micke¥ Mao Club

One country down, many more to go.  Round two brings the group to Beijing China.  Beijing is a quick flight from Ulaanbaatar and they are in the same time zone so we make the transition fairly easily.  Unfortunately, our service project has fallen though so we only have class.  On the plus side though, this gives us plenty of time to explore the city with our free time and to see some of the more famous sites of Beijing.

Tuesday is our first full day after we land late on Monday night.  We are given the day off of class instead of our normal Wednesday off that week so we set out exploring.  We have no idea what is in the surrounding area so we look at a map. There is some body of water near us that appears to be a lake so a small group of us sets off to find it by plugging a nearby geocache into my GPS and seeing if we can find it when we get there.  We found the geocache but the water was much more difficult.  We ended out at a nice place with some benches where we were able to get some reading done.

After a little reading, we went exploring and found a street market where I was able to haggle my way into getting a lighter with Chairman Mao’s face on it for a couple dollars.  I became the haggle master of that market, getting good deals for anyone who asked me.  I was even able to recall a price I had given and offer a cheaper one after I realized that I could get it for less.  Those vendors didn’t know what hit them.  To cap off the night, I grabbed a skewer of deep fried scorpions that were living moments before.  A day well spent.

The next day, we went to the Great Wall and had class atop the wall.  The sheer length of the wall was amazing and luckily we had a little bit of time on the wall to actually explore rather than just having class the whole time,  Despite the majesty of the wall and the beautiful hike up to it, I could not help but feel like I was in Disneyland.  Maybe it was the garbage cans disguised at tree stumps, the many vendors selling cheap trinkets all the way up to the trail, the toboggan slide from the wall down to the trailhead, or the chairlift that you could take up to the wall so as to forgo any work that might be required to get up,  Whatever  it was, it made me feel like it was in Disney’s new Mulan Zone in California Adventure or something comparable.  What really pushed that over the edge was the number of people jumping into the middle of our class to get a picture with all the white people sitting on the wall.

That feeling of Disney-ness did not go away for a majority of the time we were in China.  The next day we went to Tiananmen Square to do our travel writing class.  We were required to sit and people watch for half an hour and write about what we saw.  The people I saw seemed even more touristy than our group even though many of them were local Chinese.  They walked around with MP3 players that had preloaded tours on them and they followed around guides waving little colored flags.  Some people I saw even took over half an hour arguing over some map, probably trying to decide what tourist destination to head to next.

Later that week, we went to visit the embalmed body of Mao.  This may have been the epitome of the Disney feeling while I was in China.  The visit seemed like a visit to a Disney character with more rules.  No open toed shoes and passports were required.  Vendors sold flowers outside that could be placed at the base of the statue in the foyer.  We were forced to walk silently through the many chambers of the building and all smiling or joy was highly frowned upon.  When we left, it seemed like I should be awarded a patch or pin or some other trinket that proudly proclaimed “I’ve seen a communist leaders dead body!”  Maybe they would give me a play passport that I could also get stamped at Ho Chi Minh’s, Stalin’s, and Lenin’s bodies as well.

I was finally able to escape the tourism when I went exploring with the male Alexs.  Bagheera found a place that was supposed to have great Peking duck that was a decent distance away from where we were staying.  It was perfect because we figured that not many others from our group would wander that far off so we could enjoy our meal in peace.  When we got there though, we realized that we did not want to spend that much money on dinner.  With that we went exploring for cheaper food.

We turned off the main street and found an interesting little area that was not quite and ally and not quite a parking lot.  There were a few stores and a bunch of food vendors there.  After making our way down to the end, we decided on a place that had skewers simmering in a type of hot pot.  We indicated to some noodles and filled our plastic wrapped plates with some of the skewers and veggies.

Little did we know that the skewers had been brewing in lava.  We quickly ordered a round of Yanjings to quench the fire.  The soy beans provided some relief but ultimately we left the establishment with scorched tongues.  As we passed the corner market, we stopped in to grab a round of honey milk tea which happens to be the absolute best thing to help beat the heat.

As we headed back to the main road, we noticed a couple in the middle of the intersection.  While it was odd that they were standing in the intersection in the middle of traffic, what they were doing was even more attention grabbing.  They were burning what we later found out to be fake money by the ream in small rings scratched into the pavement.  When they deemed they had burnt enough in that ring, they created another and started the process all over again.  Fascinated, we sat on the curb and unabashedly watched them along with some elderly gentlemen in undershirts who were smoking nearby.  After many pictures and an idea for a Concordia Courier article, we decided to explore some of the hutongs before heading back to our hostel (The Nine Super Happy Dragons of the New Golden Universe Hotel). 

