The Second Year

This is my second Fall in Mongolia, and it's amazing how many things are different this year. One of the most noticeable, and recently beneficial, has been the fact that I know more people. Other volunteers in my Aimag do too, and we have all benefited greatly in the form of leafy greens. Ik Tamir has one farmer who is growing spinach and lettuce this year. We bought out his whole crop of spinach and a lot of his lettuce and I have eaten salad at least once a day since Saturday. I also know the people at Fairfield well, and have been getting lettuce from their garden, as well as the hook up with vegetables from other missionaries in the Aimag. It has been awesome.
My language (though by no means great) is also significantly better than when I arrived at site last August. I can understand a lot more, and I can actually hold a somewhat meaningful conversation in Mongolian.
One of the things I am most excited about this year (aside from the exotic vegetables in my diet) is actually having stuff to do at work. I have almost 200 surveys that my office collected from tourists this summer to process, and I've started writing the value chain report. It's so nice to be busy.
I've also been spending a lot of time with my new site mates. It's strange not being the only PCV in Tsetserleg anymore. One of my site mates has the entire series of Sex and the City, which is awesome. We have been watching that and we will finish with the movie (which came out on DVD in UB about a month ago, which I am sure is perfectly legitimate. I would not steal a car, or a purse and buying a bootleg movie is definitely exactly the same...).
Though I am much more comfortable and used to a lot of the things that are Mongolia, there are still some that continue to frustrate and sometimes infuriate me. Some things about this country really are just inexcusably ridiculous. I've learned to embrace pushing people when trying to stand in line at the bank, or standing with my toes practically on the next persons heels while in line at a store. But sometimes the blatant inefficiency and acceptance of such inefficiency really gets to me. Walking into a delguur and seeing the shopkeeper talking on her phone doesn't really bother me any more. I usually just start talking to her and ask for what I want anyway, and they usually give me what I ask for and take my money without even pausing in their conversation. But the last time I ate in one of the cafes near my office with my site mates and Tuul, the waitress actually answered her cell phone and started having a conversation while we were in the middle of trying to pay. Not only was she having a conversation, but she completely ignored us until she was finished talking.
A few weekends ago I went to the supermarket that is open on Saturdays. It isn't the one I usually go to, but the other one is closed on Saturday. I was there with one of my site mates, and we both found a few things we wanted (although the dried tofu that was confirmed to have been there the day before was nowhere to be found). When we went to the checkout we were informed we were not allowed to buy any of those things because they didn't know the price. Things like honey, yogurt and plastic cheese. Things that are commonly found in the supermarkets in Tsetserleg and were ON THE SHELF. This is a fairly common occurrence, especially at that supermarket. I don't understand why anyone would think that is acceptable.
I love living in Mongolia, but sometimes it is impossible for me to understand why things are the way they are. I'm quite sure they will continue to be this way indefinitely though, because every time I get upset about it Mongolians look at me like I'm the crazy one.