Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Well that was fun....
I just got back from visiting the immigration office. We went there by mini bus. I'll have to take a picture of one for you to get the full effect, but imagine a van, not quite 16 passenger, but not a mini van either, with seats like a 16 passenger van, and then cram 20 people into it (not kidding, I counted there were 20). Then after we got there things were kind of crazy in the office, but luckily Altaa got me through it, I don't think I would have known what to do if she wasn't with me. So now I can stay in Mongolia for up to 90 days. On the way home we took a cab, so that was nicer, but it was still crazy driving with no seatbelts. That was enough adventure for the day for me.
NCCD
The 4th floor hallway where my office is located.
My office that I share with 2 other people.
My desk.
Outside
The NCCD (where I'm working)
Yes I walk through here.
The secondary school that I walk past on my way to work. I also pass 2 elementary schools.
The outside of my building.
People lined up to vote at the elementary school outside my building on Sunday.
My view outside, you can see the basketball court and the elementary school.
A view the other way. Those metal boxes on the right hand side are what people use for garages. And the green building on top in the middle is the secondary school that there is a picutre of above.
My Apartment
My stairwell.
My front door, there's a little entry way on the other side, and then there's another door to my apartment, and another apartment. All of the apartments in the building have these big metal doors on the outside.
The elevator outside my door.
The plants that I was entrusted with.
My bedroom.
My very blue bathroom.
This is my little office area/hallway.
My entryway, sorry it's crooked!
My tiny refrigerator
My kitchen
My livingroom.
Airplane Food
So this is the sticker that they put on all of us in Japan before we got off the plane. I kind of felt like I was in kindergarten again and transferring buses. They also handed out masks to all of us to wear.
My second meal on the way to Japan, it was pretty good, but I picked out all of the salmon from the pasta
Sandwiches that they gave us for a snack, yes I actually ate an egg salad sandwich
Chicken curry, I got the last one! Otherwise it was some seafood dish they were serving. The things in the upper right are like cold meatballs, they were okay, but it was wierd eating cold meat. Then the thing on the upper left was some kind of gelitan dessert.
My most interesting meal, once again the cold meatball things in the middle. I didn't eat the salmon, and rho, and there were vegetables mixed in with the rice under it. The jello like thing on the left was some starchy ball with green tea jelly, that was actually pretty good. and the purple thing is taro. The white block was egg with vegetables in it. I didn't eat the rest. Oh and I had to eat the whole thing with chopsticks.
My meal on the way to Mongolia, I loved the little thing on the top in the middle, it's just a hunk of pineapple, I wish we had those in the states.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
5/26/09
Today was good I went to work. I have been asked to find websites other than the WHO website with recommendations for dealing with the Influenza Pandemic. I havne't ever really tried to dig for this information before so it has been intersting. I'm not sure if other countries have a lot of information out there and I'm just not finding it because I'm searching in English, or if other countries really are basing most of what they do off of WHO and CDC information. It seems like the WHO and CDC are the only major sites out there with recommendations. Other than that I found the Department of Health and Human Services in the US has info, but no foreign info. I also found a site for air transportation and their recommendations and what different countries are doing. I will share this information with the person overseeing influenza surveillance tomorrow and see what she wants me to do with it or if that is all she really wanted.
Yesterday at work I met a whole bunch of people and of course I don't really remember all of their names, I need to ask Altaa to write them all down. Only one person, the director of the NCCD, gave me his card with his name on it. It was fun to talk to him, he speaks pretty good English, and has been to more places in the US than me it seems. He also said that if anybody is going out to the countryside to do any work he'll send me with them, so that will be good. When I was going to leave he asked if I wanted any tea, and I thought he asked if I would like to have tea with him sometime, so I said yes. Then he started getting tea ready. I felt bad because Altaa seemed like she was in a hurry to introduce me to everybody and get back to what she needed to do and then we had to sit there and drink tea. They both drank theirs very quickly and I have no idea how because it was super hot. It was pretty good tea though that actually had some flavor to it. Today I had to drink tea again, I was offered it twice. I guess I'll become a tea drinker yet.
Other than that not much is going on. I registered with the US Embassy, but have no idea where the government office is for Mongolia that I need to register with. I e-mailed Eileen to find out.
