A Frustrating 40 Minutes

Well, nobody likes Mondays right, though my day as a whole was pretty good. Every morning I go and have tea with one of the first grade classes, which has turned in to one of my favorite parts of the day. First of all, who doesn't love cookies and tea in the morning? Second, these kids are adorable! They are six years old and they wear the cutest uniforms in the whole world (one of these days I will take a picture and then finally post some pics on my blog). But the kids all say hi to me when I walk in, and the saying hi lasts for like the first five minutes I'm in there. Then they all want to show me what they are working on, so I walk around and check everything out, throwing out a lot of "san bain's!" (good job!) Then when I leave the chorus of "goodbye," "biarte," "bye bye," "see you tomorrow," "margash olsetla biarte" etc. I say everything in English and Mongolian... maybe when these first graders get to fourth grade and have their first English class they will be way ahead of the curve! haha

Next was my 7b class, who most all the time have pretty excellent behavior. I have a ton of fun teaching this class. They cheer when I come in to teach, and we joke throughout most of class. If I do something they don't like, for example writing a bunch of new words on the board and saying "ok, write these down." Some of the boys will right away say, "teacher mo!" (bad teacher!) ~No worries they are only kidding, so to this I pretend to start crying and they immediately take it back and yell, "teacher san!!!" (good teacher) The point though is that I do feel like this class might be learning some English because I can actually get and keep their attention, and most of them write everything I ask them to and participate well. Their good behavior also allows me to plan more fun lessons. Last week when we were learning words related to crime, don't judge the material, I didn't write the books! But in groups I had them acting out the different new vocabulary words: burglary, pickpocketing, shoplifting, etc. and it was a lot of fun. Soooo I leave this class and go to my 7g.... Right at the start I have like ten kids asking to go outside and go to the bathroom... so I tell some of the girls to go, as the boys go and don't come back for 30 minutes. I write the date on the board, as I do every class at the beginning, and as usual the same 10 or so students are writing it along with me. I feel bad for this group because through the chaos of the class they are trying so hard to concentrate and hear (and throw me f'ing bone I think) but it is nearly impossible. So I write the date and do my lap around the room, 3/4 of the kids aren't writing the date because they are coloring other stuff (today I just took the stuff away), they don't have their notebook (I tell them get other paper, I don't care what paper they use), they don't have a pen (what do you use for all your other classes??), or they just continue doing what they are doing like they have no idea why I'm standing there. So then I always get this feeling of, ok, these few kids aren't going to write even if I get their notebook out for them and wait until they start writing (just to get me to go away) so I think... get back up to the front of the room and teach for those kids that genuinly want to learn. So I do. But as much as I say in Mongolian for them to be quiet please, and listen please, and look please... all of those students that are not doing any of those things are being too loud for the ones that are to even hear me, so I lap it again. A group of boys had clustered in the back of the room, and had started to fight -they were playing though, not really fighting, more like wrestling how they do. One of the twins was getting the little garbage can to take out, and water bottles to go fill (seems nice right, but so not something he is supposed to be doing during English class). Other boys I walk by and tell to get out their notebook just continue to draw in their English book and have none of the notes taken. Another desk with two students is just sitting there with nothing out, which they never do, this is no surprise. Then a handful of others are drawing; English notebook nowhere in sight.

So a lot of days there comes a point where I guess I just kind of give up, and I kinda just wait for things to calm enough that enough students can hear me so I can continue. Today I guess though I was less patient or just more annoyed. I left the room to go find a counterpart so she would yell at them. I'm not about to scream and yell in English, as I think I would have a classroom full of kids laughing at their crazy teacher that nobody can understand. The frustrating thing though is when Tamir and I came back the kids are all back in their seats, sitting quietly, as they were afraid of who I was going to bring back with me. Then kids who have done no work throughout the whole class are all pointing fingers at each other for "who was being bad." Then my counterpart leaves me alone again and the chaos resumes. It makes for a very long 40 minutes.

I guess you could say I don't know what to do with this class. It is very frustrating for me as a teacher because I know I can do better, but I don't know what to do. And I feel like if I spoke their language, or if they spoke mine, I could get some kind of a better understanding so that we could accomplish things during class. Though I guess thinking that way isn't going to get me anywhere, as no time soon are either of us going to speak the others language well enough to make that happen.... It is also so frustrating to me too because I don't like when teachers blame students for things that I think the teacher could have avoided all together if the teacher would have done a better job. Like with behavior management things; it bothers me when teachers blame students for not paying attention or something like that, and I'm seeing their lesson and thinking, you're not giving them anything to pay attention to! So I am trying to keep myself in check by always thinking if I were a student would this be interesting? But so far with this class it doesn't seem to matter. So many days I've come in with different manipulative things I've made or fun word games planned, only to leave discouraged because obviously such activities wouldn't go well with this class, why did I waste that time planning them?

