Holidays

Just a quick note before we head to our Christmas in Kenya. We are going with our friends Anna and Chris. If you have been following along, you will easily recognize Anna with Jim in this picture taken on our short walk to school. It was only -35 F degrees, so you can have skin exposed for a whole four minutes before it freezes...not quite as cold as some other days, recently. We will have quite different weather in Kenya!


We had our annual International School of Ulaanbaatar (ISU) staff party at a local restaurant downtown. Wow! Not at all like the boring staff parties we are used to in the states. Big dance floor with special effects, big sound sound system, great dj's, and vodka, dancing, more vodka, more dancing, and lots more vodka and dancing. Jim was a reluctant competitor for Mr ISU and didn't win, but his table partner in the contest ( a local TA) won Miss ISU. Did we mention that there was some vodka involved and lots of dancing? There were many incriminating pictures taken as the night grew later and later. Here is one of the few shots we can share without risking some kind of lawsuit!

Who needs to be named Mr ISU, when you have friends in high places? Nothing like being on the Prime Minister's personal Christmas card list! (Bobby, maybe this will convince Zella to visit!)
Your Christmas cards are coming, but they are taking longer than usual to mail. Not because the mail system is slow, here (although that is true). But, because the stamps are so beautiful, it is hard to choose which ones to use! We have met some local artists and we love this style... traditional Mongolia script is combined with calligraphy, with spectacular results. It is wonderful to see their talents recognized by the government in these stamps. Maybe they, too, will find their way onto the prime minister's Christmas card list!
On our way to Kenya, during the Christmas break, we will visit Tiananmen Square and a couple of palaces in Beijing. We'll see airports (and more?) in India, and Ethiopia on our way to Kenya. We'll hook up with Chris in Ethiopia, on his way from London and then Anna will be waiting for us in Nairobi. Christmas will be at Anna's house in Nairobi. Then we head east, to a week at the beach on the Indian Ocean, followed by a trek west, and a week around Lake Victoria. On the way back to UB, we'll spend a whole day on the Great Wall!

Hmmm, Jim opened a fortune cookie in Bellingham, last summer. Maybe there is something to them. Here it is...

Happy Holidays!!!

School Holiday Party

All these pictures were approved by the legal department! They were taken early enough in the night so that they show NO vodka-related, incriminating behavior... whew!

Some of our staff: Gemma, Wendy, Maaike, SouCheng, Tuul, Margriet, Jan, and Badamkhand...


Mr & Mrs ISU (International School of Ulaanbaatar)


Kelly and her TA, Denzee...


Chris and Anna, our dear friends and our soon-to-be guides in Kenya!

Warming up!

Nothing like the sun to warm up your day in Mongolia...

How about that? A twenty-five temperature rise, and we almost got up to zero degrees!

Maybe tomorrow will be warmer!

Oh, no...wait. Weather service says the low will be -36 F!! We'll need a lot more than a 25 degree temperature gain to get above zero. No worries, we are already packing for our trip to Kenya!

Maybe a few shamanic prayers at the local Ovoos will warm things up...

We hope the spirits don't mind, but it was too cold for the customary vodka flinging!

Musical Break

School closed for H1N1, everyone is wiped from the sudden transition to distance learning tools. Time for a break...

And 'tis the season...

Tough job, but...

...someone has to do it. Jim is in Singapore for training, "suffering" the heat and humidity. Here's the view out of his hotel window. He can see real, green, plants!

He is really feeling sorry for his colleagues back in Bellingham (where?) and Ulaanbaatar. It is snowing and below freezing in UB, so I'm sure he wishes he were back there instead of the tropical paradise of Singapore. Hello to all our friends who chose to go to the nice, cool Gobi this week! Hello, also, to Chris and Anna. They didn't go to the Gobi or Singapore. They snubbed us all, just for a little grass shack in Hawaii, and a shiny, new marriage certificate!!!!

Kelly is in Beijing and will soon be in Singapore, as well. We will explore the country/city/island of Singapore, then head north into Malaysia. The current plan is to, at least, visit Kuala Lumpur and Penang and...?

As the helpful Korean AirLines display shows at the end of the flight from Seoul to Sing, it is an easy overland journey north to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore (if travelling through an equatorial jungle is easy.) You can't see the island of Penang, which is further north on the west coast of the Malaysia, right there in the Straits of Malacca.

Yes, that is Indonesia, specifically, the island of Sumatra, just to the west...across the Straits. The Straits of Malacca are nothing much, just the main body of water connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. And just one of the most strategically important shipping lanes in the world. (which reminds me of the naval theory of strategic choke points--which reminds me of the space warfare concept of strategic choke points...oh, my...wait...that was another life!)

Isn't life just down right exciting? Do you ever really know what's down that road? Oh, and isn't the food in Asia indescribably delicious? Isn't this writing rather random? Don't you think we need more training?!!!!

So, we head outside the hotel, leaving behind the dining room with waterfalls crashing into fourteen foot tall picture windows and discover that is is Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights. Little India, right outside our door is dressed for the occasion....

