Sky resort and birthday festivities

Liz carving up the slopes

hot house shredders

sexy harry high pants

Waz movember styling in Francis Labrador hat

Mike and Mike @ golden lounge

lovelies xx

Little red, big red and Karina

group L.O.V.E

serving our community better...sexy Mongol officer

Kindy and Lotus...

Spent the morning at Liz's Kindergarten No 10 which is set up to provide day care for children with special needs.  I loved it.  We had two AusAid officials pop over from Beijing to touch base with what AusAid and AYAD are doing in Mongolia.  Liz and I were both chosen to show our workplaces.  Met some very gorgeous children at Kindy no 10 with very complex health needs.  Hope to spend some time out there again soon.  Had an awesome conversation in Mongolian with a young boy with Down Syndrome on a pretend telephone!  At least my language lessons got me that far!  It was hard to witness some of the disabilities the children had due to the fact that in Australia there would have been more early intervention and progress made health wise.  To see so many children in the one place with such severe and multiple disabilities was a tad confronting.

I spent a lot of the day thinking about the distribution of wealth in Ulaanbaatar and the different standards of living that I've witnessed here.  The courtyard that we live in has two massive hummers and a brand new BMW 4WD parked next to an open man hole.  In this man hole two old men live that spend their days going through the rubbish left on the side of the road while swigging on bottles of vodka that cost less than a bottle of spring water.  I know we also have issues with distribution of wealth in Australia however here it is way more obvious and part of the everyday scenery.  Here's an article on homeless people in UB that set up their homes in the underground tunnels that support the heating and sewer system...

http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/mongolian-homeless-living-underground-in-sewers.html

After kindy no 10 we drove over to Lotus.  It's school holidays at the moment so Lotus was pumping with energy.  I don't officially start at Lotus until Monday so it was good to meet quite a few of the kids and house mothers before I settle in next week.

Lotus cherubs!

 Friday night drinks at Ix Mongol...

the crowd singing along with the live band

  

Hot house happiness

Liz and I are a tad obsessed with Mad Men and eating random foods from the supermarket.  Most nights we sink a few episodes and a work our way through the dairy or the pickle section of our fridge.  This is Thursday's selection.  Loving the plaited smokey cheese and freshly purchased love heart frame from Naran Tuul.

Sky Resort...

Where else in the world can you snowboard for $12 Aussie dollars...

Nat and I

We had the slopes to ourselves!

Even monks like to ski

over dosing on pickles

pickles pickles pickles 

Monday Muay Thai and Roller disco

Another Muay Thai session...Alkhaa still says he's going to kill me but says that now I'm not muay thai lazy any more and looking more like a kick boxer.  He is such a joker and made me teach him a Wai Kru (the ritual/dance before a muay thai fight) haha he was loving himself sick!

After my private Liz, Ben and I joined a few others at the roller disco.  Soooooo much fun.  Cost about 3 Aussie dollars and I'm thinking I should totally have my birthday party there next year with an ice cream cake and lolly bags...

Ben, Em, Liz and Mike

flash backs to me being 11 and roller blading in my grans back yard to horrible 90's music!

  

Snow day

Spent our first night in a ger.  I woke up with a 15 year old Mongolian boy sitting on the end of my bed...thankfully though as he was in charge of the fire in the middle of our ger.  After breakfast we had some frisbee and football time in the snow.  I feel like I am living in Narnia.  My ugg boots are awesome in UB as they keep my feet toasty warm however for climbing snow covered hills in the country side...not so much.  I felt like a cartoon character slipping all over the place and looking like I was running on a treadmill on the spot.  It was definitely a case of two steps forward four steps back.  It's going to be a looooooong winter I think if I don't upgrade my boots!  A great day playing in the snow and mafia action in the toasty lounge room.

our home away from home

mike being a polar bear

Karina and I...I was happy to make it to the top!

Stealth Mike 

         

Terelj Shenanigans...

Saturday a group of us headed to Terelj which is about 50 km from UB.  It was unreal to get out of the city.  Pollution levels in UB right now are insane so we were all very excited to breathe some clean air.

The activities during the day were organised by our language school.  We got to visit a family at their winter home and practice our language skills.  It was the most fun I think I have had since landing in UB...

in love

butter tea...also got to try camels milk & fermented mares milk.  Mares milk tastes like milk with gerkin juice...not sure if I'll ever get used to that! 

my new bestie

Watched a goat being killed traditionally.  Incision made in the chest of the goat and the hand goes in and his arm moved up through the rib cage and uses his finger to sever the major artery next to the heart.  Never seen anything like it.  The goat was skinned on the spot (this guy was so efficient and skilled) then all the bits and pieces chopped up...NOTHING was wasted!

Traditional Mongolian games played with ankle bones of animals.

My old mate Mr Goat.  I was very brave and tried everything but the stomach.  I actually really liked the blood.

The makings of Tsuivan.  Mongolian noodles.

Buuz buuz buuz and more buuz!

Small hike up the mountain after lunch

Karaoke party at our own Ger stay

Group love

Harmonica and acoustic guitar times before bed

Lazy friday & bowl-a-rama

The outside of our apartment building...My bedroom is top left.  Not really Aussie standards but loving it all the same.  Will put some inside photos up soon once Liz and I have added some flair to the inside.  Position wise our apartment is like living on Chapel St in Melbourne.  Full of cafes and little shops...Chapel st Mongolian style that is.  We love it...feels like home for sure.  I feel like I've been here a lot longer than 2 weeks.

Friday night = bowl-a-rama.  A massive entourage hit the UB ten pin bowling centre.  Super fun besides Karina almost breaking her leg.  Yep bowling is a dangerous sport you know!

House full of Mongolian boys, temperature is dropping and a boozy karaoke adventure

Liz and I have made some great new friends in our apartment building...which helps when we are having major internet issues.  Luckily we had three lovely Mongolian boys more than willing to help set up our wireless and drink cups of tea with us.  Too funny.  Undraa is another newly acquainted Mongolian friend.  She works in PR here in UB and luckily for us has really good English.  She is super sweet and has organised to have us over for dinner and meet her family.

Liz and I finally used our kitchen and made a tidy little stir fry and had Ben and Karina join us.  One bottle of vodka later we were ready to hit the town.  Over to Ich Mongol to watch Ultan Urag play again and finish another bottle of voddy.  Also made some new Irish friends who joined us for Karaoke after the pub closed.  Yep Mongolians are a little bit mad for Karaoke.  Private room dealio and another bottle of vodka...enough said.