Hop on aboard onto the Hogwarts Express!

Thursday was our last day of class.  For you Loggers out there, you know what that means.  The administration shut down midnight breakfast, but come onnn, that don't mean we can't still carry on the tradition.  So that night we went to our last field trip, to the GOBI DESERT, and how did we get there? VIA FUCKING TRAIN. Hop onto the Hogwarts express everyone!  We took an overnight train ride where they shoved our section of the train off the tracks at 3 in the mo'nin.  So sweet.  What makes it sweeter (orr you could say creepier?) was that we had a special guest kick it with us for the trip, Glenn Mullin.  Hes this irish dude who grew up in an irish village in French Canada who is super into Mongolia (like published lots o books) and its pretty well known.  However, all he talks about is like women and booze.  An interesting fellow I'd say. I couldnt tell if he was shitting me the whole time but it was entertaining...

So the Gobi desert. We were situated in like south east Gobi and it was well, i dont realllllly know how to describe it.  Lots o plains. Awesome skies. Kinda like living in a desktop background.  We stayed at a ger camp and did sight seeing to cool places like a petrified "forest", dinosar bones, Shambala, and another temple under construction. It was pretty neat.  So that night (friday night) there was a huge party (cuz we were joined by another Mongolian group) and naturally there was karaoke.  So who went and dance partied with rando mongolians who dont actually dance? This girllll. Hey and it turns out that our professor, Elisabeth Benard, is quite the dancing machine.  Legit dude.  She was shredding the dance floor like no other. All I can say is, I'm stoked for our next dance party.

I went running in the Gobi desert. I ate too much and felt too fat. so i ran. I havent run in ages and it was awesomeblossom.  However this weekend (it is now monday) I decided that life is impermanent (major Buddhist concept i just took a final on) and my body don't matter (thatt much. this is all relative) Thus don't be surprised if the next time you see me, I'm chubs mcgee. Actually, you should expect it because I cant stop eating sweets and snacky snacks. This is a stupid paragraph now that I realize

Sorry for being all over the place. Its just crazy how we took the overnight train back home from saturday- sunday (yeah really short fieldtrip) and i studied for my final all day sunday and here I am, monday afternoon writing this post final but not post class because I still have to write an essay.  We're having our end of country dinner and its just wild how I'm already done with Mongolia.  How did time fly so fast? Oh wait I know, cus we had class, fieldtrips, and all these mandatory things.  We didn't get much free time and when we did we were real tired.  New lifestyle. Totally worth it.  I just ate my 10th cookie of the day and I'm going to a buffet dinner in T- 2.5 hours. Last night in Mongolia. Lez Do diz

Listen Up

Last day of class, this is what I learned.  I lied.  I was working on something far more exciting.

MADE UP MY DEBUT ALBUM

YEAHH BOIII

This is it. What you all have been waiting for...

LIL CAWN & CHINGY KHAN

"GETTIN STUPUH'D"

Track 1. Cawn Artist

Track 2. Getting Chingy wid it

Track 3. Like a Buuz

Track 4. Can I Take Yo Pictuh? - Buuz Baby Remix

Track 5.  Blue

Track 6.  Down n Durttty in the Gob(h)i Feat. G. Munay

Track 7. Biskrem my Savior Feat.  Lama O-Troll Rin-poh- shwayze

Track 8. Party Like a Ravjaa

Track 9. Reincarnated into the Wrong Realm: a Chod story

Track 10. Buddha Buddha Buddha rockin e'rywhere

Move over Korean DMZ Soldier, you've been replaced

So there's this vegetarian restaurant we go to sometimes called Luna Blanca and we went there for dinner last night with my sunshine committee.  In our Pac Rim group, we've all separated into little committees that take care of different things for the group and I'm in the morale group- we're responsible for birthday parties, end of country parties, and general lifting the mood of the group. Perf, considering that my new Mongolian name is Toya. which was described to us as "glimmer" or "what happens when the sun is out". Stupendous. So sunshine group and i are at Luna Blanca where i ordered a soup and salad to cut back on food (execept we got cake and i ordered more. I seriously have a problem with eating here) and dude our waiter was sooo legit. His name was Soyombo, which happens to be the Mongolian seal as well as "self arising" which is funny because we just had a linguistic scholar come and talk to us about it the other day. What are the chances?!

