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.