Greetings from Uliastai!

Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM still around.

And doing well! I made it to my site. We received our site announcements our first day in Darkhan; they brought all of us out to the Children's Park in Darkhan where there is a giant map of Mongolia. They called out the aimag, city or village name, and the HCA (Host Country Agency), and then the volunteer's name. I knew I would end up in a city, but didn't know where. Some people thought Ulaanbaatar, others thought maybe Erdenet or Choilbalsan--but you can never really guess; there are so many places you can go!

Zavhan Aimag, Uliastai, Economic University Branch in Zavhan!

Zavhan is located to the west (I am in the north-western region of Mongolia), and Uliastai is its provincial capital. It's not a very dense province, and in fact population growth for the province stopped in 1994--and in the Aimag Center of Uliastai, population growth has actually been negative as people move away. In a 2000 consensus, Uliastai was the 10th most populated city in the country with about 24,000 people. Now it is the 16th with an estimated population of about 16,000--however, my sitemates tell me that it's probably closer to 12 or 13,000. After talking to a few Mongolians, I've comfirmed that Zavhan is the coldest of Mongolia's 21 aimags, though really due to one city in the province with strangely abberant weather patterns that seem to always be comically cold.

This area is beautiful: Uliastai is surrounded my mountains that, apart from their granduer and majesty, are more valuable from the perspective of an easily-chilled Californian by their tendency to block the winds from the north. There are two rivers that wind through the city and actually provide fish!--Uliastai is one of the few places in Mongolia where you can actually get good fish.

I am living in a wooden house that has central heating (or will have central heating at some point in the frigid future), but unreliable electricity, particularly in the winter (though I hear it gets better every year). I have a wooden stove with which I can keep myself warm when the electricity is cut off; during winter, I hear electricity is sometimes turned off to homes during the day and turned off to businesses at night. I do have running water! But no drain or shower, though I find that my solar shower works great, and there is a shower room at my school.

All those who live in houses or gers live in the hashaa (yard) of a family. The head of my hashaa family is the dean of foreign languages at my university, and one of my counterparts! He knows English pretty well, and is very nice. My house is also about 1 minute from school (though this little door in the wall separating my yard and the university field; a feel a bit like Alice through the rabbit hole every time I go through it).

I will likely elucidate more upon my site as I get more settled in. I am still learning the layout of Uliastai and getting acclimated to life here (and still taking pictures!).

For those who want to send me letters or packages, thank you! Unfortunately, Peace Corps policy prevents me from publicly displaying my address. If you would like to send me something, feel free to e-mail me for my address! The P.O. Box address will also work; those who come in to visit me from UB can deliver any mail that comes to that address.

I've got a few blog posts in the works, so check back here often!

Cheers,
Karen