Muslim District

音乐

You can really tell you are immersed in a culture when you start loving/appreciating the music more. So, if you are looking to expand your musical horizons with some fun Chinese or Mongolian tunes, here are my suggestions from a list of songs I am enjoying a lot recently.

My favorite artists:

哈琳 (Halin) A singer from our province, she and I share the same Mongolian name and she has a cd of beautiful Mongolian music that I love!

Here is a video of her duet, “吻你”(Kiss You).



No suprise, of course, is Jay Chou. He is the Asian Michael Jackson. Hailing from Taiwan, he's released countless songs, and composes the music himself...he's pretty legit. Leslie and I are going to his concert in a few weeks, and we are pretty pumped (and also intending to play the foreigner card as much as possible for the chance at a seat upgrade/meeting with him...haha). FYI: Some of his videos are a little sketchy....











There are a lot more options, but those are some of the current faves.

We are also very much enjoying the Chinese version of the World Cup Theme Song by K'naan.


A group of Mongolians also made a version combining the best languages (heh) and it is pretty great. :-)


So there you go, a few suggestions of fun songs to brighten your day/life. :-)

Chinglish

While it is really impossible to top my previous post in terms of humor, a little something we like to call Chinglish is definitely one of the sweet providers of laughter in life here.

A Romance on the Plains with Michael Jackson

I bet you are wondering about the title of this post, eh? Well, it's a long story, but a good one.

I have recently returned from an eventful trip to the grasslands to see the Nadaam festival (think Mongolian Olympics), courtesy of a very generous, sweet friend.

It started with my 2nd ever train ride. We took an overnight ride from our city to the city we visited. We had bunks so we slept on the train. There is something to adventurous about a train ride anywhere...definitely lends to the feel of this trip...the feel of stepping back in time to the days of the Wild West (but in a different cultural context).

We arrived Wednesday morning, and were met at the train station by a young man dressed in jeans, a versace belt, plaid shirt, pointy cowboy boot-esque shoes, and aviators. Too cool for school was our first impression. We later nicknamed him Michael Jackson because he bore a resemblance to the pop start pre-ridiculous amounts of plastic surgery.

We then were met by what appeared to be his crew, who had brought several land rovers. We then proceed to drive for many miles into literally the middle of nowhere. At this point we are all praying to survive, because it seems that our driver is intent upon driving 90mph across the rough terrain.

We survive. Climb out of the car and are immediately handed traditional clothing to wear, and escorted to horses led by young men. This starts the typical scene of photographers flocking like paparazzi to stalk the foreigners, and then much shouting on the part of the young men in Mongolian, Mandarin, and a few words of English if they know any.

(one of our friends and I)

Michael Jackson has dressed in a very authentic cowboy outfit and is riding a gorgeous horse. He begins asking us how old we are, then continues by telling us how beautiful we are, etc. He rides alongside me and a friend translated that he is telling me I am "the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, and that he wishes he could talk to me, but he doesn't know any English". Oh boy.

After an amusing ride in which we attempt to convince our escorts that we can, in fact, handle some galloping, and that the horses in America are in fact much bigger than these horses, we finally come to a halt, unsuccessful in our attempts to negotiate a more exciting ride.

Then Michael Jackson rides over, gets off of his horse, and motions for me to get on it. "Yesss, I finally get to ride a good horse." I think to myself. Naive. As I am climbing into the saddle, MJ grabs my butt. As I am in a precarious position, I can't do anything, but our friend yells at him to "stop pulling tricks". I then sit in the saddle. He motions for me to take my feet out of the stirrups and let my legs dangle over the horse's neck. "Oh no.." I realize what is happening. MJ swings into the saddle behind me, grabs me across the chest, and kicks the horse into a gallop.

I will interject here that while this might have been a Hollywood type moment, galloping across the plains on a gorgeous horse with a handsome (if forward) boy's arms around me, it was not that kind of moment at all. Mongolian saddles are small, and the crest of the saddle dug into my thigh, bruising me every time the horse took a stride. OUCH. I yell at MJ that I am NOT scared, but that my leg hurts, but he thinks I am just being frightened and laughs at me.

Finally, he turns the horse around and we stop back at the group. As I am rejoicing at having survived the experience, he throws an arm around me again, leans around and gives me a huge smooch right on the lips. Which, of course, is photographed by the fifteen photographers standing around. Aiya.