I used up one of my packages of noodles that I brought with me today, but it sure was good. I tried to make fried rice last night and that didn't turn out so well. I didn't really want to try to reheat that on the stove and will bring it to work tomorrow where there is a microwave.
Yesterday at work I met a whole bunch of people and of course I don't really remember all of their names, I need to ask Altaa to write them all down. Only one person, the director of the NCCD, gave me his card with his name on it. It was fun to talk to him, he speaks pretty good English, and has been to more places in the US than me it seems. He also said that if anybody is going out to the countryside to do any work he'll send me with them, so that will be good. When I was going to leave he asked if I wanted any tea, and I thought he asked if I would like to have tea with him sometime, so I said yes. Then he started getting tea ready. I felt bad because Altaa seemed like she was in a hurry to introduce me to everybody and get back to what she needed to do and then we had to sit there and drink tea. They both drank theirs very quickly and I have no idea how because it was super hot. It was pretty good tea though that actually had some flavor to it. Today I had to drink tea again, I was offered it twice. I guess I'll become a tea drinker yet.
Other than that not much is going on. I registered with the US Embassy, but have no idea where the government office is for Mongolia that I need to register with. I e-mailed Eileen to find out.
I used up one of my packages of noodles that I brought with me today, but it sure was good. I tried to make fried rice last night and that didn't turn out so well. I didn't really want to try to reheat that on the stove and will bring it to work tomorrow where there is a microwave.
5/24/09
Today again has been boring. I managed to sleep until 5 after crashing at 7 last night. I am not planning to go out because I do not need anything grocery wise, and I don't really know where I would go. Altaa said that everything would be closed today anyway since it's Election Day. Tomorrow I'm supposed to get internet hooked up to my apartment, so that will be nice to have in the evenings. I have just been doing a lot of people watching out of my window, and reading and watching TV.
The TV here is interesting, there are 2 music channels that I think you can text message into to request/vote for songs. Most of the songs are American songs, but from what I gather some are Russian and I'm guessing Korean or Chinese. I have been really surprised at the amount of American music that I have heard. When Tsegii took me shopping her daughter was playing a song by Fergie. Yet she didn't appear to know enough English to know what the song was saying. I also heard some American music coming out of an apartment that we passed. They also have American News (Fox News) on in the mornings. Altaa said that they have the BBC news on too at some point, but I haven't flipped thoruhg channels enough to find it. The American news is intersting because they play the whole broadcast including commercials.
I was reading through what I wrote above and I need to amend the part that I wouldn't just walk out in front of cars here. Apparently that's what you do otherwise you would never get across the busy streets. while I was out with Altaa yesterday we crossed streets probably about 4 times, and you just wait until there is a group and then start walking and hope that the cars stop. If somebody's driving really fast you wait, but otherwise you just walk.
The TV here is interesting, there are 2 music channels that I think you can text message into to request/vote for songs. Most of the songs are American songs, but from what I gather some are Russian and I'm guessing Korean or Chinese. I have been really surprised at the amount of American music that I have heard. When Tsegii took me shopping her daughter was playing a song by Fergie. Yet she didn't appear to know enough English to know what the song was saying. I also heard some American music coming out of an apartment that we passed. They also have American News (Fox News) on in the mornings. Altaa said that they have the BBC news on too at some point, but I haven't flipped thoruhg channels enough to find it. The American news is intersting because they play the whole broadcast including commercials.
I was reading through what I wrote above and I need to amend the part that I wouldn't just walk out in front of cars here. Apparently that's what you do otherwise you would never get across the busy streets. while I was out with Altaa yesterday we crossed streets probably about 4 times, and you just wait until there is a group and then start walking and hope that the cars stop. If somebody's driving really fast you wait, but otherwise you just walk.
5/23/09
Today was pretty good. Last night I fell asleep at 6PM and then this morning I woke up at 4:30AM. It was good to catch up on some sleep. I'm still a little bit tired today, but I'm trying not to nap so that I can get onto a regular schedule. I still need to take some pictures when I am out walking around, but I didn't bring my camera with me today.
This morning I spent reading and people watching out my window. Somebody had come with a truck and was selling a white liquid (I'm guessing milk). All morning people were coming over with their containers and the woman would scoop some of the liquid into it. There are several playgrounds around here as well. So many children are out playing all the time. Many of them have soccer balls, but they play basketball with them on the basketball court outside my building. There are also many people just walking around outside, this seems to be a high traffic area.
