My New Family

Yesterday we arrived in Sukhbaatar to move in with our host families. They met us at a restaurant and we had lunch when we first got here, expect my family wasn't there, but communication is not always the greatest in the PC, so they probably just didn't get the memo... After lunch we all piled back into our respective Micers (micro busses) and they dropped us off one by one at our homes. I was the last one, and when I arrived my parents weren't home. Just my sister (Undarmaa who is 17) and my brother (Batkhulsen who is 13) who were both cleaning the floors. Segii, one of the language teachers who rode in the micer with us, stayed for a few minutes but then she took off. I took my stuff up to my room, which was an interesting shock. We are "required" to have a bed, table and chairs, bookshelf, electrical outlet and closet or somewhere to put our clothes and the host families all sign a contract saying they will provide such things. In my room I have a chaise, a counch, an easy chair and the family computer. No bed, no table, no bookshelf and nowhere to put my clothes. We are also required to have a door with a lock. I had a door, but it was sitting against the wall next to my room.... My family does have a toilet and a shower though, which is pretty sweet. Once my parents got home they fed me and then put me to bed for a nap. It was really intimidating and kind of scary, because they kept talking to me in Mongolian and i had no idea what they were saying. When I went upstairs to take a nap they came up and hastily put my door on it's hinges, but it doesn't exactly fit perfectly. It only sort of closes all the way, but it will lock. I asked my host mom for a blanket, and so then she got out a pillow and a little 1/2 inch thick pad and a blanket, and gave me the option of the floor or the chaise. I chose the chaise, but I think tonight I will try the couch... When I woke up from my nap I went downstairs and only my sister was home, and I got her to take me for a walk. We walked all around town for like 3 hours, which was really nice. I had my dictionary with me and she had a phrasebook from the PC, and she knows a little bit of English so we talked a little bit. When we got home we ate again. We had bread with a sort of creamy yogurt type stuff and sugar on it, which was pretty good, and then yogurt with sugar. The yogurt is not anything like yogurt in America, it is more watery and kind of chunky... and they don't refrigerate it. There is also no pasteurization here, but so far I haven't been sick... so here's hoping it stays that way. :)
This morning I had language class for 4 hours, we learned the cyrillic alphabet, which has a lot of letters that sound very similar. There are 4 different letters that are very slight variations of "ooo" But we went over it again and again and again, so it's starting to sink in. I didn't get breakfast this morning though, because my family didn't really know that I had to be at school at 9, so my dad didn't start making breakfast or heating up water for coffee until about 8:30, so I had to leave after only eating a small orange that I had brought with me from Darkhan. It made it a little difficult to concentrate in class... but oh well.
Lunch was really good, my sister made me an omlet with some sausage in it, and I had some coffee and some pickled vegetables (they love that stuff here).
I'm hoping that some more Mongolian will sink in soon and I will be able to talk to my family a little more. They said that we were going for a hike this evening, but I am too tired and all I want to do is take a shower and go to bed, after I do my homework and finish memorizing the alphabet....