As we wove our way through the narrow allies, we realized that this couple was not unique.  We found dozens of other people also burning piles of fake money all throughout the city.  Baffled, we did not know what was happening.  None of our speculations seemed to make much sense so we just walked around in awe of what we were seeing. 

We managed to accomplish our goal of getting lost after a few minutes so we decided to grab a Mons beer and sit and talk.  When we decide we should head back, the general consensus is that there is no better way to go home than by tuk-tuk.  Bagheera hails one for us and the three of us cram in.  About five minutes later, we find ourselves back at our hostel, elated and bewildered by the fact that we were so close yet so lost.  After walking around Beijing all day, our direction skills had not quit us!

This night alone made up for the slight disappointments we had earlier in our stay.  The lines of traveler and tourist began to blur when we realized that we could be so close to home but so lost that we might as well have been on the opposite side of the city.  The high and mighty travelers could not find their hostel and had to resort to the business card taxi trick, even for a walk that would have taken no time at all.  In the end, China left us with many great memories, great haggling skills, and a checked ego.  Two countries down and still many more to go.

The Fellowship of the Ger

After a long two weeks of teaching and an exhausting and stressful gala performance that involved me dancing to “Seasons of Love,” we were ready for a break.  Our final days in Mongolia were to be spent exploring the eastern region of Mongolia on a van tour and horse trekking.  We packed ourselves up and prepared to leave the next morning.

Our group is so large that we must divide in half so that the tour can accommodate us with their horses.  It is Thursday morning and half of our group has already gone.  Three Russian –made tour vans that look like a hybrid between a Volkswagen van and a Jeep drive up outside of our courtyard and wait for us to pile in.  Our guides get out and introduce themselves.  They will be going everywhere with us and explaining the local culture to us.  Our group will be going sightseeing first as the others have gone ahead to start their horse trek. 

Our first sightseeing stop brings us to what some call the Big Chinggis Statue.  The name pretty much describes the sight.  Others call it the Golden Whip because, you guessed it, the silver statue is holding a golden whip.  The statue truly is gigantic and it seems very out of place in the near empty countryside that surrounds it.  You can actually go into this statue and there is a museum inside.  None of us go in deciding that the 4,500 togrog (USD $3) is too expensive.  We have tightened our money belts and we are trying to hold out for whatever spending opportunities may come up on our adventure.

After detouring to the Chinggis statue, we drive back a ways to get on track toward our trekking destination.  On our way, we pull over to the side of the road to have a picnic lunch of a type of salami, bread, cheese spread, cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, jam, butter and tea.  We finish off our meal with cookies that are absolutely wonderful.  After eating, we teach some of the guides and van drivers how to throw a Frisbee.  After a couple hours of this, we pack up our things and head on to our next destination.

We get to quickly explore a few more stops on the way to our final destination.  The first one is a cave that persecuted Buddhist monks hid out in for over 100 days.  Another was a place called Turtle Rock which was a large rock that was supposed to look like a turtle.  I could not see the resemblance but the connection to Concordia’s Turtle Rock area made it worth it.  Next we stopped at a Buddhist temple that we barely had any time to see.  Our guide Beck whom I had gotten to know fairly well at this point wanted to show me the temple at the top of the hill so we sprinted up the steps to go see it.  He showed me some of the artwork that exemplified the Red branch of Buddhism that he was explaining to me earlier.  On the way back down I was able to share what I believed about Christianity with him.

Our final stop was the entrance to a valley that almost looked like it was taken out of the Alps.  We stopped at an ovoo where Buddhists and other Mongolians walked around a pile of rocks and prayer flags three times adding a rock each time.  The guides seemed perplexed as to why many of us were disinterested with this unique experience, not knowing that we were Christian and that many of us had seen ovoos earlier that week on our way to the Gobi desert.  Some members did walk though offering stones in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We were in the home stretch.  With no more stops we were headed straight for our campsite.  At least that was the assumption until we came to the XXXXXXXXXX River.  There was more rainfall this year so the river was higher than normal.  Our drivers in their van-Jeeps were confident in their abilities to cross this over swelled river.  Trent and I decided to walk across it because… why not? The first van made it across just fine and Trent and I greeted them on the other side.  Then the second van started across. 

They started across just fine in the same path taken by our first van but then stalled before making it even halfway across.  They managed to back all the way out eventually, almost running over some of the team members who came out to help push!  Eventually, they found a path further down the river that the third van also followed.  We met up with the other van and finished our journey to the camp.  We had dinner and went to sleep in our ger.

