Why this how question is important
My name is Dean Villa. I am a former Peace Corps volunteer. I served in Mongolia as a volunteer between June of 2000 until June of 2002. After that, I taught at a a private school for another two. I also sometimes work as a guide/ interpreter. Now I'm back in Mongolia teaching English at a Russian school. Ultimately I want to work in educational exchange and if possible live in both countries. If I can get the right kind of job, I plan on living sometimes in Mongolia and sometimes in the United States.
I want this blog to be informative, funny, and practical. I've helped lots and lots of tourists in the last 6 months after recently returning. I have also helped my best Mongolian friend, Serdamba. He works as a guide in the summer and a teacher during the school year, however, this fall he'll be studying for his Phd in educational studies. One really awesome English recently married couple got me into blogging. I visited their blog and and found out how to create my own blog and that brings us up to the present moment. They noticed something most travellers to Ulaanbaatar/ Mongolia notice. It can be an adventure crossing the street in UB and that is how I came up with the title. There is really so much more that makes life difficult here, and yet if one learns some basic Mongolian phrases and modifies one's perspective these little difficulties aren't impossible to deal with. In addition to crossing the street other difficulties include finding a restaurant, ordering food in a Mongolian restaurant, finding a phone, making a phone call, dealing with health issues, travelling in Ulaanbaatar, and sometimes just plain having fun. Some of these issues come about by peoples' personal preference, temperate, personality and the like. Others come about because of the fact that Mongolia is a developing country and that the infrastructure is always in a state of change. Where to find wet wipes for example? Ibuprofren can be found but where? Where can you find a good bar or restaurant that isn't packed with expats and yet has good food, beer, and at the same time is safe? It is possible to find such places. Recently after spending sometime in the UB Guesthouse I noticed some people who were just hanging around the guesthouse watching movie after movie. They were bored because they didn't know where to go, where the good places are, where the safe places are; I am an enemy of boredom.
Tim and Sam the English couple are travelling around the world for their honeymoon. They're perfecting skills they learned in England. Horseback riding and moutaineering. they're travelling around to countries to learn how local people in certain countries have perfected these skills. So they are trekking in the Himalayas; that is the Pakistan portion of the journey. The horseback riding portion included Mongolia. They were told by my friends who are a bunch of herders living in Khuvsgol Aimag that they are now quite good. Tim and Sam became my friends too.
My hobbies include travelling, exploring, learning foreign languages, swimming, hiking, reading books, and watching movies.
I want this blog to be informative, funny, and practical. I've helped lots and lots of tourists in the last 6 months after recently returning. I have also helped my best Mongolian friend, Serdamba. He works as a guide in the summer and a teacher during the school year, however, this fall he'll be studying for his Phd in educational studies. One really awesome English recently married couple got me into blogging. I visited their blog and and found out how to create my own blog and that brings us up to the present moment. They noticed something most travellers to Ulaanbaatar/ Mongolia notice. It can be an adventure crossing the street in UB and that is how I came up with the title. There is really so much more that makes life difficult here, and yet if one learns some basic Mongolian phrases and modifies one's perspective these little difficulties aren't impossible to deal with. In addition to crossing the street other difficulties include finding a restaurant, ordering food in a Mongolian restaurant, finding a phone, making a phone call, dealing with health issues, travelling in Ulaanbaatar, and sometimes just plain having fun. Some of these issues come about by peoples' personal preference, temperate, personality and the like. Others come about because of the fact that Mongolia is a developing country and that the infrastructure is always in a state of change. Where to find wet wipes for example? Ibuprofren can be found but where? Where can you find a good bar or restaurant that isn't packed with expats and yet has good food, beer, and at the same time is safe? It is possible to find such places. Recently after spending sometime in the UB Guesthouse I noticed some people who were just hanging around the guesthouse watching movie after movie. They were bored because they didn't know where to go, where the good places are, where the safe places are; I am an enemy of boredom.
Tim and Sam the English couple are travelling around the world for their honeymoon. They're perfecting skills they learned in England. Horseback riding and moutaineering. they're travelling around to countries to learn how local people in certain countries have perfected these skills. So they are trekking in the Himalayas; that is the Pakistan portion of the journey. The horseback riding portion included Mongolia. They were told by my friends who are a bunch of herders living in Khuvsgol Aimag that they are now quite good. Tim and Sam became my friends too.
My hobbies include travelling, exploring, learning foreign languages, swimming, hiking, reading books, and watching movies.
posted by Dean at 9:42 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Ariel,
The pictures are forthcoming. I'll let you know via email if you don't see them up. Roland and I are going to meet the new boss today.
----Dean
The search for Energy!
So it was in May of 2003 that I needed to buy some Double A batteries as my father, sister, and her boyfriend were travelling to Mongolia to visit me. I was looking forward to the visit and wanted to take lots of photos
snag-free in the countryside. So I went to the 3rd floor of the State Department Store which is usually where one can find technical stuff. Mongolians tend to do one of two things when encountered with a situation they don't know the answer to; they either A) point the foreigner in any direction or B) call the nearest co-worker who they think may know more English than they do.
So I was walking around the 3rd Floor and asked a young woman in English and Mongolian where can I find this kind of battery. I did this while holding up a used Double A battery. She said "tishee" which means that way. I walked to the end of that aisle. I had not seen any batteries so I asked the next young woman. She also shook her head and said "tishee." I turned 90 degrees to the right and walked to the end of that aisle. I asked the third young woman and asked her as well. She gave me the aforementioned answer. I turned to the right for the third time and walked to the end of aisle to have the fourth young woman tell me the same thing. Before talking with the first young woman once more, I even walked a bit around the center of the third floor; I could not find Double A batteries. Finally, I returned to the first young woman and told her how I traced a perfect square around the third floor of the State Department Store. I mentioned how she and 3 other women told me "tishee" and gestured to walk around over there. She covered her mouth and started laughing.
She asked a co-worker for some help. After receiving some keys from her co-worker, she ended up taking me to an opaque cabinet next to the washing machines and un-locked it. I don't understand the relationship of batteries to non-battery operated washing machines but I found what I was searching for.
Strangely enough it is far easier to find batteries now in the State Department Store. One need only look for the digital cameras and the batteries are still in a locked display case. now you can see them though.
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