Winter Part Two: Ulaanbaator Edition

If you were ever wondering how you could make negative temperatures feel warm, I am here to tell you.  Just travel somewhere even colder and then go back to the still negative, however slightly warmer place, and you will find yourself sweating.  UB is quite a bit colder than Bayankhongor.  I recently was in the capitol for a week and came back to BX to find myself wanting to walk around without a coat in the negatives.  Anyway, these are just some observations about the winter in UB.

The Mongol shuffle

The sidewalks are iced over in UB.  There is no sidewalk shoveling really in Mongolia.  It is very easy to slip and slide, so you have to watch your step. Really, taking steps is dangerous, so all the Mongolians just shuffle along without actually picking up their feet. It was pretty adorable however to watch parents shuffling about while joyfully dragging their children along the ice next to them.  Older adults also take part in the sidewalk fun, building up with some fast shuffles which leads into a long ice glide, or by holding tight to their friends so that they can slide with every step.  As for me, I just tried not to fall too much.

The smog.

Fun Fact: UB is the most polluted city in the world.  It is very smoggy, and most always the weather forecast just says ‘smoke.’  You can feel it right away when you step outside, and you will cough when you do.  I have never smoked, but I can only imagine that breathing in the smog is like smoking a pack of cigarettes. You can literally taste it, and the smell gets into your clothes.  I often found myself wondering when I was indoors, who I had been around that had been smoking, when the truth is, the smell is just from the pollution.

not so gross graffiti

Sidewalk graffiti

I have heard a rumor that it is a little rude to blow your nose in public here in Mongolia.  I do not know if this is true or not, but I can say that I haven’t ever seen a Mongolian blow their nose.  What I have seen is that Mongolians really love to snot rocket- just holding one nostril and shooting snot out onto the ground.  So everywhere you walked the sidewalk is full of frozen snot rockets and spit.  Also, other notable sidewalk graffiti include, frozen vomit.

The negatives

When it is super cold, you don’t really feel the cold…you just feel pain.

Frozen eyelashes

I have never experienced frozen eyelashes before, but if you are out in these -30 degree temps long enough, it happens.  It just feels like your eyes are really moist…and then when you are in someplace warm, the ice on your lashes just melts and drips down your face.  Eye-wear in such cold temperatures is also quite difficult. You will most likely be wearing a scarf or something over your mouth and nose because it is so cold. The difficult part is that when you breathe, the warm air that leaves your body is funneled directly up to your glasses because of the scarf.  When this happens, your glasses fog up, and within a few seconds time, that fog turns into ice on your lenses.  Most of the time, I find myself walking around with my glasses in my pocket. But, with all the smog in the capitol, you can’t see more than a few feet in front of you, so really, who needs glasses anyway!

Sidewalk salesmen

People stand on the sidewalks, and open up a little store just by laying out items like tea, candy, or socks on a small table or box.  The amazing thing is that they still do this in the dead of winter when it is beyond freezing out.  Their feet are wrapped in many blankets until they look like a giant’s feet. 

Warmth

I stayed at a hostel during my time in the capitol, aka I stayed someplace that there was heat…on the inside!  Usually at night in my ger, I bundle up in my blankets, but in this hostel I found myself sleeping without a blanket at all!  It was actually so incredibly hot, that I and the other hostel guests (2 other ger dwellers) slept with the window open just to keep it at a normal temperature.  Normally in my ger, I find myself waking up quite early so that I can make a fire, but with such warmth in the hostel, I found myself sleeping into the late morning just because I could! Luxury.

plane view on the way to UB

Winter. Part one, Bayankhongor edition

So here are just a couple tales of the cold that I have experienced since moving to site...Mongolia has been having sort of an abnormal winter, so even though I am cold from just seeing negative temperatures, it is way warmer than it has been in years past (or so everyone tells me).  I am slowly adjusting. 

Winter is coming here.

It's already freezing here in Mongolia.  Literally.  below freezing temps. In celebration, some of my fellow english teachers came over to my ger one Friday afternoon to winterize it.  In typical Mongol fashion, they were two hours late, but when they arrived, they were at work!  My ger was stripped of its outer canvas cover, exposing the felt underneath, and an additional small section was added.  My ger flap on top was re-sewn, and some other various parts of the canvas part were sown as well.  Inside of my ger there was arol being passed around, and some sort of food being made. Also a person was hoisted to on top of me ger, to measure glass, and again later to install glass windows! After they left, you could still see through the bottom of the ger, but then about a week later, some students came to push sand up around the bottom of my ger in order to stop that wind flow!  My ger may be prepared, but I'm not.

re-canvasing

getting some windows!

you know it is a traditional mongolian dish because you can see all the meat and fat in it!

cooking

Ping!