The next day we woke up after getting to sleep in for a while.  After breakfast, we were given the option of doing pretty much whatever we wanted.  Some of us did chores for a while which included scooping poop, chopping fire wood, and helping cook lunch.  When we needed a break, a group of us went out into the hills to read and get away from the group for a while.  When we returned, it was time to watch the local men butcher dinner which was a sheep and a goat from the herd.  Their technique was extremely interesting and surprisingly blood free.  After an authentically prepared dinner, I gave my first SHOUT message to my peers around a campfire by the river.  With that our free day was complete.

The net day we set out for our trek.  I was given a midsized tan horse with a tangled mane that almost looked like dreadlocks.  I decided to name my horse Zion after Zion Thompson of The Green.  Zion was a good horse who did not get too worked up about anything and was content to just ride along with the pack and follow his buddies Shadowfax (ridden by Alex), Noodles (ridden by Dana), Jonah (ridden by Bagheera), or Hunter (ridden by Ben).  Our group felt very much like a band of Middle Earth inhabitants off to throw a piece of metal into some lava.  When we stopped for lunch, we taught some of our guides how to throw a frisbee and Kristine ate a living grasshopper, beginning a long trip of food challenges.  We arrived at the site where we were going to spend the night and set up our tents.  After a warm dinner and a long night of singing hymns and patriotic songs interspersed with a few pop hits such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Country Road with our guides, we retired for the night.

The next morning, we were given the opportunity to go galloping if we wanted too.  Many of us jumped at the chance and waited eagerly throughout breakfast for the time to come.  I hoped that Zion would be up for galloping since the day before he seemed content with just sauntering behind his pals in a very laidback manner.  Zion performed like a champ.  He galloped right alongside the best of gallopers for a long time until I wore him out.   Then we moseyed back to the ger camp far behind most of the group, giving me time to actually think and be away from the others for once.  Once we reached the camp, we packed up the vans and prepared for the bumpy ride back to the dorms for our last night in Mongolia (which we spent tiling tables with pliers and laminating others with Disney Christmas tarps).  What a way to end the first country on this exciting journey.

Gobi, Gobi, Howl-lelulia

The Gobi Desert.  A place often viewed with mystery and intrigue.  A place many have heard of and few visit.  A place only a few hours from where our group is staying… at least that is what they tell us.

A little more than a few  hours later, we arrive at Banyan Gobi, a fairly plush ger camp on the edge of the Gobi desert.  It is a quaint little camp that consists of about 30 gers and a bath house.  There are herds of sheep and goats calmly grazing in the pasture nearby.  Many of us felt the call of the wild as soon as we arrived.  After dropping off our gear in our gers a group of us headed off into the dunes. 

The Gobi is not as arid as I had initially thought.  There are many scrubs, grasses, and even trees near where we stayed.  On the walk out, we encountered many bones and animal remains in the pastures we passed through to get to the more desert-like region.  These were mainly goat remains left from a previous slaughter. 

We stepped onto the sandy dunes past the pastures and it immediately felt more desert-like.  Josh offered a bounty of ₮20 to the first man to defeat the highest dune in front of us. I being on to take on almost any challenge (even if it is for just over 1₵) took off sprinting. 

As I reached the top, I looked back victoriously as my less competitive compatriots walked up the dune.  The view was amazing!  I could see off into the distance for what seemed like miles.  When everyone made it to the top, there were photo ops galore.  Then the time came that we needed to head back to camp to have dinner.

Since heading into the desert had been made into a competition, of coursing leaving also had to become one.  On the way back Howard, Hayden, and I found a nice, big dune that was fairly clear of shrubbery and shrapnel and we emptied our pockets.  We laid down at the top and waited for the ward from Adam with his video camera.  When he gave the word, we began to roll.  Faster and faster we went as we gained velocity down the sandy dune.  When we reached the bottom and regained our composure, I realized that I had curved about 20’ to the left while Hayden and Howard made a fairly straight run.  Regardless, Adam and others reported that I had made it down the fastest.  Sweet, sweet victory once again.

We trekked back through the pastures of bone to our dinner ger, the largest ger I have ever seen.  We were served a fairly fancy dinner, an unexpected situation in the wilds of the Gobi.  After we ate and had class, the wild called to us once again.  Another group of us decided to go see the stars in the desert before we went to bed.  It was a dark and storm free night.  We chatted for a while and after seeing a few shooting stars and satellites, we headed back to retire to our gers but not before I was able to plan a sunrise hike to the highest nearby hill with Aaron.

5:15 My alarm beeps in my ear.  The fire has gone out and the warm woolen blankets are my last safe haven of warmth in the harsh morning cool of the ger.  I am supposed to meet Aaron in 15 minutes.  We have made a pact that if either of us is not there by 5:45 the other will head out alone. 

