A flower for K

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Two weeks ago A came home from pre-school with a tiny, tiny seedling in a cup. We were supposed to water it and watch it grow.

I thought: there is no way this thing is going to survive.

But Frank loyally watered the plant each day, and A carefully monitored its progress.

Today, on the last day of school, we found the plant blooming on the windowsill.

Thank you, K, for another good "lesson"--and for a wonderful year.

Mouse medal

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A's pre-school ends for the year tomorrow and relatedly, perhaps, today was Sports Day. A was assigned to the Red & Orange Mouse Team, and we were instructed to dress her accordingly. This morning, A insisted that she wanted to wear blue because that's Thomas the Tank Engine's color. Frank told A that the Fat Controller had said that Thomas would be orange for this one special day. A subsequently agreed to wear her orange shirt.

We have no idea what actually took place at Sports Day, but A came home proudly sporting her orange "mouse medal"...

Inch by inch, row by row

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

This morning Frank and I joined Habitat for Humanity on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar for a short stint on the "Blue Sky Build". This week, volunteers from around the world are working with Mongolian families in an ambitious project to build about 30 homes. Mostly, we kept busy cutting pieces of styrofoam insulation and carrying bricks. We also got a chance to try our brick-laying skills. It's a lot harder than it looks to make those rows all pretty and even!

PS: I hate to go on about the weather, but we arrived on the site at 7:30am and before long our lips were blue from the cold. Things finally warmed up a bit around 10am. Was it blazing hot only yesterday?

Cheap food, excellent view

Ulaanbaatar, Monoglia

Monday, June 28, 2010

A couple of days ago while trying to find the book department in the State Department Store (Nomin), I accidentally ended up in what seems to be an employees' cafeteria. The piroshkis were excellent (and inexpensive) and the view from the 7th floor outstanding. Today I took Frank to try the place. It's a breathtaking view of the city looking east. And good food, too!

Piroshkis, Mongolian stir-fried rice, and a hot raisin/grape drink. To find it: take the internal staircase from the 5th floor

Giant rosary

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Monday, June 28, 2010

While out and about today in UB, Frank and I happened upon an interesting monastery called the Dashchoilin Khiid. According to what we could find on the Internet, it re-opened in 1990 and apparently served as a circus during some of its years of not being a monastery. The architectural style of the monastery is a sort of yurt style. (Sorry, the main buildings are not pictured here).

Frank and I were particularly intrigued by the giant prayer beads (or Buddhist "rosary" ) that is located in one of the yurt-shaped temple halls.

Also pictured: the monastery's prayer wheels and outbuildings

The steppes of Sodor

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The sun is blazing overhead and I'm thinking: Home, we must get home, and out of this heat! But A catches sight of the mini-rides outside of the State Department Store and yells: "Thomas!" So, we jam her new sunhat on her head and hope that another three minutes in the sun with #55 sunblock will stave off sunburn and sunstroke.

Afterwards, she cheerfully climbs in the taxi and is asleep before we get home.

The powerful attraction of Thomas the Tank Engine...

Hiding from the weather, again

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Saturday, June 26, 2010

I can't believe it, but we are hiding from the weather, AGAIN.

It snowed most recently in UB on May 15th. Today, the temperature reached 100F/38C. I am still not sure what happened to Spring.

Hoping that it was air-conditioned, we retreated to Kids' Island (Children's Island?) which is another of UB's indoor play places. It's fancier and more mechanized than the Blue Mouse (or Mommy Nashir) and more pricey, too. Despite all the gentle mechanized rides, the ball pen is still A's favorite.

Alas, the place was hotter than blazes...

If you're looking for Kids' Island, it's on the 6th floor of the Jigur Grand Plaza Mall. It seems to open at 10am.

Cool drink on a hot day

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Frank and I were at Naran Tuul (aka the Black Market) yesterday when we noticed these mini-tankers all over the place selling what appeared to be beer. Frank did a bit of searching on the internet and found that it was kvass and not beer. Kvass is a very mildly alcoholic beverage based on fermented rye bread. Wikipedia reports that it is commonly drunk throughout the former Soviet Union. Of course, Mongolia was not part of the USSR, but it was heavily influenced by the Soviets.

Today Frank went back for some more shopping at the Black Market and decided he'd give it a try. He reports that it is sweet, wonderfully refreshing, and that he could not detect any alcohol--sort of like lightly sweetened ice tea.

The perfect thing for a 99°F (37°C) day.

School's out!

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The classroom walls are stripped, the textbooks are back in the library, and the graphing calculators are accounted for.

Eight weeks to let my mind empty out--and get inspired for the school year ahead.

School is OUT for the summer!