This would be his profile if he was registered with e-harmony 

Relatively well heighted- lovely voice- great english- knows some spanish- pulls off the buzzed hair cut like a boss- talented voice- was top 5 for Mongolian Idol- loves people (was a tour guide)-

Looking for lovely American traveler, preferrably 5'7 Asian, and on Pac Rim

HA I wish. I think its a toss up between me and Jeremy ( one of the guys on Pac Rim who we've deemed Mr. Congeniality- why? everyone wants to be him, or be married to him on GMASH, and he dresses greatly)

Now what is GMASH? Guys, its not like we have tv's and shit everywhere we go. Not even a game boy. Thus we have reverted back to old school games.  Hearts, UNO, Cribbage, and MASH. Excepttt we're in Mongolia where they have gers (nomadic Mongolian homes). Thus it is now GMASH. 

Oh my gosh Spider man 3 is on right now and James Franco is mighty fine.

I originally meant this blog to be about waiter man but as you can see, im streaming the hell out of consciousness. We're goin to the Gobi today, so i'll tell you about that later. PEACE



1 Thing at a time

Black Market trip= win. Connie Suh is such a ganadora!

So the black market isn't actually illegal anymore but it sounds way sweeter than "market place" right? For those who have been to korea, its kinda like namdemun/ dongdemun, but outdoor, more ghetto, and ore fabulous.  For those who haven't, it just thus huge spot where everyone has stands to sell their shit. There's sections like shoes, rope, jewelery, clothing, food, etc.  Just imagine South LA and replace the Mexicans with Mongolians and the Shops on the side of Alvarado with hundreds of little tents.  Seriously, I'm liking Mongolia and its peeps more and more.  Its an outdoor market place with an entrance fee of 50 tuglug (5  centz) and its got everything.  So what did i buy?

1. Camel fur sweater. color: beige and white. For 24,000 tuglug.  Damn the end of the shopping season, no one was really haggling. 

2. turquoise scarf

3. some fake ray bans ( i call them fay bans) that have the logo, made in italy letters, and the RB imprinted onto the glasses. As real as you can get them... except that their so fake I got them in Mongolia for 4,000 tuglug.  Man Mongolians have a thing for sunglasses, espesh Fay bans.

We got a cab ride (and you know when i say cab ride i really mean we stood at the side of the road and waited for cars to come up and offer rides.) and it was such a win.  The dude played some American tunes then Mongolian pop songs.  He thought I was Mongolian (cuz everyone- the Mongolians, the Russians, EVERYONE- assumes i'm Pac Rim's Mongolian tour guide) but we soon clarified that when all I could say was "hello" and "good" in Cyrillic.  So we're boppin along the road and i was waving to all the cars and at the red light one of the dudes in a car was like "Where are you guys from?!" so I screamed "MMMMuricaaa!" and we chatted and golly geez i felt like I was home. except people thought it was cool to yell at them across the street and we almost got hit like twice. It was awesome.  So we get back to the State Department Store and walk back to our guest house and then I realize "eff, I bought a beige/ camel colored sweater". Do you know what that means?

Now I have either all red, all navy blue, or all beige clothing. Its one up from all navy or all red but really?  Like this weekend we went to a meditation site an hour and half away and at the site there was lots o dried up tall grass. Beautiful location though. Auspicious symbols of turtle rock in the distance, beautiful yellow/ green leaved trees, awesome granite mountains with paintings on them, just sweet. Anyways, I put on my beige Northface pants and camel sweater and i seriously blended in with the grass.  We decided to take pictures and play "Where's Caldo".  Dude, even when i put the sweater over my head and some of my belly showed, I STILL blended into the grass. What can i say, Im a master of disguise.

 On the bright side I think its a sign.  I'm gonna acquire one color from each country so it'll only take my 8 months to have a full rainbow wardrobe. Get excited.

Everyday I'm hustlin

I eat mutton almost everyday. aka I eat geriatric sheep almost everyday. In the soups, in the buuz, in the fried bread, in the noodles, in everything.  To add to this, Mongolians like frying everything.  As well as potatoes. What does this all

Blogs...

I hate how the font is either too big or too small on this blog.  What happened to a normal size font that doesn't look like the font just exploded on your face? Like, seriously blogspot?

