She's Here!!! And what Happened to 3 weeks??

So...  By the time my visa finally arrived and I got myself going, it was about six weeks in all.
What a lot of waiting!!  I learned a lot about waiting, and how NOT patient I truly am.  Whoops.

Thanksgiving was a few days ago, and yet again I was far away from the family I love dearly.  So I'll give you a brief update and then answer some of my Mongolia questions!  =) I'm so glad I have that list.  By the way, you all still need to write down your own questions and send them to me so I can answer THEM too!! =)

Tomorrow I start teaching.  Tomorrow marks a week that I've been here in Mongolia.  Tomorrow. =)  You know, in Chinese, it means "bright day".  I've always loved that.
Tomorrow is a bright day and I'm excited to meet my students in the classroom!

So far, my week has contained:

• unpacking and moving in with my Russian roommate...  Svetlana speaks very little English, (And I speak niet Russian) but we get along pretty well.  She's a biology and chemistry teacher at my school.
• walking about the city and getting acquainted with important places like where to get groceries, where to get yak socks, (woo!) where to get towels and soap and food and anything I can imagine, where to find an ATM, where to get yummy food for cheap, where the headquarters is, and where my team leader lives.
• going to my school and meeting my classes and my co-workers and principal and secretary and all that jazz.  I'm super excited. I think it will be a fantastic environment to work and teach in. (It's a Russian run school with about 127 students.)  About.  I teach three classes. 9th, 10th, and 11th grades.  I'll see them all once a day except for 9th grade.  I only see them four times a week.
• going to the office for teaching training and the low down on rules and regulations.  No worries.  I'm cool with both of those.  (Not really, more like why I'm here and how I live that out intentionally and consistently.)  PREPARE FOR TEACHING!!  LOVE PEOPLE. =)  Haha, easier said than done, but I'm up for it.
• going for language training (yikes) and meeting my side of the city team for Thanksgiving dinner.  Yummy.
• meeting with my member care provider :) yay!  It's always great to have a person who you know is there to help you.  Whatever happens. =) Thankful.
• HIKING!  hiking hiking hiking!!  So, lest you be completely jealous.. we trekked through snow for about three hours and possibly might have gotten cold and wet feet.  Fortunately, I didn't really notice because everything around me was so amazingly beautiful.  Also, I was with a bunch of awesome people and we had great conversations and three hours later I don't think any of us were tired of looking at the amazing view of mountains mountains mountains and valley valley valleys and everything covered with a lovely dusting of snow snow snow.  And blue blue blue sky. :)   And lots of little houses with their little fences.  It was very quaint, very peaceful, and very VERY beautiful.  There was also an incredible amount of smog.  Wow.  Ulaanbaatar works hard to get its reputation as the 'most polluted ever'.
• dinner with the enTIRE Mongolian team.  (ok, not really, but the ones that weren't there I had already met)  The food was amazing, and we had great conversation, and I'm so plumb lucky to be here and a part of what's going on. =)
• And.... CHURCH!!  Missed this in China. =)  The Real Deal.  I'm so excited for this year and going to church with Mongolians!!

So, that's me and my life.  Yes, Mongolia is cold.. but there are lots of days where I have to take my coat off outside because I just have too many layers on or it's just too warm!  Thankfully, colder weather is coming and I probably won't be sweating so much.  Yay.

So.  One of the questions I can answer now is "how do Mongolian people get around?"

And I've got it easy because I live in the city, but the question is a good one anyway.

Here in Ulaanbaatar, there are lots of cars and lots of buses.  Mongolian people either take the bus (400 Tugriks) or the trolley (200 T, cheaper but slower) or they walk, or drive a car, or take a taxi, which is just a normal car driven by a normal person who will take you somewhere for money.  How nice. :)

No one bikes.

Maybe they would if it were summer time and hotter.  But no one here does it now.  Not like in China.. bikes bikes everywhere.  Normal bikes, electric bikes.. electric scooters, mopeds.. you name it.

NOPE.  Maybe it's too cold.

Also, you have to be careful because your car.. just might not start if it's too cold.  Think about that!

Someone probably already invented the electric blanket for your car engine.  It would be really useful here. =)

So.  I have more on transportation, but that's all for now.

If you have trouble leaving a comment or following my blog, let me know.  I'll see if I can squirrel things around to be easier to navigate/understand. =)

Love you all!  Mongolia is awesome!