Eve of Presidential Election

Tomorrow Mongolians will elect their fifth president. Here are the three candidates, from left to right: Enkhbold (Mongolian People's Party), Battulga (Democratic Party), and Ganbaatar (Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party). I'm not informed well enough to give much information about any of them. I'll only say that most Mongolians seem to think or feel that each of the candidates is corrupted in some way and will not be strong enough to create the Mongolia that so many of them wish for and want. 

What I will comment on is the duration of the election season. Signs and advertisements starting going up just after the first of June. I read there was a presidential debate last night on TV (initially was supposed to be one a little over a week ago--but it got canceled). The election is tomorrow. That's less than a month spent on serious campaigning. While I'd argue that may not be enough time, it's certainly preferable to the YEARS of campaigning that happen in the U.S. The mayor of UB has declared the next two days as alcohol free and has prohibited public events. 

Friday marked the end of my second school year at ASU. However, I'm working our summer camp which starts tomorrow and runs for two weeks. We have nearly 40 students ages 6-13 and will spend five hours each day with them. Our theme this year is: Every Hero has a Story! I'll be starting with Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and have a variety of fun activities plan for the two weeks. We take a field trip one day each week as well. After summer camp I'll be heading home to the US for a quick visit to see my mom and to attend an AP Summer Institute. Summer is already passing TOO FAST!

Sorry for the silence on my blog lately. I have a number of topics I want to discuss and hope to be posting more very soon. Hope each of you is enjoying your summer!

Expat Exercise Challenges

10,000 steps a day is easy!

I remember hearing people complain about the "over 40 metabolism slowdown" when I was younger. Now it's happening and it's no fun. According to this article by on Huffington Post, it has to do with changes in hormones, loss of muscle mass, and insulin resistance. Whatever it is, I don't like it. Diet and exercise continue to be the frustrating components of living life as an expat. The last few years I lived in Colorado Springs, I attended a CrossFit gym and ate a primarily Paleo diet. Believe it or not, I got up at 4:30 am, did the 5 AM WOD, then it was home, shower, and off to work. I loved knocking out my workout first thing in the morning. I was feeling and looking good.

With spring/summer in the air, I'm getting back into working out more regularly. By the nature of how much I walk as a part of my average day, I do get my 10,000 steps/day easily. Most days I'm in the 12,000 to 15,000 step range. With the weather improving, I enjoy walking home from work (5k/3 miles). But I have been riding the exercise roller coaster since arrival. When it's so dark and cold in the winter time--motivation can be tough to scrounge up. There are a few aspects that contribute to the up and down experience, the on-the-wagon, off-the-wagon reality of making/keeping exercise a part of my every day life. 

• Location and Accessibility.
  I'd LOVE to go to a gym, but without a car (which I do NOT want to acquire, nor do I want to drive in UB) it limits my options. I'd LOVE to have "Crossfit UB" within a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I'd be willing to pay a solid membership fee for that kind of workout and having it close to home. Of course I'd want a qualified trainer/coach employed at said Box. But alas, Crossfit hasn't officially made it to UB yet. I *could* use the gym at my school. It has weights and cardio machines, a gymnasium, mats, everything really. But I am deterred by the need to lug around shower stuff and/or a change of clothing. I already carry a steady backpack to and from work for everyday necessities. I don't want to shower and get ready AT school, and traveling home sweaty and gross doesn't appeal to me either. (I know....these are MY choices!) SO.....I've settled for working out in my apartment.

• Time of Day.
  I prefer to work out in the morning. Starting a day with a workout is ideal for my body and spirit. It kick starts my muscles and metabolism and there is something exceptional about knowing you've already checked that item off one's list. However, because I live in a 75 sq. meter apartment (about 800 sq. feet) with only two rooms that offer enough space to work out--both of which are bedrooms--I can't workout before school as it would disturb my husband and son's sleep. Therefore, I have to force myself to work out in the evening. Not ideal for me, but as they say, you make time for what's important. And a workout anytime of day is better than NO workout at all. 

• Equipment.
  One has two options: (a) join a gym where the equipment is provided, or (b) purchase/supply your own equipment to create a home gym. I came with a few things--exercise mat, jumprope, resistance band, workout clothing. Since arrival I've added weights as I LOVE strength training. As a woman, this is important towards maintaining muscle mass and to keeping my bones strong as I age. I absolutely love having sore quads and hamstrings from doing squats and lunges! In the beginning, I could only find 1-10 lb dumbbells. Then they jumped pretty drastically, from 10 to 15 to 20. As a woman, I need smaller increments. When we came back from our holiday visit to the U.S. I brought home my big investment--a set of PowerBlock adjustable dumbbells. Together they weighed 50 lbs. I had to divide them up, placing a few parts in each of our 6 bags. One of them I transported in my carry-on. You should have seen the security personnel in the Beijing airport inspecting that!! Hilarious. BUT.....these are a brilliant investment. I'm so glad I bought them and worked out how to get them here. 

From 3 to 24 lbs in 3 lb increments. Brilliant!!

• Trainer and/or Workout program.Since I'm not attending a Crossfit gym where a trainer/coach decides and guides the day's workout, I have to make or find my own. I have some books on weightlifting and brought some DVD programs as well. However, in this era of streaming online media, I've grown to use and love FitnessBlender. They offer hundreds of free, online workouts. Stand alone, 5 day challenges, or multi-week plans with a focus (strength, fat loss, flexibility, etc). I've also become a fan of Yoga with Adrienne. Yoga can be surprisingly difficult. I struggle to clear my mind during these sessions--doesn't help that I'm watching intensely trying to figure out the moves--but I do feel that my muscles get a serious workout even if I'm not huffing and puffing at the end. :)

I try to workout 3-5 times a week. On the weekends I sometimes go for a run in the morning when the air is yet cool. I usually do a 3 mile loop, from home to the Wrestling Palace (where I do step-ups and squats) and then around the Square on the way home. I wish I could run dirt trails (I so miss the Fountain Valley Regional Trail system!) and they do exist, but then there is the transportation issue to tackle. So I find a way to work with I got! Urban running it is! 

