Trust me, I'm a doctor

ok not yet but jesse is starting to get interviews to medical school! Yippee.....! Kinda nerve wracking actually. His first interview offer is to Georgetown and the second is to Northwestern. Both really good programs. The interview windows are for october but georgetown said whenever he comes home they would interview him and he hasn't talked to northwestern. so the earliest jesse would be coming home would be the middle of Oct. Few short weeks away. Hard to commit to a time without knowing if more schools will offer slots and when... blah.

On the Mongolia front we have been keeping busy at work. I just went on a trip to the countryside and gave two presentations durring "young family" day in a very remote soum. One was on baby choking and nutrition (sorta related) and the benefits of team building games to youth leaders at the secondary school. It was fun. I am making slow progress on the resource room (waiting on two book shipments and my counterparts to get a carpenter to come in) and am beginning training for our new "Big Brother, Big Sister" mentor program set to start the beginning of October. This weekend we hung out at the trade fair. They had zucchine like last year but this year we bought three not just one. And they had hot peppers so i think we will can some salsa. very exciting.

Jesse has been working hard too. he organized a presentation at the trade fair (one on dairy safety and one as an health info fair). He has also been working on getting some new AIDS programs up and going and getting a project planning workhop off the ground. Rumors of health TV shows also abound. We have both been working with kids at the new english speakers club and get some satisfaction from that.

Nothing new with the ger...we winterized last weekend and then it promtly got warm again but no complaints from me.

Ok I think that is all. Just a quick update.

Cheers.

the wait is over

it snowed yesterday. the wait for winter is over. it is officially cold and windy.

: )

waiting for winter

I think waiting for winter will be the title of my book on Mongolia. It pretty much sums it up. We have been enjoying the last moments of summer. School started on the first so everyone is back in town and kids are everywhere! Last weekend I did a girls weekend in the gobi. It was really fun. We ate, drank, and made merry. Went to an oasis and a old monastary ruin in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by a nasty bog that we had to wade through. Two people fell in and a couple of near misses. We were covered in mud and laughing our butts off. Jesse did a quick in and out of the capital for a pc training while I was away and then hung out with our new site mates.

We have two new site mates, both english teachers. They seem pretty cool. It is hard starting all over again making friends (especially when they live in the same apartment as our old friends) but it is working out fine considering my aversion to people.

This weekend jesse me and two of our site mates went with some mongolian friends to the countryside. We hiked up a couple of hills that were littered with petroglyphs. Someone did a count (not our group) and came up with a number of around 300. There were some really old simple drawings and some "newer" looking ones with a little more detail that were chiseled into the rock. Then we went on a picnic near some rocks. Had fun just hanging out but then one of the girls we were with got an allergic reaction and we hastily packed up and drove to the emergency room. She sounds like she is recovering ok but it was a little hairy for a while. New resolution: carry first aid at all times.

We are excited to start back to work in earnest and have some fun work projects on the horizon I think.

The weather is already seattle winter level but is just the start of fall. We had a rather wet cold summer so I think winter might be colder than last year. This morning we could see our breath in the ger. So gearing back up for winter and all that it entails but the break in the middle for jesse's med school interviews will help us make it through.

Hope all is well. Gotta get off the internet now.

Cheers!