Well that's enough about 7g for one day I think. This past weekend was good, did a lot of ger work. Chopped a lot of wood so I don't have to do that during the work week. Then I actually went by foot for the first time to get water from the well. When I have gone before it was in Tamir's Husband's truck, which is easy enough. He was not around though, actually in UB getting surgery (he is ok, no worries) so we had to go without the vehicle. Batzorig, Bagi, and I took our water jugs in metal carts and pushed/pulled them the mile or so to the well (in the freezing cold mind you). Then the way back was a little slower going now being full of water! The whole thing was kind of a funny adventure for me being the first time, and knowing I probably won't have to get water that way many more times ever. But what a serious pain in the butt for people that have no vehicle, or even if you do, just the fact that you have to travel far away to get water that will only last you a little bit before you have to do it all again. The irony of it to as I was on my way to and from getting the water, was knowing when I got home I needed to use it to wash my clothes by hand (another hour or two of manual labor).... All the ger work though is a piece of cake compared to teaching 7g.

The Holidays in Mongolia

Happy 2010 from Mongolia! Not trying to brag too much, but I was actually hanging out in year 2010 like 12 hours before all of you! haha Mongolians celebrate the New Year big time, though not many actually celebrate Christmas, though most knew a little about it. It seemed like all my students and others in Batsumer thought that we called what they call New Years, Christmas; I explained that Christmas is on December 25 and New Years is another, seperate holiday on December 31. My students were adorable on Christmas; they made such a point to celebrate the day for me. Mongolians don't celebrate Christmas (or at least in my Soum none did) so I just went into work as usual on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I had my seventh grade classes on Christmas day and they came and got me, tied a scarf around my eyes and brought me into the classroom. Then they threw confetti they made on me and sang the Christmas songs that we had done the previous classes. They had bought fruits and cookies and candies for me so they instructed me to sit and eat, as they all stared smiling at me.... It was quite odd, considering they are never quiet and just paying attention to me like that when I am trying to teach them. But this time all attention was awkwardly on me eating. They had also decorated the chalkboard with all kinds of Christmas pictures they drew, and paper flowers they had made. The funny thing was that they glued this stuff to the chalkboard... so went to leave all the kids scraped away at the chalkboard to try and get all the pictures off to give to me... In my head I was thinking, which one of you thought glue was the best way to go?! It was really, really sweet of them though, and it made my day. Then a group of teachers threw a little Christmas party for me at night. The director toasted, saying this was the first Christmas celebrated at the school in Batsumer, and that we will celbrate again next year. The teachers had all kinds of foods and drinks and we sang songs and danced. It was fun and again, so nice that they all did that so that I could celebrate my holiday.

New Years Eve day was craziness at school. It is kind of like when we would have Christmas parties and things at school in America, but times 10. Each classroom had music blasting and all kinds of food, champagne, cakes, candies, etc. It was a blast, but also kind of funny that each classroom had turned into like a disco club in the middle of the day. And the students kept wanting me to dance, which I'm like wow this is insanely awkward! ~I did it anyway. But you know, usually I like to dance when I'm out with my friends at a dance club or somewhere that it is dark and everyone is dancing... not when 40 9th graders are staring at my every dance move (no doubt thinking, ohhhhh so this is how Americans dance...)! The kids are all awesome though; they are such good hosts, every classroom I went in they insisted I sit and eat cake and dance and just hang out, which as a teacher, it is always nice to feel like students want to be around you. The night before Batsumbers teachers and other workers from the Police Station, Government Building, Kindergarten, and Hospital all celebrated New Years at the culture center. Same type of deal, lots of food, drinks, dancing, singing, etc. A lot of women wore prom-type dresses to the event, and men in suites. I don't have such attire with me here in Mongolia (and I was so close to bringing that old prom dress, crown and those heals too...) so I, as usual, stood out a bit in my sweater and black pants. Though last time I was in UB I did purchase some black boots with a little heal, so I fit in a bit more wearing those! Zulaa my supervisor said I should go around and wish the head government guys a Happy New Year, which I was like, um please come with me! So we went over to their table, and I wished them a Happy New Year. The three of them were so nice and very interested all about me (in a cute older men type of way). They said that they are going to introduce me to many rich, big Mongolian men so that I can pick on to marry. I said sure, why not!

