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George's World Travels
Tiger is for Myles-thought it looked quite fun :)
Well, things are looking up. Yesterday afternoon/evening was really cool and started to feel much better.
Tugi, the guy from T&P abroad whos showing me around, took me to the 'ce rink'one that isnt being dug up! to have a skate. By ice rink I mean layers of uneven ice frozen onto a basketball court, with a random bench in the middle and netting around the side!
The ice was pretty rough but nice just to skate. Also there were some kids there and as ice skating isnt all that popular here they kept watching me in amazement. That was nice! Great to feel I can excel at at least somehting here-demoralising every day as dont ubderstand a word of the language.
After that we went to see some of the Buddhist temples, that are suprisingly close to my apartment. They were amazing. Very beautiful. Also, in one we found that there was an American Buddhist guy giving a talk to the young monks. There were others sitting around the side on benches as kinda observers. We couldnt stay very long but Tugi found out that hes giving another talk today at 2pm so will pop into that. Should be very interesting.
I met two volunteers yesterday. One was Janet-english,40 something, working in an orphanage on the other side of town with 4 year olds. Shes leaving next friday, via train to Moscow then flying home. I gave her some tips on Moscow, esp as shes staying at same hotel Myles and I did. Small world! Showed her my pics too. She was really nice. very chatty, and said that she also felt very caged in and isolated on her first few days here. Was nice to hear Im not just being silly.
The other volunteer, Valerie I met back at Tugi's house. (She lives in the same block as him so comes over a lot) Shes from Holland and is 21. Shes working on a business internship here. She has seriously long hours-like 8,30 till 7pm! But says she enjoys it. She gets way more responsibility here than she would back at home.
Im meeting up with Valerie tonight for dinner which should be cool. Im starting to form something verging on a social life!
Janet said shed give me her Mongolia sim card which shoul be cool. Shes been able to text people in Uk from it, but only Vodafone mobiles...who has them???!!! So yeh thatll be sometime at the end of next week.
Im starting at the orphanage tomorrow morning. Hours arent very long 10am to 1pm. Theres another volunteer working at the same orphanage as me which is great. So will meet her tomorrow. Shes from New Zealand.
Its suprisingly warm here! Think is 0oC today! Springs come really early this year. Means ice will melt soon :( but is cool to not have to be totally padded in in layers upon layers of clothes each time i venture out of the apartment!
Everything is really cheap here! Like an hr on the internet is 600 Togrogs, which is like I dunno 30p?! Food is very cheap too. Janet even got her train journey all the way to Moscow for US$100!!!! For those who dont have a clue about the costs of Trans Sib/Monolian its like 1,000 pounds in England!
Oh yeh another great thing yesterday was that when I got in there was ice skating on TV!!! (Have TV in room-very bad pic though) Better yet was last group (ie best skaters) of ladies long programme in Moscow!!!!! Tuned in just before Michelle Kwan began to skate!!!! So so so cool! I took some pics of the skaters on TV (was so amazed) and will post them up when I can and give you quick lesson on whos who in ice skating.
Thanks for your messages.
Happy Birthday to Nicki!!!!
G xxxx
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