Today Altaa came by and took me shopping again. This was good, because I needed to get the things that I forgot yesterday. Apparently there is a grocery store basically at the end of my building. It is not very big but has quite a few of the necessities including some American food. Altaa was kind of funny in that while we were shipping she was trying to tell me what the best prices were for everything and what the best quality was (Russian and Mongolian). It was nice, but for some things I didn't really want the cheapest, but the more expensive American versions. One example of this is toilet paper, she kept insisting that I get the Russian toilet paper, well this is what was already in my apartment, and this was part of the reason I wanted different toilet paper. It is pretty much crepe paper (the stuff you twist and hang from the ceiling at parties). I eventually gave in and got that, I don't think my butt will be thanking me for that decision, but it will get me by. I also ended up getting soybean oil instead of vegetable oil and Mongolian butter instead of Russian butter. We'll have to see how those taste.
Altaa also took me to the meat market, and boy was that an experience. I should have told he that I was a vegetarian and that was why I didn't get any meat yesterday when she asked. So they ahve all kinds of animals (though I didn't see chickens) including horse just there out in the open. There were cuts of meat and then also carcasses just hanging behind the tables. Most of the meat (including the beef that I got) still has some of the fascia on the outside of it. Altaa was walking around sniffing the meat to see which was fresh or not. I would have no idea how to do that! Eventually she settled on a vendor and I ended up with 1kg of beef. We did this first and then went and did all of our other shopping. I'm sure the meat had been sitting out in the market all morning, so what's another 2 hours or so of walking around, but I would never think to get meat at the grocery store and then carry it around with me while I went shopping a the mall.
After going to the food market Altaa took me to the State Department Store. This was very neat to see. It is just a huge store with everything you could think of in there. For clothing they ha d a lot of brand name things that were very cheap. I was looking at a Mountain Hardware or Spyder soft shell jacket which would be around $150 in the US and it was only $40. The whole main floor was jewelry. I think that Altaa expected me to want to by some, but I'm just not a jewelry person. I may look again thouhg before I leave and see if things are really cheap and then get something. Altaa said to wait and she would take me to a different market some other time because things are even cheaper there. She also took me to a souvenir shop where they ahd little gift things. One thing that I likewas was they had little gers that were kind of like doll houses with little people and things inside. they also had a lot of traditional clothing for sale as well as wall hangings and jewelry.
I did get some containers to store food in and to be able to bring it to work in. Also I got some other utensils for cooking because all I haev is one wooden spoon. I should have bought some knives if I was thinking of it, but that's okay I think I'll get by with what I have here. They gave me one big meat cleaver type knife, but no butter knives.
Altaa also showed me where I was on the map that I brought with me. She seemed pretty impressed with the quality of the map so I didn't ask her to help me find a better one.
When I got home it was a bit of an adventure. Altaa had left me to walk home by myself, and then I couldn't get the door to open. I went downstairs to ask the security person to help me and of course it worked for him. Apparently you need to push in on the door while turning the key. I had tried that before I went downstairs, but it hadn't worked. I tried it with him standing there and it worked for me then. Hopefully I will continue ot be able to open the door, since he probably now thinks that I don't know how to do it. also I must be the only American in this building, because hwne I went to ask for help he didn't even ask where I lived or let me lead the way he just walked right to my apartment.
Altaa told me today that I should not go out on my own except to walk to work and right around my apartment building, so I'm kind of glad that I didn't go out yesterday to try to wander around. It looks like there might be a gym right across the street from my building, but I'm not sure if it's actually in that building or just an ad on the building. I will have to ask Altaa to take me in there. I asked her today and she though that I was pointing to the supermarket sign on the building, and then proceeded to take me to a different market at the end of my building. I still did not ask to go to the embassy or their govenment building to get registered. I think that I will e-mail Eileen when she is back to help me do that, or ask Altaa.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is thier national election day. Altaa was very excited abou this and kept telling me that she was going to vote for their Democratic Party candidate. I guess that Mongolia has only been a democracy for 20 years. They have 2 candidates from the Socialist Party and Democratic Party. There are 2 schools right outside of my apartmetn building and schools are used as the pooling locations. It will be interesting to watch everybody coming to vote.
