The Grade Book

This is my grade book.

It's called a "Teachers Journal".

It's all in Mongolian. 

The purple post-it note says:

"Do not make mistakes!

Don't use correction tape."

You can only write in blue ink.

I've written in pencil.

I've made mistakes.

I've used correction tape.

I'm fairly certain most of what I've written in it is wrong.

For those non-teachers, this is the book where I'm to record all my students, every one of their absences, all my lessons, all my assignments and grades. It's tedious work, especially when you're out for a few weeks. It's really easy to fall behind, which I've done miserably. To make things worse, some of my classes have been changing almost constantly and I'm still not sure how to record them accurately. 

I've made tons of mistakes. I showed my headmaster and she said, "Oh noooooo. This is not good." Pause. "It's ok, I'll just tell them (the people from the Ministry of Education) that you're a foreigner and didn't know better."

Soooo true. 

I wonder if that excuse will work even though they've explained it to me, clearly, several times now?

Mongolian men know how to appreciate their women.

It's Women's Day again in Mongolia (actually, it's tomorrow, March 8) and that means all the men in this country are letting the women in their lives know how much they mean to them. LOVE THIS HOLIDAY! It's kind of like their version of Mother's Day but they like to include all the other ladies in their lives.

Since we're at school today (it's Friday), the men gathered all the ladies up and serenaded us with a couple of beautiful songs about mothers. Then we were showered with candy, roses and wine (which I polite-fully declined as it goes against my contract). A few lovely speeches about how their lives would be boring without us. So sweet.

Then, we were ushered into the main common area where the senior boys were acting out plays, singing and dancing for all the girls in school. Most of the jokes I didn't really get (a drawback of being a foreigner) but could tell they had practiced and wanted to make us laugh - LOVE IT! More flowers, notes of appreciation and candy followed.

Happy Women's Day!!!

Women's Day last year was awesome as well!

The Number One Complaint

Every morning, I walk out of my apartment building and the first thing I do (if it's not too dark) is check the visibility. Most mornings, it's low meaning that I am about to begin my two-mile walk to school breathing toxic air and I usually mumble a few grumblings.
I now have two options:
1. I can just suck it up - literally, hoping that it doesn't affect my asthma or give me a sore throat before I get to school.

This was taken last winter -
I didn't even bother to
wear make up that day.
Just about everywhere
you see white is frost -
made from moisture from my breath -
it goes everywhere.

2. Wear my mask. The obvious choice is a mask right? But I hate wearing it because I can't walk too fast with it as I'm breathing in most of my carbon dioxide unless I'm breathing normally. It's also messy - the moisture from my breath collects in the mask so by the time I reach school, my makeup around my nose and mouth is gone, my face is wet under the mask, and everywhere that my breath escaped from the mask is frosty, including my eyelashes/mascara. This means that by the time I reach school, my makeup is ruined, my face is either wet or frozen, my skin will break out eventually, and my mask is soaked with spit and snot and makeup.
I'm not exaggerating but am writing this to be a little humorous because in the end, it's a small price to pay to make sure that most of the toxins in the air aren't reaching my lungs.

To give you more of an idea about what it's like here, read this article Life in a Toxic City. It's a little long but the first several paragraphs are interesting I think.

Every now and then, I'll ask my students what they would change about Ulan Bator and almost always, the first thing they say is the pollution. Hopefully, they will continue the work that is being done and eventually, UB won't be one of the most polluted cities on Earth.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!

Today is Christmas day and I would be lying if I said that I haven't had a few moments these past two days where I felt a little blue not being with my family. As usual though, so many things have been wonderful.
Here is a bit on how amazing my day has been!!

• It snowed yesterday - almost all day so I woke up to a white Christmas! This is special because usually this time of year it is way too cold to snow. That's right - TOO COLD to snow. It's been a "warm" winter and therefore, snow was a blessing.
• For a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas, there are tons of Christmas decorations everywhere - Christmas trees (called New Year trees here) are all over the city complete with a star on top!
• Melba and I gave our fellow teachers little Christmas gift bags which was fun to do!!
• I've been teaching my students what Christmas is about!

I gave my students the Christmas story cut up and rearranged.
They had to try to put it in order and then answer some reading comprehension questions.

They asked what a manger was. This was my answer.

• I got to give my students little Christmas gifts - mostly things you would find in a stocking - SO FUN!!

Here is one of my 10th grade classes opening their gifts.

•  All of the students sang a few Christmas songs just for Melba and I!

This is the common room - the students decorated it to look like a living room.
And did a pretty darn good job!!!
They were singing along with the karaoke on the TV.

Students singing! 



More students singing! Notice the big snowman.

•  After singing, they presented Melba and I with Christmas gifts and notes of appreciation!

I've felt very appreciated here and wouldn't trade the opportunity to tell my students all about my favorite holiday for anything.

Except maybe this face...

My nephew!

Merry Christmas and thank you to all of you who make it possible for me to be here!!! I appreciate your support, both financial and otherwise, 

TREMENDOUSLY!!!!!!

Bah Humbug already!

