This is not over!!!!!

 yes yes, not over, today we have also some rest of the ship!!!

Look at the beast!!!
This is just enormous!!
And look at the fat, here we don't pretend to do!!!!

 and some big cookie again!!!

But the most impressive is this one, how are we gonna eat that thing????

big cookie!!!

You remember the big cookie from white month holiday?? I already showed you that we are eating it now.

 And we continue. Here he is broken in small parts ….

This one is so nice. That's the one I have alag maayouor (алаг мааюур )
This has the milk smell!!!

But in order to eat it, you ned the following!!!
Yes this is tea, because this big cookie is kind of hard!!
I told you already :-)

This is a better view, I like the color and the shape!!

By the way the big cookie name is улбоов (olbov) and symbolizes Mount Sumeru or Shambhala.

this was not over!!

I told you that I was invited again!!!
Well of course I have eaten and drunk, whisky this time :-)

But I also have better pictures of the nose tabac.
So this is the bottle in stone where you have it. Inside this is a mix of some mongolian and Indian herbs.
This is normally inherited from your family. But since there is one, sometimes you buy a new one.
And the bag where you put it is hand made, look this one is so beautiful!!!

The bottle can be very expensive, because you use precious stone and gems and gold (millions of thugrik!!!).
Same thing for the spice inside.
That is why during White month the people show it and discuss about it.
This is also to show your status!
Very nice :-)

 As usual I have received some present, a beautiful scarf and some mongolian chocolates.
I have eaten so much during these days this is terrible!!!
But it was really great, also to see tradition in mongolian families!

Today we start to eat the big cookie!
This is it!
But actually this is not so soft inside, I need to eat it in my tea :-)

White month (Tsagaan Sar, Цагаан сар)

This is an holiday in Mongolia, celebrating the new year and the beginning of the spring.
So at school we have 3 days off, but not so off for me because I am invited in 5 different families!!!

Beginning: On tuesday night I went with Tseegii to some students in the dorm.
They all have this kind of traditional food: milk cake: this has a strong taste that I can not describe and some sweets
After we went to a boy student, there we had some salad and apple with mayonnaise, the traditional tea with milk. This was very nice, also to meet some students at the dorm!!

After that well the night was short!! And it was just the beginning !!!!
This is new year eve after all :-)

In the next morning many people are going to the mountain to see the first sun rise of the year. But you need to have a car to go there and it's early and very very cold! So I didn't :-)

but here you can see how it looks like, this is from the tv :-)

1st day of the year: on the next day I have been invited at 9am by Tymee and her family.

So there also there was a lot of food: candies, milk products, meat, sausages, buuz (the dumplings), dried fruits, kiwi (at the supermarket they always sell kiwi???) milk tea and vodka.
The first glass was sent to the roof in homage to the sky.
the second was also given for the gods.
After that it was for us!
I also tried the mongolian vodka, made from milk. This has not so much alcohol but the taste from fermented milk is so strong!!!

This one was difficult for me to drink!!!! Hopefully it was just one small glass.
I also tried some spices that you first smell and then put in your nose, seems to be in every family, passed from generation to generation.
Well this is strange to have them in the nose, but nice.
This is from the tv to show how it's like!!
After the family went to see the grandparents.

So in the city you see families going to their relatives: people in traditional clothes (the name is del) everywhere, very nice.

These are some examples

These are for the women

And the most beautiful of course!!!!
This is made of silk, so great!

This is the milk (in solid form) that you put in your milk tea

This is the one I have received, the smell again is very very strong!

These are the buuz, the dumpling, in these 3 days I have eaten minimum 100 of them, I am dying!!!

And when you are invited for this holiday you receive some presents.
I have received some yurt

look inside you have everything!!

this is another one, so I am starting to make my camp :-)

You see Ginghis Khan inside?
He is in every home because mongolian people respect him very much.

Of course I was offered some buuz

Some chocolates (mongolian people love chocolate), some card holder, some lady's stuff
This is great!!!!

2nd day of the new year and still an holiday!!

This time I am invited by Buya's family.

His parent were in traditional clothes to welcome me and this time I have also done the greeting.
The tradition is that the children show their respect to their parents, so they kiss each other saying amouru ben oo

So when you greet some one older you put your arm under his/her, otherwise you put other it. 

So with his parents my arms were under, after Buya and his sister and some children, they put their arms under mine!!
This was very nice.

After that well we ate and drank!! So much that I am exploding!!!

This time the mongolian vodka was hot so this is much easier to drink!

Or I am getting used to it, who knows!!

There I had vodka, red wine from Germany, some plum alcohol, milk tea and coke to digest the all thing.

I spent a great time there too.

This is the traditional cookie.
You have to have un-pair number, because 1st is for luck, then unlucky and so one.
Seems that it can go to 11 levels!

And on the top the white things are milk products and the rest is candies!!!
On the 3rd day of the year I was invited by Zenee, where I have put the traditional clothe, also great time and then in the evening by Tseegi.

Here you see more of the food.
There is some rice with raisin also.

Now this is the 4th day of the year and I am resting a bit because tomorrow I am invited again!!!!

Buya's birthday

Today was the birthday of Buya.

So he has bought a cake, maybe you can see this is written franciase, which is actually french :-)

So we met with all the teachers to have a degustation !!
This is Buya

And this  is the cake being prepared to be eaten :-)

Tymee the expert in preparation, very concentrated about cutting the parts ...

and tada, this is mine, to be eaten with no spoon, just with the fingers, but easy to manage!!!
And very good, with some coffee taste.

And the great Chinggis was there too :-)
But not so much for me, I am at work!!!

And that's the man of the day!!!
Well at the end of the day the man of the day was very happy :-))))))

Mongolian Lessons

So I have started to study mongolian!!!

You see this is the bill to prove it!!
For the moment I will do 8 starter lessons, after I will see:-)

This is the starter book, you learn essentials things like greeting, take a cab, go to a restaurant

You see more in details!
And oh what, yes they have a different alphabet, Cyrillic, but not exactly the same as russians

So these are the cards I use to remember the alphabet
you see the third one, like an O with something inside this is mongolian.
The pronunciation is quite difficult for me, they have a lot of khé, tc, and this kind of things.

But I have to say I manage to remember this alphabet, this is kind of easier as the japanese alphabet. This is more near to latin alphabet.
But sometimes this is confusing.
For example a C in cyrillic is a S for us
And an H is an N
Yeah yeah, why make it simple :-)

So here I am at the beginning, but I can already say hello, bye and thanks
sain bain nooo , bairrrte, Bairrrrlaaa
well this is my phonetic version :-)
in real this is more difficult!!! : Сайн байна уу?, Баяртай, Баярлалаа.


So now I have to study!!!

Sang-Gyu is leaving

Sanggyu is a guy from Korea, he was teaching in Darkhan during 2 years, but now he is going back to Corea.

And he is a very nice person. So he has offered to each of us some presents.
For the girls a beauty mask and some solar torch, very useful, because in the evening or early morning there is very often no light!

This is the man, ready to go.

And he has received some traditional present.
This bracelet, some carpet and ...

some sweets (Mongolian people love sweets :-))

So this is all IT teachers!!
From left to right
Dudu, me, Itka, Tsogtoo, Zenee, Oyunaa, Sanggyu, Saraa, Tymee, Bayaraa, the lab helper (???) and Buya.
All these names are the short version, because mongolian names are very long!!!

And then we have eaten some cakes and drunk some tea.
This was very nice, sad that Sanggyu is leaving.
Good luck to him:-)