Bending the last Around

I'm back to having to go out to blog. Sorry mom, your right, I didn't break my keyboard by blogging too much. If you want an update, you might just have to call. Before I get into how much fun I'm having, I just want to say, when will this cold end? We're still getting -15c days and -25c nights. Oh well.

I've been working really hard lately. I don't wake up super early like I ought, but I'm at school all day from the time I get there. The english olympics are coming up. This means that that my kids are being pulled from all of their classes to study in the English room. I've been making tests, assigning essays, tutoring listening and speaking, etc. until the sun goes down. Also, after Tsagaan sar, the lunar new year, there seems to be an endless string of mini-holidays to occupy all of our time. Today was the big Women's Day celebration. I cut out early because they werer getting to be too rowdy. Before, I'd care a lot about wanting to be friendly in the Mongolilan way, but as my service draws to an end, I feel less and less of a need to be culturally sensitive. On the other hand, more and more, I just want to sream and shout at my coworkers about the obsesive need to have copious amounts of vodka for any and every social gathering. I mean, drinking some sometimes is a good, and I can see people wanting to go overboard for a special occasion, but it's unheard of to get people together without buying at least 4 or 5 bottles of vodka and/or 3 or 4 2-liter bottles of beer. It's exhausting. On top of that, often there's the Mongolian alcohol made from milk, no not the milk stuff, the 50 proof clear death drink.

Did I say I was going to get to how awesome my life is and how much fun I'm having? I know that all the crap is going to disolve once the temperature gets and stays above freezing. And I can't describe it, but this has been an amazing couple months for me. It's just good. But here's the hitch, it's good, but in the way that I know it's gonna be awesome soon. It's gonna get warm, our close of service conference is in 9 weeks, and I'll be heading home in August. It's like I'm engulfed in hope.

We're in the middle of Lent. That's going well. I'm reading a book called "Jesus for President" and despite its terrible title, it's a pretty good book. It's by Shane Claiborne, who reminds me a lot of Rob Bell. Before this book, I got deep into the history of Christian theology for a while, and just wanted to bit my own head off by the time I got to Vatican II. While it's really interesting, it's not my bag.

I'm looking for jobs now. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing. I hope I'll be working at all. But I'm ready to settle down. I want to have one job and do it well, have one community and be a part of it, have one woman and love her right, and dig my roots deep. Who knows, you don't always get what you want. (And to be fair, I could see myself doing some other crazy thing and living in some other crazy place, but it's not the way I'm feeling now.)

Send me your questions if you have them.

Have fun guys. See you soon. Stay strong and shine bright.
Peace.