Camel farm

This saturday I went with Timo and Jörn to visit a camel farm near Darkhan

It was around one hour away from Darkhan and we are very quick in the middle of nowhere!
We were by a family having all the mongolian mal animals (horse, camel, goat and sheep)
And there was just a new born sheep!!

And of course the beautiful mongolian horse, with our taxi drive (the same as for the monastery)

There the family and some helpers were taking the wool from the goat.
Many people working there, with child's all around, some with traditional clothes some without.
So the goat are tight and then they remove their hair with some tools (don't know the name).
I am not really sure that they like that :-)
I like especially the hat of the man doing it !!

Here is the man counting how many goat have been done (and they have a lot)
What I like is the french beret.
Many mongolian guys wear it, so cool!

Beautiful lady at work and all with a lot of talking and laughing.
Especially when we came.
We are the attraction!!

Here some members of the family.
And men have different kind of hats :-)

And the child is looking, seating peacefully with her beautiful del (traditional clothe)

Look at the beautiful baby goat

also not born since very long.
And very soft, I want one !!!

Again the traditional del. Actually in mongolia people still wear a lot this clothe. This is the one for everyday.
I like especially the colors and the motives.

And all the child for a picture!!!
The proud of the family.

the gar that you see is where the family is living.
Inside this is quite big.

the child are playing with the animals...

and there he is the one we are waiting for.
The camel.
Actually there are many, but for the moment they are free in the steppe.
So they went to take one for us.

the animal is quite impressive

And not very happy to be there.
It's a bit scary, no???

You see also the color there on the horse.
Always very bright colors!

Ok and now the big fun.
Well I am the first (because I am a lady or because I speak a little bit mongolian, who knows..)

oh god, the stand up part is something.
You really have to hang on very strongly!!!

And then here I am.
This is great!!!
When he is walking this is fine, very soft

but after when you go down, between the legs it's quite uncomfortable.
We are not used to it!!

And here Jörn

and Timo.
They use the camel for 3 things: the milk, the wool and the meat.
Actually animals in mongolia are there when they are useful, they don't have home animals.
Feeding animals that are useless is a waste of money.

After that a small riding on the horse.
Since they are not so big, it's easy to go up

And when you are tall like Jörn, that gives a funny impression :-)
And when you are an expert you have this result :-):

Mongolia is a developing country, so you have a mix of modernity and conservatism

The solar panel are mainly used to produce a bit of electricity for the tv.
In the ger we had the mongolian tea: milk tea with salt.
The grandfather (88 years old) was also there.
We have smelled their perfume bottle (what I have explained during saran sar)
And with my great mongolian I have managed to explain a few things.
The family there was very friendly.
And it was for me the first time to see the real mongolian farm life.
Very nice!!

On the way back there was a bike contest:

after that our driver has invited us again to eat at his place. Very nice driver!
Well I think I want to ride a camel again, and maybe horse as well!!

More pictures under: camel farm

Making the buzz

With my friend Boogii, after the market on Sunday, we have done some Buzz.
You remember the traditional food in Mongolia.
Now here is the receipt: -)

The first ingredient is just flour  that you mix with water, that's it.
Not very complicated.
Let it rest for a while...
See the technic for the mixing:

Then you need 2 more ingredient.
A very big piece of meat.
Most of the time in Mongolia it's frozen. Because people buy a lot at the market and keep it for a long time.
So this one was frozen, but the expert Boogii is chopping it perfectly.
I was a bit scared of the big knife :-)

The next ingredient is new onions.
I have chopped this one.
Look at the beautiful work!!!

After a while the meat is looking like that, very small :-)

Then we mix the all thing with some salt!
I have done this part too, this is great :-)

Ok now we cut the dough in small part.
each small part will be then rolled and cut.

We put them in some flour again.
Then is coming the tricky part.
Well not for mongolian people but for me :-)

if you are good you manage this result.
I managed something approaching.
I have done some pictures but they are blur.
I think my camera was chocked by my result :-)
So this one is a buzz to be cooked like a dumpling

This one (different form) is a kushur, to be cooked in oil
I prefer this one (more fatty :-))

This is the buzz machine

impressive, no?
After 25 minutes you are ready to eat tons of buzz.

oh you can make also a small version of buzz,  I call them mini buzz but actually this is bansch (or something like that!!)

Now you can make the buzz too :-)

Restaurants in Darkhan

Even if Darkhan is a small city, around 75000 people, there are many restaurants and hotels. For the hotels I still don't understand, but well...

So last week-end I was with my friends to try some of them.
I have already been to the texas grill, and this one is the Empire (the mongolian empire of course!!!)

Mongolia is producing a lot of beers, one of them is Chinggis.
The restaurants are always very big, a lot of space.
But always a lot of different people are going there, just to chat or have a dinner.

You have mongolian food, as well as occidental food, with french fires or potatoes (delicious!)

 This is a view from to restaurant.
You can see a Karaoke, because this is the third thing that you have a lot in Darkhan!!!

 My mongolians friends, teachers as well, speaking english or japanese so we can manage!!

Oh by the way in the market, supermarket or shops you also manage to find everything or almost.
I needed some small elastics for my hair.
And found some sponge bob one, is that not great????

My friend Tseegii also offered my this small things for my hair :-)

On Saturday evening I went with Jörn (here) and Timo to try the Bulgogi Family restaurant.
This is a korean restaurant.
There are many korean people in Mongolia, many of them as volunteer.

 So in this restaurant you can find traditional korean food. This one is mine, this is the bulgogi (like the restaurant)
Jörn had some vegetarian food

And Timo some very spicy soup :-)
Next time we will try some other restaurant!!
There is a vegetarian , a mongolian grill and some other one to be discovered!!!

Week of test

At school this is the week of test.

I have 2 classes. One is Database and this is the kind of test that I am doing.
My questions are translated in mongolian because many students don't understand english.

And this is the test for the project management.
For the DB this is ok I can make the correction alone, but for the pm, since this is inly writing I need some translations and this is not so easy...

After that I am collecting the results.
They have different notes:
presence in my class 10 pt, 2 quizzes each 10 pt (already done)
the big quiz coming soon 30pt
then what they do during my lab : 20pt
and they have to give me back some document for self study: 20pt
Total 100pt
You see the green are making good, the yellow can still make it, for the red, well… I don't even think that I know the students ….

The school has also a web site, where I enter the results and where the students can watch them.

So for this session this is finished!!
Well that was a lot of work, also watching at the students and everything, but the big one is coming soon!!!!
Let's see :-)