Admittedly, this post is not exactly a timely one as Women’s Day occurred on March 8th and Soldier Day happened March 18th. Last term was a bit of a whirlwind, and spring break was spent planning for the final term of the academic year. Once fourth term started, I’ve been trying to figure out maternity leave and baby stuff, so yeah…

Anyway, Women’s Day is similar to the US Mother’s Day, although it celebrates all women–mothers or not. Soldier Day is a bit of an equivalent to Father’s Day, but again, it celebrates all men–not just fathers. (And some of our female students complained this year that not all soldiers are men, but this is more or less the distinction between the two holidays.)

We celebrated Women’s Day at school and then after work with our colleagues. The male students put together some fun presentations at school for the female staff and faculty and for the female students. Here are a few pictures:

Then after work, we headed up to an event center past Zaisan for a special dinner (khorkhog) and karaoke!

To explain what I’m doing in the top right picture…khorkhog is roasted sheep that is cooked along with stones. The stones help distribute the heat better (I assume) and make for a better cooked, more tender meat. (Seriously, it’s so good!) When the khorkhog is served, people pass around the hot stones and hold–or quickly pass them back and forth between their hands–as it is thought to be healthy. It certainly helps with circulation! Because I’m pregnant, I got a stone of my very own and was encouraged to keep it for as long as I could. Eventually, my hands adjusted to the heat. 😉

Soldier’s Day occurred when we were at camp in the countryside. Again, there were student performances as well as camp counselor performances and even our staff/faculty got in on the fun. (Eric too!) After the general get together, the teachers left for their own celebration. It was a lot of fun!

Hopefully, I can get a few more posts up in the next few weeks to try to catch up the blog!

Until then,