soupy says

I've been with my host family a week. Tomorrow will be two weeks in Mongolia. Each day moves by a bit faster than the one before it.

Overall, the host family is good. Bimba, whose the youngest at 10, has become attached to my hip. She has become my greatest teacher. She will often sit down while I study and go through dialogues or correct my pronunciation. She'll often walk me to school telling me words (I won't remember most of them) or teaching me the color names on the Uno cards. Bata, 16, made a vocab list for me (of words she thought were important). She posted one copy in my room and another in the living room. My 17 year old host brother isn't around too much but has joined in for the occasional Uno game. My dad totally looks like a wrestler. I'm told he is a firefighter, but as far as I know, he never works. It seems he goes out of town to wrestle over the weekends. During the week, he cooks lunch (and sometimes breakfast). My mom comes home from school and cooks dinner.

Which brings me to the food. I have not been eating plates and plates of mutton. And thus, my plans to bulk up for the body building circuit due to the excessive doses of protein seem to have been thwarted. For most of the week, I was feed plates of carbs: rice, pasta, and bread. You might be thinking, “oh carb heaven for Stacey.” With this diet, I haven't seen a piece of fruit since last Sunday (the day I arrived), and before yesterday, my vegetable intake had been less than a cup. However, my mom went to the market on Friday night, and I have been enjoying tomatoes, cucumbers, and Mongolian version of coleslaw (they call it “salad”). I almost jumped for joy upon seeing this morning's breakfast: eggs, tomatoes, and cucumbers. There was also a side of the fried dumplings that I didn't finish from last night's dinner. I didn't touch those. They are tasty, but I haven't yet communicated properly that I don't require the caloric intake of a heifer. Of course, the veggie intake is not near the level that I would truly enjoy, but I can live. I am still on a quest for more fruit.

Language class has its ups and downs. After four hours, I am totally drained. I usually go home, eat lunch and take a nap. And I've never been much of a napper. Starting this week, in the afternoon, we will have technical sessions relating to health, culture and other topics. It'll be interesting to see how I'll fit in study time, family bonding time, and de-stress time into the mix when I'll be in class all day. Currently my trouble spot is listening comprehension. I might ask my language teacher to come by next week and work on it with me. That's right, not only does my class only have four students, my teacher will come by and tutor if we ask.

Right now I'm doing OK. On Thursday my body told me that I was really stressed out. I hadn't really realized it that until then. I was pretty crabby the rest of the day, but I took some me-time and chill time with my sisters. Another Trainee (PCT), Melinda, lives across the street from me, and I can drop by if I need some English time. Yesterday, some Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) that trained here two years ago visited their old host families before going back to the states. They showed us how to get to the river. That will come in handy when it gets 100 degrees.

I can't see myself anyplace but here, and I am excited to spend the next two years in Mongolia. Earlier this week, in language class, I thought, “Wow. I sitting here, and it doesn't cost me a penny.” Well, it does indirectly through taxes, but I won't get into that. It's hard to get too down when you go home, walk through the gate and have Bimba, arms in the air, running to greet you. Yesterday, I looked at her and noticed her perpetual pony tail and been shifted to bun, that looked remarkably similar to the bun that I sported. That same day she started carrying around water. We are quite a pair, me with my nalgene and her with a reused vitamin juice bottle.

Nah, I'm doing better than OK. I'm happy.