5:20 The soothing comforts of my covers still hold me captive.  Is this really worth it? How much will we be doing later that will require me to be well rested? How cold is it outside compared to the warmth of my covers?  I decide I still have plenty of time before I need to be up so I roll over again.

5:25 I am still held hostage by my bed.  I convince myself that there will not be another chance to see a sunrise over the Gobi.  I pry myself out from under my covers, but only after dragging my frigid clothing under my covers to put them on and warm up before I enter the cold, harsh world that is our ger.  I exit the ger and venture into the colder, harsher world that is the outside of our ger and head over to the designated meeting area.  When Aaron is not there, I head to his lodging to see if I can rouse him.  Just as I walk up, he exits ready to go. 

The regret from leaving the my bed quickly dissipates as I warm up from the walk to the hill.  The hike is filled with good company and good conversation.  We traverse up the undefined “paths” that lead up to the peak of the hill.  We see various unique bugs and flowers on the way up.  Finally we reach the top. 

We arrive just as the sun is rising in the east over a glorious array of clouds in the otherwise clear, vast sky.  Rays of orange, goldenrod, and pink spread themselves into the blue-grey predawn expanse, illuminating the clouds causing them to burn radiantly in the previously dull sky.  The light shines brightly on the ovoo at the top of the hill, the warm colors of the sun contrasting the blue prayer flags tied to the wood and stone.

We take plenty of pictures of the sunrise and each other.  As we are reveling in the majestic early morning show, three eagles swoop in over the horizon.  They banter playfully with each other and other birds as we look on awestruck.  We take some more pictures of the eagles and a horse skull we find nearby and then begin our decent.

As we take the bus back down the bumpy dirt road on the way back home, someone notices a local herdsman with his herd of camel.  We have been told that we would be given the opportunity to ride camels so we have the bus pull over here.  A group of Swedish Buddhists who was also at our camp is finishing up their ride leaving the camels unoccupied and ready for our group.  Colin arranges a price with the owner, though too late for some as Aaron has already handed a wad of cash more than three times the decided price to the herdsman and gotten on a camel.  We all take turns riding around in a small area around the bus while the others take pictures and watch those on the camels.  After the pictures have been taken, we all pile back onto the bus and head out to our next destination.

A few hours later, we arrive at Karakorum, Chinggis Khan’s old capital.  We looked at the booths outside of the city where I was able to hold an eagle very similar to the ones we saw earlier.  We went into the city and explored for a while. We went back out and I began honing by haggling skills.  When everyone had finished, we took the under-estimated ride back to the city, finishing the night with grilled cheese sandwiches made by the GA’s.  The dogs were extremely excited when we returned and barked and howled at us all night long

A Quick Note

Sain baina uu everyone!

This is just a quick post before we load up the vans and head out to our four day horse trek!  I will not have internet access for the next few days.  When we return, we will move on to the next country: China.  While in China, I will not have access to Facebook or my blog so I will be off of the radar for a week or so.  I will still have access to email though so if you want to get a hold of me that is the place (wesgong@att.net)!  For China and our next country Vietnam, our communications may be monitored so please do not mention God, Jesus, or anything else religious as it may flag our group and hurt our mission.  Thanks for your understanding!  

Anyway, there are a few final things to wrap up before we take off so I had better get going!  Thank you to all who read my blog and to all of those who are praying for me and my group.  Your prayers are definitely felt!  I will try to update everyone on my adventure last weekend and my upcoming adventure this weekend when I get a chance.

Bayarstai, and I hope to talk to you all soon!

Birthdays Abroad

On this trip, many of us will be celebrating our birthdays in some exotic place.  This past week, Hayden, Karen, Sasha (Alex C), and I all celebrated ours!  This led to a high concentration of cake and festivities galore in a very short period of time.

Last weekend we were also able to go out exploring and see more of the city than just the airport, school, and dorms that we had been confined to the past week.  Some of the MIU students went along with us and served as our tour guides and translators.  We went to a couple museums that spanned ancient history to modern history.  We learned quite a bit about Mongolia! I was also able to find my first international geocache right outside one of the museums!  We also went to a Buddhist temple.  Here we saw a building built around a statue that was almost 100’ tall surrounded by Buddhist prayer wheels, a room of Buddhist priests chanting the prayers of the people, and many small children trying to sell us birdseed to feed the local pigeons.  I am very interested in further researching one of the common courtesy rules of always walking left to right in a clockwise fashion around the different rooms of the temples.  After seeing the museums and temples, we went to a monument that was built in commemoration of the Russian support in World War II.  The monument was huge and it overlooked the whole city!  To wrap up the day, we went to eat at a place called City Nomads.  We had quite the feast! Our meal started with some meat and potatoes (with miniscule amounts of peas and broccoli on the side) and was followed by huushuur (fried meat pockets) and botz (meat dumplings) along with lamb ribs and a lamb shank. 

