First Round of English Olympics

Last weekend was the first round of the English Olympics. First a little background information... all subjects hold olympics every spring. Two students are selected from each grade to participate in each subjects olympics. So I have been working with my eight English Olympic kids for the past few months to get them prepared to compete. Last week we traveled to Bayanchandmeg Soum to compete against surrounding area Soums. Getting there was an adventure! 3 teachers (the Russian teacher along with Tamir and I), 12 students, the driver, his wife, and their little girl in one meeker (van), so 18 people total! I found this halarious, and was taking pictures of us all packed into the meeker, which my students thought was just strange that I was so amused by this. Let me tell you, Mongolians can pack like 30 people into these meekers, and I am not even exaggerating! So the fact that we had just shy of 20, in what should be a 12 person or so meeker was nothing special to them. On top of us we packed our bags and some food and we were off! I don't know if people are aware of the road situation in Mongolia, so let me give you a little info.... there really aren't many. It's basically constant off-roading on really rough terrain. About an hour into our drive we got stuck in some deep snow out in the countryside. No worries though, we all just got out of the meeker and pushed! About ten minutes later we were on our way! And a couple hours later we safely arrived at Bayanchandmeg. As far as traveling in Mongolia goes, I am extremely lucky with my site. Batsumber Soum is a few hours by train from UB. The train is slow, but a quick ride for me (compared to volunteers that travel for anywhere from 8-60 hours by car/bus to get into UB), inexpensive, and never has issues like getting stuck in the snow! And other volunteers don't let me forget how lucky I am for this!

It was somewhere around 10pm when we arrived, so I was thinking, alright, I'm going to get to bed... big day tomorrow, right... wrong. All teachers had a meeting to discuss logistics. At this meeting though I saw another Peace Corps Volunteer that teaches in Tov, she came along with the methodologist who works in the Aimag center that she lives in. So this was really nice to be able to see a friend, speak English really fast, and just have someone there that is a first-timer at all of this with me. So during the meeting the methodologist announces that "Allie will be doing a seminar for you all... with really good info., it's going to be great, etc. etc......" then she turns to me and says how many hours do you need Allie?? To which, I stammered a bit and said.... "Oh, um, not even an hour, it will be quick and informal!" And she said, "Teemo...." (this means "oh really...") So I was a little scared here... for one, I had nothing prepared, much less anything soooo interesting that these teachers had to hear. And second, this is probably not a lady that I want to make a bad impression on. So with that looming over my head I went back to my room, where my counterparts and students were in a frenzy of cramming and preparation for the next day. I think we got to bed around 2am. The next morning everyone in my room was up at like 6... and we weren't scheduled to start until 9, so I kept laying until 7 and then got up. I do not function well on 5 hours of sleep! Anyways, I got over my tiredness quick with all the excitement of the day.

To begin all students took a written test, after that was a speaking test. For the speaking test, myself and three others, two Mongolian teachers and then the other American volunteer listened and judged. My students were super nervous throughout the day, but I was so proud of how they did. Batsumber ended up taking second overall. I was extremely pleased with this and proud of my students. The best part was how well they did with speaking. The methodologist and the other teachers said Batsumber's speaking had improved a ton, and the other volunteer said Batsumber was the talk of the town that night after we had left. That was such a relief to hear... I mean, how bad would it be if after Batsumber got an American volunteer, their speaking had not improved any. So I was really happy to hear that they had improved since previous years. And my little seminar actually went great. I just talked a bit about how to make classroom time as effective as you can, giving a few different strategies and ideas. Me and the other Tov volunteer are going to do a longer seminar at the next olympics, and that one I know about and we are going to prepare together ahead of time! The sad thing was how sad some of my students were with how they did; or I think they really were sad that they were not in the top three of their grade to get a medal. A bunch of them cried after finding out how they did, which just about made me cry. As I have been working with these students so much these past months and I know how hard they have been working on their English. And all of them finished in the top half of their grade's students, which is awesome. I tried to tell this to them, but I also understand what it is like to be bummed about not doing as well as you would have liked to. I just wanted them to know how incredibly proud I was of how they did and that Batsumber placed 2nd overall. I think part of it is a pride thing too, in Soums everyone talks about everyone. So if a student gets a medal, that is a big deal and something to talk about. And if a student doesn't... well, people are going to talk about that too. So as much as I know they have improved, and the teachers at the olympics said they had improved... still not a medal to prove it. Anyway, back at school it was nice to have our school director congratulate me (she is also another lady that I never want to get on her bad side!) Tamir told me that they methodologist had called our director and told her I was a good one, so that was really nice to hear. And besides that those things are always nice to hear it was really good for hopefully giving me a little more credibility. Not that people at my school don't listen to or respect me because they do. But people like to see results, and this gave my training manager and director at least a little proof that having me here will help give some results with improving English.

The next round of olympics will happen in a few weeks and only two students go, one 9th grader and one 11th grader. I will probably have another blog entry about how that goes! Lately at school we have been busy preparing for this English drama competition. It was actually supposed to be this weekend but was postponed. So this past week of school was crazy busy; I literally felt guilty if I left school before like 7pm. But some days I had to... you can't chop wood in the dark! At least I don't trust myself to! For the next two weeks students have their spring break. I will be going into school most days, and part of each day I will work with those two English Olympic students. I am going to take a long weekend in UB though to re-stock on some things, eat some good food, drink some good coffee, see my American friends. Ahhh I love UB! So far I have not heard of any of my students going to Mexico or Hawaii for their spring break... hehe, man some things here are so different!

