My work

So as you may know or not I am a teacher in Mongolia

I have 2 classes: DBMS and Project management.
I have for database, 1 lecture and 2 labs per week
I have for Project management 1 lecture per week and 2 labs every 2 weeks.
1 lecture or one lab is 1,5 hour.
This is the schedule of the IT teachers

The only one not written in cyril this is me :-)
In there I see when I have my lessons

This is an example of what I have to teach for Database. Since this is in Mongolian I have needed so help to know what this is :-)
For project management this is a new class, so I have to do everything by myself, that's not so easy and it requires a lot of preparation work!!
But well this is something different!!!

I will have 16 lectures and 16 labs, until mid of June
In my Database class I have almost 60 students now, more and more are coming!!!
I teach in english so there is always somebody with me to translate because my students are not so good in english.
So this is 2 in one course :-)

This is the teacher's room. I have my desk there.
And the carpet is the great Gengis khan.
There I have wifi internet, so I also come on week-ends!!!

This is the schedule for the lessons.
On friday I have one at 8 am this is very early for me :-(
Otherwise this is 9am40 or in the afternoon, this is perfect, so I can sleep in the morning, and I sleep very long, because in the morning there is no noise at all, people like to sleep here :-) And since there are almost no cars, great great!!!

UB again

Ok let's start at the begin, you see the red point ? This is where I am.
Lost in Mongolia :-)
But Darkhan is the 2nd city of Mongolia!!

Ok so my passport was at the immigration office, because they had to do something?? Not clear what!!
So I went with Tymee in UB to get it.

 First we went to the bus station of Darkhan, a brand new one (3 months old) to get the bus.
By bus it takes 3,5 to 4 hours to go to UB

On the way there are white mountains

and again :-)
Yes this is all white, by -20 degrees you don't expect palm trees right?

 This is a restaurant in the middle of the way
But you don't really have time to eat!!

 And this is the bus. I have to say they are quite good. You have your own seat, they are heated, they drive very carefully, so nothing to say.
And sometimes you have a movie or 2.
I saw the story of a mongolian guy who had an accident and became blind. Very nice story (Just by watching the video).
For the 2nd movie I fall asleep :-)

 After that we took another city bus to go to the main university, to have my contract. But this was not clear, the guy was not there, and so a girl have taken some of my papers.
Well we will see :-)

This is my bus ticket. You see on the top there is my seat number.
You always have to give an ID to take the bus, at the beginning it was more difficult for me but now

We went to the immigration office with another bus (1 hour) then Tymee took the wrong direction, but I knew where it was so we took a taxi, and so on and so on, bref at 4pm40 we managed to be there (this is closing at 5pm :-))
And then I got my pass back and my alien registration card!!
Isn't it nice? So when I take the bus I can show that :-)

After this long day back to Darkhan at 10 pm (we left at 9 am)
But now I am registered, one thing done, well almost actually, just look at the expiry date… I am supposed to leave on the 28th of July. But as we say in Mongolia: later!!!

Darkhan

On Saturday I visit Darkhan with Sang-Gyu, a Korean volunteer, that is living in Darkhan since 2 years.

So Darkhan, is very white, I think I told you already.

There is snow everywhere!!!

This is a view from the university, on the right, and on the left there is my dormitory.

The streets look good, but most of the time they are icy, so when you walk you have to be careful!!!

This is the main administration building of Darkhan, kind of parliament I think, but I am not sure.

This is a big park, in the summer families and young people are going there to enjoy the summer.

But in the winter this is pretty empty, of course, this is quite cold actually :-)
I think it was -25 degrees!!!

So with this kind of temperatures you can make some ice figures!
This one is dragon, there was also a Mickey mouse and something that I can not identify!!!

This is Sang-Gyu, with some pyrosky,  I am not sure how to write it.
This kind of doughnut with meat or rice or potatoes inside.
Delicious but a bit oily :-)

A long long snowy road :-)

And like everywhere in Asia there is french boulangerie :-)
Asian people are crazy about french bred!!!
So you see, home country is not far away :-)

This is me riding a camel, ok he is fake, but that's the intention that counts!!!!

This one is the road going to Ulaanbaatar (UB)

There is a big Buddha in Darkhan.
This is for the prayer

I like the bright colors very nice

And this is the big golden Buddha

This is a view of the city.
The city have 2 parts, the new one, where I live and the old one, this is the old one!

The buddha and the mountains around the city.

This is a man with an horse guitar, very famous in Mongolia.
Mongolian people love horses, to ride them or to eat them, especially in the winter time!

This is a view of the new city.
As you see the sky is very blue. In Darkhan there are not so many cars, so the air is very pure, very nice!!!

After walking a lot, it was time to eat again.
We went to nomad restaurant.
This is the traditional mongolian milk tea, with some salt inside.
I like it, not so strange for me :-)

I took a soup with some meat dumpling and some sheep.
Delicious!!!

And this is buuz, the traditional meat dumpling from Mongolia.
After walking so much I was dead, so this was time for a good night of sleep!!!

this morning...

I had a lesson at 8 am this is very early I tell you!!
This was a database lesson with some teacher so it went well!!!
But this was early :-)

After that my day was free. So I have prepared my next lessons, or some part of it.
At 4pm we had a meeting with the teachers of the department, I have presented myself, and they were discussing about me, but I don't know what they said.
Apparently how can they use my know-how :-)

After that there was a big ceremony with the boss of the university. He has given a lot of prizes to the teacher, this was very nice.
All the girls were dressed so nice, with nice dresses, makeup and everything.

I don't have pictures for the moment, but it will come!!

Now this is the week-end, let's see how this is going!!!

My first lessons

Today I have given my first 2 lessons!!!

It was a bit of stress for me, but it went well.

So let's go a little bit back in time.
Yesterday I had no lessons, but I came to the uni to access internet and prepare my lessons.
The teacher they took me for an Oxygen Cocktail. Seems to be every week, we go downstair to have some drink mixed with oxygen.
I don't know for what this is good, but this has a good taste, so, this is ok!!

Then in the afternoon I changed my room, because the other one was too cold!!
So I moved my stuff nearby.
The room is smaller but warmer!
The bathroom is also better. But I preferred the place for the kitchen in the other one. Now I have to cook were I sleep…
But well I will smell meat, there is worse in life :-)
So all in one this is ok!!!

Okay so today was my first lesson: Project management.
Most of the student were late, so I made them clear that this is not ok, at my second lesson everybody was there on time :-)
Let's see next week if this is still the case.
I teach in english, which is a bit difficult for them, so at my first lesson some teacher were there to translate.
In the 2nd lesson I was alone and this was very difficult, because that was a lab where they are supposed to do something and they didn't understand, so in the future there will always be a teacher with me to translate.

After that meat lunch at the cafeteria :-)

And now I am going home to rest!
Tomorrow my lesson is at 8 am, oh this is early :-)