Well here are the long awaited first pictures of Mongolia. So far I've only got a few of them, but I'll add more as time goes on. The first few might be a little "blah"...but I hope you find them interesting at least!
This is the view of the Pacific I had flying out of Korea at sunset. That's not sky...that's water and cloud shadows! So beautiful!
Me on the airplane to UB (Ulaanbaatar). I was SO tired...and needed a shower badly!
This is a view of UB from a friend's apartment. Notice the crane: there's a ton of construction projects all over the place! Also...the haze in the sky...that's the unfortunate and constant smog. Boo.
The city is surrounded by mountains! They have pine trees on them, but you can't tell from here.
More city and mountains.
Notice the smoke stacks...this is why there is so much smog.
This is a little park just below my friend's apartment...and this is almost as green as it gets!
My room...sorry it's messy. :)
Also my room and "closet". The door has windows, but you can't see through the glass because it is textured...so there's still privacy, but it lets the bathroom light in every morning to wake me up.
This is the view outside my window. Beautiful eh? ;) Haha!
But if I crane my neck, I can see a tree and some sky. Yay nature!
If I crane my neck in the other direction...just more apartments though. Sigh.
This is our bathroom. Other than not drinking the water and putting toilet paper in the trash can it's perfect! The water pressure in the shower could blast paint off a house!
This is our super cute little washing machine...
...and the super cute little Mongolian washing machine cartoon dude! He's very patriotic.
Our living room...also messy. Perhaps I should have cleaned before taking all these pictures...
The other side of our living room and covered porch thing.
Our tinted-window covered porch. With clothes line and a giant box in it. Not sure why the windows are tinted...???
The view from our porch. There is a cute little park and....more apartments. Surprised? Me neither. :)
But to the right, there's more modern looking apartments. The standard rectangular concrete ones like mine are much older.
Aaaaaaaand....if you look closely there's the mountains!!!!! Yay nature again! I miss the Rockies....
Our kitchen. It's actually pretty nice.
Our tiny stove and oven that has to be plugged in each time we use it!
This window in the kitchen looks like all the windows in the apartment.
Depending on the how the handle is turned you can tilt the window open...
...or open it like a little door. I think it's really cool!
This is a hotel and bar. I thought the signs were really funny. So I took a picture of them. (C-Note, this one's for you!) :)
One of my friends and I. :) She made me really yummy lunch one day.
This is some of our American team here in the city.
This is my good friend and I at the small animal clinic and a super cute puppy I wanted to take home. :)
More of my friends in the clinic...and the super cute puppy again. We even got him to chase a ball for us!
Enerekh "Caring" Small Animal Clinic. The surgical suite is in the back...
My good friend and I on our way to Arkhangai provice for my first countryside trip.
Two of my friends and team mates...also in the back seat of the old Russian truck. We were literally hip-to-hip!
Me and a countryside family. Aruntuya (the wife) is a strong Christian and her husband became a Christian while we were in town! Amen!
This is how we (and everyone else in the countryside) cooks, heats water, and stays warm. (This is our little "cabin" by the way. Two beds, no indoor plumbing and lots of fun! It was great.) :)
Here I am teaching "Jingle Bells" to some high school seniors in a rural town.
A typical countryside classroom.
Encouraging good character in high school seniors.
Writing cards of encouragement to the high school seniors.
Sharing Jesus' love and story with herders in a ger. Then we gave them the Bible to keep.
Me, and 3 generations of herder women. Both the grandmother and mother are widows. The young mother's in laws blame her for her husband's death and she lives in fear. I was able to share what Jesus has done in my life with them. If you follow Jesus...would you mind praying for this family?
Lavender mountains and golden fields...so beautiful!
Bringing in the sheep and goats at the end of the day...
My older sister in Christ from Sitserlig! I will indeed see her again!
A typical countryside ger...
Upon entering a family's ger you will inevitably be served milk tea and hard yogurt curds...
Gers are beautifully painted on the inside in this style. It reminds me of Scandinavian rosemaling!
Horse racing medals (they are put across the muzzle).
More painting in a ger...
My teammates! :)
The mountains outside of Jargalant reminded me of Colorado...
A Buddhist shrine outside the "Welcome to Jargalant" sign.
The ger I lived in while we were in Jargalant! It was like home after only 4 days!
The mountains outside of Jargalant as the sun was setting...
Here is my one and only outhouse picture. For 13 days folks...!
"MAH!" (Meat. And what we had at least once a day!) Just boil it, cut it up, and eat!
The inside of our ger...
More painted furniture. It's always orange with this kind of painting.
In the ger, looking from the front door to the back...
My teammate and I with the girl I was able to share Jesus's love with...through country music songs of all things!
YAKS!!!! I LOVE yaks! :) He's so shaggy and cute!
Me and the random yaks in the streets of Jargalant. :)
The marriage seminar for couples...
They served each other tea and washed each other's hands saying "These hands are hands that have built our home and worked hard for our family."
Me and the Buddhist lama and his Christian wife - who were also our hosts in Jargalant. (Our ger is on their property). The woman is also hand making me a del! They are so kind! (Also this is our hard core Russian truck we rode in for 13 days.)
Sharing Jesus;'s love and story with a herder's wife...
My teammate and the happy couple now that both have decided to follow Jesus!
This is for Sarah. :) Here is your Mongolian horse. Smaller, stockier, fuzzier.
This made me laugh. "Feliz Navidad" all the way in Mongolia! Haha!
A herd of yaks! Yay!
Another very cute yak (this time with dangerous looking horns...)
I can't really convey how open the land is and how remote the countryside is, but this picture is trying to capture that...
Me. In the middle of the beautiful countryside!
Um me again. This time with rocks.
Me and my older sister, teammate, and friend. :) (It helps that we are the same height too!)
This is how my Mongolian wrestling career started and ended!
More wrestling and snow fun!
One of these things is not like the other... Haha!
My team just hanging out...
