Thanksgiving 2011

This year, inspired by Jimmy Fallon's "Thank You Note" segment, I will write my 2011 Thanksgiving list in Thank You note form.

~Thank you, God, for creating and providing all of the following.

~Thank you, family, for welcoming me home, housing me during my unemployment, and spending a whole year's worth of holidays together. Are you sick of me yet?

~Thank you, friends, old and new friends, at home and afar. I'm a better person for knowing you all and darn lucky.

~Thank you, world, for being so lovely, beautiful, and interesting. 2011 shout outs: South Korea, China, Mongolia, Siberia, and Russia.

related...

~Thank you, Couchsurfing, for being the greatest idea of all time, for all the wonderful, gracious hosts I've had and for several delightful hosting experiences since I've been back in Iowa.

~Thank you, CIEP job, for supplying me with sufficient funds, friendly co-workers, funny students, joyous moments and moments to vent about.

~Thank you Egypt, Tunisia, etc. for inspiring change around the world and in the U.S.

~Thank you, private hospital assistance program for the uninsured, for saving me a second trip to the hospital from relieving the stress of a $15,000 bill.

which leads to...

~Thank you, Obama care, for allowing me to go back on my parent's insurance for the next 6 months, even if it was one month after my surprise hospital visit.

~Thank you, Cedar Falls family (Prat, Kat, Kayla), for being awesome and fun and good cooks.

~Thank you, professors (and teachers everywhere), for inspiring and challenging students everywhere despite the lack of respect and money you receive in return. And a HUGE thanks to my UNI profs for the scholarship next semester.

~Thank you anyone who has given me a ride this last year: for graciously sharing your gas and time. I will re-pay you with all the rides you want in my new car (starting tomorrow).

~Thank you Conan O'Brien: for still being funny.

Boxcar-ish adventures: Across Siberia

And months later (sorry!) the story continues....

It was a sad goodbye to Artur in Irkutsk, but I was excited to experience the four day train ride to Moscow. We had several movies downloaded, fully charged Ipods, a few books, the dice for Yahtzee and a grocery bag full of instant potatoes, noodles, bread, cheese, sausage, and sardines that Artur insisted we buy; what else would one need to travel across Siberia?

As soon as we boarded the train we attracted the attention of a group of young, Russian soldiers just released from their military service. When they weren't drinking, they were smoking and trying to communicate with us in Russian. It was entertaining until Matt and I tried watching a movie which was interrupted every 30 seconds as one soldier or another would try to put together a thought in English to try out on us. But that's ok, we still loved them.

Throughout the next day the soldiers one-by-one hopped off in their hometowns. But no worries, the departing soldiers were replaced by more soldiers heading west. These soldiers were younger than the other ones and loved to show off their uniforms, badges, medals, and videos from their phones. I was really hoping one would slip up and show me a video exposing some big Russian military secret but alas, just videos of tanks, guns and the soldiers messing around were shared. Dang it.

The view of winter in Siberia whizzing by out the window of the train was at times magical. Fresh, pure, white snow sitting on top of these small, wooden cabin-looking houses. At each stop we got out to stretch our legs and play in the snow. As the train rolled up to the stations people lined up along the train trying to sell all kinds of random goods: scarfs, socks, toys, gloves and at one stop....a home-cooked meal of roasted chicken with veggies. Best idea I'd seen yet! Matt and I had been eating instant noodles and potatoes for days so when we saw (and smelled!) this lovely food we instantly handed over the amount she was asking without a hesitant thought to bargain. We probably paid 3 times the amount it should have cost but we didn't care in the slightest....it tasted aaaaaaamazing!

Besides the soldiers, Matt made friends with a rolly-polly (we were quite surprised the top bunks held a few of them!) group from Belarus our last night on the train when he drank an excess of vodka. They laughed a lot at us and made sure Matt was safely strapped in his bed when it was bedtime. There was also a less-and-less-cute-each-day toddler running up and down the aisle, giggling early in the morning. But it was all part of the immersion experience riding in the platzkart, aka the cheapest seats on the train.

We had been progressively reading through my guidebook about Moscow, making plans, discussing hostels and whatnot as the Siberian trip rolled on, so after 4 days on the train we felt ready to be in the booming metropolis. Even if it was 4:41 a.m. and darn cold when we arrived. Whatever, we made it!

Boxcar-ish adventures: Lake Baikal

Sorry for the delay in this post. Life became busy all of a sudden due to....a new job! *high fives* More on that when the Trans-Siberian travel stories are properly recorded.

To pick up where I left off...

