Celebrating Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations in Mongolia began last Wednesday (21st Dec) with an AYAD intake 32 Christmas dinner and Kris Kingle. Ben cooked up a delicious spaghetti bolognese, my first since arriving in Mongolia, and we exchanged our KK gifts. Jessie made some amazing Christmas crackers/bon bons for the table, in which she enclosed caramello koalas and Mongolian camel key rings for us all!

The following evening we had our big AYAD Christmas dinner, including volunteers from intake 30, 31 and 32 (us). Our in-country management team made a lovely speech about how much they enjoy working with us. For us, we're so lucky to have a pair of such dedicated and caring people looking after us!

The night was filled with great food (spinach and feta salad, lentil salad, salmon steak and panna cotta) and great company. We played a few games too, including limbo, celebrity heads and decorating someone as a Christmas tree (I was a part of the winning time of the latter. For this we won a bottle of Mongolia's famous Chenghis vodka). We even got a visit from Santa himself. I received a couple of large parcels (thank you to my family and Luke) that I saved to open up on Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve we all went to the Mongolian National ballet performance of the Nutcracker. It was the first time I had been to any professional ballet performance, so I thought it was good, although I did get lost in the storyline, particularly in the second Act. Afterwards we had everyone at Grandma's Flat (our apartment) for some delicious mulled wine.

On Christmas Day my housemates and I shared the morning together opening our gifts and eating a yummy big breakfast. Presents included an amazing Christmas banner (pictured below) from my niece Alle that she made herself, and some special homemade infused vodka (also pictured below) from my housemate Jess.

In the afternoon we shared a big Christmas dinner with around 30-40 other volunteers and expats living in Mongolia. Each of us brought along a dish to share: from rum balls to Chinese pork; from roast beef with jus to bok choy salad; from Tasmanian cheese to homemade Christmas fruitcake (both from the same volunteer who recently returned to UB from a brief visit home). Yum!

One of my favourite parts of the evening was when we sat around and sang Christmas carols together.

French-Mongolian Cheese Farm

Many of you are aware of my love for cheese. My siblings continues to make fun of me for choosing to visit the Cheese Factory (Cheese World) in Allansford as one of our weekend family activities when we were growing up. So when the opportunity to visit a French-Mongolian cheese farm about one hour and a half drive from UB here in Mongolia, I couldn't resist!

Before the bus trip (approximately -20 to -25 degrees)

The Mongolian country-side (view from the bus window)

The business specialises in making many types of French cheese. It was started by a French man who has been living in UB for a few years with his Mongolian wife. He and his family and friends made us a delicious lunch of cheese, cheese and more cheese in the form of fondu and melted cheese on baked potatoes.

I ended up taking home a small wheel of brie and a large portion of this one on the bottom-right. I'm hoping to get some of their goats cheese and cream that they didn't have the factory but can buy in UB (cream like we know it is particularly difficult to find in Mongolia).

The landscape by which the factory is surrounded is absolutely beautiful. The recent snowfall and the blue skies for the day made it even more amazing.

Ice Slips and Knitting 101

I have a new favourite pastime (thanks to one of my housemates for her excellent teaching skills and patience): knitting! I'm thinking of it as a good exercise to help heal my left arm that I hurt over a week ago.

It happened last Thursday on the way home from work via several supermarkets (you have to go to at least two or three stores to do all your grocery shopping, and then still you can't find all you want). I was crossing a road and slipped on a large patch of ice in front of a car. Usually I'm pretty cautious with this as it's a common problem for pedestrians on the UB footpaths and roads (especially for the unprepared foreigner). On this occasion though I think I was trying to hurry across the poorly lit road in front of several cars and didn’t notice the ice. This is the way you have to cross the road here: you must step out in front of cars, forcing the drivers to give way. They won't stop otherwise. So I slipped and fell, putting out my arm so as to appear to land, somewhat graciously, in the middle of the road. Luckily one of my housemates was there to signal to the driver of the large 4WD that I was almost underneath their bonnet when they attempted to continue to drive in my direction.

This is how it is on the roads in UB – drivers behind the wheels of massive cars and vans, following barely any formal road rules (if such exist) and instead make their way through the streets, beeping their horns, as if everyone is in it for themselves. Somehow though, it does seem to work for them and from what I’ve seen, there are very few accidents. As I write this now I hear car horns blaring. Most likely because they’ve been double-parked (usually by someone who intends to park there for more than just a few minutes), or they simply wish to switch lanes.

As I couldn't quite straighten my arm or bend it properly, I went to the SOS clinic the following day. After a couple of x-rays I was relieved to find out that there were no broken bones, just a sprained elbow. So I've been wearing it in a sling since (pictured here with my new dress purchased from UB's black market).

Being left-handed, I’ve had a lot of trouble restraining myself from using my left arm, especially when it comes to food, brushing my teeth, typing, playing my ukelele, and my what seem to be my favourite activities to do at home: washing the dishes and now, knitting. For now I'm trying to master the basic knitting techniques, and once I've graduate from my housemate's knitting 101 course I'll begin to knit something of value!