I must say, I do like Mongolia a lot. The capital isn't very pretty and it's definitely got Soviet accents to the architecture, but the people are very cool. They are friendly here and respect one another. Sure, we've got the pick pocketers (which one of our cameras fell victim too-- oddly enough at a Buddhist monastery). But the general vibe is a good one.
Yesterday Leavitt picked up one of those weird witchcrafy things-- bones? It's where you have four bones that you roll and it will tell you some sort of fortune. Kind of like that creepy witch lady from Pirates of the Caribbean can do. We've been asking it all sorts of questions.
Keri the Brit asked: Will I be a high powered CEO in the next year?
Answer: With no obstacles.
Dutch 1: Will I be pregnant in the near future?
Answer: You will have everlasting life
Leavitt: Will Hedrick get married in the next year?
Answer: Try harder
As you can see, it's all a load of crap :) But we've been having a blast with them. Everytime our guide G asks us what we want to do, we consult the bones. Tonight we went to a Mongolian culture show. It's funny, they played all these traditional instruments and all the stringed ones had only 2 strings! People really need to not tease me and my 4 stringed ukulele anymore. At least I have twice as many strings!
That was definitely a highlight of the trip-- especially to listen first hand the Mongolian throat singers. They use their mouths as an instrument, but where it gets tricky is when they can sing two notes at once. We've resolved to master throat singing so Keri, Nat, Leavitt and me have banded together and started practice on our throat singing quartet. Leavitt goes super low and sounds like a cow mating, Nat goes more soprano and sounds like a sparrow and me, well, I'm just trying to actually not bust out laughing every two seconds.
I'm really digging the Mongolian food too. For lunch we actually did this mix of foods-- Indian and Mexican, so Indi Mex. Keri was craving nachos or "nachos" as the case may be here. Nat and I did the korma dish and it was all like 3 dollars or
so!
Which brings me to something that keeps screwing us up, the money thing. They use high denominations, so a meal would cost us 12,800 mongolian. That's just too many zeros. I keep mixing up 1,000 and 10,000 notes, which probably isn't the best
thing.
Tomorrow we head to the ger camp and will be hanging out with nomads! I'm looking forward to this part of the trip. I'll be out of contact for a wee bit, but I always enjoy everyone's emails (I feel more connected).
It's been such a great day with the rain and all. I love rain, its been a nice relief! Hopefully it will clear out a bit for our nomad weekend!
Talk to you all soon!
Emily the Horrible Throat Singer
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