This morning I spent reading and people watching out my window. Somebody had come with a truck and was selling a white liquid (I'm guessing milk). All morning people were coming over with their containers and the woman would scoop some of the liquid into it. There are several playgrounds around here as well. So many children are out playing all the time. Many of them have soccer balls, but they play basketball with them on the basketball court outside my building. There are also many people just walking around outside, this seems to be a high traffic area.
Today Altaa came by and took me shopping again. This was good, because I needed to get the things that I forgot yesterday. Apparently there is a grocery store basically at the end of my building. It is not very big but has quite a few of the necessities including some American food. Altaa was kind of funny in that while we were shipping she was trying to tell me what the best prices were for everything and what the best quality was (Russian and Mongolian). It was nice, but for some things I didn't really want the cheapest, but the more expensive American versions. One example of this is toilet paper, she kept insisting that I get the Russian toilet paper, well this is what was already in my apartment, and this was part of the reason I wanted different toilet paper. It is pretty much crepe paper (the stuff you twist and hang from the ceiling at parties). I eventually gave in and got that, I don't think my butt will be thanking me for that decision, but it will get me by. I also ended up getting soybean oil instead of vegetable oil and Mongolian butter instead of Russian butter. We'll have to see how those taste.
Altaa also took me to the meat market, and boy was that an experience. I should have told he that I was a vegetarian and that was why I didn't get any meat yesterday when she asked. So they ahve all kinds of animals (though I didn't see chickens) including horse just there out in the open. There were cuts of meat and then also carcasses just hanging behind the tables. Most of the meat (including the beef that I got) still has some of the fascia on the outside of it. Altaa was walking around sniffing the meat to see which was fresh or not. I would have no idea how to do that! Eventually she settled on a vendor and I ended up with 1kg of beef. We did this first and then went and did all of our other shopping. I'm sure the meat had been sitting out in the market all morning, so what's another 2 hours or so of walking around, but I would never think to get meat at the grocery store and then carry it around with me while I went shopping a the mall.
After going to the food market Altaa took me to the State Department Store. This was very neat to see. It is just a huge store with everything you could think of in there. For clothing they ha d a lot of brand name things that were very cheap. I was looking at a Mountain Hardware or Spyder soft shell jacket which would be around $150 in the US and it was only $40. The whole main floor was jewelry. I think that Altaa expected me to want to by some, but I'm just not a jewelry person. I may look again thouhg before I leave and see if things are really cheap and then get something. Altaa said to wait and she would take me to a different market some other time because things are even cheaper there. She also took me to a souvenir shop where they ahd little gift things. One thing that I likewas was they had little gers that were kind of like doll houses with little people and things inside. they also had a lot of traditional clothing for sale as well as wall hangings and jewelry.
I did get some containers to store food in and to be able to bring it to work in. Also I got some other utensils for cooking because all I haev is one wooden spoon. I should have bought some knives if I was thinking of it, but that's okay I think I'll get by with what I have here. They gave me one big meat cleaver type knife, but no butter knives.
Altaa also showed me where I was on the map that I brought with me. She seemed pretty impressed with the quality of the map so I didn't ask her to help me find a better one.
When I got home it was a bit of an adventure. Altaa had left me to walk home by myself, and then I couldn't get the door to open. I went downstairs to ask the security person to help me and of course it worked for him. Apparently you need to push in on the door while turning the key. I had tried that before I went downstairs, but it hadn't worked. I tried it with him standing there and it worked for me then. Hopefully I will continue ot be able to open the door, since he probably now thinks that I don't know how to do it. also I must be the only American in this building, because hwne I went to ask for help he didn't even ask where I lived or let me lead the way he just walked right to my apartment.
Altaa told me today that I should not go out on my own except to walk to work and right around my apartment building, so I'm kind of glad that I didn't go out yesterday to try to wander around. It looks like there might be a gym right across the street from my building, but I'm not sure if it's actually in that building or just an ad on the building. I will have to ask Altaa to take me in there. I asked her today and she though that I was pointing to the supermarket sign on the building, and then proceeded to take me to a different market at the end of my building. I still did not ask to go to the embassy or their govenment building to get registered. I think that I will e-mail Eileen when she is back to help me do that, or ask Altaa.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is thier national election day. Altaa was very excited abou this and kept telling me that she was going to vote for their Democratic Party candidate. I guess that Mongolia has only been a democracy for 20 years. They have 2 candidates from the Socialist Party and Democratic Party. There are 2 schools right outside of my apartmetn building and schools are used as the pooling locations. It will be interesting to watch everybody coming to vote.
