July 26, 2010

Hey y’all!!! Right now in Mongolia it is about 6 p.m. and I just got back to my ger from my long day of class and training. Today I taught English for the second time. It was a lot of fun! My Mongolian dad, the school guard, and a young girl were in attendance. The lesson was days of the week and months. I think that they all really enjoyed the lesson. I played a fun matching game with them. It is interesting teaching someone a foreign language when you yourself don’t speak his or her language! However, I think they walked away learning so that is all that matters!
This past weekend was full of activity. On Saturday I taught my first English class. It was the same material but more so a trial run for the Monday lesson. I was a little sad that only one kid showed up but 30 minutes into the lesson another girl showed up. So a grand total of 5 individuals now know the days of the week and months in English! That is more then when I started. I feel like that could be an issue during my time here- trying to get involvement. BUT I plan on making my lessons really interactive with a lot of games so hopefully word will get around the town that it is a lot of fun! Oh and this weekend my sitemates and I planned our CAMP! We get to run a camp this up coming weekend. I am really looking forward to that! (Plus I get to ride the Mongolian train for the first time!)
Then this past Friday I taught yoga for the first time with my sitemate Ashley. I really enjoyed that! We had about 5 kids and the school guard. I think that was definitely the first time they had done yoga, but they seemed to really like it! I am hoping that when I get to my actual site to start up an exercise club that meets once a week.
In other news, my cousin who lives in the ger next to me who is sixteen just got her nose pierced-her mom doesn’t know yet. I have a sneaky suspicion that she got the idea from me…so I hope her mom likes it!
Last week I started to learn a Mongolian song. That was a lot of fun. My family was laughing at my pronunciations skills and me. Hahah. It’s coming along though.
Food news is as follows: I miss American food. I know it has been about two months since I have been gone but man I am already tired of potatoes! I did learn how to make sushi last week. It consisted of rice and seaweed; it was a nice change from the typically potato dish. Oh and I have found that I like tofu and soy meat better then Mongolian meat. I think my family was picking up on the fact that I wasn’t eating a lot of meat so they started using these things. In the states I prolly would have never eaten tofu or soy meat but ‘when in Mongolia!’ OH AND BREAKING NEWS!!!! My dad told me he loved my cooking!!!!!!!! No one has every said that to me in my life! I was shocked when he said it! ( I think he just might love the French fries that I make but all in all he still said it!!!!!!)
There ya have it folks. A short little update for all to hear!
Love,
Brit