My Apartment in UB

Later today I am (hopefully) moving in to an apartment in UB where I will be living for the next 10 months with two other AYADs from my intake - Anna and Jess.

After two full days of house hunting last week, within which we saw 11 apartments in central UB, the three of us chose the first one that really appealed to us - a cute and charming old Soviet apartment that is located close to Sukhbaatar Square, the Trade Development Bank and my work on Freedom Square. This will be exceptionally convenient as the winter approaches - it is going to be freezing! Apparently it snowed last night and early this morning however I didn't see any... I'm sure I'll be seeing plenty of it soon enough so I can definitely wait until then!

Our cosy kitchen (a new stove and oven combo is being installed- this one failed to work, so lucky we checked it!)

Two of the three bedrooms (whose has yet to be determined..)

Our adorable Granny-style living room (complete with doilies!)

Traditional Mongolian Music

During our first week in UB we went to see a traditional Mongolian performance, including music, singing and dancing. As a music lover I really loved this, and it has inspired me to learn all about these elements of the Mongolian culture, and perhaps even learn one of the traditional instruments or dance.

Mongolian singer

Instruments from left: the morin khuur (Horse-headed fiddle - one of Mongolia's national symbols), a tsuur (like a flute), a yoochin (an instrument similar to a dulcimer), a shants (similar to the Japanese shamisen of which I learned the basics from my third host mother during my exchange to Japan), and a yatga (like a harp).

Throat singing is a major part of Mongolian traditional music. It requires producing two distinct tones simultaneously from the one individual singer. One of these is a low, sustained tone; the other a higher pitched tone that sounds like several flutelike harmonics.

The traditional folk dancing is based on telling stories of aspects of the Mongolian life. I think that it looks really fun!

A film compiling some of the performances:

Sightseeing around UB

While I've only been here for a week, it hasn't been difficult to see that Ulaanbaatar (UB), the capital city of Mongolia is extremely unique from any other city in the world. The low regard for any kind of traffic rules (that somehow seems to work), the old and run down Soviet style buildings with contrasting interiors, the cracked and uneven concrete footpaths, the dry cold weather (although it's only an average of 0 degrees at the moment, it will fall as low as -40 sometime over the next 4 months).. The list goes on and I hope to share more of these with you. I am really enjoying learning all about UB, especially its eccentricities, and know that I will love living here.

For our first full day in UB we were taken around to some of the city's most famous landmarks. The first was Sukhbaatar Square and Government House, where we soaked up the rays of the Mongolian sun (and have continued to do so at any opportunity since).

The Government House building, with Genghis Khan, the most world-reknowned Mongolian man, sits at the centre overlooking the Square.

Sukhbaatar Square

We were then driven out towards the outskirts of UB to Zaisan Mountain (pictured below). We climbed up the 300 stairs to look over UB (featuring a lovely pollution cloud), and to appreciate the Soviet-Mongolian artwork on display.

The steps up to the summit of Zaisan Mountain

The view from Zaisan Mountain

Soviet-Mongolian artwork on Zaisan Mountain

Our final stop was Gandan, the Buddhist monastery and temple featuring a large Buddha. The ground surrounding the monastery is mostly covered by the city pigeons that are fed extremely well by the locals.

Gandan

Arrival in Ulaanbaatar

As part of the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Program, Intake 32, I have arrived in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to volunteer for 10 months as a Business Projects Officer for the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Agency.

The trip to Ulaanbaatar from Melbourne consisted of stopovers in both Singapore and Seoul. Luckily though, it went pretty quickly with no delays! On the last leg I sat in a window seat so gained some amazing views as we began to pass over Mongolia.

Our In Country Management Team met the seven of us AYAD intake 32 volunteers at the airport. We were welcomed with a clear blue sky (in the 0 degree weather)!

That night we went for dinner to a traditional Mongolian restaurant. This is one of the country's signature dishes - beef and capsicum noodles (Mongolian name to be confirmed..). It was really good to chat over dinner to some current AYADs who have been living in UB since the end of July. Those of us from Intake 32 were exhausted however and were keen to get a good night's sleep as the following day we would be beginning a full week of orientation activities.