The Eye of Tengri: Blue Christmas

You know, now three weeks without using the internet doesn’t seem like such a long time.

I was excited to get a nifty thermometer for Christmas and installed it in my ger. If I make a fire, the thermomemeter will spring up as high as 37°C (98.6°F). If I don’t make a fire, during the middle of the day the temperature in my ger stays fairly consistently just below 0°C (32°F). Unfortunately, it only goes down to -10°C (14°F), and every morning when I wake up it’s at the lowest reading, so I’m never sure if it’s really -10°C or if it actually got colder and my thermometer was just unable to register it.

Speaking of Christmas, I spent Christmas in the аймгын төв (aimgiin töv, provincial center) with five other regional PCVs, two Korean KOICA volunteers and some of their Mongolian friends. Mongolians don’t get Christmas off, but luckily it was on a Sunday this year. Next year I may have to file for time off to celebrate.

When I got back, some of my possessions were frozen, and some weren’t. The peanut butter, 5% vinegar, soybean oil, and milk (4%!), as well as all water, froze. The jelly, 70% vinegar, bleach, and dish soap did not.

My village had a Christmas-themed New Year’s party with a blue Santa Claus. Mongolians don’t know much about American holidays and most of them think Christmas is the American New Year. I told some people that it’s a different holiday, but I think what they got out of it was, “Americans celebrate New Year’s on December 25.”