I finally have a ping!  What is a ping you ask? If you ask me, it is just one more thing for me to hit my head on! but more accurately it is also a little wood entrance way to my ger that keeps the wind from blowing directly on my door.  I can also store my chopped wood in it.  It is pretty handy.  The entrance to my ping (on the left) is on the opposite side of how i would normally exit my ger when there was no ping attached (to the right).  My ping also, is black on the inside.  Let's just say when they first put up my ping, I forgot about it, and when going outside to go to the bathroom the first evening, I did not see the black wall in the darkness, and just walked straight into the wall. oops.  Since this incident, my school has now painted my ping bright yellow.

yellow

Warmed socks.

So in the states, I would sometimes put my socks in the oven in the morning to warm them up before I put them on my feet.  It's reasonable!  Well, here in my ger, so conveniently I have a fire stove in the middle.  It was still pretty cold in my ger because I had just lit a fire, and so I decided to warm my socks up a little before i put them on.  So i laid them on the top of my stove for just a brief moment. I put one on my foot and it was wonderfully warm, however, that brief moment that it took me to put one sock on was enough time for the other sock to catch on fire... it melted onto my stove, and the nylon sock residue that remains is just a reminder of my failures.

not wanting to take off one already warmed sock, I just wore two different socks that day.

Sure, this was a funny moment, but the thing that is not funny- is that it happened again...I learned my lesson, and have not just laid my socks on my stove again, but sometimes, when the fire is just getting going, i will put my feet on the stove door so they can be warm.  Well on the morning of the second incident, I did just that, but I guess it was a little hotter than I anticipated, and my sock started to melt while it was still on my foot.  Yes, it hurt just enough for me to never want to put my socks or my feet anywhere near my ger stove again.  

It's cold.

On Fridays I teach at the business college in BX...which is about a 20 minute walk away from my school.  This particular day that I went was freezing!!! And it was my first encounter with the real bitter Mongolian weather.  As I was walking back, I almost cried twice from the cold, because all I could think was that it was so cold, but this wasn't even 'cold' yet.  When I arrived at school, I was a few minutes late, and my cold flustered look was frozen on my face.  I was certain that I had no fingers, and that my face was never going to thaw out.  I was ushered right away into a classroom full of students who were laughing along with the teachers at my frazzled frozen state. 

Winter Outhouses 

The outhouse in my yard has no door on it.  It's not really a big deal because it faces a fence so you still have some privacy.  Having to use the outhouse in frigid temps is easily not one of my favorite things to do, but I have to admit, it's not as terrible as I imagined it being. You're in, you're out, there is no messing around.  Well, when visiting my sitemates ger one fine frosty day, I visited their super deluxe outhouse (complete with door)...and all i really have to say about my experience, is you would be so surprised at how much of a difference that outhouse door makes!

Water time.

In the summertime, I was a little confused on how wells would operate in the wintertime...I knew the water wouldn't freeze given its depth in the earth, but for wells with motorized pumps, for some reason, I figured they wouldn't work or something.  But the wells are still in operation, no problem.  

Other things that I have found out about getting water in the wintertime, include that fetching water when the ground is snowy or ice covered is a little difficult.  My well is about a 5 minute walk from my ger, with an uphill incline both on the way to the well and one on the way back to my ger.  It is easy to slip, and when trying to push a cart of heavy water, it's even easier to slip and gain no forward momentum.  It's a chore.

Other notes on my winter water well:  There is lots of water that gets on the ground near the well.  in the summer time, the ground is just always wet, but in the winter time, it's all ice! Sometimes when getting water you have to wait, because there are other Mongolians also getting water and who are better at cutting in line and pushing their way to the front than you are.  So while I am so patiently waiting, I am standing on this water that has spilled and frozen around the well.    Well, when I am not paying close attention to how long I have been standing in one spot and not moving, my boots become magically fused to the ice.  Usually I don't notice that I have become stuck to the ground until it is time to get closer to the well, because someone else has finished filling up their containers.  Let's just say that in the time it takes me to get unstuck from my current standing and waiting position, there is enough time for at least one or two Mongolians to butt in front of me in line again.  Rookie mistakes. 

Winter hats.

Its true, I love winter hats...besides the snow, winter hats are the best thing about winter.  Normally, I constantly wear my winter hat once it becomes appropriate.  So pretty much since I have arrived here in BX, I have found it appropriately cold enough to always be wearing my winter hat.  Mongolians find this very strange, and give me the weirdest looks when they see me wearing  one.  They do not find it appropriate.  In fact, they still eat ice cream and popsicles outside as I walk past them in my winter wear.  There is something wrong with this picture.

To note, since it has become more winter now sometimes I even wear two or three winter hats, which is about two or three times more fun than one winter hat!

Snow!

So in the roof of my ger, there is this gap...where the metal sheet that holds my stove pipe does not meet the wood frame.  I have asked plenty of Mongolians if this is ok, and they assure me that it is.  It's fun though, because when it snows, it doesn't just snow outside, but it snows in my ger too!! I usually know when it snows because snowflakes are sizzling to nothingness on my warm ger stove.

