End Of Year Parties & Christmas Day

Over the past two weeks it has been a busy time for social events here in Mongolia.

Mongolian people don't traditionally celebrate Christmas instead they celebrate New Years and with the company Ben works for, each department has an end of year celebration. Each party seems to start off really slow and once the traditional speeches are given and the vodka starts flowing then the Mongolians let their hair down.

Admin Party - 15th Dec

After attending the Engineering Party which was a bit quite, Ben and I decided to crash the admin party, as we knew some expats that where going to be still partying on. The party was in full swing when we arrived and it was nice to see that the van drivers who I know having a great time. I was amazed at how many employees make up the admin part of the company, it would be interesting to know what they all did. I found it also interesting that one of the managers was presented with a roasted baby pig, I still don't know why this is done but seems this presentation is quite common.

Picture: Dave & Ben at admin party

Picture: Bernadette & Tracy at admin party

Geology Party - 21st Dec

What a great night this departments end of year party was. As usual with any Mongolian function it started off quite and turned out to be a very big night. It must of been the red wine and all the vodka drunk. A part of the celebrations is when there where a number of party games played that we took part in. Another part of the celebrations was when "Winter Grandfather" appeared. He is kind of like what we know as Santa Clause. What I could remember of the night, everyone had a great time and I am sure I wasn't the only person to end up with a sore head the next day.

Picture: Geology Department Employees with their partners & Winter Grandfather

Picture: Ben, Winter Grandfather & Jok

Picture: Some Geology Team Members & Bernadette

Christmas Day - 25th Dec

Well we didn't get the white Christmas that we wanted but we sure did have a great day. Our morning started off with a wake up phone call from my sister, Narrelle and with Paige running into our room saying "Santa's been, come and see". Santa had left a mini Ger for Paige but what he didn't do was leave instructions on how to put it up. (I had seen the mini Ger put up a couple of months ago and had taken photos but it was a bit harder to construct to what I remember). In the end Ben and I didn't give up and finally we where able to say it was worth the trouble seeing Paige playing house.

In the afternoon we headed to the Nicoletto's for Christmas dinner. With a number of expats in town, Pam and Wayne opened up their home to us all. One of the traditions on the day is everyone brings a present for a Secret Santa gift which has a bit of a spin to it.

The spin to this gift exchange is each person picks a number, then the person who has the lowest number starts and chooses the first gift from under the tree. If someone likes a gift that has already been chosen they are allowed to steal the gift from the person. As the game progresses, gifts seem to be going backwards and forwards between everyone. This game was really fun and everyone at the ends gets to take a gift home. During the afternoon we also had a special guest drop in. Santa Clause came and gave the children a gift and he even sang Happy Birthday to me for the day before.

We are truly lucky to have been able to spend our Christmas here in Mongolia with friends who all enjoyed some great food, drink and laughs together for 2007.

Picture: Paige standing next to her mini Ger

Picture: Bernadette & Paige playing in the mini Ger

Picture: Tracy, Andrea & Bernadette at Christmas dinner

Picture: Ben, Ian & Dave at Christmas dinner

Picture: Santa arrives and gives Paige a Christmas gift who was very shy

Picture: Santa gives Bernadette a birthday cake for yesterdays birthday

Fresh Air Anyone

There are many different things that you seem to miss out on here with day to day living in Ulaanbaatar, one is clean fresh air. Since the temperatures have been below zero for quite sometime the need for heating has increased in the city.

The main way that the apartments are heated is by water that is heated at the coal powered stations is pumped to each apartment block and the water then heats each system installed in each apartment.

Since Mongolia is a developing country the less well off families who live in Gers and wooden houses don't have the same heating systems as the apartments so the families burn what they can in their stoves and firer places. The fuel burned is usually coal, wood and anything else that will produce heat, like old tyres and rubbish. As you can imagine fresh air in the city doesn't really exist and relying on the wind to blow the pollution away never really happens.

We try to keep indoors as much as possible due to the cold and the pollution at this time of year but there are times the four walls of the apartment seem to move in on us and we vary the amount of time spent out doors.

For interest, ground air pollution in UB in winter can be up to 12 times the W.H.O. minimum acceptable standards in winter.

Picture: View from one of the bedrooms of pollution in the air

Pictures Above: View from lounge room window of pollution in the air

Picture: This is what settles on the outside balcony, dust, dirt and pollution after two days

Christmas Around UB

Being overseas around Christmas time you never know if the spirit of the season will be around. It has only been in the last two weeks Santa's helpers have been spreading their magic. Paige is getting very excited seeing all these decorations popping up. I was a bit worried that we wouldn't find our own Christmas tree but I was wrong. Here in Mongolia, Christmas things don't come into the shops until the first week in December. New Years is the big day the Mongolians celebrate as I have found out they still like to add Christmas decorations around town. This year we will be joining some friends for a late Christmas lunch at on of the ladies homes. To me if you cant be with family on Christmas Day then its a time to spend with your friends.