Updates
For some reason my computer doesn't want to connect to their internet here, so I'll retype what I have on it over to my computer at work. I forgot to bring my camera to work today, so I'll try to add pictures tomorrow.
5/22
Well I made it to Mongolia in one piece. I got in around 11:30 by the time I got my luggage and everything. Surprisingly with 3 airline changes my luggage all made it with me and pretty much in one piece (a zipper got broken off). Aparently when flying internationally you aren't supposed to use luggage, both when checking in, in Chicago, and when getting my luggage in Mongolia I was surprised by the number of boxes. So next time I'll have to remember to get a box and fill it then wrap it a few times in packaging tape and I'll be good to go. My only real problem was almost missing my flight in Japan which I was worried about the begin with.
At all of the airports they are taking a lot of extra health precautions with H1N1 going around, so that was really neat to see, however kind of annoying when you almost miss your flight because of it. I did not take any pictures because they told us that we couldn't on the airplane and when I got off of the planes I was too busy trying to figure out where exactly I was going.
There were varying levels of precautions being taken in the different countries. In Japan the people doing the quarantine inspections were covered head to toe in isolation gowns, including gloves, goggles, masks, and some even had their heads covered as well. I thought this was going a little bit overboard. They also did all of the checks on the airplane and would not let anybody off until we had all been checked. On top of this, on the flight from Chicago to Japan the flight attendants all wore masks the entire way and many of the people on the plane were wearing masks as well. There is no way that I could wear a mask for 13 hours! In Korea they were just wearing masks and gloves. I almost didn't get through the Korean checkpoint because my temperature was 37.3, they then checked to see if I had marked any other symptoms (we had little sheets to fill out at every airport), and luckily I hadn't even though I have been coughing, so they let me go. In Japan and Mongolia they used heat sensing cameras to check our temperatures, which was pretty neat to see, and in Korea they just used regular thermometers.
All of the airports were nice and fairly easy to navigate, I did a lot of asking though. In Japan they had people all over the place to help you figure out where you needed to go, they also stuck a sticker on all of us who were catching the flight to Korea since it was a tight connection. I didn't realize at every airport I had to go out and go back through security to catch my next international flight, so things will be smoother going home now that I know this.
The airport in Seoul is by far the nicest airport that I have ever been to. They had a whole lounge area upstairs, with internet access, and a place to shower, and a restaurant. They also had a cultural center and a museum within the airport, and TONS of shopping. I think there were about 3 of every kind of duty free shop just in the little area I walked through (my gates were pretty close there). They also have a transit hotel in the airport so if you are there for more than 6 hours you can get a room to sleep in and shower. I'm not sure how much the showers and hotel cost because I didn't need to use them, though I was really tempted to shower. The internet, museum and cultural center were all free. The airport in Mongolia was interesting. It was about half the size of Cedar Rapids it seemed like and looked like it hasn't been updated since the '50's.
The parking lot outside the airoprt was just a free for all; cars were parked every which way. THEN driving was absolutely insane. I had been told that it was crazy, but when I saw that there were actually lines on the road I thought that maybe there were traffic rules after all. I was wrong. The road from the airport was incredibly bumpy even though it was paved, and then the guy who was driving us was driving all over. Apparently you can just pass on the right or left, it doesn't matter, and you just flash your lights at the person in front of you to get out of your way (this was a 2 lane road, not a 4 lane). There were people all over on the sides of the roads, I'm not sure exactly if they were waiting for a bus or taxi, or hitchhiking. Keep in mind it was nearly midnight, so I don't know what they were all doing out. Then we almost hit some guy on crutches crossing the road, but I would say that was just as much his fault. I wouldn't walk out in front of a car here. So after that wild ride I finally made it to my apartment.
I got to my apartment a little bit after midnight and crashed, but then I was up at 6:30 in the morninng, so I'm just waiting to hit the wall today. My apartment is on the 6th floor, there is an elevator, but I don't know if I want to trust it, so I think I'll just get my workout and climb the stairs every day. I was a little bit worried when we pulled up outside becuase the building itself looks pretty run down, but the apartment inside is actually pretty nice. I have 2 bedrooms (one without a bed or a light, so I'll consider that my sun room), and a living room, bathroom, and kitchen. There is cable TV and I get some American programs with that. They also left me with 3 plants, apparently they didn't get the memo that I like to kill plants, but I'll try my best to keep them alive.
