Mandee and Levi come to Visit

Mandee and Levi arrived on Monday afternoon.

We had fun picking Alex up from school. This ger is on the playground in front of Alex's school.

We went on Many Many adventures which will be blogged about over time. 

In the last week:

We had ate Mongolian food at Cozy Nomads

We went to the Intellectual Museum

Ate at Rosewood

We shopped at Mercury Market

Picked Alex up from school

Went to Gandan Monastery

Held and Eagle and got pictures taken

Visited Zaisan Memorial

Went to Choijin Lama Temple

Ate at Millies

Shopped at the Black Market

Chilled at MB's 

Perused an Antique Store

Window shopped at the State Department Store

Ate at Millie's again

Sorted Blankets for the Mother and Child Hospital

Delivered Blankets to the Mother and Child Hospital

Visited the French Catholic orphanage

Went to the Natural History Museum

Went to the National History Museum

Had pictures taken with Lenin

Ran around Suk Bataar Square

Ordered in Hazaara

Rode bactrian camels

Visited the worlds Largest statue of a man on a horse

Drove through Terelj National Park

Lost Alex's coat in the Terelj Hotel

Had and indoor picnic at the Ayunchin Ger camp

During the picnic we ate Khushuur (Mongolian Fried Dumplings)

Played on the playground at the camp

Walked around a Shaman pole three times

Held a vulture and a falcon... and had photos taken with two eagles

Ate controversial pizza at the Irish Castle

Packed a picnic

Drove out to Saraa's Ger camp... very fun off roaring in a Honda Accord

Sampled milk tea

Went on a two hour horse ride

Ate our picnic in the get

played horse shoe

Used an out house

Made a quick trip to Computer Land

Shopped at the State Department Store

Visited the old train station and took pictures with old Soviet Trains

Dinner at Blue Sky Tower

Dessert at Monet in Central tower

Then we had to come home and pack so that Mandee and Levi could be ready for transport to the airport at 4 am. Then their flight was delayed and they didn't end up flying out until after 1 pm.

All these activities despite the insane UB traffic happened between Monday night and Saturday night. I am going to sleep off their visit, and my saddle sores for a few days and then blog about all this. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and we completely wore ourselves out.

GOOD NIGHT!!!

Alex's Best Depiction of UB

The View From our Window

If you look closely you can see two gers (Mongolian Yurts) and our own little neighborhood power plant. This is part of the view off of our balcony.

The Grocery Store... er... Market

Finding good vegetables in our market is not a problem... other than the fact that they are expensive. The vendors are always quick to tell you which vegetables are from China and which are from Russia. This is important, because Mongolians will go to great lengths to avoid buying anything from China. I regularly hear... This (fill in the blank) is no good, from China. This one good, from Russia."



This was actually a really clean day for Mercury Market. Usually we are stepping through blood puddles while they are taking the carcasses apart with carpentry tools.

UB in the Car

Alex and I have decided to take pictures when we are in the car. This way you can get a better feel for the city. In order to get to downtown from our apartment we have to go over two rivers.



A lot of UB looks like a war zone. This is because it is growing so quickly that there is construction everywhere. So this is what I constantly see out the window.

The State Department Store

After some urging from the Salt Lake crowd we've decided to post more pictures of UB. I have been holding back and only posting things that are unique to Mongolia. But I have decided it might be a good idea to give people a view of what daily life is like here. So today in search of a Mongolian- English, English-Mongolian dictionary I went to the State Department Store. In Mongolian it is called "Ikh Delguur" which literally means "Big Shop". While it is no longer owned by the State, for many it retains the name. Now it is owned by Nomin. This is a company that owns most of our Mongolian shopping world. There is Nomin Wholesale (Mongolian Costco) and Nomin Grocery store. You see the brand EVERYWHERE. Ikh Delguur is the closest thing that we have to a mall. There is another department store in UB called The Grand Plaza. That is where I buy Oxy-Clean and visit a cafe that serves fresh Kiwi juice.

While I was there I fell in love with a piece of Mongolian Calligraphy.