Today is Thanksgiving but I walked into the teacher room at school with a dark cloud circling above my head. I have plenty of reasons why.
Ahem.
I didn't wake up with my family close by, no plans to have a Thanksgiving feast or family games, no plans to go see a fun movie or play with my nephew. My apartment building had it's power turned off due to construction but forgot to turn mine back on yesterday so I woke up without power, my poor electronic devices running on fumes, the food in my fridge melting and going bad (I opened the window to the negative temps to help keep my food cool but it only let in tons of smoky, polluted air), couldn't see to put on my make-up, spilled coffee on my off-white CASHMERE scarf and my SUEDE skirt (which is fortunately brown) and on top of all that, I saw a dead dog and another limping with one of it's hind feet missing. Totally breaks my heart.

I actually feed strays treats/dog food when they'll let me. Yes, I'm THAT person.

It's definitely one of those mornings when I ask myself, "Wait, why am i here again?" But when I walked into the teacher room, I was greeted with "Happy Thanksgiving!" from my fellow Mongolian teachers. This wasn't expected because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. Then one of my students stopped me and said, "Happy Thanksgiving, Teacher! Thank you for being such a great teacher!" and melted my heart again.

Undeserved Grace. That's what I'm living in and who am I to not revel in it day to day.

My friend, Andrea, took this of me (I'm in the middle)
just being quiet and enjoying His beauty. Wish we could live this way!!!

SO, here is a list of things that have happened to me over the past 24 hours:

• I woke up in Mongolia - here for a purpose that is far greater than I will ever know.
• I spent last night drinking a semi cold Dr. Pepper, in a bubble bath, candle light, in total silence, not worrying about emails/social media/etc.
• Nothing in my fridge is irreplaceable
• Neither is my scarf or skirt
• I've been here for 21 months and this week was the first time I saw a dead dog - pretty incredible actually!!
• I rarely have problems with power, internet, water or heat - AWESOME!!!!!
• I'm surrounded by friends and family who wished me a Happy Thanksgiving
• I just got word that my power has been turned back on

Team Mongolia
A.K.A. My  family in Mongolia
A.K.A. A bunch of nerds living in Mongolia...

I love being a teacher…but not really.

To be honest, being a teacher was the one thing I knew I didn't want to be. I'm a teacher today because I felt guided to be one. But in reality, I don't like it…
yet.

I like my students - in fact, some of them I just want to pick up and say "YOU ARE ADORABLE!!!" Others, I just want to pick up and throw out of the windows - the only thing that's stopping me is that they are 15 year old boys and so unless they threw themselves out, it wouldn't work ;)



I hate lesson planning and all the paperwork that is involved. I hate being a meanie when there are discipline issues. I hate failing students that I know are really trying.



So I won't just be pooping on being a teacher, I'll share some of the things I love. I love when students do well and they are excited about it. I love when everyone is paying attention and trying. I love when they get it right when I was expecting them to get it wrong. Those things make it seem like I'm not wasting their time or my time!

I found this article entitled
"The Hardest Job Everyone Thinks They Can Do" (warning, there is a teensy bit of language)
and gave myself some slack. And thanked Him for all the teachers I've had.
And for letting me be a teacher.

I've Got Skills! No, I've Got A Skill!

Ever since I learned that I couldn't hit a baseball, even when it was placed on a cone in front of me in T-Ball, I've known athletics was not going to play a big part in my life. Totally fine with this except people seem to think that I should be able to play SOMETHING at least. For example, last year around this time, my fellow Mongolian teachers insisted I play volleyball on their team against a rival school. I soon proved that I was not a liar and indeed, have absolutely NO TALENT at hitting a volleyball anywhere but out of bounds. They quickly replaced me with another teacher before anymore points were lost.

A couple of weekends ago, we took all our students to the countryside to watch them compete in tons of different sports. They have the teachers compete here and there against each other as well. So, here come the questions:
Do you play soccer? No.
Do you run? Heck no.
Do you play tug of war? N- oh, well, yeah, I can do that...
So, I got at the back of the rope and wrapped it around my hips as my students suggested and pulled. My hips finally proved helpful at something other than taking up too much room and my team won! Finally, something I can do that would qualify as a sport!!! ;)

Other than that, I spent most of the day watching our students compete and I couldn't be more proud of them! They all worked together beautifully, cheered each other on, and ran their tails off. Relay races, sprints, long jumps, soccer, and of course, wrestling just to name some highlights. Here are a few pictures - most taken by a fellow teacher Boggee who is much more talented at pics than me :)

One of our buses broke down so we took pictures of course.
"MT" are our school's initials.

Mugi and I have lunch almost everyday together.

Some of my 11th grade girls - so cute.

I don't know how they are able to drink a whole
2-liter and still be toothpicks!

Girls races.

They love soccer.

Lady teacher tug of war! My teammate Melba is in purple.

My athletic skill! I'm in the back, winning with my hip power.

Wrestling is the favorite of Mongolia.

I got to help hand out medals. Billy won about 7 that day.
And was hurting on Monday...

Everyone together!