Our visas were registered and off to Lake Baikal we went. Forty-five minutes in a microbus (aka mini van) took us to Listvyanka, a ghost town on the lake's snowy edge. To be fair, in the summer time this village is probably hoppin' with tourists but in December it's spookishly quiet. We spotted, off the one street that ran through town, what looked like a guesthouse. The lights were all turned off, we nervously shouted "Hello!" across the lobby, and just when we were about to leave an old woman greeted us from the shadows in Russian. Ah! She was as surprised as we were since I'm sure we were probably her first guests in months. An older, shirtless man emerged a few minutes later upon hearing all the English/Russian/body language commotion involved in communicating we wanted a room. We worked things out but without knowing Russian it was hard to tell if they were excited or bothered by our presence.

We threw down our bags then decided to check out the market to find some food. It was empty beside a few brave souls trying to sell us their unappetizing dried fish varieties or overpriced traditional Russian trinkets. Hmm, no thanks. I'm sure they were all thinking, "What are these crazy English-speaking tourists doing here in the dead of winter?" Getting desperate and cold, we finally found a little shop selling meat, cheese and bread. That plus some black tea from our guesthouse lady tasted like a million bucks.

We woke up excited to see and hike around the glorious Lake Baikal. Glorious because it's home to 1/5 of the world's fresh water. Plus it's the world's oldest and deepest lake. Pretty good stats, eh? But then we looked out the window to see snow violently swirling around and lost some of our excitement......MEGA BURRRRR! We bundled up with all the layers we could but it didn't seem to matter. BURRRRR! I don't know the official temperature that day but it was officially the coldest I've ever felt and hopefully ever will feel. It was somewhere around -1,000 Celsius (in my head). Needless to say, the walk along the lake was brief and the hiking was cancelled. That left the seal museum and the Lake Baikal museum as options. Seal museum! Closed. Lake Baikal museum! Expensive, all in Russian but heated and with a small aquarium housing three adorable Baikal seals. A small win amongst a day of losses.

Matt paid too much for the Baikal's famous smoked omul while I paid too much for a mushroom and chicken "salad" consisting of just mushrooms and chicken doused in mayo. 'Twas the straw the broke the camel's back. Now I can laugh thinking about that day but I was surely not laughing at the time. Good riddance,Listvyanka! If we meet again, it'd better be summertime.

Back to Irkutsk for one final night with our dear couchsurfing host, Artur before our long ride to Moscow.

Boxcar-ish adventures: Mongolia to Irkutsk

Our first train ride of the journey began in a comfortable kupe: the four person sleeping room. Matt and I shared the room with a man named Yun Den, a Russian from the Buryat region of Siberia, and a woman also traveling to Irkutsk (the place Matt and I were going). Both were very quiet, watching us, as Matt and I got settled. It took a little vodka drinking on Yun Den’s part before he started speaking to us in nearly perfect English. Yun Den was pure entertainment.

(Yun Den and Matt)

We were stopped at the Russian border. For 6 hours. 6 loooong hours. Matt and I were not prepared. We mistakingly thought we would be in Irkutsk when we woke up the next morning. Turns out it would be the following day. Of course! We had two borders to cross...I guess we hadn’t thought that through too well. Yun Den wakes up to a breakfast of vodka while Matt and I sat munching on the few rolls left to our name (we only brought food for one night). The intimidating Russian border control officers raided our cabin, starred us down, we starred back (under Yun Den’s instructions) and off they went with our passports.

We got our passports back a few hours later and after explaining our lack of food situation, Yun Den agreed to accompany us to a small supermarket. He advised us on some good cheese, sausage and beer. As we leave the shop Yun Den suddenly stopped, looked from side to side and asked, “Do we need some more vodka?” (He already had vodka on the train mind you) Matt responded with, “Oh, well, we have some beer now so I think we’re ok.” “Beer is beer but vodka is VODKA!” he shouted. “I think we need some more vodka.” And off he goes back into the supermarket. We followed laughing...Oh, Yun Den.

We passed the time on the train by reading, watching a few downloaded TV show off my Ipod which Yun Den found very interesting (“I’ve seen these before but I thought they were toys!”), listened to podcasts, and when that wasn’t entertaining enough, Matt pulled out the 5 dice we bought in Beijing (best purchase of the trip--by far!) for some Yahtzee! Yun Den learned quickly, a little too quickly if you ask me. Good thing we weren’t playing for money or prizes--he would have cleaned us out!

Yun Den was full of advice about traveling in Russia and as with most Russians with a little alcohol in his system, openly talked about his grievances against the Russian government and the economic situation of the present. We couldn’t have asked for a better first cabin mate, seriously. We were disappointed when he left us but our quiet cabin that night spurred us to go talk to an cool Aussie couple further down the car from us. They had a guitar! Their love for folk music was evident, therefore producing a lovely evening of chatting, playing, singing, or listening to singing, in my case and beer drinking.

