2022.10.10. Next week

Running errands - at least trying to

Started the day with a visit to the district hospital to get my medical examination that’s needed for my working permit (at least I think that’s what they need it for). A Hungarian woman living here was supposed to come help me but something had come up for her so I asked Munkh if he could get me a student to help again. That’s how I ended up going to the hospital with Nandia who’s a student of French but speaks amazing English (she also teaches English, apparently). At first, it looked like we would spend hours there by how they kept sending us from one place to the other (from the reception we had to go to Room 120, but that was a room for chest X-rays or something like that, so we asked in 121 if they could help us, and they told us to just fill out the form I had (I’d gotten that from the university) and take it back to reception, so back to reception we went, where they sent us to another room where I had to pay 80k MNT for the examinations, and we went to Room 214 from there, but in 214 they told us we needed these disposable shoe covers and that we shouldn’t have our coats with us, so we went back downstairs to purchase the shoe covers in the pharmacy and we stuffed our coats in our bags to be able to get inside room 214 – at this point, it almost felt like that Asterix & Obelix episode with the bureaucracy building). Finally, they accepted us in and drew my blood and told me to go back there tomorrow after 10 am for the results.

We walked back to the university, Nandia going on her way and me coming up to our apartment to check on my husband, do laundry, and cook lunch (a veggie soup). I also emailed Otgontuya to ask her if she could meet me today to discuss classes and such but she didn’t answer, so I texted Munkh to ask if he knew whether Otgontuya was in or not. In about half an hour, I got a call from Otgontuya herself, telling me to go meet her at the university. She showed me the language centre (well, the teachers’ rooms for the language centre) and where my desk is and where I can put the course books I’ve brought and such. We also discussed curriculum and classes, but, as it turns out, my classes will only start next week. I swear ‘next week’ should be the slogan of this university (or maybe all of Mongolia too, but I dunno about that yet). At least I know a bit more now than I used to before meeting with her.

Cars parking back-to-back at university. How they manage to get out is beyond me.

Using anything and everything to hang our laundry - will need to get a drying rack soon.

Once I got home from the university, I decided to get some more stuff done and (wearing only my hoodie and no coat bc it got so warm!) went to the district registration office or what, the place where they can supposedly give you a document that’s kind of like a proof of address. Obviously, they spoke no English there, so I ended up translating on my phone from English to Mongolian and once the girl understood what I wanted, she wrote back in Mongolian (which Google translated to English for me) that I needed to go back to the university to ask them for a paper that says I live here with my husband. So basically, the university had sent me to this place that just sent me back to the university for a paper that I need to bring back here so that they can give me a paper that I need to take to the university. It really is ridiculously, quite like the above-mentioned Asterix & Obelix episode.

Giving up on errands for the day, I went to a convenience store nearby I hadn’t tried before, GS25, and got some juice and snacks – they didn’t really have proper foodstuffs –, and even took a stop at the Indian store downstairs to buy curry powder and red lentils for future meals. Stocking the kitchen.

Found our favourite snack from back home in GS25

Spent the evening chilling out watching The Mentalist and starting to finally post stuff on this blog of my Mongolian experiences.