Red means stop. Do not go.

On staff at school we have a very responsible (and lovable) gentleman who ensures our safety through fantastic (illustrated) briefings before each of our many excursions. I have stopped taking notes, although perhaps some of us could use a few reminders still, but these are from orientation week in UB when of course I wrote down everything they told us (okay maybe only what I found funny):

3/2/08 12:46 Class
Tyclaarau - tos-laar-ay: Help me!
1) Be careful when crossing street!
2) Drunken men. Stay away
3) Pickpocketing
4) Don't drink cheap vodka (poison incident)
- Gem International is good
- Spirit Bal Buram also

3/7/08 13:52 Countryside Homestay Briefing
- No peanut butter
- Don't burn self on fire, or put trash in fire
- Baby animals may pee on your shoes/things

Went to Erdenet (copper mining town, responsible for something ridiculous like 30% of Mongolia's GDP) on Friday. Here is the huge noisy factory that refines copper and molybdenum ore to concentrate. It was noisy and dusty and there was lots of creaky metal and bubbling toxic gray stuff - everything a factory should be.

After the factory tour, we drove around several lakes of waste outside the town. Here is the one we stopped at. It was enormous - like Lake Mendota, maybe - and all full of this sludge and white dust. We were equipped with face masks. So mining, which many view as the only way to jump start Mongolia's economy, obviously has environmental implications.






Russian-Mongolian Friendship statue in Erdenet. (Erdenet mine opened in the 1970's with lots of help from Russia, the nation owns half the mine today). Here are four of us American students, two language teachers, and the three guides from Margad College who arranged our Big Day in the Mining Town. Sorry you are not in this picture H-na.

This Friday we're going to a national park nearby where there are wild horses! On our extensive schedule, at 7:30 PM on Friday evening it is Environmental Video Night. Woo hoo!!!!!!


Sorry the formatting of these pictures is awkward, I'm not patient enough to try really hard. Regardless, here is an assortment of photos I've been meaning to share:



Tugriks & long underwear. All you really need in Mongolia.







Dinner during orientation with Liz, when we haplessly ordered a single buuz instead of an order of buuz like they had on the picture menu (5 little buuz all together on a plate). Little did I know how many more buuz I would have to eat in my stay here. This meal is about 3243258 more colorful than most of the ones I have had since. Which is why there are no pictures of them.

Our school is actually a townhouse. So this is just outside the building. A Korean family with "very naughty children" lives next door. It's very cozy and tricky.

Look at the awkward baby camel on the right!!! This herd caused our caravan of vans headed from Kharkorin to Ulaanbaatar to slow down a bit. The camels had some trouble with the snow drifts, which was as funny-looking in real life as it is in your imagination.