http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Tara-Munch/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Tara Munch en-us Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:58:51 +0000 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:58:51 +0000 I wonder about the people that I meet or walk by or attempt to talk to in the course of a day. The edges of their lives just barely touching mine. People that I remember and think about but don t really know. The woman who checks me out at the grocery store the man I pass on the street walking home or the man I see living in the steam pipes across the street. Who are they What is thei http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-451269.html I am in a new apartment this year. This is cause for celebration. Actually I moved at the end of last school year. It is much nicer than my old apartment and close enough to the school that I can walk which is great because that means that I donrsquot have to deal with Mongolian traffic five days a week. It takes about ten minutes to walk school even though it looks as if they are right next http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-437594.html The theme of Peru was long drives and dead people.We drove south along the Pacific coast. On the right was the ocean with spectacular surf and a somewhat forbidding aura. The large amounts of sharp rocks jutting out of and into the water might have had something to do with the aura thing. The sand of the beaches when we stopped was fine and powdery and somewhat soothing to the touch. On the l http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/Nazca-Lines/blog-429939.html This blog is belated. You can tell that it is belated because the last one that I wrote was in April. Seriously April What is wrong with me Okay new goal for this school year. One blog a week. It may not actually happen but I am setting this as my goal anyway. Let me assure you that in the time that I wasnrsquot writing thing were actually happening. Not all of them were interesting http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Lima/Huarochir-/San-Pedro-de-Casta/blog-429194.html Javsung my housekeeper is very worried about me and has been since I went to her home for Tsaggan Sar. Why is she so worried Well I was born in the year of the Rooster and Tsaggan Sar marks the beginning of the year of the Bull. According to her this is bad bad bad and needs to be fixed. Fixing my year that is how she put it although she isnrsquot very fluent in English so I could pro http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-387490.html Just a reminder I am still in Malaysia. Borneo to be exact. It is the third largest island in the world. Parts of Malaysia Indonesia and the tiny country of Brunei in its entirely occupy this slice of tropical paradise which sits almost exactly on the equator between the South China Sea Sulu Sea the Celebes Sea and the Makassar StraitToday I learned that orangutans are ticklish. One of the ma http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sepilok-Orang-Utan-Sanctuary/blog-387339.html I am in Malaysia There have been commercials on Star World my English channel for Malaysia all year. So it is a good thing that I was able to come here because those commercials would have driven me crazy otherwise. The tourism company promoting Malaysia really did its job wellNone of this of course tells you anything about Kota Kinabalu. Borneo. Just saying the name makes me happy. I had a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kota-Kinabalu/blog-385529.html I was invited to a hair cutting ceremony today. You may ask how did that come about I honestly couldnt tell you. There was an invitation that was sent to Trudi that included me from a woman who might work in our building with Trudi ' s housekeeper. I think I was referred to as the little one . It was one of those things that you just can ' t miss.The ceremony was held in a ger http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-377306.html Hey It Tsagaan Sar and I am so excited And not just because I get a five day weekend My housekeeper invited me to her house for Tsagaan Sar. I am pretty sure that it is the equivalent of me inviting this newly immigrated Vietnamese family to Thanksgiving when I was in high school.Tsagaan Sar meaning white moon or white month is the Mongolian lunar New Year festival. There is a ton of debate http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-377253.html I have no money. Well I have money I just can ' t get any of the money that I have. This has been the week of banking difficulties. It didnt start out that way. I just got paid into a Mongolian account and I needed to transfer money to my U S account. Why Because I NEEDED to Anyhow the whole internet banking thing has worked great for me since I got here after of course the ini http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-369766.html I just want to start this by assuring you that this is not a whiny blog. At least it shouldnrsquot be. Sometimes these things get away from me. Thatrsquos the risk you take with stream of consciousness writing I guess.It is cold here. Really really cold. I checked the temp a few days ago in the morning and it was 42F. All I can say is thank goodness I am not walking because I didn http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-367972.html I am in Korea and thought that although I am only here for a few hours I might as well write a blog about it. It will pass the time and possibly entertain some of you. It is 730 in the morning here and for those of you who are counting I am in hour 16 of my travels. I decided to start counting when I left for the Airport which was exactly at 316 yesterday afternoon.I have actually been stress http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Incheon/blog-366457.html Gers were brought to my attention again today. I was riding home from school and noticed a few of them on the route. Now they have been there the whole time I have been here just in the background. After a few weeks of living here I sort of stopped noticing them. They were just part of the background. I think that is human nature. You just sort of adapt and after a bit forget that not every http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-352981.html My biggest accomplishment recently is learning to count to five in Mongolian. Neg khoier corro gorro tao. See I can do it Now to get to ten. Unfortunately this isnrsquot going to help me with shopping as my bills are usually in the 30000Tg range and that is way beyond what I am probably going to be able to do. One to five was difficult enough. However this is one of the bonuses of tea http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-351955.html Mongolian Independence Day. It celebrates them gaining independence from China in 1921. The biggest thing going on today Wrestling More specifically Mongolian Wrestling. Mongolian wrestling is a traditional style of wrestling that has been practiced in Mongolia for centuries and is one of Mongoliarsquos Three Manly Skills. The other two are archery and horsemanship. It is a big deal http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-348755.html I went out to dinner with some friends last night. After two years of living in a small village in Alaska without a restaurant I am always find the ability to go out just a little more exciting that I should. There are a surprising amount of places to eat here. I am not a huge fan of traditional Mongolian food. It isnrsquot bad and I am going to try as much as I can while I am here but for e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-348669.html You would think that laundry would be fairly simple around the world and that there wouldnrsquot be all that many strange new things to get used to mishaps to report... What do you mean that you would assume that there would be all sorts of laundry issues when abroad Stop being smug then and let me tell you about my action packed day of laundry.First of all I do my own laundry. Duh you say http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-347392.html Ten great things about living in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia1. How cool is living abroad 2. It is a city dotted with gers yerts trippy and fascinating3. It has a great quirky laid back attitude4. Elderly people still dress in traditional costumes5. Being small here means that I am lucky so people want to touch me okay not always a good thing but pretty cool all the same6. There are movie thea http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-335414.html Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhh That is the sound of Tara banging her head on a wall Charlie Brown style. It hasnrsquot been a very good couple of days to live in Mongolia. Although I love living here and am having lots of fun adventures the last couple of days have reminded me that living in a developing country also has its downsides. Brace yourself people it is time for a rantI decided to buy a t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-335412.html So I accidentally went on a tour of a cashmere factory today. Yes accidentally. I thought that it was a cashmere shopping trip. This is what happens when you get your information third hand. I hadnrsquot been shopping for cashmere yet. I am still easily lost going around the city and hadnrsquot gotten around to coordinating a trip with anyone else. My friend Liz who I work with has http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-333171.html