4-hour concert, hike to a hilltop, lama fist fight, chopin ballet, and an indian dinner

It was a full weekend:

1. bought a snickers bar at a Buddhist Education Center
2. attended a 4-hour concert on Friday night, complete with Mongolian pop singers, Italian opera, Mongolia soldiers' choir, throat singers, and Mongolian traditional dancers
3. turned down offers of paper cups filled with pickle juice; managed three (small) bites of pig tongue on bread before admitting defeat
4. cheered for the MRPAM staff soccer team on powdery, powdery snow
5. hiked to the near-top of Nukht while learning about the advantages of the socialist system
6. learned how to count to three in Mongolian -- during the most intense tug-a-war tournament I will likely ever witness in all my days
7. sang along to 2Pac in the car ride home
8. slept 12 hours
9. walked in morning light up to Gandan Monastery to listen to the lamas chanting. witnessed a group of 8 to 10 year old boys in a punching/kicking fight, which wouldn't have been that remarkable --- except they were dressed in their lama robes just outside the monastery
10. bought a kilo of frozen chicken legs and a half kilo of yellow and red bell peppers
11. planned tomorrow's class
    
12. met up w Mandah, Javkhaa, and Bayasaa to tour the Mongolian Natural History Museum. Saw the space suit of Mongolia's first astronaut (who's now serving in Parliament) and a collection of preserved beetles
13. walked across Sukhbatar Square for the national Mongolian ballet company's Chopin performance... sat between a Mongolian student and a Nepali man who's working on coordinating a national movement for grassroots small-scale miner advocates
14. ate saag paneer and naan bread while talking about Nepali history and Mongolian geology
15. walked home underneath a nearly-full moon, crossing the street 3 times and not getting hit once