I was really excited about it, that is until I spoke with Patrick on the phone. He pointed out that we would never have a place to put calligraphy that big. Not to mention the fact that I have no idea what it says.

One more thing about today... It was WARM. I didn't wear my coat when I came out of the department store. It was 36 degrees F!!!! It was sunny. (It is sunny every day... this is a desert.) And, the sky was clear.

Tsagaan Sar Part 1

We are back online, after a trip to Utah and an internet glitch. And I have a ton of pictures. Tsagaan Sar is the Mongolian New Year. Alex affectionately called it "Mongolian Christmas." Our driver and friend Erka invited us to celebrate the holiday with his family. unfortunately I was sick so I couldn't go. But, Alex and Patrick went and took lots of pictures. Alex and Patrick wore the del... the Mongolian costume to the meal. We are thinking of Alex being Chinggis Khaan for Halloween this year.



This is the traditional dish used at the table. It is boiled sheep, seasoned with... sheep fat. The idea is to boil the entire sheep without cutting it up. Then when it is on the table you can take long slices of it.




Also on the table they stack yummy flattened breads... they taste a bit like a really dense donut. The higher your bread tower the older you are... which makes you really cool and popular here. On top of your bread tower you put treats for everyone to enjoy: sugar cubes, yogurt-y cookies, and sweet Mongolian cheeses.


Alex wasn't a fan of the cheese. If I can figure out why this video won't upload... I will put it here.



Stirring the milk tea. Sometimes they have actual tea in it. But the two time I have had it... it has just consisted of scalding hot milk and water.



These are buz (pronounce the u like oo is in the word book) Every table has them. They were our favorite dish. They are mutton filled steamed dumplings. And we loved them. People who have many visitors for Tsagaan Sar can make as many as 1000 dumplings in preparation for all their guests.



In a land with no fences and no roads... I have no idea how they found their way. The experience gives new meaning to "Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go!"



They rode Mongolian style with 11 people in a Toyota Landcruiser.

Tsagaan Sar Part 2

We were invited to a second more informal Tsagaan Sar. But I was feeling better and glad to have a chance to celebrate.



Her English and my Mongolian were on par with each other. We had a lot of laughs as we both tried navigating the languages.



For some reason Alex' stuffed koala bear joined us. The meal was great. I am still easing into snacking on animal fat. Maybe some day I will get there. In the mean time Mongolians have amazing soup recipes. And I have loved every soup I have tried here.



There were chocolates on top of the bread tower! You can believe that we took advantage of that.



Yeah... still easing into the snacking on fat chunks thing. Most of the fat was gone from this picture because it had already been eaten.



Amarsaana is learning to play the horse head fiddle. It is a beautiful cello-like instrument. I feel like I really need to thank Erka and Amarsaana for hosting us during Tsagaan Sar. If they are ever in the US, I would love to treat the to a traditional Thanksgiving meal. And they can be shocked at our turkey dressing and jelly -like cranberry sauce. They were amazing hosts and served wonderful meals that took hours to prepare. Thank you so much for making Mongolia a happy home for us!

Preparation For Tsagaan Sar

While we have been rushing around finding the right clothes for the new years celebration our neighbors have been preparing their kitchens. They are carefully buying and setting aside sheep carcasses to boil on the big day. Here is our neighbor's sheep carcass on the balcony across from ours.

If you guess correctly the one thing Mongolians use to season their meat you win a personal email with the recipe for boiled sheep.

Skiing in Mongolia

I can't remember how cold it was when we were skiing at Blue Sky Resort two weeks ago. I think it was only -14 that day. It warmed up after lunch a bit . So, in the afternoon we didn't need our face masks.



I promise we were smiling in this picture.


"Pony the Pooh and Icky Mouse" were there to sing happy birthday to any skiers who's special day it was. I keep telling Alex that it is Winney the Pooh, but he just rolls his eyes at me and doesn't believe me.


Blue Sky Resort Mongolia by patriciabarnes

If you get really cold you can go inside and enjoy a nice hot cup of sea buckthorn juice.

