My Childhood, Youth, Adulthood (Part 2)

As scary as it sounds, I tried to commit suicide when I was 16. I guess it was all in one: peer pressure, misunderstanding with my parents, my boyfriend, myself, etc. Fortunately, everything was OK. I was hospitalized for few days, and wen out with a warning not to do that again :)

After finishing my high school, I went to US for learning English. This influenced me a lot on my way of thinking, dressing, and communicating. I was 17, when I encountered the Western culture for the first time. It was beautiful and scary at the same time. It was the first time I could smell freedom. I used to watch Friends and cartoons with my host-sister, who was 3 at the time. I used to babysit her a lot, and we have become very close, like sisters. My host family was very nice to me, they encouraged me to learn, explore the new world of America.

After year in "strange" heaven, I have transferred to Schiller International University for College preparation classes. This is another pinpoint in my life, which made my eyes open wide. I have met many international students, seen many different cultures, attitudes, faces. They were so different, and so similar. It was strange. Let’s not go into details, let’s just say I had so much fun in that school, made many friends from all over the world.

Transfer from Schiller to University of Colorado at Denver was a pleasant surprise. It was real university courses, but mainly, my boyfriend was in Denver! How I missed him at that time. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. We moved in together, my friend who also transferred from Florida to Colorado, lived with us. It was fun time. I did everything in the household, and didn’t even bother to think that I’m spoiling my boyfriend. His clothes were ready and clean, whenever he needed. I made dinner and left for him, as he used to work late shifts. I loved him so much. We’ve been together on-and-off for 5 years, that year in Denver, was the last one. Unfortunately, we split up soon. I lived alone for a while. It was depressing, lonely phase of my life. I still have good communications with my first boyfriend. He is married and has a cute daughter.

Maybe...

Maybe I should shout to the world how I feel. Maybe I should just hide it and keep to myself. What is the best solution, I don't know. Do or will I ever know? I dunno. There were many times in my life, where I broke down and cried. But, I stood up once again, and carried on with my life. All broken, all scarred, but my heart was still hoping for a light. Now, I came to phase in my life, where my heart is numb, from all those hurt and scars. Will I be alive again? I dunno. Almost 30, I feel like uninterested to the excitement of life. Why would I be like this? I feel sick to my stomach that I have became so indifferent to life. Obviously, I have my kid, so I will go on. But my soul do not sing anymore. What should I do to make it sing, to make myself eager for life? I do live, people will see me as hard working single mom, nice personality. However, do they see my pain, my numbness? I guess not. It's no one's fault, this is how life goes on. Do I count days until my death, NO. Because I have kid, my family, my parents, my obligations. But do I life to the full, NO.
Well, let's just hope, this pessimism of mine goes away fast, and pray that this was just one of those days, when I get stressed and down. Cheers to ya all!

My Childhood, Youth, Adulthood (Part 1)

Few days ago, my friend was telling me his colorful stories of his childhood, which where adventurous, extraordinary, and unknown world to me. That made me think about my childhood.

I do not remember anything about my young ages, when I used to go to kindergarten. Only thing I remember was that I was fighting with a girl in kindergarten for a chair. I used to sit on a chair with logo of hedgehog, and I hated that. But that girls was sitting on a chair with rose, so I wanted that chair. Keke. Whenever I try to imagine myself trying to take someone's chair, it makes me laugh. I was very independent from young age. My brother was born with complications and he needed much more attention than I did, who was 4 at the time. I do not blame my parent, they were around my age when they had my brother, thus they were working and taking care of two children. I do not say they neglected me, but mentally I did not have sufficient support and understanding from them, as far as I can remember. I was there, healthy, disciplined, quite little girl.

I was a quite girl in school. Tall and slim girl, with short cut hair. My grades where excellent until Grade 5-6. No one noticed me in school. But I had my fair friends, two of them are still my best friends. Then in summer of Grade 8, I have changed. I rebelled against everyone, including myself. It is strange memory that I have about my high school years, it was filled with countless fun with classmates, classes, teachers, love, hatred, disappointments, depression, etc. But, I survived!!!

(This part was about my early ages, next one will be on more on teenage and youth periods. )

Driving in UB

To all the drivers of UB, I have one question: How is it to drive in UB?
I feel like I'm participating in crazy drunk driving game that we play in computer games. You have to be aware of unprofessional drivers that might suddenly pull out of nowhere. No proper usage of signals light can be seen among city drivers. Everyday you could see drivers running thought red lights. Many people are injured in accidents. You hear horror stories, "2 killed, 9 killed in road accidents." People are shocked for short time, but then the chaos on the roads continues. Driving schools are for 45 days. Can you imagine that you would acquire required driving techniques and knowledge in such a short time? Worse, one can buy the driving license in Mongolia. Is isn't it ironic?

Another thing to point out is the inadequate culture of pedestrians. They cross the roads anywhere they want, look to totally wrong directions, run then stop, etc. Obviously, better and nearby crosswalks are need to be built, be it on the road, the bridge or underground tunnel. We better educate ourselves about danger and safety of crossing motor passageways.