The other day in class my 11th graders started asking me just random questions at the end. Then this group of boys were like, "teacher come on!" and I was like, no, no, it's, "teacher come here" ~teacher come on sounds like something completely different than "come here" I think! So they had written a note (they are all like deathly afraid of speaking in English, but can write pretty well) and it said, "Do you have a husband?" I said, no. Then in about a minute, "Teacher come here!" The note says... "When will you get a husband?" I said, I don't know! A minute later, "American or Mongolian husband?" Me, I don't know! A minute later they write, "Mongolian." I write, "Who??" They respond by writing some famous Mongolian wrestler. To which I was pretty pumped, as they could have been like, oh that drunk guy out there in the street or something, but to give me an olympic wrestler.... not too shabby! But I did ask them if he is good looking, because let's face it, I need that! And they assurred me, "Teacher he is beautiful." Done deal, sorry mom, marrying this wrestler.

Other than the all the craziness of the holidays not too much is new. School is still good, it is busy, and classes can at times still be very frustrating. Still have that wondering if my kids are learning any English from me. Though when I work with them in smaller groups, like when I have clubs with each grade of students and when I work with the kids that will participate in the English Olympics in the Spring, I do feel like I am actually accomplishing something. The other main thing I need to get going is to consistently work with the other English teachers. We have in theory been doing this all year, but week by week it is hard to make actually happen when so much other stuff is going on. That I think though is the key to my being here being truely sustainable; if I can help the other English teachers language improve, then in theory all the students English will also improve. Other random funny thing... The other day in my seventh grade class (of course) some boys were trying to pierce their ears with dull pencils. Which I have already told them, "No, No, No! -you need something sharper and your ear to be colder, so do it after class out in the snow!" But they are persistent, so anyways, I have a group of boys practically crying, ear bleeding during class as I'm trying to teach about the Past Simple Tense. Needless to say, I don't think they could say, "My ear bled during English class today."

All about IST

Yesterday I returned to Batsumber after being gone for about a week. Peace Corps brought all of us English Teachers into UB for a week of "In Service Training (IST)." Each of us brought along one of our Mongolian Counterparts. We stayed at a nice resort that is just outside of UB for the week, and it was wonderful to not have to make fires or cook for myself for the whole week! Coming back to my freezing cold ger yesterday was a little rough... IST was awesome though. We did so much during the week that I'm having a hard time even trying to remember everything. Everyday was packed with different sessions led by Peace Corps. Some of the time we were in sessions with our counterparts and some of the time it was only volunteers while our counterparts went to other sessions. We had Mongolian language class for an hour every morning, so I have plenty of hand-outs to be studying for awhile. I also re-took my language test (didn't pass when I took it at the end of the summer). I was happy this time though because I did well and actually scored a step higher than the level Peace Corps said I needed to get. Then we had sessions dedicated to Cross-Culture topics, Medical topics, and lots of Teaching English topics. During these there was plenty of time to discuss things that are happening at site and to share with the other PCV's, while also getting input from our Mongolian counterparts. It was great to have the Peace Corps staff there for translation too. So all sessions where we were with our counterparts Peace Corps would translate everything being said. It amazes me how the Mongolians that work for Peace Corps can translate everything from Enlish to Mongolian, and Mongolian to English. Maybe someday I will come close to being able to do that a little bit!! As of right now though I am far from it! Anyway, one of the main things we did at IST was learn how to, with our counterparts, write out a future project that we want to do at site. Tamir and I wrote out goals and a plan for how I will go about teaching English to our other English teachers. And also how together we will teach English to all of the teachers at our school. I hope we can stick to our plan at site. At IST we had time to write out what we want to do, and had each others un-divided attention. This is not usually the case when we are at school. There are always a million things going on, and things always seem to change and get interrupted. So I hope our plans do actually happen, and I'm going to try hard to make sure they do. IST was a very motivating week. There is nothing like a week away from school (and a week that is completely dedicated to learning about teaching and everything in Mongolia) to make you want to go back to site and really do good work. I met some amazing people this past week and had a blast hanging out with all my American friends. So it's a little strange to be back all alone here in Batsumber! This week is also Christmas, which is going to be a little strange to just go into school and teach on Christmas... I think I'm going to dedicate this entire week of teaching to Christmas songs! At least if I teach about Christmas it will feel more like Christmas is what I'm thinking.

