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.

I kill you already...you wrong...wrong...I kill you...

Went to a kick boxing session with a private trainer tonight.  It was awesome but my trainer Alkhaa wont let me keep my Muay Thai technique.  He's trained in Muay Thai before but I learnt quickly it has to be his way!  He's hilarious..."Muay Thai lazy...slowly slowly...BAM...I kill you (as he kicks me in the head) before you even know it...Muay Thai relax relax...WRONG...you wrong...I kill you already...kick boxing better."

In pain already...had the shakes over dinner but loved every minute of it.  Feels good to get back into it...Have trained in 30 degrees in Thailand and will be training in -30 degrees over winter!  Made me miss Thailand a little bit while training with Alkhaa...big love to my Thai peeps xxx

Boys break dancing out the front of the Louis Vuitton store

  

Random UB shots...

language lessons begin...

Learning Mongolian is hard...learning Cyrillic and all the tones and pronunciations is so tricky.  I've found that if I say the words and pretend that I'm really angry people understand me more.  I think the pollution helps to get that phlegmmy throat sound too...too much information??  Hahaha!

Shopping or should I say supporting the local economy...

Today we hit the black market knows as Naran Tuul.  Serious shopping there.  Funny thing was that the snow from the previous few days had turned to ice.  It is not easy to walk on ice.  No falls yet but lots of recoveries from little back slips.  I know it will eventually happen but for now I’m standing tall.