Confusion???

We’ve heard from one or two of you that you’re not always sure who’s writing what on this blog!  We’ve been sharing the job of writing and we don’t usually remember to say who the author is — sorry for the confusion!  The last blog, “Camping”, was actually co-written.  Mark wrote most of it, but Cinda inserted a portion above the pictures (it was Cinda’s slippers that Annika wore, but Mark was the one writing about the insect hatch . . .).  By the way, this is Cinda writing at this point, in case that makes a difference for you as you read. 

We have survived Survival Mongolian class and will start our new class on Monday.  We’ve already been in our respective ongoing classrooms and groups for the past week, so Monday just brings the new book — titled “Good Luck”!  Wonder what that’s supposed to mean?  Mark and Larry are in a class together with Zeday bagsh and had two days of testing to end their Survival course.  Krista and I are with Toya bagsh; I’m happy to say we did not have two days of testing, but I think I might have preferred a written test over 2 1/2 days of conversation in Mongolian — whew, that was a stretch for me since I don’t really talk all that much even in English!  But I can say it was really helpful to be forced to just try it and not worry so much about making mistakes.  We all three laughed a lot at the crazy things coming out of our mouths so it wasn’t all drudgery.  It seems like every mispronunciation means something else, usually something you definitely  wouldn’t want to say by mistake, if you know what I mean!  Anyway, laughing does make me more relaxed about the whole thing and gives me motivation to keep at it.  I’m finding that sometimes I can’t remember how to write things in English, usually just one or two letters rather than whole words, but enough to make me realize I’m making a tiny bit of progress in Mongolian.  It helps in typing that I don’t have the Cyrillic letters on here or I might be typing some crazy things.  I hope it doesn’t interfere with my Scrabble playing . . .

Last night we had a get-together of the Darhan families for cake and ice cream to celebrate Toby’s 4th birthday.  We had a lot of fun, a lot of noise, and a lot of cake and ice cream. 

simple is good for this year’s cake.  

surrounded by friends

getting ready for the party

Thanks, Grandma!

they picked out their own blankets at the market.  Unique Asian spotted deer and smiling tiger. . .