So as you might have guessed food was pretty interesting. I have never eaten so much chicken and rice in my life, nor have I been fed so much on an airplane. We had 2 meals and 2 snacks on the flight from Chicago to Tokyo, then on the way to Seoul I had anohter meal and snack, and on the way ot Mongolia I had yet another meal.
Today was fairly boring. Tsegii and her daughter came over to help me to get money and go shopping. I'm a little bit afraid to venture out, because there are a lot of buildings around that all look really similar. So I am afraid that I will not be able to find my way back. There was a lot of American food at the grocery store so that made me happy. I may try to venture out this afternoon again and get a few things that I forgot to get. I still don't really know where my apartment is in relation to things, so I will ask Altaa tomorrow to help me find a map. I also still need to go to the embassy here and get checked in, but since I don't know where I am having a map with it on there doesn't help much.
5/22
Well I made it to Mongolia in one piece. I got in around 11:30 by the time I got my luggage and everything. Surprisingly with 3 airline changes my luggage all made it with me and pretty much in one piece (a zipper got broken off). Aparently when flying internationally you aren't supposed to use luggage, both when checking in, in Chicago, and when getting my luggage in Mongolia I was surprised by the number of boxes. So next time I'll have to remember to get a box and fill it then wrap it a few times in packaging tape and I'll be good to go. My only real problem was almost missing my flight in Japan which I was worried about the begin with.
At all of the airports they are taking a lot of extra health precautions with H1N1 going around, so that was really neat to see, however kind of annoying when you almost miss your flight because of it. I did not take any pictures because they told us that we couldn't on the airplane and when I got off of the planes I was too busy trying to figure out where exactly I was going.
There were varying levels of precautions being taken in the different countries. In Japan the people doing the quarantine inspections were covered head to toe in isolation gowns, including gloves, goggles, masks, and some even had their heads covered as well. I thought this was going a little bit overboard. They also did all of the checks on the airplane and would not let anybody off until we had all been checked. On top of this, on the flight from Chicago to Japan the flight attendants all wore masks the entire way and many of the people on the plane were wearing masks as well. There is no way that I could wear a mask for 13 hours! In Korea they were just wearing masks and gloves. I almost didn't get through the Korean checkpoint because my temperature was 37.3, they then checked to see if I had marked any other symptoms (we had little sheets to fill out at every airport), and luckily I hadn't even though I have been coughing, so they let me go. In Japan and Mongolia they used heat sensing cameras to check our temperatures, which was pretty neat to see, and in Korea they just used regular thermometers.
All of the airports were nice and fairly easy to navigate, I did a lot of asking though. In Japan they had people all over the place to help you figure out where you needed to go, they also stuck a sticker on all of us who were catching the flight to Korea since it was a tight connection. I didn't realize at every airport I had to go out and go back through security to catch my next international flight, so things will be smoother going home now that I know this.
The airport in Seoul is by far the nicest airport that I have ever been to. They had a whole lounge area upstairs, with internet access, and a place to shower, and a restaurant. They also had a cultural center and a museum within the airport, and TONS of shopping. I think there were about 3 of every kind of duty free shop just in the little area I walked through (my gates were pretty close there). They also have a transit hotel in the airport so if you are there for more than 6 hours you can get a room to sleep in and shower. I'm not sure how much the showers and hotel cost because I didn't need to use them, though I was really tempted to shower. The internet, museum and cultural center were all free. The airport in Mongolia was interesting. It was about half the size of Cedar Rapids it seemed like and looked like it hasn't been updated since the '50's.
The parking lot outside the airoprt was just a free for all; cars were parked every which way. THEN driving was absolutely insane. I had been told that it was crazy, but when I saw that there were actually lines on the road I thought that maybe there were traffic rules after all. I was wrong. The road from the airport was incredibly bumpy even though it was paved, and then the guy who was driving us was driving all over. Apparently you can just pass on the right or left, it doesn't matter, and you just flash your lights at the person in front of you to get out of your way (this was a 2 lane road, not a 4 lane). There were people all over on the sides of the roads, I'm not sure exactly if they were waiting for a bus or taxi, or hitchhiking. Keep in mind it was nearly midnight, so I don't know what they were all doing out. Then we almost hit some guy on crutches crossing the road, but I would say that was just as much his fault. I wouldn't walk out in front of a car here. So after that wild ride I finally made it to my apartment.