After we stuffed ourselves full of meat products we waddled back to the dorms.  I was about to turn in early.  I already had my shoes and watch off and I was rolling myself back into bed.  Stuffed full of meat, I was nearly asleep on my feet.  My head was about to hit the pillow when Beard (Alex B., yet another Alex on the trip) storms into the room out of breath trying to say something about how I needed to get down to Agi’s ger immediately.  Now before I dive any deeper into this startling account, I should probably give a bit of backstory on Agi so that this actually makes sense.   I now take you back to a few days earlier….

After a day full of teaching and class, a group of us was hanging out on the balcony of the other dorm when two of the local girls Nicole and her cousin came in to play.  After them their father Agi came up as well.  He mentioned how his daughters had brought some of the girls in to see his home, a ger that is set up right in between the dorm buildings.  He said that all of us were welcome to come see it.  Many of us had been curious about what the gers looked like inside so we jumped at the chance to finally see one.

The ger is the Mongolian term for an easily movable residence that is similar to the Russian yurt.  The inside was fascinating.  The walls were adorned with various rugs and cloths as well as the floors.  To the left of the entrance there was a couch pushed all the way up against the way and mirroring it on the right was a bed.  Straight ahead was a television sandwiched between a fish tank and a book shelf that Agi told us was his library.  He invited us to sit on the couch and bed.  From there we engaged in riveting conversation with the topics ranging from the Mongolian Olympians to proper etiquette in various situations.  Agi expressed disappointment in the Mongolian archer who did not win this year.  He said that she did not practice enough because she was “nose up,” a term we gathers to mean stuck up or conceited.   We discussed sports for a while and Agi revealed that he is a Chicago Bulls fan.  He also enjoys watching a professional women’s volleyball team from Korea. 

The whole time Agi was extremely hospitable while he put up with a host of various questions from all of us.  He helped to better our pronunciation of many Mongolian phrases and told us about all the best local places to get traditional Mongolian cuisine.  He offered to show us around UB and even teach us how to cook traditional Mongolian dishes!  We learned about Agi’s family which consists of his daughter Nicole, his son Justin, and his wife.  Agi told us that his son’s English name is Justin because he liked Justin Bieber and wanted to be called that.  Justin’s Mongolian name is Temulin which is similar to the childhood name of Chinggis Khaan (the Mongolian name for Genghis Khan).  Sadly, Justin is in the hospital currently and his mother (who is pregnant and due to have her child in September) is there with him.  He is experiencing low blood flow to his brain and has to get many injections.  We were able to pray for Justin for a speedy recovery and wisdom for the doctors.  Agi has been a Christian for several years and is a graduate from MIU.  Now he works for them helping with housing.

[Side note: Justin is now back and home and it doing quite well! We have played frisbee with him and he has developed quite the forehand!]

So that is our friend Agi, a friendly employee of MIU who lives in his ger near our dorms.  Now back to the action.  Beard revealed that Agi’s wife had prepared us some meat and he was sent to round up the troops to help take it down.  After Beard’s startling entrance, I found myself torn between bloated lethargy and the exciting experience of spending more time with Agi and trying a traditional home-cooked Mongolian meal.  Lethargy lost this round.

I fumbled to get my shoes back on and waddled down the stairs to the courtyard in which Agi’s ger was set up.  When I arrived at the ger, there was already a battalion of brave warriors sitting around in a circle.  I was greeted with cheers and applause.  The reinforcements had come.  Little did they know that I was not my usual self, having prepared myself for small quantities of food on this trip.  Agi’s wife was sitting nearby carving a boiled cow’s leg. I took my place among the troops and prepared for the battle ahead.  With clear eyes and a full stomach, I joined my comrades in food challenge number one of our trip.

We began passing the plate of beef around, partaking in the chucks of meat as they passed.  We congratulated and thanked those among us who took larger chunks or multiple pieces.  The pile gradually diminished.  We washed the meat down our gullets with a swig of Coke or tea that Agi also provided for us.  It was then that I realized how tired I was.