Home Sweet Soum

Traveled to the big city this past weekend for Thanksgiving. A few facts about Ulaanbaatar the capital (and by facts I mean approximate facts based on what I've heard). We all call it UB, which is way quicker than saying Ulaabaatar everytime! Most Mongolians though just call it the city. It's kind of like New York City, New York I would say. Somewhere between 50-60% of Mongolia's population lives in UB. In UB you can find most any type of thing you would want. There are outdoor markets, a big mall called the State Department Store (though any clothes or shoes in there are wayyyyy too expensive for me and my Peace Corps issued salary!), tons of small shops that sell every type of thing just depending on the store. Then there is a wide variety of restaurants and cafes. The restaurants we went to look the same as any nice one in the US would. I ate pancakes, a wide array of veggies, pizza... I drank coffee and had real red wine (any of the wine that my school has had at events.... I'm not a fan! I would rather have the vodka! let's just leave it at that!) So UB has a lot of appeal, and I really like the city. Plus I stayed at my friend Cassandra's apartment (which I can't even talk about how nice it is or I will start crying in my ger!) with a bunch of other volunteers, and that was just so good to see all my friends again and catch up on things and swap stories. It's also so encouraging to see all these other people enthusiastic about what they are doing, but at the same time all having different very challenging stories. We just relate to each other on so many levels living here together. The downside of the whole trip though was that it was slightly overwhelming. I have been alone here in my Soum for awhile now and love being the only one amongst all Mongolians. So to have all these people I wanted to meet with and catch up was almost too much! It sounds weird... but that's how I felt. And I had this big list of things to buy, and I did buy a lot, but shopping here is different. It's true you can get most everything, but I'm still new, so knowing exactly where and how is still a little tricky for me. Maggie and I were shopping for clothes and we wanted to try on pants. Now I don't know how to describe where we were shopping. It was a big market (inside) so there are just rows and rows of little stands kind of, each one selling different things. So when we wanted to try on pants (yes I know how to ask to do that in Mongolian, pretty proud of myself) what they do is just hold up a little sheet around you and you just do it! So the lady held up the sheet then Maggie and I added a coat on the other side to help each other out. Trust me, you are still not totally covered! So trying on things could be a bit awkward with people all around.... I will get better as time goes on here I think! All in all UB was great, just a big overwhelming.

I was really happy to get back to my Soum, though I've spent quite a bit of time getting my ger to be back in the swing of things! Just getting water again and washing everthing and cleaning out my stove so I can get a fire going so things will thaw out.... it just is a lot to do when you just get back and honestly just want to lay down and sleep! Or eat something because your starving, but all the dishes are dirty so you need to wash them first, which requires water, which you don't have..... not that that happened to me or anything! I'm just saying... haha. School continues to be challenging. They are re-doing my schedule for the second quarter so things are kind of up in the air right now again with when exactly I'm teaching what. I still have my two seventh grades though and my eleventh grade elective. I love the eleventh graders; it is an elective so they are all really motivated to learn English and just really well behaved. Almost to the point where they are so quite and good during my class that I feel awkward with them all staring intently at me the whole time.... Then my seventh graders.... the one class has actually been exceptionally good lately. We play hangman at the end of almost every class because we get through all the material because they are so good. They like to go up and be the teacher and I sit and pretend I'm a student to get in on the guessing of letters. It's funny though because they like me and me only to guess, a kind of "try and stump the teacher" deal, and they have stumped me quite a few times! I gotta watch myself, can't have them thinking I don't know every single English word there ever was.... Then there is my other seventh grade class. Wow, they are like the ultimate test to a person's patience. It's like every class period there comes a time when I just give up, most all of them are not listening, half are not writing anything I'm teaching down, and a select few are so disruptive I'm pretty sure other teachers would hurt them for how they are behaving in my class..... So I am trying to think how I can do better for this class; there has got to be a way, I just haven't figured it out yet.

This class caused me to really think about the question, "What am I doing here?" and not in a way, like I don't like it and want to go home. But just in a way that I need to think about that question and really examine to myself why I am here, and how I can make a difference here. I feel so lucky to have been placed in Mongolia, and the country, culture, and people are beautiful. I really love Mongolia. So that is what makes me think, "How can I help Mongolia?" How can I help my students, thus help the country develop..... That is what I'm trying to figure out.

