First Taste of Culture Shock

I got up like normal and grabbed some milk to make a bowl of cereal in my room.  Anya's mom came to my door and said something that included the word "breakfast."  I figured she meant she would make breakfast, so don't eat.  I knew that would take awhile, so I took a shower and started getting ready.  Half an hour later, Anya came to my door and said, "My mother wants you to eat with us." Oops.  I went into their room and saw the coffee table already laden with meat, bread, apples, and milk tea.

We watched some of the Naadam wrestling on TV, and I talked to Anya for an hour or so.  I really like the pace of life here.  Get up around 9:00, eat breakfast around 10:00.  Eat lunch between 2:00 and 3:00.  Have fun etc until you eat dinner at 8:00 or 9:00, then go to bed sometime after midnight.

Gany picked me up, and we walked to her Samaritan's Purse office to use WiFi.  Then we took a bus downtown and ate a streetside meat pastry lunch.  A couple days ago we bought tickets to see Transformers 3, so we returned to the most awesome movie theater in the world.

It was there that I experienced my first bout of culture shock.   We stopped by the restrooms before watching the movie, and it was crazy crowded, and you basically have to push your way to a stall.  Then we got in line for popcorn, and once more people just push their way to the counter.  Then we got in line to enter the theater, and again with the pushing.  I hated it.  

However, the movie was good.  It was my first time watching a movie in 3D, and while it was enjoyable, I don't think it's the best way to watch a movie.

With my first unenjoyable Mongolian experience combined with a bit of homesickness from watching an American movie set in Chicago, I was in a bad mood to join eight of the youth group in cramming into Boggi's truck and driving to an apartment to get blankets, a store to get food, and another store to get cups.  Everyone was laughing uproariously, and neither Gany nor Anya bothered to translate.  

That feeling where you're in a crowd, literally smooshed in a backseat with five other people, but you feel invisible?  That's not a fun feeling.  We got to a riverside campfire by 9:15, and everyone else continued to have a good time while I just sat on the blanket and stared into the fire.  I guess after four days of performing and being outgoing, I was out of juice.  It didn't help that none of the Mongolian youth I had become friends with were a part of this inner circle.

A couple hours later, we drove to the same hill we climbed on Sunday.  And finally, a break!  Three of them left, leaving just me, Gany, Anya, Tsogi, and Chinguun.  People finally talked to me, we took some pictures of the city by night, and then hiked down the hill and along the streets.

I was in a much better mood, but then things got awkward.  Chinguun had apparently felt bad for me back at the campfire, worried that I was bored (which is nice and all, but intentions don't matter if there's no action to back it up!), so he carried on a conversation with me via Anya the translator.  And she is a dangerous translator.

He asked what I liked about Mongolia, and I said I like the youth group a lot.  When she repeated it in Mongolian, everyone laughed, which I thought was weird.  A couple minutes later she told me, "I said that you really liked the young people, especially him!" And so it continued, with her making flirty comments from him and asking if I found him attractive, and what!?  There is no easy answer for that.

Needless to say, although I was glad to be talked too, I was really grateful when we finally caught a cab and made it back to the apartment at 1:30 in the morning.