I have visited my second monastery while here in Mongolia. The Gandan Monastery was originally at the center of town in Ulaabaatar until it was moved in 1838. It once housed a community of 5000 monks.

Although it was beautiful to see, I was saddened to learn what happened to Buddhism under the communist regime a century later. They destroyed 900 monasteries and left only a few to act as museums. Monks were killed, jailed and forced to join the military. To further desecrate these places of worship, they used them as barns to store their horses.

In 1944 Gandan Monastery was reopened but only under strict supervision. Today only 900 monks remain at Gandan.

How we entertain ourselves!

Reading and eating.








Internets








Reading








Eating








....did I mention reading and eating.








Our entertainment center and Amy's favorite movie.

Cleaning our Food

Our diet is limited to whatever the markets have available. We try and get as many vegetables as possible. That usually means a whole lot of carrots, potatoes, bell peppers and lots of candy. Since we aren't washing our produce in the Clorox and water combo we are washing and peeling most of our vegetables. Especially our carrots and potatoes. The amount of dirt on them is mind boggling. We also have lots of fresh eggs and I say fresh because there are still feathers and poop clinging to them.

Carrots and Swedish Turnips.

Amy's favorite pickles and my not so tasty instant coffee.

Fresh bread for less than 60 cents.

Carrots before cleaning.

Carrots after cleaning and peeling.

Our neighbors little dog who we've adopted as our own. He greets us when we leave and when we arrive.









He likes to stand watch outside our neighbors ger. He's not a very good watchdog yet as he likes to mostly play and loves it when you pet him.

Our neighbors right outside our front window from the living room. They've electricity and there's even t.v. antennas on some.

This is from our bedroom window. We see these train shipping containers everywhere. People use them for storage, to live in, to operate a business...lots of stuff.

I've been trying to take in the whole of Mongolia and am finding a considerable amount of surprises. Boredom has not happened as of yet and I don't expect it will happen anytime soon.

I am amused daily by the unexpected. Mostly by the amount of saliva and vomit I see on our walk to and from the market. Eww, is all I can say. While I'm play "don't step on any spit or you'll fall and break your mama's wrist. Amy's solution is to look straight ahead. I'm chasing her down half the time and always manage to get stuck in the crowd. Trust me you don't want to do that here. These people have no clue about letting someone go first every once in while. It's all me, me, me.

The drivers as you know from previous Facebook posts are horrible. They do not give a shit about you losing a leg or two. It's first come first served at any intersection or crosswalk. Person vs car, how fair is that???!

Anyway Amy and I went to get registered as foreigners at some neighborhood association. We go in and the space behind the counter was quite spacious by my calculations. The space for people registering, uh can we say minute. So can you picture Amy, Mandal our landlord, myself ,two other people and a stream of others still coming in a 3'x5' space. Also did I mention people don't wait for their turns and boundaries, well they don't seem to exist. The lady behind me just cuddled up to me the entire ten minutes. When we were done Amy and Mandal rush out and the other folks rush up to the counter leaving me stuck behind the door which could not be opened because of people inside. So a game of human Tetris had to be played so I can make my exit and it was not graceful and they all laughed. Although I think they were laughing with me.

We have found a Cuban restuarant (run by a Cuban man. Ha! And the most shocking of all discoveries. There is a small Latino community in Mongolia! What??!!

Yesterday Amy and I visited the studios of the Union of Mongolian Artists (http://www.uma.mn/studio.jsp). It was phenomenal to say the least.
The director at ACMS was so kind to introduce us to an artist, Soyolmaa Davaakhuu (http://www.imagekind.com/MemberProfile.aspx?MID=c3493a6d-3dce-4169-b1d5-8252869183b9) who has now befriended us. She will take time out of her schedule to take us to an art store this afternoon for much needed supplies.
Most of the artists were old guys who probably got their art education in Russia during Soviet rule. Their work was mostly landscape and amazing. We also met M. Batzorig who showed us his wife's work as well. We were blown away. Batzorig's and his wife's work was wonderful. There is inspiration from this visit for sure. We've also been invited to an opening on Wednesday night and are very excited.

Smog and Ice

We've been in Ulaanbaatar since Saturday evening and the only word I can say thank you and meat.
This is so exciting! There is construction everywhere and the contrast of old and new is crazy. We have a few gers ( a round tent like structure) behind our apartment. According to Amy that's where the managers and maintenance people live because it's much more affordable.
We have finally figured out the washing machine...I think... our bathroom floor gets flooded every time we shower, the pipe at the bottom of our kitchen sink came loose and flooded our kitchen floor. Funny the things we take for granted in America. Like working plumming. We take so much for granted and bitch about the littlest things.
Our toilet paper is as soft as newspaper. The water needs to be boiled and cannot bring my self to drink it yet. So I've been living on cocoa. Thanks mom it has been a lifesaver. There's also no such thing as diet food here. So no diet cola or fat free milk. Although I'm sure I'll be fine since we're walking everywhere.
They must not know about salting the sidewalks because they are covered in ice and walking is at your own risk. Also pedestrians definitely don't have the right of way, driving regulations are completely ignored or non existent. Like no one seems surprised when you drive into oncoming traffic.
You'll have to try their sausage...something like extra thick bologna.
I'll post pictures soon.
Also I've found a wonderful art supply store and supplies are cheap.