5 Months in Mongolia

It's really strange to think I have been here for 5 months already. So far the time has gone by so fast that I can't believe that it has already been 5 months... then again, this is the longest I have ever been away from home I think, because even in college I would get home for all major holidays and everything. I am missing people back home, and some things (like my almost daily caribou coffee ~though thanks to my mom I do have caribou beans for my french press :) but I don't miss home to the point that it makes me sad or anything. My Mongolian counterparts will often ask me if I miss home... and I tell them exactly that, yes I miss people, but I am very happy here. Who knows, maybe the miserably missing home will hit in a month or two... will keep you posted!

So this past week was the third week of not having students at school, and next week school is again cancelled for students because of H1N1. Now I know what you are thinking, "Wow, you never work... I'm joining the Peace Corps and going to Mongolia." In truth though I have been working! This past week all teachers went into school. I did English lessons for the teachers, which was a lot of fun for me to teach people English that aren't like hitting each other as I'm talking, and they take notes so well, and repeat after me so well... it was strange! haha Though I am starting to miss my students I have to admit... The other really nice thing about this week was that I met with three new teachers to work on my Mongolian language. This is extremely helpful to me, just to be able to one on one get tutored, and it's also a nice way for me to meet more of my counterparts. So far I know my fellow English teachers pretty well, Tamir very well, but not many teachers beyond that. I mean all the teachers are very nice to me, I say hi to them and all that, but it's not like I can communicate too much with too many of them beyond that because they don't speak English, and my Mongolian... well let's just say it's not at their level yet! haha So anyway, this past week was really fun for me to just study Mongolian and get to know more people that I work with.

Where the real work comes in though is the ger maintainence! Let me tell you, it's a good thing we have not had students so I have not had to prep. any lessons for them because living in a ger is time consuming! haha It is typically like 10 degrees or so outside right now, and into the negatives at night, so keeping my ger warm is constant work. After a week or so of asking my director, my supervisor, my counterparts, etc. they finally did send school workers to my house to saw some wood for me so I can chop it. So I've been chopping wood like it's my job! I feel so good when I get my ambar (little doorway thing they built for the front of my ger) full of wood and coal, only to have the supply dwindled down to nothing in a few days! haha So the basic upkeep of my ger takes some time. At this point I still really like chopping wood and re-stocking everything, taking my dirty water, ashes, etc. out, getting new water and all that... though at some point I'm sure once school is back on and I just don't have time for everthing, I can see myself being like... hmmm an apartment in UB sounds pretty appealing right now! I was helping some guys try to apply for their green cards the other day, and they told me if I can make it through the winter living in a ger then I must be a descendent of Chingghis Khaan... that makes me a little nervous!

Other than that not too much is new... have just been catching up on my reading, studying, cooking a little bit, and cleaning my ger a lot.

No School This Week

Due to all of the swine flu students did not have any school this week. Teachers went in yesterday and Monday for a bit to work on their classrooms. We completely cleaned the foreign language room and re-painted the desks and the floor. In typical Mongolian style we did this a little differently than one would in the U.S. but in the end the room looked good, and it was actually a lot of fun to be at school doing a different kind of work. The rest of the week myself and the rest of the teachers get to "relax." It is going to be a wonderful break and a great chunk of time to catch up on things and hopefully even get ahead on my lesson plans. Though I put relax in quotes because not too much I (and everyone else for that matter) do here in Mongolia is very relaxing. Yesterday when I got home from the day of working at school I chopped a ton of wood, wood that will probably only last me a few days then I will be at it again. I like all the work I have to do here to live, it is fun, but it is work. There always seems to be a fire that needs to be started, but first take out the ashes from the previous fire, then re-stock my coal/wood supply. Everything here is just kind of like that, there is no turning on a switch for heat or water or anything; you physically have to go through the steps to get anything you want. It is interesting for me, and fun right now, but eventually it will pobably wear on me a bit. So my point is, things just take longer, and three typical school days to stay home and relax will end up being a lot of ger maintenance too. Just to clarify though there are parts of Mongolia that have running water and all these types of things we have in the U.S. The capital of UB is like a big U.S. city I think, and actually most of my friends in the Peace Corps are living in apartments. I feel really lucky about the family whose haasha my ger is in. I live in two of my counterparts (they are married, both teachers) yard. The woman, Tamir is probably my closest friend here, and she is wonderful. So it's nice living in here haasha just because we get along so well, but also because her family is so helpful to me. Tamir will help me cook traditional Mongolian foods, which when I try to repeat on my own somehow they never quite turn out.... haha. But she will bring me food that her family is cooking, and then I make cookies and other treats and give them to her family as well. It is just a really nice relationship (by the way, the Mongolians that I gave my chocolate chip cookies to had never had them and they loved them!) My haasha bro's say "goy" about the cookies, which means beautiful, or really good. And this is always better than them calling something of mine "mohigh" which is bad... and they have done this a few times too! Also when I'm chopping wood it seems like I never get much time to do it by myself before Tamir's younger brother, who I believe is 23 also, comes out and helps me with it. Or rather, he says he will do it and takes the ax and does, which let's face it, he chops about 100 times faster than I do. I asked him if he has ever cut his fingers when he holds the piece of wood with one hand as he chops with the other (I don't do it this way, as I am positive I would cut my whole hand off). To that question he showed me his hand with it's array of gashed scars from the ax... he said he's just cut a "little" of his fingers.