But, there is also Chinatown, Arab Town, and La Pau Sat...world cuisine available to you at the corner hawker centers for pennies...

After a little of Singapore, we are off to Kuala Lumpur, via train. The Lonely Planet has it wrong, here. Do not take the train...well, go ahead! Spend fifty dollars and seven hours to get to KL, all the while knowing you have paid for the priviledge of viewing a million acres after million acres of palm oil plantations. You can also watch the single train employee scurry to fix the power so that some doors will open and so that the air conditioning can at least pretend to work. Take our word for it...fly to KL from Singapore. You get there in less than two hours and the tickets only cost $15. There is way too much to see in Malaysia to spend seven hours lumbering through palm oil trees. We thought it would be jungle.

KL is magical. There are well known tourist traps, of course, but they are fun. For example, you must take the obligatory picture of the Petronas towers, the tallest twin towers in the world. They will soon be the tallest building in the world when they add more length to the antennas on top. They are trying to beat out Taipei. But keep on exploring. There is a beautiful garden nearby and more...

Then we flew on to Penang, an island on the northwest shore of Malaysia, in the Straits of Malacca...and fell in love...

Nothing could stop us from loving Penang, not even the pit viper that tried to join us for lunch! A picture of him and more...to come. Meanwhile, you can enjoy the same jungle sounds we enjoyed, one night, from the top of Penang hill. Just play the video...

Statues

This giant statue of Chingiss (correct spelling, you gringos) Khan is famous in Mongolia. It stands just east, outside of Ulaanbaatar, on the way to Terelj National Park. How gigantic is it?

Well, here's how gigantic it is. See the horse's mane? If you look real close, you'll see that the little bits that look like hair...are really people. Does that give you a sense of size?

Mongolia

So, we are in Mongolia...

Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia and where we are living and working. Just to the south of the city is the Zaisan Memorial, a memorial to the "Red Heroes" that kept invading Japanese out of Mongolia in World War Two. We are teaching at the International School of Ulaanbataar with about 12 other new teachers. Here is some of our crew...

(Clicking on pictures makes them bigger)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Heroes

A visage of heroes...you pick the heroes...the soldiers captured in stone or SouChen, Maike, Anna & Kelly!


Ulannbaatar sits on a high plain at 4500 feet. After a few steps toward the far-away top, you really begin to notice the altitude. No matter, our spirits are high as Maike and Anna point the way...


Despite the 4500 foot elevation of Ulaanbaatar, we made it to the top. Behind the memorial's crest, we find a perennial Ovoo, special piles of rocks with blue silk scarves interwined to offer peace and memories of Chenghis Kahn. That's right westerners, it's Chenghis, not Genghis. Ulaanbaater stretches out on the plain behind...

Saturday, August 14, 2009

Shopping

Our teacher apartments are large and basically furnished. A few days after moving in, we decide to try our hand at shopping at the infamous Ulaanbaatar Black Market. This trip was focused on "ger" furniture buying to add some functionality to our living spaces as well as a touch of local color!




As fast as we buy, the craftsmen bring in new ger gear...


It is said that they have everything at the black market, the trick is finding it! Of course, you would put sewing machines with the furniture items, right? Of course, right next to the solar panels and women's blouses. Check out these current models...

Speaking of ger furniture, you may ask, "What's a ger?" You may know them as yurts, but in Mongolia they are called gers...a semi-portable circular house. Over half of the city of Ulaanbaatar is composed of ger communities, like this...



Gers come in many flavors. Here, a farm ger...


And a ger we stayed in...

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Terelj National Park

No, that's not a picture of Kelly and Anna in Montana. That's us in one of the many beautiful national parks. We are riding some of the famous ponies that the steppes of Mongolia are famous for...reputed to be tougher than any other breed of horse. Jim's horse stepped in a gopher hole and simply took the stumble in stride, stayed on his feet and both rider and horse were uninjured. Kelly was not so lucky a couple of weeks later. While the horse was okay after rolling on top of Kelly's leg, Kelly was not feeling so good at first. But, she is better now.


Riding is a tough job, but someone has to do it. You did bring your fly fishing gear, right?


Where are we?



And one doesn't need to bring a trusty rifle when one rides out here and has a yen for deer or wolf. In Mongolia, they just use their trusty, trained, killer eagles! Here, one of Jim's students holds a hooded eagle. They are heavy and truly powerful birds...


Some of the biggest single finds of dinosaurs have been made in Mongolia. This site, on the way to Terelj, celebrates those discoveries. Although, this site has been closed for some time and is a bit of a dinosaur itself...


Of course, wherever you travel, one must learn to share the road...

Camp

September 4, 2009

Camp

Camp at ISU starts out like most any school's camp...

But the setting is a little different...

Preparing for the evening's skit...

Hiking to the top of one (of an infinite number) of the nearby hills. Can you see our camp?

Glad to have made it to the top! Click to zoom in and see our camp in the background...

An intimidating climb and then, bragging rights?

Keeping warm in a ger...

Very interesting and exciting music...

more to come...