Shin Jil

Hi all! I apologize again for the length of time between posts. I'm definitely staying busy. I promised an entry about the holiday parties. Mongolians celebrate the new year the whole week before Dec. 31. I went to 2 Shin Jil (New Year) parties before Dec. 31. The first was the community women's organization's party. Everyone pays to go to the parties. I paid 25,000 tugriks (about $20) for each party. They are very nice, though. The parties start early, about 6:00 and last til after midnight. My school's teachers' party lasted til 2:00 AM! Everyone dresses to the nines. It's very fancy and sparkly. Women wear sequined, sexy dresses, get their hair done at a salon, and put glitter all over their hair and bodies. At the women's organization party, a woman came around with glitter gel and rubbed it on everyone. I did not have a fancy dress to wear, much to my counterparts' dismay. They gave me a slinky, sparkly dress to wear but I didn't wear it. I can't wear heels with my injured leg, and my flat, suede boots just didn't do the dress justice. Next year, I'll have to try to do better. At big parties like these, there is always some kind of program. At the women's party, a lot of awards were given out. There was a lot of singing and dancing. On each of the tables is juice, water and a bottle of vodka. There are a couple of different salads and a hiam plate. Hiam is like salami except much bigger pieces of fat in it. Dinner is served as the night goes on. At the women's party, I think dinner came out at about 9 PM. At the teachers' party, it came out about 10 PM. Both dinners were very good and quite western. I think we had chicken at both meals. Chicken is not really a Mongolian staple food. Santa Claus made an appearance at both parties and distributed gifts. I got a special gift at each party. When I show up at meetings and things, I usually get singled out as an honored guest. It's unusual to have foreigners at events, so you enevitably become the center of attention at some point. Frequently, you end up on tv if the event is covered by the local tv station. The teachers' party had a huge program that the teachers prepared for for weeks. There were 6 men and women teachers who performed a ball room dance. There were several teachers who sang songs. Mongolians love to sing! I was supposed to sing a Christmas song with my fellow English teachers. We prepared a song, but the program went on so long, we didn't have to do it...thank God! I was nervous about it. There was a couple of students who did a ballroom dance routine. There were a lot of awards given out. There was a beauty/talent contest of sorts between 12 teachers. And there was lots of dancing. We had a blast! One interesting thing is that spouses or significant others do not attend functions with people. The women's organization party was all women, except for one man--the Aimag governor who excused himself after saying a few words and giving out some awards saying he felt a little out of place. I met my school director's wife at the women's party, but I've never met her at a school function. Work and family are kept very separate. Most holiday parties follow this pattern of lots of food, vodka, dancing, singing, some sort of program, and awards. Our teachers' day party was just like the Shin Jil party except a little more low key. We have Women's Day coming up March 8. I'm not sure what sort of celebration is in store, but I'm sure there'll be singing, dancing, and award-giving. I'm not very good with the blog formatting. About the pictures: The first picture on the left is me with Ariunaa (my CP, an English teacher, in blue), Oyungerel (a tailoring teacher and the technical branch manager, in gold), Chuluuntsetseg (my CP, an English teacher, in black), and Bolormaa (the Director's administrative assistant, to my left). The next picture is the teachers' ballroom dancers. Then there's me dancing with Shinebayar on my right (he's a plumbing teacher and in my English class) and Uugaa on my left (he's a P.E. teacher--I played volleyball with him until I hurt myself). Mongolians dance in a huge circle on the dance floor. It's a little silly, but that's what we're doing in that picture. The next picture is me with most of the teachers in my English class. They are a fun bunch! The next picture is of 4 teachers from my English class, from left Deegii (a communications teacher), Saraa (a nature conservation teacher), Khashkhuu (a tractor operations and heavy machinery teacher), and Tserenchimeg (a physics teacher). Then there's Santa Claus giving out an award to one of the teacher's in my English class, Chuluunkhuu.