As for diet, that's a whole other conversation. One would think that with Mongolia's obsession with MEAT it would be easy to be Paleo. It is, and it isn't. They do have lots of meat. However, it's often tough and hidden by a crapload of wheat (NOT paleo) in some form. Mongolia is known for two food groups--meat and dairy. Dairy is NOT Paleo. So this is another on-again, off-again battle--trying to eat Paleo in a land that puts LOADS of refined carbs and often gluten in every dish (rice, noodles, bread, etc). Bottom line...you have to shop around and do lots of planning. 

I'll wrap this up for now. Time to get outside for a walk in the 70+ degree sunshine to get my vitamin D allotment. :)

Can't see the Trees for the Concrete

October 2015, Bank of Chuluut River

As the daughter of a forester, I notice trees. I grew up in the Northwoods of Michigan--our favorite tree to climb was a White Pine on the edge of the field behind our house in the middle of the Pigeon River Country State Forest. I love the smell of evergreen, the vibrant green of a deciduous tree, and the flow of a willow blowing in the wind. I even like the enchanting look of a saguaro cactus in the desert land of the southwest. If you were to flip through my pictures from trips over the years, you'd find a strange assortment of pictures of trees. Yes, that's all, just unique or cool looking trees. I can't explain why I am driven to take them. They touch or speak to something instinctual inside me. They make me feel at ease, at home. 

Tree implanted for ASEM last summer

That said, I want to appreciate the efforts around UB to increase the greenery despite our very short growing season. If I remember correctly, things didn't green-up last year until JUNE. I'm not joking. It took forever to feel surrounded by green; and when it did happen, it was an overnight experience. As if a magician flew over our sprawling metropolis one night and said, "let there be green!" And so it was. 

But I have a serious problem with whomever thinks that trees--some of which are fairly mature--can be planted inside a field of concrete and expect them to flourish and thrive. In the picture to the left you see a large evergreen (I suspect it's a pine of some sort) that was implanted (arrived at the size you see) last summer just before the ASEM Summit. As you can see, there are boards to support them. I assume because we are yet waiting for their roots to take anchor. The supports have been there since installation. Not exactly a beautiful sight--TALL live trees with dead trees holding them up. But worse than this, I want you to see what it looks like where the tree meets the ground. 

The resolution may not be ideal, but I think you can see my point in this picture (right). There is literally NO exposed land around where the tree meets the ground. It is boxed in completely by huge blocks of marble. IF the tree manages to stay alive (questionable), there is no room for it to grow and expand. Well, at least not without breaking up the sidewalk that encases it. I'm left to wonder if the planners of this space (and many others) ever pause to get educated by anyone that knows about trees. How does one go about watering this tree? (I'm confident there is NOT an under-the-marble sprinkler system!) And how in the world is wood springing forth from marble or concrete felt to be beautiful or appealing? Mongolians are known to have a deep affinity for their nature. You can't flip through the channels on cable TV here without catching a Mongolian singer--male and female--decked out in a deel and singing from a forest, a mountaintop, or from the wide open steppe. Everyone looks forward to escapes to the countryside and you will see families or groups of friends sitting on a blanket in the middle of the wide open expanses that surround UB and every other town or city, talking, eating, playing. So I know they love their land (trash is another problem and for another post). I wish we could employ the foresters and landscape architects that KNOW how we could actually have trees flourish in our city. 

Here's another attempt. There is a *small* quadrant of dirt around this one. However, I'm confident it is not living anymore. I didn't bother to take a picture of the actual treetop. It was too sad. 

Sometimes it's difficult to discern if a city tree is living or not. They look almost black in the winter months (basically Nov to March). I'm left to believe that is a byproduct of all the coal smoke/pollution in the air. It makes our snow gray and if the HEPA filter in my apartment is any indicator, yes, the pollution makes our trees black. I can't remember...is there a scene in the Lorax where all the trees go black? For some reason that movie comes to mind.

All that to say, I would love for there to be more trees around UB. I'd love for there to be more green spaces. I miss having a natural space to escape to and feel more at ease. And I agree that in modern times people are beginning to suffer from what has been coined "Nature Deficit Disorder." You can investigate that more by checking out this NPR story or the book that it references (which I read years ago with my fellow book club members back in Colorado). So....can someone please help UB plant trees in a way that will actually allow them to grow and thrive? There are people around the world that know what species would do best in our conditions, and how to make it possible. Not just a random shot through the concrete. 

Most of my readers here are also connected with me on Facebook. However, I know I have a few friends and family members that do not want to be in that social media realm. This last week the story of how Zorig and I met was featured in the New York Times' Travel Section, their first ever Love Issue. A friend of my sister sent her the form link, which my sister then sent to me. I figured, Why not? It had a 500 word limit which was tough, but a good challenge. It was an honor to be one of the six entries they published from the prompt/topic. I was moved by all six of them--they were diverse and unique. I'm still wanting to know more about the woman in Paris!! It tickled me that they chose my piece to highlight (See image at Left--quote from me, and opting to use the picture of a ger) when they posted to Facebook. Thanks NYT for sharing my story with a larger world. Love is about both joy and heartbreak. Timing is crucial. Decisions and choices have to be made. Sacrifices are often given. But we must keep the hope of love alive and that is always my wish in sharing our story. 

As always, thanks for reading.