I reached for the open two liter bottle to refill my glass with Coke.  Something wasn’t right in my brain though.  Either my depth perception was off or my dexterity was lacking; I still cannot exactly explain it to this day.  Well whatever the problem was, I managed to fumble the nearly full bottle of Coke, spilling it all over the laminate flooring of Agi’s well-kept ger.  I apologized profusely and the adrenaline kicked back in, maybe a little too much.  I swept up the spilling bottle and set it back up with a gusto, barely letting any spill.  However, in the process of righting the bottle, I must have shaken it significantly, resulting in a reaction akin to plopping a Mentos into the top of the bottle.  Coke Faithful erupted in the center of this kind, generous man’s beautiful, well-kept home which he so graciously opened to a large group of foreigners whom he had just met days before.  I sat there defeated, Coke streaming from the bottle I had just saved from spilling, unable to do anything to stop this geyser.  The apologies continued as my comrades guffawed in my general direction.  Agi insisted that it was not a problem and began to help clean up the mess.  The only positive that resulted from this incident was the fact that we no longer had to finish a whole two liter bottle of Coke along with the two plates of meat that were presented to us.

As the passing of the plate continued, I repeatedly tried to pass the plate to Agi and his wife.  At least we could share in this meal together and lighten the load of each individual soldier.  Each time Agi politely declined.  He had already had his dinner that night.  So it was just us.  Ten troopers, full of food, against two plates of wonderfully prepared meat, made with love.  The passing of the plate slowed as each of us pondered the next selection we would make.  A larger piece to lighten the load of our compatriots?  A smaller piece to preserve ourselves for later rounds of the battle?  Multiple pieces to become the hero of all?  Eventually, the beast was conquered.  The majority of the meat was gone.  Just enough was left to be respectful.  We thanked Agi for his great generosity and rolled ourselves back to our lodgings.

Food has again and again showed itself as a major theme on this trip.  My birthday was two days later (after an interesting message at church that Sunday from an overzealous Korean guest speaker who insisted that Mongolia reunite with Korea by the “POWER of the Gospel”).  The MIU cafeteria is closed on Mondays so we were sent forth with Lee’s blessing to find dinner with our travel groups.  After our recent experiences with meat, my group decided to explore other options.  We walked into the downtown and decided on a quaint Korean bakery where I ordered cheese noodles (which turned out to be basically fancy ramen with a slice of melted cheese on top in a type of curry broth) while others ordered forms of corn dogs or other similar baked goods. 

After finishing that, we began the trek home.  We picked up some food to serve the group for breakfast the next day (again with the food motif…) and decided to brave the taxi service back as we had walked quite a ways to get dinner.  The MIU students have told us that every car is a taxi.  We test this theory by breaking into two groups one with me, Robyn, and Matthia and one with Trent, Sasha, and Ben.  My group was the first to be picked up.  A younger man no older than any of the three of us in our group stopped in front of us and swung open his doors.  We stepped in and our Mongolian taxi adventure began.

The young man spoke little to no English.  We were able to tell him a hotel near our destination and armed with our basic knowledge of the words for left, right, and straight, we began our journey (words which we found out later were much more complicated based on the four directions and other unknown factors).  UB is not an extremely busy city unless of course you are on the road (which we were).  The main rule of traffic is that big yields to small.  Even though we were in a small Mazda of some sort, our driver acted like a big car, weaving in front of buses, shooting small gaps at higher than recommended speed, various other things of that nature.  We both attempted small talk for a while and I was able to decipher that he wanted to know our country of origin to which I responded “USA.” He nodded in approval and continued spewing Mongolian phrases at us with a speed that rendered them unintelligible.  We had only learned the most basic of conversation which did not suffice for the in depth conversation he was apparently trying to have with us.  After more weaving and bouncing through pot holes, we reached a destination that was close enough to continue to our dorms by foot.

 The rest of the evening was spent calmly reading or relaxing with the guys, ending a memorable birthday experience that I will be hard pressed to forget.

Beijing Layover and First Week of Teaching

Sain baina uu! Hello!

Day three of teaching at Mongolia International University finished.  It has only been a couple days and there has already been tons of adventure!  First off we had a 12 hour layover in Beijing before flying out to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar and boy was it a layover!

We landed in Beijing at 5 PM local time.  Adam offered us the options to either stay in the airport and sleep or go explore Beijing.  The Preuss family opted to stay and sleep but everyone else decided to go adventuring.  We decided to get dinner at Tienanmen Square and then head back to the airport before they closed. While we were able to figure out the subway route with little to no trouble, the timing schedule was another beast entirely.  We made it to the square with out any problems and decided to split up into our travel groups to eat, though eventually we all ended up at the same place anyway!  After guessing what we might like by the pictures on the menu we ended out with a salad (which I don't think we intended to order), spicy tongue and tripe (which I don't think we intended to get either), and a chicken and mushroom dish with scrambled eggs (which we actually did try to order!).  After we had finished we moseyed over back to the subway to get the line that would take us back to the airport.  We arrived at the transfer point and had to purchase a ticket for the other line, all the time wondering why we were the only ones left at that ticket booth and why the attendant was pushing us up the line so quickly.  When we got down to the train we realized that it was because this was the last train headed to the airport before the line closed!  We made sure that they did not leave without anyone from the group, me standing in the doorway of the train while others waved the rest of our group down into the trains as fast as they could! Luckily we all made it back to the airport safe and sound.

