jet plane

i bought my plane ticket today. what a massive chunk of change i had to fork over for that! makes me want to live in europe so i can just go by train or something. instead i live in indianola, ia, a very expensive place to get to apparently.

but the travel agent offered me a piece of gum while i waited for her to get it all squared away. on the gum's package it said "if you only had hot dog flavored gum it would be like like a picnic in your pocket." hot dog flavored gum? even the thought makes me want to barf.

the gum she gave me was mint/watermelon, thank goodness. even though minty watermelon is sort of strange tasting.

anyway. that's all.

happy v/tss day!

it was a tricky day this year. tsagaan sar* and valentine's both mooshed together on the 14th. two holidays in one 24 hour time period. could have been overwhelming except for the fact that v-day is a fairly new holiday for mongolians and tsagaan sar has been celebrated for, well, hundreds of years. so the buuz were not heart shaped and husbands and wives still didn't greet each other in the morning.

i, however, not being of mongol decent but also not v-day's largest fan, decided to wait until today to post something in tribute. you can look at it as either a belated or very, very early 'happy v-day' wish. i believe in choices.

so, happy....day to you all, regardless of the holiday you're celebrating!

(if i would have had some fore-thought, i quite possibly might have sent these out yesterday to you and yours. but actually, i think it's much better this way:)

*translation: tsagaan - white , sar - month or moon. it's the lunar new year celebration. yahoo!

spatula in one hand, hammer in the other

for some reason, or many, or maybe not any reason in particular, living in mongolia has made me want to learn how to make all kinds of stuff: candles, chocolate, curtains, tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, pillows, potato chips, bread. it has also made me want to learn how to fix things (after a fashion) so someday i can be my own plumber, mechanic, electrician.

why not?

learning is a good adventure.

60th

happy 60th post day!

go eat some ice cream in celebration of this occasion. you needed an excuse to dive in to that lonely tub sitting in your freezer and i have given you one. so get to it.

it's the little things

1. today i celebrated the birthdays of 4 of my friends with a big lunch and slice of cake*. then i was told 1/12 of the population celebrates their birthday today. i don't know which population that is specifically, but it sounded like a cool statistic.

2. i'm pretty sure there is no particular word for 'bra' in mongolian

3. we are freezing inside our apartment

4. tsagaan sar (Mongolia's lunar new year celebration) is this weekend, in fact it is on valentine's day. heart-shaped buuz* anyone? mm-mm.

5. need something interesting to do March 5th - 7th? go to www.jcsintl.org and click on '40 hours Prayer'.





*cake - mongolian cake tastes something like a moist sponge with cool-whip on top. they sure look lovely on the outside though.

*buuz - mongolian dumplings that tend to stay with you all day and into the next.

hater

he's a bit of a grump, but this is pretty entertaining reading


enjoy.

falling

1. i've fallen behind on my blogging duties. apologies. fun stuff to come

2. i fell down again (3rd crash). this time it was just on my way to the store. the boots i have leave much to be desired in the way of traction, so down i went after i slipped on nothing in particular**. on that day, the traffic happened to be backed up, so hundreds of drivers were given a little show that i like to call, "foreigner biffs it and limps away toward the store."

3. my hopes have fallen in regards to climate change. for some reason, now that it is february, i feel entitled to daily highs that are above -15 or -30 (F). but looking at this week's weather (-20s straight thru) helps to remind me that nature has no time to regard my sense of entitlement. so it looks like seven more days of face freezing fun.

4. nothing else has fallen in the meantime. to my immediate knowledge. so, that's all.



**in my defense - it had just snowed. snow is not immediatley shoveled so it just gets packed down into a slickery, bumpy sheet of ice. so, i suspect part of that played a key role in my downfall.