big day

1. tuesday's monday:

i met with a student to practice english/mongolian (so you're not confused, it was me practicing mongolian). we had a grand time laughing and talking about our futures. then i spent 3 hours getting copies made. but my friends at the copy place gave me a discount and i finished a good portion of the novel i'm reading. so it was a win win win situation.

2. tuesday:

at various times i get asked to correct documents that have been translated by one of the department heads at the school i teach at. correct sometimes means re-write. but today she came in with a little bitty paragraph that was only slightly bad. after, she not too subtley stuck her wrist in my face to proudly show me a fairly nice watch she received over the weekend from the prez of mongolia. then she pointed to everything really nice about the watch. she's really proud of that gift and will probably keep it forever. i've never seen someone cherish something - but i think i saw it for the first time today.

i also noticed that a kid had "ass excellence" embroidered quite prettily on the back of his jacket. nice.

3. last day of march:

i'm happy that the sun is still out at 7 pm now. before it was dark at 5. that was gross. this is much better.

s-a-t-u-r-d-a-y NIGHT!

it's not night. more evening. but you can't sing that song with 'evening' at the end. too many syllables.

i taught a little angli khel (english) grammar today to a church cell group (aka small group) and this is what one of the participants had to say afterwards : "when you began teaching about present simple tense, my stomach started to hurt. i had to leave. i'm sorry. it was diarreah."


I GIVE PEOPLE DIARREAH WHEN I TEACH.




that's all i have to say.

friday - korean soap opera day

it's friday afternoon and i am just in time to catch a korean soap opera [with dubbed mongolian] at one of my favorite coffee shops. i'm not a huge fan of any type of soap opera, but the korean ones are pretty awesome in a horrible sort of way. i suspect strongly that the three mongolian girls sitting next to me have been waiting for hours to watch this show.

in today's episode:
there is a man and woman hanging out on a beach. uh oh...now the man in the episode has stripped down to his swim trunks and his innocent gal pal is having a hard time keeping her eyes off him. racy and scandalous! and now on the same beach but somewhere else, some girl is drowning in 2 feet of water (btw: her swimwear is extremely modest - a t-shirt and shorts) and a brave young man saves her. back on shore, the girl is limp but with a few violent shakes by her friend she magically comes back to life. her rescuer stoically walks away down the beach. throw in a couple lonely but attractive young people staring at each other across restaurants, an awkward dance party scene, a creepy fortune teller, a hot tub and a handful of over-acted, wide-eyed love/break up scenes and that's pretty much it.


this is the best friday ever.

ALL CAPS THURSDAY

TODAY'S ENTRY WILL BE IN ALL CAPS. BECAUSE I CAN. AND REALLY, I SHOULD.


IN CLASS ONE OF MY STUDENTS ASKED ME "MAY I TAKE A PISS?" HE SAID IT SO INNOCENTLY AND POLITELY, I DIDN'T HAVE THE HEART TO TELL HIM THAT THAT'S NOT REALLY AN APPROPRIATE WAY TO ASK TO GO TO THE BATHROOM. SO I JUST NODDED SLOWLY AND SMILED ON THE INSIDE.

ALSO, ON MY WAY HOME I MET A RANDOM COLLEGE STUDENT WHO WANTED TO PRACTICE HER ENGLISH. MY BIG WHITE FOREIGN FACE IS LIKE A BILLBOARD FOR EXTROVERTED ENGLISH MAJORS. SHE LOOKED 30 BUT WAS NOT MUCH YOUNGER THAN ME. SHE ALSO LIVED FOR 6 MONTHS IN JAPAN. HER PARENTS ARE HERDERS OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MONGOLIAN COUNTRYSIDE. SHE LIVES IN A GER (OR 'TENT' AS SHE CALLED IT) NOT FAR FROM MY APARTMENT. SHE EXPLAINED TO ME -IN MONGOLIAN - HOW TO MAKE BUUZ. IT WAS A VERY INFORMATIVE WALK HOME.

tuesday's monday

well, seeing as i will probably never, ever write anything on monday and always on tuesday, consider tuesday's monday a tradition from now on. a tradition that will never, ever change. ever.

**tuesday's monday -- 'today' means monday**

today i walked everywhere. i didn't intend to, it just happened. i did this for two hours straight. i gave some money to an old beggar woman and warmed her hands, but i couldn't understand anything that came out of her mouth. when this happens, i just say 'tiim uu?' (really?) after everything the person says. it illicits some funny reactions. when i got home, i made tacos. they were nothing short of awesome.

**for real tuesday -- 'today' means tuesday**

this is what happened today: i drank some coffee, taught a couple lessons, picked up some fallen cigarette cartons from some lady's stand as i was walking home and gave them back to her, complained to mone about my broken work computer, ate a boiled egg, celebrated national 80s appreciation day*.

THE END!





*there is no such thing, but if there was, i would have absolutely celebrated it. totally RAD.

wednesday's wednesday

busy today. lots of fun things happening.

actually, that's not entirely true.

there are no fun things happening today.

but it is wednesday, which means humpday, which means it is the middle of the week already, which means that's not too shabby.

tonight is the first English Club meeting. it will probably be awesome.


have an excellent humpday. i'm going to go buy scissors and glue.

tuesday's monday

it's funny that i start this blog this week. this being one of the least interesting weeks i could possibly begin a more frequent update.

last week would have been much better.

but seeing as i am a woman of the now, i'll just vaguely allude to last week throughout this week's various postings.

let's begin.

1. i realize i should have started this monday. but mondays are not my strong suit so i avoided it. actually, our internet was not working. so that's why. consider this tuesday's monday. and when you read 'today' trick yourself into thinking it's monday and you'll be fine. unless you hate mondays. then you will not be fine.

today as i was sitting in the office, a fellow teacher got up and locked the door. i thought "hm, this is strange. why is she locking us all in the office?" then i got a bit nervous because nothing happened. we were just a bunch of teachers locked in a tiny office together. and that spells disaster.

eventually though, about 3 of them grabbed their cigarettes, lit up and began smoking. after 2 minutes it was worse than a bar in there. then one of the smokers asked me "is this ok? do you smoke?" i wanted to respond with a huge, resounding "no and no!" but this is what came out: "it's ok. i don't smoke." i looked at my watch - it was only 2 minutes before classes began anyway.

this is typically how my monday classes begin:

me: ok, give me your homework.
class: silence. confused/blank stares.
me: did you forget?
class: silence. confused/blank stares.
me: do you understand?
class: silence. some of them blink.
me: great. less work for me.

despite my constant battle to get them to do their homework, my monday classes are really quite delightful. abnormally forgetful, but delightful.


**end of tuesday's monday**


2. today is tuesday, also that means St. Patrick's Day. i am wearing green, but not to celebrate. today was also another exam day for my 212 students. see, all my classes except the high schoolers essentially have 2 midterms - called Progress Exams - during the semester (which i struggle to understand the reason for), the second of which is only two weeks before their final. one of the questions i asked during this particular PE was "who are your heroes" and every person said "my dad." but one girl said "my mom." so, things are looking up moms! you, too, will eventually join the hero fold someday!

3. as i was cleaning out my favorites list i came across this doozey: old china blog and nearly peed my pants. i thought it was real funny, so check it out. later i read it again and couldn't stand it, so just one read is more than enough.