An arrival in Irkutsk in the brisk early morning didn’t leave many options but to hangout in a cafe, sipping coffee with the Aussies while we waited to meet up with our Couchsurfing host, Artur. Aww, *loving sigh* Artur! Our Siberian angel. He graciously met us in the city center even though we were a whole day later than we expected, then welcomed us to his beautiful home.

(Artur and Matt)

Artur’s house offered us our first shower in 7 days--it was simply glorious! Then he took us to Irkutsk’s beautifully iced over dam, showed us around the city, and introduced us to some of his friends. As it turns out and was proven, Artur is Irkutsk's most well-known citizen! Every few meters we would run into one of his friends along the sidewalk (Artur swears this wasn’t normal...but I don’t believe him)!

(Irkutsk dam)

Later that night we took Artur up on an invitation to have a traditional Russian meal at his grandparent’s house. Artur has been a Couchsurfing host for while, has hosted dozens of people, but Matt and I were his first Americans. And he has never taken anyone surfers to meet his grandparents before. This was an extra special night for all of us; Americans and Russians unite.

His sweet, sweet grandparents and aunt greeted us with a table full of delicious foods; dumplings, pancakes, creams, homemade jams, etc. Bellies filled, we talked through Artur’s translations. His grandfather even brought out his medals from back in the Soviet days to show us! What an honor to be there in his grandparents’ home that night. I will never forget it. To top off the night when we got back to Artur’s place, we got to meet Artur’s mother before we crawled into bed. Another sweet, hospitable, and gracious women to add to the list.

(Russian dumplings-Pelmeni- and pancakes-Blini)

The next day Artur spent a ridiculous number of hours helping Matt and I to register our visas. I could write a whole blog on the visa nonsense but I will leave it at this: The Russian government still does not like foreign visitors. They better change their policies before they host the 2018 World Cup they so desperately wanted or sh*t is gonna hit the fan. And I will happily join in the sh*t throwing.

I digress.

After we took care of our visas, we decided to take a short trip out to Lake Baikal, the world’s largest and deepest fresh water lake.

Next stop: Lake Baikal

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes...

Boxcar-ish adventures: Mongolia

Matt and I had no idea what to expect in Mongolia except we knew we would be Couchsurfing in a ger (traditional Mongolian home). We also knew the temperatures were going to be horrendously cold. But we could sense that Mongolia would be the best part of our trip and boy, was that true.

Upon arrival in the dark, smokey Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital city, the nice man on our flight helped us contact our Couchsurfing host and arranged a taxi to take us to our host's ger. We knew our original contact, Khishig, would not be home that night (true story: he was off in the countryside hunting to bring back meat for the winter), but we were greeted by his adorable wife, Oogi, their 9-month-old baby, Oogi's two beautiful sisters, and two large dogs that I'm positive wanted to eat me.

They welcomed us into their ger, offered us tea and gave over their bed for us. The wood-burning stove in the middle of the ger kept us sweating while we chatted and got to know each other. By this time it was very late and definitely time for bed. Oogi warned us as we went to bed with just a few blankets over us that we might feel cold in the night as the fire died out. Ooooooooh my! It got cold. I seriously think my teeth were chattering.

In the morning, Oogi loaded the stove with wood again and cooked us a tasty potato, horse, rice meal. We unthawed as we ate, deciding to put on more layers for the day exploring the city. Oogi's friend, Undra, came over and agreed to be our tour guide/errand runner for the day. She helped us exchange money, buy our train tickets to Russia, check our email; all the busy work humbo jumbo. Then she took us to the hot spots of Ulaanbaatar; the Winter Palace, the Genghis (Chinggis) Khaan statue, the Natural History Museum and....Cashmere World! Ok, so the stop in Chasmere World was just a desperate attempt by Matt and I to be inside and warm. Although, cashmere is one of Mongolia's top exports.....so, yeah.

Back at the ger, Oogi was busy organizing a trip to the countryside for Matt and I. When we got back with Undra she presented us with all the information. We would be able to go horseback riding and experience nomadic life. We were worried about freezing to death but decided we could not pass up this opportunity to be a nomad. Nakuu, our guide whose family we would stay with, arrived at Oogi's to travel with us. Nakuu didn't speak much English, but he had spent three months working in Korea and could speak a bit of Korean. Assa! This made for hilarious communication using a mixture of Korean and English and lots of laughing. Undra also joined our troupe as our translator and off we went to the bus station.

Three hours later after a whistle from the bus driver, the four of us get off the bus into pitch black wilderness. We stepped off the side of the road into deep snow to start our 1 km hike to Nakuu's family. Then out of nowhere headlights appeared in the field and screeched to a stop next to us. "My brother," Nakuu said. We hopped in, drove at 100 mph across the open field and stopped in front of two gers.