(immediate aftermath of the kissing...not a flattering photo of me. MJ on the left)

Later, as we are hanging out in the yurt (Mongolian house), our host yells at MJ and won't let him sit by us. He protests, and our host whacks him. We laugh. A photographer comes in, and then scoots close to me, and shows me a photo. Yep, there in vivid imagery is what appears to be me making out with a Mongolian boy. "Do you want to buy a copy?" The photographer asks. "NO."

Our host later is mortified, and makes the photographer delete his copy, but I have no doubt that another rendition is no doubt gracing the front page of the local news...ahhh the adventures of a whitey. I love Mongolians, but had never quite encountered just how bold they can be.

(hanging out in a yurt)

Apparently on the way to dinner MJ got a talking-to, because for the rest of the evening he was the picture of perfect manners, even donning a shirt (the boys usually go shirtless) and not making eye contact with me.

We returned that evening on the sleeper bus (a great invention which I'd never seen before) with many great memories, that is for sure.

Culture Days

Ah, prepare to encounter the true heart of a person abroad on what we refer to as a "culture day". This basically means a day when the culture is especially hard to deal with. To be honest, I pride myself on being an adaptable, easy-going, culturally moldable individual, but I recently experienced a whole new array of frustrated emotions....





Long day.


Sick.


Headed out to dinner with a friend I met riding the public bus. Was really looking forward to it. She came to the wrong place. I attempted to explain where, in fact, we were supposed to meet. Due to communication difficulties, we had to reschedule dinner. Frustrated, I decide to grab a taxi and head over to a coffee shop with wireless internet.


Taxi driver takes me to the wrong one. I realize this after I have gotten out of the taxi.


Grab another taxi. While waiting in traffic, driver next to us stares at me, open-mouthed, for 10 minutes. The novelty of people staring and pointing, whispering "foreigner" everywhere you go, has definitely worn off, and I clench my jaw, close to tears.





Arrive at internet cafe. Realize I forgot an adapter to plug in, and laptop dies. Not before I read a sweet update from my mom about my puppy, which, on an ordinary day would make me smile, and today makes me cry. I pout and pray. "Why am I here? I want to be home with my family and my puppy. And I'm tired of my feet being DIRTY"





Read some of Paul's letter to the Colossians. It makes me pout more because my heart is far from where Paul's is as he rejoices in his sufferings. I haven't eaven suffered really. But I still pout.


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I have a good conversation with friends about a topic I love and the reason I'm here.


I hear some Arabic music in the street (I love Arab music) and run into a random Algerian (that doesn't really happen here).


I eat some dinner.


I remember why I'm here.


I put one foot in front of the other again


I laugh with my roomie as we try to get both of us back to our hotel on one bike.


On the way home we run into one of my students in a city of 2.5 million.


A man whose dog we stop to pet asks us where we're from, then loudly proclaims that Americans are the best people in the world. We awkwardly stammer thank you (how do you respond to that?) and get a laugh out of it.


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I have learned on days that I want to scream because there are no traffic laws whatsoever, on days when no one speaks MY language and I am consequently frustrated, that my emotions are not to be relied on. A faithful Father, and finding the humor in life, makes all the difference.

Humor, for instance, in the form of noticing that all the trees here have IVs hooked up to them because it's so dry. :-)

Sights I am looking forward to seeing...

I wanted to share a few photos of faces/sights that I am looking forward to seeing in the city. While transitions are often hard, blessings abound in the new things He is doing as well! Here are a few of the simple things in the city that He gives me joy through:

The Muslim district. I am looking forward to stalking people here (ha). Shown here are people at a mosque slaughtering sheep for an Islamic festival.

Conversations in broken language with the friendly locals. This conversation occured in a park, of which there are many in the city (though perhaps not as green as I am used to seeing!). They are great places to meet people!

Yummy cuisine. My favorite is a Korean import....Korean barbecue. Relatively healthy, and wonderfully seasoned! I don't even like meat that much, but this converts me!

Sweet friendships. I am blessed to be able to reconnect with old friends, and I am eagerly anticipating new ones that are awaiting!

Friends, I hope that in whatever season you are in, be it of transition, waiting, or joy that you find sustainment in Him. He holds all things together, He blesses with every good and perfect thing, and they are not to be found apart from Him. These are things I am speaking to myself, and I hope they are truths that you are clinging to!

A Pre-Departure Update

Hey everyone!

Leslie and I are leaving in 12 days, which is crazy, but I am getting more excited in spite of many little logistical things that need to get done.

We will be spending some time at orientation in a different city upon our arrival, before heading on to our final destination.

We also recently found out that we will have the opportunity to help teach at an English camp for university students almost immediately when we arrive, which is an exciting opportunity for us to meet some friends!

Thanks for remembering us!