We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas & a safe and Happy New Year from Ben, Paige & Bernadette (the crazy family living in Mongolia)

Miss Independence

"Miss Independence!" I remember a friend calling me once. Why don't you ask someone to give you a hand? My answer was "Because I can do it myself".
Here in Mongolia what choice do I have?

Over the last two weeks I have found that being "Miss Independence" is sure wearing a bit thin. As most people know that we have our own car here and that I drive here and found it has been really good up until the last two weeks. The added hassles that comes with being independent is sure is in question at the moment.

Picture this;

You wake up in the morning, you hit the remote heater for the car as you know the car wont start without using it, due to the -25 degrees out side. You get dressed and after about 30 minutes of the heater running in the car, you go down stairs to see if the car will start.

If it does then you have had a win, if it doesn't you have to try and get your car jump started or call for a van and hope they haven't done the school run already because there is no other way Paige can get to school.

So after the car has started you leave the car running with the spare key and lock the doors, go up stairs and get Paige ready for school. The morning is still dark at 8.45am so with the car still there and hasn't been stolen, toasty warm you drive Paige to school wondering if this is the time some Mongolian is going to run into you?.

You arrive at school, you leave the car running and locked to keep it warm and to get some extra charge into the battery. You then drive home to get ready for the things you have planned for the day. You reach your apartment block, jump out of the warm car and hear hisssssssssss, "crap the tyre is going down" so now your day really starts to get interesting.

It's -23 degrees outside, you start to change the tyre, the cold starts to set in and you cant work with your gloves on and take them off to find in five minutes your hands are freezing so you have to stop and warm them up.

You put the spare tyre on and find that it is a bit flat and you don't want to drive on it just in case you get another flat and then your stuffed. You call for dispatch to arrange a van to come and get you so you can get the tyre fixed but they cant come when you want them to so you have to wait.

Once you have been picked by the van , you have to go and stand in line to have the tyre fixed as there are so many other drivers having a great day to. You now head back to your apartment to change the tyre back over going through the same process of cold hands.

You then need to find a petrol station to blow up the spare tyre but realise that not all petrol stations here have the facility to blow up tyres so you have to try and find one that does. After being able to blow up the spare tyre you head home for a well deserved strong cup of coffee, sitting there pondering what will tomorrow bring.

Welcome to a day in my life living in Mongolia and being Miss Independence

In two weeks I have had two flat tyres, I suppose next week will be number three.

Back In Mongolia

Well what a shock to the system it has been getting back to Mongolia from our trip to Australia. Mongolia sure does tests you, the cold, the lack of colour and how the little things seem to chip away at your energy levels. Most people say it takes a bit of time to get back into the swing of things here once you been away for a while. Both Paige and I did bring colds back with us that we have found hard to shake.

It has been a while since I did a blog as for those that don't know we had a break back in Australia. I found there wasn't enough time to see all my friends but I did try my best to catch up with most. I will be adding some snap shots on the blog once I finish getting them loaded up on the bog, it can take some time to do, so stay turned.

Paige fitted back into her preschool really good she was so excited to see her teachers and friends. Last Monday the two preschool classes went out to visit a plane which one of the company's has here. Turns out one of the pre-shool children's father works for the company and had arranged for the children to come and visit.

Photo: Pre-school classes - Paige is on the far left wearing green

There is only another week to go before Paige is on her school break so she is very excited that Santa will be coming soon. I am hoping for a white Christmas but at the moment the weather here is far too cold for snow -23, there is a bit of snow around but nothing that Paige could make a snow man out of. Fingers crossed it will snow.

January marks our fist twelve months here so at times I wonder where the time has gone but when one of those trying days happens I think "how am I going to make a another twelve months?" only time will tell. Well I hope my next blog installment will be a bit more up beat on life here in Mongolia.

Australian Visit Snap Shots

Here are some snap shots of friends and family form our Australia trip. This blog I think will be a work in progress as it takes so long to load the photos on and I will keep adding photos over the next week or so. It was great catching up with the people we did and sorry we missed out on catching up with others. The trip back Australia was wonderful it was nice to experience normal life again and to eat yummy food and just be back in our home land. I thought it might be nice to put some pictures on the blog of some snap shots I took which I am sure will come in handy when I am feeling a bit home sick. I hope everyone enjoys looking through the shots.