To make that negative nancy post into a positive paula post, on the bright side I had the best banana ever, which has made this already excellent day even more fantastic.  My body's been craving fruits other than apples and prunes, and man that banana hit the spot.  I've never just stopped and savored any food so much before...Like I took a bite and had to stop in the middle of my questionable location.  Magical. Then I dropped in a trashcan next to a lady and she started yelling at me so I ran away. 

2 assumptions you may have:

1. I am obsessed with blogging since I just posted something: so clearly wrong. false. at least for now.

2. What the hell is up with "negative nancy" and "positive paula"? I actually just made up the latter- kinda lame, any suggestions? Idk, it's kinda funny. And for icebreaker games, if you need to match your name with an adjective and these happen to be your names, you're good to go (I hope my mom doesn't get offended). I'm a huge fan of this new one though, "dumbass donald". 

Get Duuuurrrtty Girll

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I can't say where I am until I'm outta there so check back in in a couple o weeks and boom you'll get to catch up on my life.  But for the mean time, I'll keep you entertained with a preview of my life in this new LEGIT place.

This morning, I took a warm shower.  Actually the temperature was a little scalding.  And it was great.  So why am i telling you that i took a warm shower? Don't everyone take warm showers?

Answer: Negatory. 

 My first hot shower since this new place was 2 days ago, which makes today my SECOND HOT SHOWER. Which makes a total of 3 cold showers and 2 hot showers. And I flipped shit. I didn't know that a warm shower was a luxury.  I also didn't realize that toilet paper in the stall was a luxury.  Now that i think about it, being able to flush down your toilet paper is also a luxury. I'm tellin ya, we have it realll good back in da U S o A.

You know what else is ritzy? 

 Having clothes and wearing a new set of clothes everyday.  Especially if it isn't all effing navy blue (blue isnt even my favorite color. eff).  For some reason me, the ultimate over packer, underpacked and only brought either red or navy clothing (which makes life difficult when you don't wanna give into pacrim fashion so early in the trip) so I wear the same tshirt or flannel everyday for multiple ocacasions. I'm such a fashionista.

So what about laundry? 

Don't need it.  Maybe after 2-3 weeks after you've worn the same outfit for a whole week and gotten it real dirty?  At the puge,  I usually do my laundry every 3-4 weeks but then again I have like 65 pounds of clothes.  I only have like 25 pounds of clothes here.  Aka 4 shirts, 1 pair o shorts, 1 skirt, 1 flannel, 1 jacket, 5 pairs o socks, running shorts, etc. I have no clothes and don't wash them.  My clothes don't stink but lez be farealz, washing your clothes is overrated.

Gettin Dirtyyyy: Ain't no thang. 

Oh Baby Ohhhh

Don't get me wrong, but i feel like there's a general consensus that asian babies are theee cutest.

BUT did you know that of all the cute ass asian babies, Mongolians are THEEE cutest? Like Korean babies? nuh uhh. don't even. you can't compete with the buuz (pronounced "boze"- Mongolian dumplings filled with mutton) babies o Mongolia.  I feel like i've already talked about how cute the babies and kids are but golly geez they are just tooo cute!

Here's an example: on the first day of school, all the lil kiddos get dressed up in their nicest getups, like lil tuxedos for boys and cute dresses with huge ribbons on their heads for girls, and they buy flowers to take to class. to what? to give to their teachers.  If there are any hopeless romantics who need a dose of cuteness and flowers, go teach in Mongolia. You're not gonna get that from Teach for America...

Well, if you don't agree, just see for yourself weezie

Meet Fritz. She was the cab driver's daughter that dropped trou in the parking lot. She's got gumption.



The boys at the place we stopped at to ride horses, drink some more mares milk and meet the Abbot's teacher.  Black robe/green sash boy= ultimate stud. Gonna be a balla when he grows up. I thought he was 8... turned out he was 13. That makes me feel better...

Nema and the cutest little girl ever. She was singing us a song.

... even the grime of no showers and Mongolian fields can't make him any less adorbs. Not even that fake gun he's shooting me with.

Now tell me, who wants to steal a baby Mongolian?

Off to the Grass lands!

This weekend we took a fieldtrip to the ancient capital of Karakorum and stopped at the Old Man Monastery on our way. Let me tell you, I felt like I was in Microsoft XP desktop backgrounds. or better yet, the Lion King.