What those dumb traffic policemen are doing? Nothing! They do not manage the traffic, instead they create the jam keke. They on the road only to charge the penalty and pocket that money! Poor men!

After all, what should the driver do? Follow the crowd, be as aggressive, impolite and improper. Viva UB roads!

FACTS THAT ARE GOOD TO KNOW

Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.

If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact.

The world's first speed limit regulation was in England in 1903. It was 20 mph.

The wristwatch was invented in 1904 by Louis Cartier.

There are 31,557,600 seconds in a year.

Natural gas has no odor. The smell is added artificially so that leaks can be detected.

The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen, 21.5% oxygen, 0.5% argon and other gases.

The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminum.

The chemical n-acetyl-cysteine found in raw eggs is proven to help hangovers.

Between 1931 and 1969, Walt Disney collected thirty-five Oscars.

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was created in 1939, in Chicago, for the Montgomery Ward department stores for a Christmas promotion.

The first time the "f-word" was spoken in a movie was by Marianne Faithfull in the 1968 film, "I'll Never Forget Whatshisname." In Brian De Palma's 1984 movie, "Scarface," the word is spoken 206 times - an average of once every 29 seconds.

The term karaoke means "empty orchestra" in Japanese, and the karaoke machine was designed originally to provide backing tracks for solo cabaret performers.

Time magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1938 was Adolf Hitler.

The under construction Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the world's current tallest freestanding structure on land, rising 604.9 m (1,985 ft) as of 5 February 2008. When completed, it is planned to rise over 700 m (2,297 ft).

Leonardo DaVinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503. The Mona Lisa is 77 by 53cm. He was still working on the painting when he immigrated to France in 1516, and is believed to have finished it three years later, just before he died. The painting has remained in France ever since and is owned by the state.

(http://www.corsinet.com/trivia)

Preserving water? Being Economical?

Every morning I have to go through rather "distressing" process. I have to let open my hot water for about 30-40 minutes in order to get proper hot water to take shower, wash my face, etc. I cannot imagine amount of clean water wasted each morning by me. Probably, most apartment residents do the same. I heard my friends do the same, who live in different parts of the UB. Tons of clean water is wasted just to get hot water. Is it economical? No. Environmentally, it is disastrous. However, I need hot water. All city residents need proper hot water flowing from the mixers. It made me think about electricity, water, and heat usage in UB. It is very inefficient. Nowadays, when it is very warm outside, people do not need central heating, and they open their windows to cool down the rooms. Central heating for residential areas will stay until May 15, for another 1 month. I thought to myself, how come we do not build houses and apartment blocks that utilize unit boilers, room and water heaters. It is obvious that Mongolia is not rich in natural gases, and if we were to utilize gas as the source of heating and cooking, it would not be economical too. However, each house, apartment could have electric mini-boiler, that heats the radiators in the rooms and hot water whenever needed. I would prefer to have electric heated shower, than to run the water for 30 minutes. It will save me time, money, obviously and most importantly it will save clean water. Is there anyone experiencing the same problem and feeling bit guilty? Why can't we do something about it? Or am I being too sarcastic and spaced-out? Keke

Smell of Elections

Mongolian Parliament Election is in June 2008. You could already smell it. In anticipation of upcoming elections most officials are busy with promoting themselves, making propagandas, and election campaigns in their election regions. There is nothing wrong with that, every country has this issue. However, in Mongolia it has good and bad sides. Every street and road becomes clean and paved. Your apartment blocks are fixed, if you have any problems the officials, election candidates, are very nice and will listen to you. They will build playgrounds, they will fight for the rights of the residents in the local area, will get your land back from greedy businesses, etc. However, as soon as the election finishes, it suddenly becomes so quite. Feels like the area, which was just bursting and bubbling with activities, got empty. Until the elections, no major decision will be made. Do not hope to accomplish your job before elections. "Wait until the end of it", is the usual recommendation. All mobile phones are switched off. Office numbers are either busy, or the officials are not there. As soon as the officials step into the "power seats" reverse will happen. Your living area will be trashed, the land will be granted to greedy corporates etc. The playground will break down, it will wait for 4 years, until the next election.

"I'm really sorry to bug you Mr. Authority Official, but I need my tasks to be completed and my work to be done. The world does not wait until end of the elections! Jesus! Please hear me and do your job!!!"

Land of dreams

MORTGAGE MARKET

I and many other young people are struggling to get a decent mortgage. There is limited mortgage market in Mongolia. Only few lenders offer mortgage up to 70 million MNT with sky rocketed interest rate for very short period of 15 years. The lowest interest available is 1.3% per month, which makes 15.6% annual interest. In addition, it is very hard to get one of those mortgages for young people, as they do not have sufficient funds, guarantees.

Recently, I saw an advertisement on new apartment. Their offer was 800 USD per sq. meter. This was newspaper from March 14, 2008. I called the company on March 31^st. They told me that they have changed the price to 1,000 USD a week ago. So, in two weeks the price of the housing increased by 200 USD/sq. meter. Insane? Reality? Check please!