Mark & Kara's Travels: Happy Thanksgiving!

by Kara

Last week we went to Ulaanbaatar for flu shots, for my GRE, and to celebrate Thanksgiving with Peace Corps Staff and Volunteers. We also snuck up to Erdenet for a few days and saw some friends who live there. Erdenet is the third largest city in Mongolia and has most of the benefits of a big city – of primary importance for me, availability of a diversity of food. They even have home pizza delivery! You don’t even have to call – you just send them a text message. And this is also possible because they have relevant addresses! I know, pretty amazing.

Here are some photos of Erdenet:

There's a huge Soviet and Russian influence in Erdenet, exemplified by the images of Marx and Lenin. I think this something about how Marx's teachings are the best and most powerful. I could be wrong though.

Lenin

Though you can't exactly tell because we're all bundled up (it was FREEZING that day), that's Mark and I at the friendship monument. (Showing the friendship between Russia and Mongolia. Awwww.)

Erdenet, in its all glory.

After we got the flu shots, the GRE, and travels to Erdenet out of the way (Erdenet was good, but still required another 13 hours on a bus, a few of which were spent with the girl next to me playing with my hair), we got to enjoy more time with friends in UB. Peace Corps brought in all the volunteers from our group for shots, so it was a nice little reunion for all of us. Overall the trip left us happy, but broke (UB is expensive!).

Here are some photos of our great Thanksgiving celebration:

This was the meal we ate on Thanksgiving (our big Thanksgiving meal with everybody was on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, because having it on a Saturday is more convenient). We decided on Indian food - really, really good Indian food. I was really excited in this photo because the restaurant brought out a free little snack for us while we were waiting for our friends to arrive. That's very fancy for a restaurant here.