Travel Blog Mongolia

FINALLY THE BLOG IS WORKING AGAIN! SORRY THAT THERE ARE SO MANY NEW THINGS HAPPENING, I tried to wrap them up a bit.

#goodtoknow
Mintse and me had to teach in the most horrible class ever! I know why the teacher do chose the class in which I go! They blabbered the whole time with their classmates and did not pay attention on what we tried to teach them. I even had to intervene by separating the troublemaker. At least I made one HUGE mistake, what I could not know! Two boys sitting in the first row did not participate in class and did not do the exercises we gave them to do. I was asking them several times to participate actively in class and found out that they forgot their pens. I saw one lying on the desk and passing them to the boys by kind of throwing them in their direction. This is an absolute NO GO here, as you just throw something to the dogs! So the thought I treat them as dogs because they are so unfriendly… Therefore I gave the kids either something to laugh or something to think about. Mintse told the kids how we handle things in Germany, but in Mongolian and I did not get my mistake during class.

#healthclubmarathon
After having been several times at the two different fitness clubs I decided to go, having been to two different doctors, having negotiated with the club about the price I finally made it after being here for 4 weeks now to get at least a bit of a training routine done. At least two weeks before going in holidays. It took me quite a while to find out that this Fitness Club accepts just the Health Test from a special Laboratory, the Express Laboratory. Thank God, Mintse went there with me because otherwise it would have taken quite a while to explain the people with hand and foot what I need… They took blood and did two tests and told me to come by later to get the results. Easy 😀 And this time the nurse did not puncture my veine. Therefore the cotton ball looked pretty dirty :O Finally got access to the Gym and Pool, after trying to understand the Mongolian way of price reduction. A weird stuff. Expensive de luxe thing going to the gym here but I really need it. Had today 1 Million Tugrik in my hand 😀
Up to now I do not regret the decision to have joined the club. Either I am alone in the water, or there is one person swimming in the pool, but at least you have you own line. On a Sunday morning I was totally alone in the Fitness Area, riding my intervals. So I do not really know who is going there and when, but always when I pass the Club it is quite empty. Lucky strike for me, even I do not really like going biking indoor on my own.

#mogolianwaytoapologize
On Wednesday Mintse and I had to teach in one of the most horrible classes. They did not even had respect in front of me… So they had to apologize for their bad behaviour. They said sorry to me but did not even look at me. They looked at the floor. I found this pretty unfriendly as a serious German apologize means looking in the eye of the person where you apologize. Later on I asked Mintse whether it is not common to look in each others eyes here and I already expected an answer like this: It is unfriendly and not seriously meant when you apologize by looking at the others. How little things may cause misunderstandings and lucky me for not trying to discuss it at this moment.

#UBIFF
The UB International Film Festival started on Wednesday the 7th of October and lasts until Sunday. We went with Mintse, Jessy and Lennart first in Spartacus and Casandra and then in Le Grand Jour. Awesome movies from France! The first film was about Roma Kids needing to decide between street life with their parents or a different life. Not an easy film to watch concerning the theme. The second film portrayed 4 children at the age of 11. One guy from Cuba who wants become a boxer, one girl from UB who wants to become a professional dancer, one girl from India who wants to become an engineer and finally one guy from Uganda or so who wanted to become a ranger for apes. Lovely and emotional film. Deegii from Mongolia even was there and talked to us, as well as the French ambassador, the cultural attaché from France and a lot of French speaking people! Awesome! We gonna see some more movies, as one move costs around 4000Tugrik, which is around 2€.

#trailruncommunity
Our last session was on Saturday. They picked us up at the Sukhbaatar Square and we went out south of the city near President Valley. Awesome 7k run with discovering the area and even founding a boulder area. Again quite difficult for the lungs, even it was “warm” (around 5 degree Celsius) and I had to walk parts of the trail! But the Jonas collected me at the very end and pushed me up the hill, which was great! Thanks mate for this! Now I do realize why I am always this out of breath, we finally arrived at the top of the hill, which is 2300m over zero.

#lambmeatischeap
I asked my language teacher why people buy a whole lamb at the very moment. She told us that it is quite cheap now. Per kilo you pay aroung 5000 Tugrik (which is around 2€). I asked what it does cost when it is expensive and the answer was around 7000 Tugrik, which is 3€. Crazy I would say.

#familystuff
My hostmom was indeed as I expected in Hospital last week. Quite a calm week at home… Sunday I gave them the first Miete and I guess they auf den Kopf hauen straight away. Monday they came home with a new coffee machine and a balance. I had to try it out and then my host mom as well…. Guess how much difference there is between us two. She is more than one head smaller than I am and looks more like a ballon 😀 She is 17kg heavier than I am 😀
The coffee machine did not work anymore after the first coffee was made…. Because nobody could read the English instruction I was the one who had to look after it. Nothing major, they just had to wait until the machine has cooled down. I think with hands, feet, german, English and pantomime and even some Mongolian words I explained them how to use the machine – let’s see whether they got it… #proudofmyself #hostmomrocks

#UBJazzClub
Wednesday is UB Jazz Club live evening. We went there because it was the last time the head of the Goethe Institut, Sebastian Woitsch, went there before he will leave for returning after 3 years UB to Germany. Young Mongolians present their selves on stage. The whole thing was founded by Martin and Sebastian or was it Stefan (too many new names) and is called “Musikalabor”. After Kirsten, Jessy and I have eaten at the Korean restaurant I went with Mintse one time, we went there. Malte came by later and met directly some colleagues from the trade fair, which took place the last few days at the Shangri-La Hotel. They all learn German and did speak English very well and were very charming ☺ We had a whale of a time there and even a nice chat with Sebastian!

#weirdstuff
Earthquake: http://www.infomongolia.com/ct/ci/9802

Some more pictures from the visit of Gauck, our hike, stroll in the city and more….