I arrived in Ulaanbaatar (UB; the capital, translated as: Red Hero), Mongolia via a 27 hour layover in Seoul, Korea on June 4. The first night, our group of 48 Americans stayed in a tourist ger camp. The next morning was unreal: I woke up to blue skies, rolling hills, hawks, the smell of horses, and finally, the excited feeling of being in Mongolia. Lunch that day was with the US Ambassador to Mongolia, Ambassador Milton. Then we headed four hours via bus north to Darkhan (the 3rd largest city in the providence or aimag of Selenge, population 73,400), where we resided for a week for introductions and vaccination shots (16 in total;ouch) at a nearby school (pictures of the welcoming ceremony at the school are below). Afterwards, we were divided into three groups and headed off for our host communities (all located north of UB) till mid-August when we take our final LPIs (Language Proficiency Interviews), swear-in, and officially become PC (Peace Corps) volunteers. My host community is in Sukhbaatar (30 km from the Russian border). My host family are wonderful; they treat me like one of their own. Training is intense with 4 hours/5 days per week of Mongolian language classes and the other four hours per day is devoted to technical training. My biggest fear at this point is falling into the pit toilets...which I conveyed to the interim Country Director and she assures me that this has only happened once – but not in Mongolia. However, the girl survived unscathed. How this was suppose to comfort me, I don’t know.
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