Pictures

Finally trying to get some pictures on here...

One of the posters students drew for Teachers Day... Notice the technology teacher in goal with an ax! I was happy they had me yelling "come on" to my teammates, pretty fitting actually... little do my students here know how much I liked to talk/yell when I played.

This is my puppy!! So that is frost on her face, this was right away in the morning and she was still thawing out... I'm trying to transition her into being a full-time outdoor dog. She is getting to big for my ger and all the Mongolians think I am crazy for ever even letting her come inside! Ok, now don't worry, she sleeps out in my little enclosed entry-way and she likes it! That way she can go out and bark at things at her leisure during the night. I also decided it's about time I give her a name besides just "gulug" the Mongolian word puppy. Well actually Tamir told me I should name her because it's just weird that I call her gulug now when she's huge! So her new name is Lucy I have decided... your thoughts??

My ger!

Tsagaansar back in Erdene Soum! My Mongolian host dad, my American Peace Corps friend, Maggie, and me. I think this was like 10am... starting the day off right.

The Little Beautiful Things

The other day I made it a point to write in my journal. I planned on being so good about consistently writing in it, but my entries tend to be about as often as those on my blog... But my entry consisted of two lists (if you are unaware, I like to make lists haha) One list was frustrating things, and the other was beautiful things about my life here in Mongolia. The frustrating list ranged from things like having to worry about getting more wood delivered when I've run out... to school things like my seventh grade boys punching each other during class, making me kick them out, only to probably be then punished by other teachers in a way I don't agree with. I definitely had quite a few things included on my list of frustrations, but getting hung up on any of those things really isn't going to help Mongolia. So onto my longer list: All the little beautiful things... everyday is sprinkled with wonderful moments that make me just stand back in awe for numerous reasons. Here is a random sampling of some of these moments I'm remembering off the top of my head now... #1 A bunch of my seventh grades boys called me over to them and rolled up their shirt sleeves a bit to show me "tatoos" identical to mine that they had drawn on their wrists. #2 My puppy (who is big and fat now, I don't think I can even call her a puppy) being sooooo excited and jumping all over me when I get home from school. The wagging tail is the cutest part. #3 Kids that I don't even teach English to because they are too young, always saying hi to me. These kids seek me out! They see me from so far away and start yelling "Allie, hiiiiii", and when I get closer they all repeat the chorus of hellos again. Adorable. #4 Batnyam sceaming to me from outside as I was in my ger. I run outside thinking something crazy or horrible or really important was happening, but he is right outside my ger just staring up at the sky. I look up too; there is one plane flying. This seems like no big deal right, but he tells me that he has seen a plane only once before, and has never sat in one. So I kept watching the plane with him, and ponder it flying above Mongolia. But I also thought about how many more times likely it is for a kid in the U.S. to fly on a plane, than a kid in Mongolia... and other opportunities like that. #5 My old seventh grade classes running up and hugging me after not seeing me for awhile. #6 Having coffee with Batnyam, Batzorig, and occassionally Narnaa (cute little peanut of a girl) in my ger on the weekends. Batnyam can't drink it when it's really hot, so he takes my little water scoup thing and pours the "coffee"~I put probably 7 parts sugar, to every 1 part instant coffee in his. But he pours the coffee from his cup into my water scouper, and back and forth like this until it has cooled to his liking. He reassures me though when he is big like Batzorig he will be able to drink it hot. #7 Meeting up with some friends in UB to meet with different NGO's. We are all in different parts of Mongolia, with totally different school situations and struggles, but we are all doing it. And it is so refreshing to hang out with such good people. I don't even know how to explain it, but it's great. We have these different goals and we are not sure how to reach them but we are going to try. The support system of other volunteers here is the best. There's about 60 of us from the M20 group still in Mongolia now, and I think something like 30-40 of us are English teachers. So there are that many people to possibly talk with about things, and then I have my group of really close friends. When I'm frustrated with something, these people understand. And when I just need school activity ideas these people have them. It is an awesome thing to have support from close friends that are here having a similar experience.

As for other news... the English Olympics are coming up very soon so we have been very busy getting ready. Two students per grade, grades 7-11, participate. I have been working with these students for several hours everyday, including Saturday and Sunday now! I am pretty excited to see how they do. Today I spent about 5 hours judging an English song and English drama cometition with some other teachers. Each class put together an English song and drama and performed for us. Tomorrow we will select who gets to go onto the next stage where we compete against other schools. It was really fun to watch, and cool to see my students dressed up and all nervous about performing. For the past few days I have been helping some of them prepare... I'm now again very familiar with a few of the Backstreet Boys songs I was such a fan of way back when! Anyways, I think spring here is a time of a lot of competitions and holidays. So my goal for spring is to not get hung up on the lesson planning I should be doing, or the grant that I want to have turned in by this month! or the million other things I should be getting caught up on... but sometimes just relax and enjoy it all.