Tienanmen Square

This leads us to our second exciting tale.  While waiting at our gate, one of the group members managed to drop their passport down a ventilation grate.  Dr. Preuss immediately went to find an attendant while the MacGyvers of the group put their heads together.  After various plans involving rope, a carabiner, chopsticks, moleskin, tweezers, and duct tape failed, a maintenance worker came by with his handy dandy tools to save the day (after deciding that the mop he came with the first time would not suffice).  We retrieved the passport just in the nick of time to board the plane and leave Beijing for the first time with many great stories.

The flight to Ulaanbaatar did not take long.  We touched down  after a couple hours and went through customs easily.  The only hitch was the loss of Alex B's pack (which we have since recovered!).  We rode the bus back to the dorms and unpacked.  We rested up and prepared for the next day, our first day of teaching.

Alex B using wifi outside of our dorm

During our first day teaching in Mongolia, we had quite the experience.  We were split into groups of three (mine had Trent and Alex C).  After that we were told nothing but our room number.  We walked into room 101 knowing only that we were too teach English.  From there we had to improvise.  Luckily we had the theater major himself, Trenton Semple.  With his quick thinking and the things in our pack, we developed a plan.  We would emulate the Dr. Shultz method.  We showed the students various objects from our packs and had them write descriptions.  The items included a multi-tool, a CPR mask, a SteriPen, and a headlamp.  The students reactions were priceless.  Many were baffled by the strange conglomeration of foreign objects. Many of the students were close in their guesses as to the use of the object.  Many others were very far off.   Their descriptions included fanciful words such as “laser knife” and “freaking mutant animal.”  We then explained the uses to them and the light bulbs went on.  The descriptions provided many laughs for us after reading them.

Sunrise- Day 2 (Out of our dorm window)

The next day we taught, we had the same students.  This time around, we had a bit more time to plan a lesson.  Our room was labeled “Writing/Grammar” so we decided that was our focus.  Trent came up with the idea to have them correct sentence we wrote.  With this and sentence creation, we were able to fill the first class.  The next class however was much quicker.  We finished the whole lesson with 15 minutes to spare out of 45!  We were scrambling.  Luckily Ben came to the rescue and offered an idea.  He suggested we have them write us letters.  We thought that the idea was wonderful and proceeded with confidence.  The students were to write to one of the three instructors.  One of the letters was especially moving. A girl in the class explained that she lived with her siblings. Her parents had died when she was six.  She acknowledged the difficulty of this but also supplied her source of strength.  She revealed that she found love in God.  This moved the three of us nearly to tears.  Just when we thought we would lose it we turned the note over.  On the back was a note addressed to “Darling Wesley,”.  It said how she thought that I was cute and hoped I had a good trip.  This resulted in guffawing from Trent and Alex and maybe a blush from me.  Over all the teaching experience was just as educational for us as instructors as it was for the students.

The Day Before

The day before.  It still hasn't hit me yet that tomorrow I will be leaving the country for 4.5 months.  Everything is packed and preped as much as it can be.  Here is the final packing list.

(But before that I just want to wish my Grandpa a happy 80th birthday! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you!)

Lets start with the clothing. All clothing that I am bringing on this trip is quick drying, making for easy hand washing and drying to wear for the next day if need be! (Brands in parentheses)



I am bringing a total of six shirts: one long sleeved collared shirt (Ex Officio), one short sleeved collared shirt (REI), three short sleeved t-shirts (2 REI, 1 C9), and one sleeveless t-shirt for working out (C9).
The collared shirts should suffice for any semi-formal occasion.  The t-shirts are quite nice because they feel more like cotton than the typical wicking jersey material but they still dry quickly unlike cotton.  The sleeveless is made of that wicking material but that will be fine for the activities I will use it for.





Next comes pants.  I have one pair of athletic shorts for running, sports, working out, etc.(Champion), one pair of cargo shorts (Kuhl),  one pair of convertible pants/shorts with zip off legs (REI), and one pair of khaki golf pants (C9).  These should cover the very diverse gamut of activities that will come up while on the trip from athletic to semiformal.

For miscellaneous other clothing items, I have the following:  one camouflage bandanna, one CUI President's Bowl beanie, two pairs of briefs (Ex Officio), one pair boxers (Ex Officio), two pairs of boxer briefs (Jockey),  five pairs of wool socks (REI), and one pair of long underwear (Patagonia).  The long underwear will probably only come in handy in Hungary but they were pretty small so I decided they would be nice to have.