Other news, I kind of have a puppy... I say kind of because I'm trying to not get too attached to the thing! Hence why she does not have a name, and I don't think ever will. Well actually I just call her gulug, which is the Mongolian word for puppy. I like this word, and she answers to it, so I think it will stick. She is Tamir's dog's baby so technically she is not mine, she is the families, she just likes me a lot and hangs out in my ger all the time. When her mom comes crying at my ger door I open up and let the gulug out, then when the gulug comes back crying I open my door and let her back in. It works out for everyone I think! I think they think I'm a little weird for liking this little dog so much because most Monolian people don't think of dogs as pets in the way we do. They are more animals that guard people's haashas, at night it is like this chorus of barking dogs. Many Mongolians I've met are afraid of dogs, some have told me how they have been bit when they were younger, so rightly so. Some dogs are really mean too, I remember being instructed during pre-service training to go down and grab for a rock if a dog is coming at you and usually this motion alone will scare them away because they think you are going to throw it at them. I have not yet had to throw any rocks at dogs. And in the meantime, I will continue being that crazy American teacher at school who is actually nice to puppies... weird.

I don't have too much else to report at the moment. Just loving life here really; I feel like I have several of those "aha" type moments everday here, which is wonderful. I will try to be better about posting more specific stories on here, as things all run together and I forget stories when I don't write them right away.

October 4

This past week of school was pretty good, busy but good, and overall less busy than the previous weeks so that was nice. I played soccer a bunch of the days after school because kids kept asking me during the day. Playing seems to give me some form of credibility amongst some of these boys... because let's face it, in the classroom I'm kind of at their mercy. Though it was funny, the other day in my one seventh grade class I just laughed so hard. So there is one student in particular who never takes notes or anything, like I go over to him, get his notebook out and stand there asking him to write and nothing... and I really like the kid, he just doesn't do any work during class time. Though he finds me earlier in the day to ask about English class, and has stopped by my ger a few times and just kinda hangs around for a bit, so deep down he must really like me. Anyways, so the other day I go to class and he is there, but then also his twin brother.... who knows where the twin was for the first 2-3 weeks of school... but I just started laughing so hard because of course that would be my luck that the kid I struggle with so much to get any work done would have a twin! The class thinks I'm crazy I think because I was so amused by this, and they were all like, yeah there are two of them... so what. Then on Friday of this past week, these same kids had me laughing so hard again during class. So I walk into class and I could just kind of tell it was a different day. I asked what the date was and the whole class responded, and started writing it without me even asking... it was weird. Then I look at the twins and they were writing the date. I just about lost it then, I was like, why are you writing? you never write! haha, and the whole class just laughed, but the twins waved me out of the way like, um teacher can you move, you are blocking the board and I'm trying to take notes here... I'm sure it was a one time deal, but it was certainly a great Friday! So the kids in my neighborhood have caught on to me going running and have joined in on this. I had eight little boys tag along on my run today, ages 6-13 just following right along with me. And two of them ran the whole time with me, at first I was just laughing as I was running because it was such a halarious sight to see. I mean in America you would laugh if you saw it, but here in Mongolia people don't exactly go running, so it was just that much more strange. But then I was just impressed that these little guys ran the whole time with me... It's kinda nice to have some running partners here though I have to admit.