a great book, awful movie, and more of Mongolia

What a strange night.

I started and finished "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" this evening. I have no idea how I managed, but I had never, ever picked up the book before... I realized about a third of the way through it what cruel thing I'd done to myself: I'd picked up the first of a series that I would definitely want to read more of... except I'm in Mongolia, and I don't think I'll be breathing anywhere close to another Harry Potter book until I'm in the Beijing or L.A. airport. That's not until the end of February.

So I finished the book, and then felt like moping. The Twilight Zone episode of the man with glasses, also came to mind: he who wanted nothing but to have time to read his books; but in the last scene, when his dream has actually come true, he steps forward toward the city library and shatters his glasses - "all the time to read in world, but unable to read a word".

After finishing Harry Potter tonight, I felt a little like that. Perhaps I was being a little dramatic.

But anway. Okay, so after I finished reading a magical, whimsical tale that I loved, I watched a terrible, horrible movie, The Black Dahlia, with Hilary Swank and Scarlet Johannsen. SO terrible. Think of the enthusiasm that people have for Harry Potter, and then put an equal/mirror amount to figure out just how bad this movie was. And for all you people like me, who might then become interested in seeing what exactly makes a movie so dreadful, save it. It was SO creepy that now I need to reread Harry Potter and take a bubble bath to cleanse some part of my soul. Yuck.

In other news, I went to Ena's house today. Her parents made me khorshel (fried meat dumplings) and 'salad' (equal parts potatoes and mutton, with some pieces of hard boiled egg). They live outside of UB by about 20 minutes; after we ate and watched several routines of Russian couple figure ice-skating on the Russian sports channel, Ena and I ventured outside to fetch water for her parents. It was -30 degrees today. I could swear that it felt colder.
It was wonderful being with her family. Her father is a champion Mongolian wrestler; her mother teaches language arts at an elementary school. I asked if I could visit her classes, and she got very excited. I'll be visiting sometime in the next week or so with Ena...
I think I'll read something by Dr. Seuss.

Yesterday I cooked dinner for group of 8. Everyone came over to my apartment; beforehand, I went out to the wonderful, truly Mongolian market that's about a 10-minute walk away. I bought 2 kilos of chicken legs from a woman gnawing on a pork chop (cooked), as she ate over the horse innards, sheep heads, mutton meat, and fish (uncooked). That was incredible, and one of the most memorable moments of my life. Seriously.

I also managed to find broccoli from one of the vendors.... and through the whole experience, I realized just how Ena and all my Mongolian friends have been my guides to this place; they have helped me so much to navigate it.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Tsogt, a Mongolian man who studied English at Spring last year (while I was here for the first time), and then I'm supposed to go to the Wrestling Palace (yay Mongolian wrestling!) and then afterward, if I'm lucky, Ena and I will go to a Mongolian country music concert at the Circus (although you likely know nothing about this kind of music, if you're not Chris Tombari, you should be excited for me).

Next week's going to be another good week. I've been looking at some horseback riding trekking outfitters, and I think I might brave the violently arctic temperatures to get a weekend day of riding in (or even to do a 'real' hut trip from ger to ger). I'll keep you posted.