Back from Outer Space

Wow, is it good to be back in Arvaikheer! I am so happy to have my little kitty and my little ger. Not that my bug city adventure wasn't fun...

The Thanksgiving meal at Star Apartments was very nice. The food was great as was the company. I sat by Paul, our medical officer extraordinaire, his wife and their charming daughters. The little girls are so sweet, it made me miss my baby sisters ever so much. The new Ambassador sat with us for a while as well. He enjoyed the corn I brought. He will probably be talking about it for years to come. After the meal, a bunch of us PCVs went out, but as everything closed at 9, in accordance with the Swine Flu restrictions, nobody could get too wild. ;)

Sunday morning I went to Cafe Amsterdam for some internet and Pain Au Chocalat with a Mocha. I them preceded directly to Nayra's for lunch with some PCVs. I ran some errends in UB and later watched The Proposal at another guest house.

Monday we had to be at the Peace Corps office at 7:45 am to leave for IST (In-Service Training). I ended up getting there at 7:30 so I could check my mailbox and what-not, but the bus wasn't ready until 9:30, giving me time to read half of Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul. I hate those books. bleh!

IST was a great opportunity for us to spend time and learn the samethings as our CPs (counterparts). My faithful CP Tungaa came, and I feel like we got a lot of good information. It was an exhausting week though. Everyday we started at 8 and didn't finish until 6 and then often had another session at 8. Our sessions ranged from Language to Experience Sharing to Self-Defence to Project Design and Management. The hotel was nice and every room had a bathroom with a bathtub. I took a hot bubble bath everynight we were thee and actually woke up at 6:15 on our last morning so I could take a final bath before we left. My poor PCV BFF Katie had a cough all week and poor Caitlin shared a room with her. Hahahaha I am still feeling a little sleep deprived.

Our last night at IST, our CPs oragainzed a dance for everybody. It was alot of fun. It was hilarious to see the Mongolians trying to circle up to dance (which is how all groups of Mongolians dance-in one big circle) and the Americans trying to prevent this from happening. About every 15 minutes or so, the music would suddenly stop and the lights would come on and it would be time to play a game. This got increasingly more hilarious to the Americans who would be dancing and suddenly have no music and be in a brightly lit room. The games included a race between teams to get certain articles of clothing including a belt, a sock, a bra, and a pair of man's underwear. Another game had a pen tied to a string hooked to the back of the particpants pants who had to try to get the pen in a beer bottle on the floor. All very hilarious. We also had 3 of the male CPs dress in thier black long underwear with towels around thier waists performing a quick ballet. It was very entertaining night.

Saturday I had some more errends to run in UB, ate a Twilight with about 15 PCVs around a tiny table and stayed back at Khongor guest house. We left a 7 am Sunday morning and were able to get seats on the bus back to Arvaikheer. We arrived at around 2:30 in the afternoon. Last night I did a little laundry as everything I own is now dirty, unpacked, and got ready for the week. I watched PUSH, a movie I bought in UB, which was bad and gave my smelly cat a bath and then comforted her for hours. I am looking forward to going to Loving Hut for lunch and picking up my package from the post office! All in all, I am very happy to be back. I miss you all! love, C