Flowering forest

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Sunday, June 13, 2010

This morning we took a drive with friends along the south side of the Tuul river up to the old observatory east of Ulaanbaatar. After dropping the picnic stuff under a tree, we walked up into the forest to a rocky outcrop with a stunning view of UB. There were larch trees, birch trees, and flowers carpeting the green forest floor.

Glorious.

I think we are finally seeing the "upside" of that long, cold winter!

This is Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Frank and I were out walking this evening on the way home from a party. The sky was gorgeous, and the evening sun bathed everything in the most lovely light. But there is no escaping the fact of the city itself. Although there has been a lot of new development in recent years, it is interspersed with generous helpings of crumbling Soviet-era apartment blocks, tens of thousands of gers, fences constructed of all possible materials, and pile upon pile of rubble.

Now that summer has arrived, there are a few dazzling green trees here and there, but eight months out of the year, there is not a green plant of any kind to be seen in Ulaanbaatar.

All the cool kids are wearing them

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Friday, June 11, 2010

For the past x number of weeks, I have been promising my 11th graders that we would make some math earrings. I didn't have any clear idea how that might work, but I knew the theme would be the "unit circle" from trig. Finally, inspiration finally hit a couple of weeks ago.

We spent the last day of class making these--and other earrings.

All the cool kids are wearing them.

Dirichlet domains

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The end of the school year is almost upon us, and this morning I found myself looking for a one-hour stand alone lesson. I remembered a topic from a geometry workshop I took 10+ years ago called Dirichlet Domains, which is basically an algorithm for finding the nearest hospital, call box, or, in the case of my students, the nearest McDonalds or KFC. (Fear not, there is not a single McDonalds or KFC to be found in all of Mongolia.)

In any case, it's a fun paper folding/coloring exercise with neat applications in other fields as well.

Wikipedia can tell you more...

UB Marathon

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Saturday, June 5, 2010

This afternoon Frank finished the First Annual Ulaanbaatar Marathon. He was pleased with his finishing time (4 hours, 44 minutes), but he reports that the two best parts of the race were 1) running out into the countryside and looking back on the tiny dot that was UB and 2) running down the middle of Peace Avenue on his way to the finish line in Sükhbaatar Square.

I don't think I have commented too much on the state of UB's traffic, but it is horrendous--both in terms of the craziness of the driving and the huge traffic jams that form in parts of the city. Running down the middle of one of UB's main avenues (as opposed to sprinting fearfully across them) is a pleasure that few of us will ever get to enjoy...

At the finish line in Sükhbaatar Square

Shopping as pattern recognition

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Friday, June 4, 2010

Shopping for food here when you don't speak Mongolian or Russian is all about pattern recognition. Although I am starting to recognize the Cyrillic alphabet, food packages can be very mysterious when you don't speak the language. Yes, it might be obvious that the can contains tomatoes, but is it puree? tomato paste? whole tomatoes? spaghetti sauce?

The only safe bet: Did I buy a package BEFORE that looked like that? When Frank does the shopping, the shopping list includes annotations like "little girl flour" or "cheese with yellow label and a cow on it".

Even in our relatively short time here, packaging has had time to change--and then the fun starts all over again...

Genghis Khan theme park?

East of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

On the way home from Gün Galuut Nature Reserve, we stopped to get a closer look at the giant Genghis Khan statue (40 m/120 feet high) which rises above the gently rolling landscape. (The name is Mongolian is "Chinggis Khaan," and it's best to figure that out early so that you do NOT continue to refer to him as Genghis Khan...)

The statue is located about one hour east of Ulaanbaatar and is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Well, apparently it is located near one of Chinggis Khaan's big victory sites. Anyhow, you can ride an elevator up to the top of this big boy and get a view from there. Supposedly this is the beginning of what is to be a Chinggis Khaan theme park, complete with a huge ger camp, a replica of a 13th century war camp--and other attractions to come.

Time will tell...

Go fly a kite

Gün Galuut Nature Reserve, Mongolia
Tuesday, June 1, 2010

One of the highlights of our day at Gün Galuut was a chance to fly kites. I am sure I cannot remember the last time I tried to fly a kite. The wind along the river was brisk and that made kite-flying enjoyable (yes!) for adults and easy for little kids, too.

Childhood visited--and re-visited.

Video: Go fly a kite

24 hours at Gün Galuut

Gün Galuut Nature Reserve, Mongolia
Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Today is a national holiday in Mongolia: Mother & Children's Day. Together with some colleagues, we made an escape from the city yesterday afternoon for a 24-hour get-away to the Gün Galuut Nature Reserve which lies about 130 km east of Ulaanbaatar.

The weather was gorgeous, the setting along the river lovely, the gers spotless and comfortable, and the staff helpful.

The kids chased each other while the adults watched birds and clouds and looked for the Argali big horn sheep (without any luck). And a picnic by the river under a large gazebo.

Altogether a wonderful 24-hour get-away.