"Welcome to my home."

The pictures describe the experience better than countless paragraphs could. It was hands-down the coolest experience of my life. Out in the vast, open, untouched countryside, riding on a horse, taking in the breathtaking view with people who have opened up their home to you...you can't help but let out a big "wahooooo!"

We watched two horses be lassoed and killed. Then we helped make horse dumplings for dinner that night. Cruel? Absolutely not. These people work hard for their food, appreciate exactly where it comes from, and waste nothing. Something us Americans have completely lost sight of. We ate a lot of bread covered in butter, topped with sugar and drank a LOT of milk salt tea. We went sledding down the hill behind our ger on an old satellite dish and learned Mongolian wrestling. We milked goats and cows. We drank fresh yogurt and chewed lots of kurt (look it up). Hey Dorothy, we weren't in Korea anymore.

Oogi, Khishig (now back from the countryside), and two friends came to pick us up and bring us back to the city. It was sad to say goodbye to our new nomadic family, but I hope I can return there someday, preferably in the summer months. The ride back was in itself, interesting (never a dull moment in Mongolia). The back of the van was full of Khishig's sheep hides waiting to be sold. Every half hour or so we would stop along the road and Khishig would get out to try and sell the hides. He sold most of them. Also, our lane was snowy and icy so our driver kept driving (at high speeds) in the opposite lane, moving back and forth across the ice as cars approached....I stopped watching after a while so I wouldn't have a panic attack. Oh, and we had a shady run in with the police. Fun times.

The last day in Mongolia was spent visiting a temple, shopping for much needed goods like fleece-lined leggings, and karaoke in the city. Thank you Korea for bringing karaoke to Mongolia! Although that darn karaoke almost made us late for our train. We hopped on minutes before it departed, in typical Kelly traveling style. The first leg of our epic train journey had started!

Pictured: (back: Undra, Oogi, Khishig, Matt. front: Me, Oogi and Khishig's baby)

Next stop: Siberia (Irkutsk)

Boxcar-ish adventures

As a child, I was an avid reader of the Boxcar Children series. Remember Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny? I wanted to be them sooooo bad. But who didn't? I wanted to enter their world. I secretly hoped that there was some secret Narnia-like closet that could take me back in time to them. Back to a time when a whole day of work was worth one dollar. And that one dollar could buy bread and milk and cheese for four. I wanted desperately to live in an abandoned boxcar next to a brook. And to eat off cracked dumpster dishes. And to be parent-free (but with a mysteriously rich grandfather). I wanted their adventure.

There were no abandoned boxcars near my home as a child but back behind the corn field there was a perfect spot for a fort right next to the railroad tracks. Behind our apartment and over the barbed wire fence was the county lot. The county lot was much like the city dump/storage area. It was full of danger and adventure as people (especially children) weren't allowed to be snooping around in it. But we did. All the time. During those long summer days when both my parents were working, out in the fort with my brother and other friends, I really did feel like a boxcar kid.

I got a boxset of the Boxcar Children books for Christmas this year (Thanks Caleb!) so I'm currently re-living their adventures. I LOVE them, enough said.

As many of you know, my latest, nonfictional, adventure was taking the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Starting in Busan, South Korea and ending in Moscow, Russia (then home to Iowa). It's time I share stories and pictures from the epic journey.

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Just barely missing the shots from North Korea on November 23rd, Matt and I flew out from Seoul to Beijing. A shockingly cold few days of sightseeing followed, causing us to question our plans to keep heading north to Mongolia and Siberia. Who's idea was that anyway? Oh me....that's right. Since this was my 3rd time to the city I acted as Matt's personal tour guide. We hit up all the classic tourist spots, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Olympic Park, Pearl Market and the Great Wall. We were lucky to be there during a "blue sky" day as the locals called it. Otherwise known as a day when the city is not covered in layers of dirty smog. Awww.....so sad.

Thanksgiving dinner was without turkey but replaced by an equally delicious bird; Peking duck. That day we had hiked 6 km along the Great Wall, eating nothing but junk like ramen, Snicker bars, chips. We cleaned ourselves up for our big dinner and splurged on a taxi to take us the the restuarant only to sit and wait for an hour (we didn't think to make reservations). Hunger really is the best seasoning. Finally we were seated, the duck was brought out and was eaten as fast as it was being cut in front of us. YUM.

Just when we thought our Beijing adventure was over it was extended by an extra 8 hours due to a weather delay. Yipee. We were put up in a business hotel near the airport. They served us lunch and dinner at the hotel. This gave us a chance to get to know others on our flight and one man who turned out to be our first Mongolian angel.

Next: Mongolia and nomadic adventures.