Living and Learning in the Land of the Blue Sky
We came across this fun little cartoon introduction to Mongolia and wanted to share. I’m sure there are details that we missed, but I wanted to highlight a few different things from the video with timestamps below. Enjoy! 0:24 Chinggis Khaan (the correct spelling/pronunciation of the historic figure known in the West as Genghis Khan) […]
Read More Welcome to MongoliaOne of the benefits of living cross-culturally is that we learn how to communicate better, but we have also learned how hard it can be to communicate when coming from very different backgrounds. We have had to develop several skills in order to have the authentic communication that is required for any relationship to survive […]
Read More Cross-Cultural Listening and LearningJune 1st is celebrated as Children’s Day in Mongolia. We’ve mentioned in past posts that Mongolians love children, and Children’s Day is no exception. There are street fairs, costumed characters, gift bags, and so on and so forth. Here is our family enjoying the celebration in Sukhbaatar Square in UB, June 2018.
Read More Children’s DayWhen I think of quarantine, I think of history–like a century or more in the past–not right now. Colonial America? Sure! The Plague (any one of them)? Absolutely! It’s a lot harder to think of ourselves as being in quarantine in today’s modern era with all of our technology and medical advancements, and yet, here […]
Read More Our New NormalMongolia and China are neighbors, so it’s natural to wonder if the recent Wuhan coronavirus (henceforth COVID-19) outbreak has spread north. Well, so far, there’s no evidence that COVID-19 has reached Mongolia at all. As soon as the outbreak began hitting news cycles, the Mongolian government shut down everything they could to keep the virus […]
Read More What about COVID-19?Previously, we’ve shared an overview of Mongolian food, what to expect for breakfasts, and shared a bit about typical lunch and dinner meals in Mongolia as well as where to eat them in UB. But what about the snacks?! Snacks are my love language, so of course, they get a post of their own. (Ok, […]
Read More Mongolian Food: Snacks & OtherRather than write out a list of foods, I figured it would be better to include another video of traditional Mongolian dishes. Mike Chen (Strictly Dumpling) does a good job of breaking down the traditional foods along with giving some great context for why Mongolian food is the way it is (namely: hearty, meaty, and […]
Read More Mongolian Food: Lunch & DinnerThe video above is a great look into the traditional Mongolian herders’ breakfast. You see a lot of uses for dairy–and making sure every part of the milk products are used–as well as an idea of how the different foods are prepared and consumed. From our experience in the city, this is not the norm […]
Read More Mongolian Food: BreakfastWhen in the US, a lot of people ask us what Mongolian food is like, and a typical second part of the initial question is, “Is it like Chinese food?” In short: no, it isn’t, although there are a few similarities. To be fair, what Americans typically think of as Chinese food isn’t really what […]
Read More Mongolian Food: IntroGandantegchinlen Monastery, Gandan Khiid, or simply Gandan, is a large complex on the north side of UB that consists of several temples, a monastery, and a few Buddhist educational centers. The two links above provide a decent rundown of the history of Gandan, so I will simply write here about my own experiences in this […]
Read More Gandan