We went on our trip with the Abbot of Lamrim monastery and Oko and her husband.  Oko is our translator and dude she rocks. I learned some Mongolian while talking to her and let me tell you, bi Toya (' I'm Toya' in Mongolian. Toya= glitter/ sunshine. I'm not gonna argue with that name)

So on Thursday morning we left for our travel and stopped by the Rimpoche's place to get our blessings. I shook his hand. So bomb. We left for the Old Man Monastery and fast forward 5 hours and the best lunch i've ever had, we arrived at these sweet sand dunes where we rode camels and did Tai-chi on sand dunes. Freaking sweet.  We drove some more, passed some cows on the rode and arrived at the Old Man Monastery.  It was nestled in the nook between some rocky mountains and i can't describe in words how beautiful it was. A picture doesn't even do it justice. Just believe when I tell you, it was magical. The stars that night were the best stars i have ever seen. Forget you yosemite, come to Mongolia 6 hours outside of UB in the middle of the desert to see the Milky way, meteors, and stars at their best.  Our sleeping arrangements were in gerts, movable, nomadic Mongolian huts, and man, it was pretty sweet.

Rise and Shine! 8 am wake up time (like usual now) and I was greeted with a little rainstorm, followed by a rainbow.  Dude this rainbow began and ended in our rocky nook. I saw where the rainbow began and ended- thats fucking wild. so obviously that was gonna be a great day. We took a sweet hike up to the monastery and some ruins and the view from the huge mountains of rocks was phenomenal.  I feel like a broken record saying this but, man, I wish you could have been there. When we were taking a break, I also saw another rainbow thing from the reflection of the light in the sun. I know its not a "real" rainbow, but come on, 2 rainbows in a day? Jealous much? We headed to the capital that day but before arriving, we stopped by a group of Mongolians who owned lots o horses, actually the Abbot's teacher.  After taking too many pictures of ute Mongolian children, drinking fermentated mare's milk (the Mongolian summer drink), and watching people tame horses, I got to ride my own.  I know i'm allergic to horses but there was no way that i'd pass up the opportunity to ride. Mongolians are known for their horse riding and a kid like 12 years old maybe, accompanied by his like 6 year old friend led me and my horse. They rocked, haha actually i think he liked me cuz we were out for a long time.  i know i know i sound like a pedophile and might as well grow my pedastache out right now but I'm not. I swear. Too bad my ass/thighs were too big on the child sized saddle because I got some gnarly bruises in my inner thighs from that. Rough. But worth it.
We hung out at the monastery in Kharokurm that day and because we were on Mongolia time (chillin  n grillin x 5) class was cancelled. Fuck yeah. So we visited theese turtle monuments that marked Chinggis Khan's territory in the 13th century instead. Righteousss. So that night, because we had no class, we ended up having a bonfire and a DISCO NIGHT at the place we were staying/eating at. Haha right?

So experiencial learning - real class time in Mongolian grasslands = riding camels and horses, going on kewllll hikes, making friends with little Mongolian children, learning about temples, working on my handstands, dancing the night away, gerts, seeing rainbows and beautiful stars... taking a shit Can't beat that.

Oh Shit...

Joyce, one of my grandest galpals back at home cannot take shits for her life (sorry if you're reading this girl, sarang heh). I always make fun of her for it because I my bowel movements rock and I usually take a solid dump like everyday. However, we went on a fieldtrip this weekend to the grasslands of Mongolia and I did not shit for not 1 day, or 2 days, or even 3 days, but 4 freaking days! Record for Connie Suh everyone. Constipation was a huge topic of conversation for the whole weekend and i swear everytime i had to go to the bathroom, I (and others) would wonder "hmm, is today my LUCKY day?" So today, when we left to go back to UB on our 8 hour bus ride, when i finally took a poo, at my 4th attempt that morning, I was sooo happy.

Heres some thing wrong with this picture
1. I didn't shit for 4 days
2. We talked about pooping constantly, more than your average dose
3. I also had to pee outside and drop trou in behind bushes several times and I did not indeed take a shit outside like she does in Bridesmaid. However, I would have killed to do that because i thought my bowels would never move. Thats just effed up.

But this trip rocked. let me carry on on this next post. because it was the bees knees