A hike to a mountain.

On a bright and semi warm New Year’s Day, I took a hike with one of my counterparts with the intentions of climbing a mountain.  We set off to some nearby peaks outside of the ger district, but then decided to venture out for a longer hike to a peak further away. It was a pleasant enough outing, but the mountain was further away than we originally anticipated.  We set out maybe around 3:30 in the afternoon, but didn’t actually reach the mountain until sunset.  There was a pretty strong wind blowing against us, so that is probably why it took us so long to get there, not to mention that wind made it rather cold.  So we quickly climbed the mountain with the setting sun in our eyes and saw the sunset from atop the summit. It was a beautiful way to start the New Year and I whispered all my wishes into the wild wind.  Since the sun was finished we didn’t stay long before we started the long hike back.  The cold wind was at our backs helping to hurry us home. 

I was pretty much frozen when I got back to my ger, but the interesting winter part of the story deals with my coat that I was wearing.  It has a waterproof/windproof outer shell to keep out such elements, but with our fast ascent up the mountain I was sweating on the inside of my jacket…which led me to realize that my winter jacket’s waterproof outer shell also does not let any moisture escape!  So when I arrived back in my ger after the couple hour hike back in the cold, I took off my coat only to find a sheet of ice inside my jacket.  Ha. Gross.

hiking i will go...

Whats that? Ape is still alive?

Ok, ok.  So I realize I have not been the best at keeping this blog quite up to date. I do have a bunch of old tales to catch you up on, but for now, please enjoy a small story about a hike I took back before winter maybe 3ish months ago...

A weekend hike

One Mongolian afternoon, I was sitting around school, and one of the math teachers came up to me and asked me if i liked walking.  I said “of course,” which translated into, yes of course I want on a 10 mile hike/ game competition thing that you havent told me about yet.  So I was told to pack warm clothes and my sleeping bag and meet at the town square.  When I set off to do so with my pack upon my back, I was picked up by some fellow school hikers along the way in a car.  They stopped at school to pick up a first aid kit and a flag, and I began to realize that I had no clue what was really happening, but it was something more then just a hike.  I rolled with it however, and when finally making it to the town square an hour and a half after the ‘meeting time,’ there were multiple groups all gathered in matching uniforms to take this ‘hike.’  Once out of the automobile and gathered with the rest of the teachers from my school, I was handed a black and yellow jacket, and told to go line up in front of the government house.  Pretty soon we were all instructed into a line, and began marching around the square three times.  The square is rather large giving me plenty of time to laugh in confusion as I followed the person in front of me.  After out three laps of respect, we set out to the main drag of BX, hiking along the sidewalk.  People were taking photos and video taping, and I was still a bit clueless as to what I was actually getting myself into.  Only one person in our group spoke a little english, but not enough to fully tell me what was happening, but I learned that there were to be competitions later in the day.  So we hiked out of town and farther in a line of two by two taking many breaks along the way.  I learned some small Mongolian field games, like “guess how many rocks are in my hand.” And I also learned that I really do not favor walking in any sort of distinguished line. Also given that I packed a snack of some raw carrots to share and tried to jump off every rock we walked past, my favorite quote from Mongolia thus far arose, “April like jump, April like carrot, April like rabbit.” 

About 10 miles later, we reached a nice bank of the river and we were done with our hike. I we had to empty our packs, and from what I guess, we were judged on the contents. All very unclear.  After we set up camp.  My team brought a 2 person tent that was meant for our ten person team.  The day proceeded on with competitions including a team sprint up the side of a mountain, some orienteering (that our team failed to complete), an obstacle course, tug of war, and a few others.  All the directions were in Mongolian, so mainly I pretended like I understood, but just tried to follow my teammates the best I could without looking too much like a fool.  Between competitions we cooked meals (meat of course) with an open flame stove in the middle of our tent, and drank water straight from the river.  The night of course was absolutely freezing, and it was easily one of the top three coldest moments in my life.  Much like the overpopulated car situations here, all ten of us squeezed like sardines into the two person tent, sharing the space (of course) with a sheep carcass that we were feasting on. Since I was the weak foreigner, I got the prime spot in the middle of the tent surrounded by body warmth.  I don’t think I actually slept more than about 30 minutes the entire night because it was so cold.  I remember waking up once, and honestly believing that I froze to death.  It took me a few minutes to regain my bearings.  In the morning time, there were more competitions, and later, by the afternoon someone had come to pick us up to drive us back to BX.  All in all, even though it was a weekend of cold and confusion, at least it was certainly an adventure.

it was so cold.

there are rocks in these hands.  I guess 6 rocks.

what's for dinner? MEAT.

waiting for some competitions