Milk

I do not like UHT milk it tastes like the milk is burned or has turned to cheese. But something vile has definitely been done to it. UHT milk seems to be popular here. The stores are full of it. I was frustrated with this and decided to ask Erka (Our driver and expert in all things Mongolia) if he knew where to get good milk. He was so excited that I wanted "real" milk that he showed up to work the next day with 4 liters of milk in an "I love New York" bag. Evidently the word "yyc", pronounced like the "os" in Joseph means milk. And there are milk shops situated throughout UB. He proudly handed me the bag and proclaimed that the cow had been milked ten minutes ago. That's when it dawned on me that this was completely unpasteurized milk.



I was worried about trying it because I am pregnant... so I decided to just have a small taste for the sake of it. At first it tasted great in my mouth. But the longer that I had it in my mouth the longer that IT TASTED LIKE GRASS! Alex tried it and loved it. He thinks Mongolia has the best sunrises (Pollution turns the sky bright orange in the mornings.) and now the best milk. He can't get enough of it. When Patrick came home from work he tried it. He scrunched up his nose and declared, "it tastes like manure..." the jury is still out as to whether or not we will get this for cooking and Alex. But in the last four days Alex has had 1.5 liters by himself and he is not ill... yet. So now I am wondering, I don't like fresh milk, I don't like UHT milk... Do I like milk?

Red or Blue

Today my Mongolian tour guide (really our driver Erka) took us to try on the traditional Mongolian costume, called a deel. They were beautiful. The Mongolian new year is almost here and everyone will be wearing one. I am trying to decide do I like red or blue better. Alex will not try one on. He insists it is a dress! But they are required to be worn at his school during the week of the new year... this could get interesting.



My hat had a cool blue silk top thing. I was hoping you could see it better in this shot. I love how the try on belt was a lovely shocking yellow/green color. I learned to two things about deels. First they are uncomfortably warm to wear inside, and secondly they are NOT slimming. Oh well, with those two things in mind, I still would love to get one.

Cheetos

Catherine was concerned that we couldn't get Cheetos in Mongolia. Don't worry we have Cheetos.

If it is -22 or colder you can make your own snow

2011-01 Making Snow by patriciabarnes

Chilllllllin' in Mongolia

Yes it is cold here. But in general it's not that bad. There is a saying here that once you get to ten degrees below zero it all feels about the same. And in general I agree with this statement. Is it strange that we are hoping that the temperature reaches -50... just so that we can say that we lived in -50 degree weather. We are embracing the cold and taking it in stride. The first day we got here I was embarrassed because we walked outside with Winter boots, face masks, full length down coats, ski hats and gloves... while the guy walking next to me on the street was wearing an open sports coat no hat or gloves. Since then I have come to terms with the fact that Mongolians are way, way tougher than me. Since then I have learned that the number of layers I need to wear depends on how far I am walking outside. The longer I am out, the more layers I need to wear. Sometimes this backfires. For example, tonight we planned on having transport drive us to a restaurant for dinner. I wore a dress and left with out a hat, scarf or gloves. When the restaurant was closed... we drove to another restaurant which was walking distance from our hotel. After dinner we ended up walking back to the hotel-outside with no gloves or hats and Alex had no snow pants.



We came up with a solution. Patrick could wear Alex inside his coat to keep the little dude extra warm. (the temp was -30) One thing I have learned for certain... wet hair no matter how sunny it is outside... freezes instantly. So, I try now not to go out until my hair is dry. Thank goodness for short hair. Another thing I learned: it is cold in Ulaanbaatar... but when it is windy... you can actually feel the cells freezing on your forehead one by one... and you can feel the cold seeping through your ski hat. When it is really cold and you walk inside your clothes actually act to insulate the cold in... so I take off my jacket and hat as quickly as possible. And then I don't go back outside until it isn't windy anymore.



One comment about bags... I have new found sympathy for Corey and Alisa when they moved to the UK... they had what seemed like a million bags... well... I have to say it is weird writing on a customs form, "we are entering the country with 12 bags (plus my purse)"