Now for one of the most important pieces of my wardrobe:  good footwear.  I have narrowed the options down to two that should cover me for the trip.  Both happen to be Keens that I originally discovered at the REI Used Gear Sale.  On the left are the Keen Voyagers, a low top leather boot with a little mesh ventilation on the sides.  I originally got a pair of these for $15 at the Gear Sale but my dad brought me a brand new pair as my old ones were wearing down.  On the right are the Keen Newport H2's.  These are the classic Keen water shoes.  these will work for pretty much anything that the boots are not necessary for.

This is the very pared down toiletry kit I will bring.  It includes: one Dopp kit, one role of toilet paper (special kind with no role in the middle so as not to take up useless space), one small bottle of shaving cream, one bottle of Sea-to-Summit all purpose soap and a bottle to dilute it in, one bottle sunscreen and one chap stick (both SPF 30 from Rocky Mountain Sunscreen), one spray bottle and one squirt bottle of pure Deet (REI Jungle Juice), one stick of deodorant, two Bug Bands insect repellent wristbands, three pairs of disposable earplugs, one toothbrush with cover, one razor, one tube of toothpaste, and four travel tissue packs.

 Meds are another crucial thing to bring when travelling abroad.  I have ample doses of the following: anti-malaria pills, Cipro and Zithromax (in case I get some gnarly bacterial infection), Acetaminophen (for pain), Ibuprofen (for swelling and pain), Benadryl (for allergic reactions), Costco brand Zyrtec (for non-drowsy allergy relief), Imodium (antidiarrheal), Gold bond foot powered, Pepto (say it with me now: nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea! Yay Pepto!), hydrocortisone cream (itch relief), Neosporin, various bandages, moleskin, rubber gloves, alcohol swabs, burn gel, an emergency blanket, a first aid kit bag, and a mesh bag from REI to keep it all together.

Also packed are some goodies to get me through the trip:  Fruit Nuggets fruit snacks, bag of 100 Grand (thanks Dana!), my pipe with tobacco, tamper, matches, and pipe cleaners.










Technology will be an integral part of this trip, especially with the classes we are taking.  I am bringing a Gateway netbook, an international socket converter, extra batteries (AA, AAA, and 123's), ethernet cable, GPS, iPod, extra camera batteries and memory cards, Kindle, cell phone unlocked for international use, headphones, SteriPEN UV water purifier, flexible camera tripod, and respective cables and chargers for everything.



This is my sleep gear.  I may not have to use it everywhere, but when I do I think I will appreciate it greatly.  I have a sleep sack which is basically a sleeping bag made out of sheet material, an REI backpacking down pillow, and a Therm-a-rest sleep pad.  The pad is not self inflating but this allows it to pack down smaller which is critical for this kind of trip!

In addition to the Kindle, I will have some actual books along as well (old school, right?).  I will be bringing a hand out on dealing with common travel illnesses, courtesy of my father.  A guide book on Thailand from AAA, a Lonely Planet on Thai food, and the Lonely Planet Thai and Latin American Spanish phrasebooks.

For the fitness portion of our trip I have a simple jump rope, an elastic resistance band and a frisbee.  Later I will add a volleyball as well so that we will be able to play with the local kids and with those in our group!

This is all miscellaneous stuff that would not fit into another category: notebooks (both pocket and regular sized), 3 pens, 1 Sharpie, sticky notes, paracord, Nalgene bottle, REI microfiber towel, mosquito head net (courtesy of my sister Leah!), Ziplocks (both gallon and sandwich), swag to leave in geocaches, a geocoin that is trying to travel to Germany, zip ties, a family photo album (to show to locals), a sleeping pad patch kit, duct tape and athletic tape (rolled on to old gift cards for easy packing), a deck of cards, gum, my wallet (with cash, cards, id, etc), sunglasses, headlamp, my Leatherman Juice CS4, a Gerber Shard multi-tool, a head lamp, a hacky sack, a digital watch (with alarm and dual time setting so I can read local time and time at home in the US), a paracord bracelet, and a money belt (with passport, money, immunization card, extra passport photos for visas, and international drivers permit).

This just about sums up the total of what I am bringing!  I tried to pare down the list as much as I could and only bring the essentials.  That leaves one item that is not yet pictured: my trusty Canon Powershot camera!

And that does it! If you made it this far, I commend you for not losing interest in all the junk I am lugging around with me!  If you just scrolled to the end, tsk tsk, I am shaking my head in disappointment at you (though I probably would have done the same thing so don't feel too bad!).

This is my last post before I leave the country. Please keep me and my entire group in your thoughts and prayers! Your support is much appreciated!