Gandan Khiid

Gandan Khiid is the biggest temple in Ulaanbaatar and (it's my understanding) one of the most important in all of Mongolia (though I could be wrong, so if I am, I'll stand corrected).  Some of my very first posts in this blog are from Gandan Khiid, but here is another picture I took of Gandan Khiid (and the surrounding ger district) from the top of the hill at that very magical ovoo.

Mini Monks

This photo was blurry because I was super far away from these bos and I didn't want to get too close to them to take the picture because I didn't want it to be obvious that I was taking a picture of them and, ahem, I did not want to ask permission to take their photo and have them tell me "no", so I just zoomed like crazy, and since my current camera only has something like 3.5X zoom, and then I have to go into digital zoom, this picture super sucks (even if the subjects are interesting).  I'll tell you (or Santa) all about my dream camera later on.

Happy Hallowe'en

Yes, technically, the word "Hallowe'en" has an apostrophe in it.  I spelled it that way one time when I worked in Korea, and all my coworkers thought I had made a typo.  I guess they can be forgiven for not knowing, since all my coworkers were either Korean or British, and they don't celebrate Hallowe'en the way we loudmouth, holiday-creating North Americans do.

Anyway, as you know from a few of the pictures in a few of my older posts, I went to the Choijin Lama Temple Museum.  It remains one of my favourite sights in Ulaanbaatar, even now that I've been here for awhile.  I think it's a definite must-see.  Anyway, in the big temple, on the ceiling, there are these wild paintings of blood and gore and viscera.  I was like, "Whoa!".  Then I snuck a picture.  Most of my pictures of the bloody, gory viscera paintings are either dark, blurry, or both because you have to pay an extra 5000 Tugrugs to take pictures inside the museum, and I'm cheap as fuck, so any pictures I took, I had to sneak (shhh, don't tell, k?).  Anyway, on my way out of the temple, I noticed that this is called the "temple of mercy"... wtf?  If that is the Mongol idea of mercy, I'd hate to see what they conceive of as torture.  Anyway, happy Hallowe'en!  I hope everyone gets some really good goodies today!

Gandan Khiid #2

Here's another photo I took at Ghandin Khiid last weekend.  There are plenty of people selling bird feed for a few cents, and just as many people willing to buy it to feed the pigeons.  I generally try to give pigeons a wide, berth, myself!

Pigeons and People

Gandan Khiid Monastery

I usually try to get as few people in my photos as possible, but there were so many people at Ghandin Khiid last weekend, that I just sucked it up and shot a few photos with people and everything in it.  I kind of like the way this one turned out, with all the people leaving and the pigeons up in the air.  It seems full of life.

Pigeons and People at Ghandin Khiid in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

This is my life

I spent my entire life in the same small prairie town in Canada, and for most of my life, I dreamed of traveling.  When I was a very young child, I didn't realise that travel was where my interests lay, but my childhood dreams and aspirations should have given me a pretty good clue about what I would later on do with my life: when I was a very little girl, my dream was to learn how to speak every language in the world.  As I grew older, speaking English at home and attending a French Immersion school, and as I realised how difficult it is to learn just one additional language, I soon realised that this dream was impossible.  When I attended university, I satisfied my childhood dream by choosing majors that allowed me to discover where (most of) our language today comes from (Classics/Greek/Latin) and to learn all about the inner workings of language, the deep structure and the surface structure of language (linguistics).  If I can't learn all the languages, I guess I figured I would learn how to talk about them as scientifically as possible.

By the time I convocated, my feet were so itchy, staying in Canada to do graduate work was not an option (it's kind of a regret-- I would have loved to have done graduate work in linguistics!).  But, I try to live my life with no regrets.  I'm trying (more and more) to be open to every new experience open to me.  I have lived in Korea for three years, France for about five months, and Kuwait for one year.  I have also backpacked all over Asia and through much of the Middle East.  A week ago, on a whim, I moved to Mongolia.  I've finally decided it's high time I started a blog and shared my experiences with the world, even if nobody listens or nobody cares.  I'm going to share my experiences by sharing one new photo a day (there may be days when that is not possible, since the internet connection here in Ulaanbaatar is not always reliable, but I'll certainly do my best).  I'll only post photos which I took myself and the aim is to post only current photos (from within the past two weeks of the posting date), although occasionally, I might also post a photo from my past five years of traveling.  If you're reading this, I guess it means you found this blog.  If you find this blog, I hope you enjoy it!

Door Knocker from the Choijin Lama Temple Museum in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia