Vacation, sort of

The past month has been full of travel (Mongol-style of course), Peace Corps training and enjoying above-freezing temperatures. I have finally been able to hang up my giant winter parka, and move back to my light jacket (a moment I celebrated fully). Some days I don't even have to wear a coat, so long as I layer properly.
In late February I went up to Selenge aimag with a friend to visit another PCV who lives there. We took the night train from UB to Sukhbaatar, which travels about as fast as a horse but is a bit more comfortable. While in Sukhbaatar, I visited Cady's host family from the Summer. They were really happy that I had come to visit, but I think I made Cady look like the "bad daughter" because she lives a lot closer but hadn't come up for Tsaagan Sar (never mind the fact that there was a snowstorm the day she had been planning to come, and the taxi drivers always seem to have a death wish anyway).
After three days of genuine hudoo life, I came to realize how happy I am to live in an apartment. I love my hot shower, the heat that is provided through no work of my own and my indoor toilet. The running water to wash dishes with is also a big plus.
I also got to experience the true "posh-corps" lifestyle in Darkhan for a few days after Sukhbaatar. Complete with CNN, National Geographic and Animal Planet, and a couch to lay on while watching. I went to Darkhan to give a training on sustainability with Cady at her CHF office, which went really well. We also had time to go shopping at an awesome thrift store, and I had a bit of a moment at Nomins. Nomins is a super-market chain that is in UB, Darkhan and Erdenet. I made Cady spend almost an hour just wandering up and down the aisles while I gasped at and drooled over the amazing things for sale there (sesame oil, broccoli, lettuce, meat other than hiam, brown sugar, cheese).
At the beginning of March we had a Peace Corps training on Project Design and Management (PDM). It was the last time all the M18s will be together in one place before our Close of Service conference next year. It was a really good training, and it was at a much better hotel than IST. The hotel is in the "Strictly Protected Area" outside of UB. I'm not sure exactly what is meant by "Strictly Protected," as there is still hunting, grazing, camping etc. allowed. But it was beautiful. We were busy with training sessions pretty much all day the whole time we were there though, so there wasn't much time to enjoy the newly-warm weather.
After PDM I spend a few more days in UB, going to some meetings and participating in the normal Peace Corps ridiculousness that ensues whenever a large group of us are in the city. Though it's always fun to be in UB, it gets expensive and exhausting really quickly, and I was glad to come back home. My friend came back to Tsetserleg with me to stay for a week and enjoy Arkhangai's awesomeness. The weather was beautiful. Arkhangai has been the warmest spot in Mongolia all winter, and it continues to be warmer than the rest of the country. All the snow had melted, and there are even some buds on trees now. Along with spring, though, comes the infamous Dust Storms. I experienced my first last Tuesday. Which, of course, was the day my office relocated.
Our office was moved in typical Mongolian fashion. I was sitting at my computer doing something when all of a sudden it turned off. That isn't such a strange occurrence, as the power goes out briefly quite frequently, and sometimes my computer turns off because someone looks at the extension cord wrong and it stops working for awhile. But I looked up to see people pulling computers off desks and stacking everything in the middle of the room. And so we moved. We threw everything in boxes and carried it to the truck downstairs. All during a dust storm. Probably not the best thing for the computers, but it really is amazing how durable things are when forced to be so. The office was moved because recently the cafe downstairs from our old office converted their pool/ ping-pong room into karaoke. You wouldn't think that would be such a problem, but in Mongolia karaoke starts up at about 11am. It's not so easy to focus on anything while listening to very loud, very bad karaoke being sung directly below you.
After the dust storm on Tuesday, the rest of last week was incredible. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to go on hikes without a coat. Doug and I went on a hike on Wednesday. We took Sophie with us, and as we passed by Andrea and Tuul's apartment buildings we were joined by two stray dogs that have befriended all foreigners. One is a true Mongolian dog, he is black with some white has the "four eyes" (light brown patches above his eyes). The other is some sort of mix between some fancy lap-dog and street dog. He is short and has curly hair (aka dred-locks). With our small herd of dogs we hiked up into the mountains around Tsetserleg. The little curly dog has some sort of inferiority complex, and can't get enough of chasing livestock. Sophie was good about not joining in at first, but as we went on she started to understand what was going on and decided she might like to play too. Near the end of our hike we heard thundering hooves coming up behind us, so we turned around to find an angry herder. He asked us why our dogs were chasing his animals. Doug told him that the yellow dog was ours, the other ones we didn't know anything about, they just followed us. He didn't seem to buy that completely, but eventually went away.
I also climbed Bulgan mountain for the second time last week. This time I climbed up and also back down the rock face. The first time Rob, Jeff and I came down on the other side of the mountain which is grass and trees. But this time Doug and I came across a couple of kids as we were climbing up, and they joined us. After we reached the top they decided they wanted to show us the "big hole." So we started climbing down the rock face, mostly scooting along in a sitting position. At first we thought it was just a little ways down, but as it turned out we climbed half-way down the mountain before we came to the "big hole." From a distance it looks like a yeti cave, but, in fact, it's just a deep hole in the rock.
We also went riding out in Battsengal again. There was again only one camel, and this time we discovered why. Apparently the other two camels the family owns had been bought recently, and they like to run away to their old home. I asked for a fast horse, and they gave me "Billy." He was dubbed Billy for the day because of his impressive mane, which is in the process of growing out and so stands straight up. Billy was indeed a fast horse, and just wanted to run. He has the habit of putting his head down while galloping, and that coupled with the fact that he has almost no discernible shoulder made it a little scary when trying to stop him. I always felt like I was moments away from falling off over his head. But we eventually came to an understanding, and spent most of the ride ahead of everyone else because Billy did not tolerate being behind anyone very well.
The camel was also a little sassy this time out. When Andrea and I were trading off, we tried to make him sit and instead of sitting he blew his slobber all over Andrea. For some reason he had collected an impressive amount of foam in his mouth, most of which ended up on Andrea's face.
Now I am back at work, in a new office with almost all new coworkers. I have a new counterpart, Azaa, a new translator, Jackie and our programming officer, Bayarhuu, is back from maternity leave.