I got to my apartment a little bit after midnight and crashed, but then I was up at 6:30 in the morninng, so I'm just waiting to hit the wall today. My apartment is on the 6th floor, there is an elevator, but I don't know if I want to trust it, so I think I'll just get my workout and climb the stairs every day. I was a little bit worried when we pulled up outside becuase the building itself looks pretty run down, but the apartment inside is actually pretty nice. I have 2 bedrooms (one without a bed or a light, so I'll consider that my sun room), and a living room, bathroom, and kitchen. There is cable TV and I get some American programs with that. They also left me with 3 plants, apparently they didn't get the memo that I like to kill plants, but I'll try my best to keep them alive.
So as you might have guessed food was pretty interesting. I have never eaten so much chicken and rice in my life, nor have I been fed so much on an airplane. We had 2 meals and 2 snacks on the flight from Chicago to Tokyo, then on the way to Seoul I had anohter meal and snack, and on the way ot Mongolia I had yet another meal.
Today was fairly boring. Tsegii and her daughter came over to help me to get money and go shopping. I'm a little bit afraid to venture out, because there are a lot of buildings around that all look really similar. So I am afraid that I will not be able to find my way back. There was a lot of American food at the grocery store so that made me happy. I may try to venture out this afternoon again and get a few things that I forgot to get. I still don't really know where my apartment is in relation to things, so I will ask Altaa tomorrow to help me find a map. I also still need to go to the embassy here and get checked in, but since I don't know where I am having a map with it on there doesn't help much.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Apartment
Okay hopefully this link works, it is a map showing where I am living. For some reason google has now decided to actually label it's map of Ulaanbaatar. Before I left there were not labels for anything. On the map you can see the Wrestling Palace on the left hand side. One block south of that on the other side of the street is my apartment building. Then if you look on the right side of the map you'll see the Hospital for Infectious Disease marked. This is where I will be working while I am here. Today has been good I have been being introduced to everybody and trying to remember who they all are. I am also starting my work to help them with influenza surveillance. I will post more this afternoon when I get home, I have a long post from the entire weekend on my computer there.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ulaanbaatar,+mongolia&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=32.885543,56.25&ie=UTF8&ll=47.915925,106.94154&spn=0.006788,0.013733&t=h&z=16
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ulaanbaatar,+mongolia&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=32.885543,56.25&ie=UTF8&ll=47.915925,106.94154&spn=0.006788,0.013733&t=h&z=16
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Is this Mongolia? Nope just HuHot.
Well I'm packed and ready to go, just wanted to practice posting pictures and thought the ones from my party would work. I had a great time, thanks to everybody who came!
Wes looks like he was having the best time of anybody there.
This is Burmaa, she helped to get me set up with housing and everything while I'm in Mongolia. I was going to be working with her, but she got accepted into the emerging infectious disease certificate program and will be here while I'm there.
Doug, with his twin (the manager) in the background, Eric and Tracy!
Jessi (Merlin's girlfriend while I'm gone), Kevin and Jen
Okay, maybe Wes wasn't having so much fun after all.
Wes looks like he was having the best time of anybody there.
This is Burmaa, she helped to get me set up with housing and everything while I'm in Mongolia. I was going to be working with her, but she got accepted into the emerging infectious disease certificate program and will be here while I'm there.
Doug, with his twin (the manager) in the background, Eric and Tracy!
Karen, Daniela, and Sandy
Chris, Jariah, and Drake came all the way over from Des Moines, and it was great to see them because we haven't for quite awhile, creating a Dan sandwich
Jessi (Merlin's girlfriend while I'm gone), Kevin and Jen
Okay, maybe Wes wasn't having so much fun after all.Sunday, May 10, 2009
Finalizing
Just finalizing plans since I leave in a week and a half. I have a place to live (hopefully) and somebody is supposed to pick me up at the airport. This is good since I have no idea where my apartment is. I was given the address, but have no clue what it means. I guess I can always live in the streets :-). We bought a new camera, so I have been trying to figure out how to use it. Seems pretty good so far. Nothing too exciting, I'll keep you posted.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)