The First Day of School

Okay, so it's been a couple weeks since the first day of school.  I just HAVE to report on this day to you all, even though I'm a little late in doing so.

First off, some of you may not know yet that Kevin is teaching English, Biology, and Chemistry this year at the school where I had English conversation times with teachers last spring!  I'm so excited that we have a real opportunity to continue relationships with these dear teachers that I LOVE! 

We were invited to their opening ceremony, and then we moved into the teacher's lounge/meeting room where all the teachers gathered to start off the new year.  Refreshments were served.  Notice the teacher on the left holding a bowl.  This was cold airag, fermented mare's milk.  It was passed from person to person and everyone took drinks from this bowl, including Kevin and I.  It's not our favorite drink, but it's tolerable.  It's like really sour, cold, liquidy yogurt, with just a touch of that good ole' "barn" flavor, with hints of hay and horse hair notes (this was to sound like I was describing a good wine...did I succeed?).

You will also see cookies, and then, to the right of those cookies, is a plate full of aroyl, dried cheese curds.  On this specific plate, there was also Mongolian bislik, a flexible cut cheese which has some of those same hay and horse hair notes, but not pungent at all.  I actually had two pieces of bislik, mixed with a cookie bite in each mouthful to make almost a "cream cheese cookie" taste (hey, I'm trying!).  There was a lot of hot coffee and hot tea, as well.  And, then a toast to the new school year.  This is a very "Mongolian" thing to do in teacher's meetings.  Not something they'd try to get by with in America, right teachers?!

You can also see here that we were entertained by one of the teachers who plays the Mongolian Horsehead Fiddle.  I love the sound of this instrument, and watching it being played is quite interesting.  Go here if you'd like to see a horsehead fiddle along with other traditional Mongolian instruments being played.  And go here for an exceptionally energetic rendition!  *

Here's the three teachers Kevin will be co-teaching with at this English-speaking school.  Many of the teachers are still working very hard at improving their English.  The two women on the far left and far right were two teachers I met with last spring in order to help them raise their English level.  This year, they are working toward the goal of teaching their subjects in English 100% of the time.  This is why Kevin was hired...to assist them in their teaching of the sciences as well as English.

This past weekend, two of the teachers came to our home.  We had a meal together and played a competitive game of Bananagrams, an English word-creation game.  We are looking forward to a profitable year of teaching and relationship building!

*If you'd like to see a longer version of the Mongolian Horsehead Fiddle, go here.  This is a 4 minute video.  At 1:30, the traditional Mongolian music changes to a classical piece.  Then, at 2:45, you can hear Traditional Mongolian Throat singing, which is amazing.