Accentuate the Positive

Rivers of Ulaanbaatar

I've been in Ulaanbaatar full time for over a month now and it's come to my attention that perhaps this blog has been a little negative about the experience of living and teaching in Mongolia.  I didn't think so, but a quick perusal of previous episodes showed me emphasising negative aspects for laughs.  It's been that way because, well, I find it ore interesting for me to write about the challenging parts of my experience here, rather than the mostly happy, fun times that can be had in UB.  So, let's accentuate the positive like General Westmoreland and count down some of things that I've enjoyed here:

1. The people (for the most part).  Every society has its assholes of course but Mongolians are pretty damn nice and friendly ... especially after spending 6 months in Beijing.   The feeling on the streets in UB is less circumspect, and more friendly, even if some of the dudes are thinking about robbing you.

2. Having a home base again is great.  Ever since moving out of Seddon in late December, Tess and I have been basically homeless, living in a series of temporary situations in successively more surreal spots (like the serviced apartment in the 5 star hotel while they were renovating the hotel's shopping mall).  Our new apartment has begun to feel like home.

3. The pathetic state of shopping markets as detailed below has led to a type of self reliance that lands of plenty suppress.  For the past couple weeks, I've made giant loafs of jewish rye, delicious no knead pizzas, funky as hell kimchi and yet to be tasted dill pickles from scratch.  We are growing (or trying to) our own herbs.  

4. Shipping costs to Mongolia are surprisingly (and randomly) low.  We got our friends Andy Croome and Amy Espeseth's new books flown up from Australia for 10 bucks.  I've ordered the new Flying Lotus LP with shipping from the UK for $7.  I just bought a portable turntable for little more than what it would have cost in Chicago when I saw it in June.  I'm not sure why costs are so low (perhaps miscalculation).

5. Aside from administrative minutiae (more on this soon), teaching has been good and endlessly engaging professionally.  Despite coming from completely different backgrounds and contexts, I'm seeing a lot of the same issues in terms of literacy skills as I did last year at Brimbank (without the behaviour issues though thankfully).   Teaching geography almost exclusively has its ups and downs but teaching outside my comfort areas has also meant that I've been trying new things for varying degrees of success.  One of the most interesting things has been the students' general lack of skills at doing activities and engaging in critical thinking.  Inquiry projects are also completely unknown here, as the pedagogical method of preference seems to be teacher centered lectures and rote learning, so far from the ideals of UniMelb's MTeach.  I'm trying to bring in those elements class by class but it's slow going from some classes.

Debate 2012

6. I've got another debate team under my wing to coach.  Last year, I guided the VUSC Debate Mighty Ducks to a landmark 4th place finish in the Essendon region, narrowly missing state finals.  The path to nationals in Mongolia is much more direct.  Basically, there's just one tournament (which we want to host) and, if you win, you're on your way to Asia region finals.  This year, I've been told they're in Tajikistan.  My school didn't win the national title but I think we're a chance due to the quality of the students and the relative lack of competition.  If we win, there's no way we could be worse than last year's Mongolian representatives (they came 50th out of a field of 50 in the Asian championships).

7.  Last week, I battled a bad case of food poisoning (it won).  I started to feel sick on Thursday morning but I went into school anyways, mainly because I had no idea how to take a sick day (another essential thing to know as a teacher).  It was OK for the first couple periods of the day (I was just preparing a lesson on Louis XIV) but then I took a turn for the worse and ended up barfing in the toilets literally minutes before I had to teach a double.  Somehow, I picked myself up and taught some grade 8 history and led the kids through a day in the life of the Sun King, assigned some work and then collapsed into my chair and held on until the bell rang.  At that point, I went home (the school was very good about that actually) for the day and the day after and finally felt better late on the weekend (thus delaying this episode).  It's not actually a very positive story but I was thinking about how teaching puts you into ridiculous scenarios and you generally just have to gut it out and perform.  There's no time to hide (when you're in front of a class) unless of course you're educational dead weight (teachers will know what I mean).

8. While sick, I watched the Breakfast Club on HBO for the first time since like high school.  Damn, what a great film.  I cried.