2022.10.27. – Fly with me

So this morning I got up very early and went to swim practice

– an actual swim practice, since I decided to join this masters team the girl (woman?) from yesterday had invited me to. It was still dark outside when I woke up (although the sun came up by the time I left home) – gave me strong feels for when I used to be a swimmer, getting up for practice when it’s still dark outside. (Although back then it was still dark even when I got to practice almost two hours later.)

Pre-swim breakfast with the city awakening in the background

Very rare picture of a main road with no cars
(this moment may not repeat itself for years to come)

Practice didn’t actually start until like 8:15 (even though they were supposed to begin at 8) but I wasn’t even that surprised since it’s Mongolians. It was about 90 mins long (two hours only if you count that we started late and at the end people stayed there to chat and such), and yet, looking at the distance, it wasn’t longer than a swim practice at home would be (in just under 60 mins there). Here, even if it’s only a 200 m, people often stop at the wall and exchange a few sentences or laughs, every 50 m or so, before swimming on. Also, the times for rest between reps and sets are crazy long; it just doesn’t make sense. If I am there to swim – and I might even have to leave earlier, as a few people did, for work – I want to use my time well, and swim. I wouldn’t get up this early for chatting and socialising – it’s better to just sleep in then and if I want to hang out with my friends, we can do that after work as well. Also, they were all warming up before practice by the poolside and they are muscular and thin, so they look like they are almost elite sportspeople – and then they do this in the pool. And the coach enables it, doesn’t even say anything against it, so I am guessing it’s normal. It just baffles me. Back at home we barely even stop to breath, most of the time. We make the most of our hour in the pool. And we talk before and after practice – not during. These guys even had a 5-min break where people went to use the toilet (I assume) and some people jumped out of the pool and snapped pictures, and even the coach took a group picture of us, and at that point I was pretty sure practice must have been over (I even stopped the workout on my watch) but then the coach told us the next set and off we went. Like, wow.

Also, what was funny is that they asked me what my main event was or for my current time on 50 m (I have no idea, tbh, and I told them that too), and we started the practice and at first it was all normal. But then we did the 10*25 m fly sprints with only arms, and after the first 25 m the coach said my name and something else, which apparently meant that my form was beautiful. He kept saying it for the next few reps, then people from the team also started watching me and two of their top swimmers even climbed out of the pool and ‘sat out’ two reps to just stand by the side and watch my technique. Usually, I am not weirded out by people staring at me swim but when it’s other swimmers, I feel a bit strange. Although it was kinda funny too as it brought back memories of when we were kids and the coach used to ask the person who had the best technique for that particular thing we were practicing to show the whole team their technique so that we could try and copy. It was the same now, with the exception that we are not 8-year-olds anymore. The coach also said (people kept translating for me bc the coach only speaks very basic English) that my strokes were strong and great but my kicks were too weak in comparison. And it’s no news really, my kicks had always been a bit lacklustre (that’s what we kept working on with Attila bá’ in my prime) – probably due to my many knee injuries – and I had two surgeries in the past year so it’s no wonder my kicks are not good enough (yet). But at least the coach found something to be improved upon in my swimming (there are many such things, to be fair).

The team seemed nice, btw, and some of them spoke good enough English (nobody seemed proficient, but a few people were fluent), and they were more than willing to translate for me – they even talked to me during practice, introducing themselves (not that I’ll remember their names, although I tried very hard), telling me they’ve been to Budapest (two guys told me), teaching me words in Mongolian (well, it was mostly testing what I know so far which is ruefully little, but they also told me how to say ‘butterfy stroke’ in Mongolian – basically ‘but’, as a shortened form from English instead of a translation – and how to say ‘How are you?’ and ‘Fine’). I hope they might teach me some useful expressions in the future.

Shrunken heads in the lift at Shangri-La

After swimming, I walked home, and then we went to have an early lunch (instead of a late breakfast) with my husband at Agnista – the vegan restaurant we’ve been to only two days ago, but it was so good we wanted to return already. Today we shared a plate of khuushuur, and I also had a burrito while my hubby went for an udon stir-fry.

khuushuur (and an awesome salad)

Our bellies full, we first checked out a local bookstore which had looked very inviting from the outside (there is a Hogwarts crest painted on a wall somewhere inside, you can see it from a window, but we haven’t found it now – so we’ll need to go back sometime). It had English books and beautiful puzzles too.

I was seriously tempted to buy this one

Look at this beauty!

Walking on, we went to Emart for some groceries (and, admittedly, snacks), which we then ended up taking home by taxi – my husband insisted on not walking back, and he even hailed a taxi himself (his first time hailing a taxi in Mongolia, yay!).

River started to freeze over (although it's above 0 during the day)

potato face mask (yes, you read that right)

Mini chocolates that look like balls - how cool!

The late afternoon and then evening hours were spent snacking and me making my presentation for tomorrow morning’s lecture for the Country Studies course. I am a bit nervous since I’ve never held a lecture for 200 people, least of all online (so many things can go awry online), and I haven’t even practiced it and I have no idea how long my presentation is, and what if it’s much less than 90 minutes (or maybe much longer? But that would be preferable, actually, bc I can just finish it next time). I am good (well, not completely useless) at anticipating how long a task is in a language class – but a lecture? Ugh. We’ll see tomorrow. I am also not happy since I only have 10 mins after this lecture to get to my Hungarian class and start teaching there, so that’s barely enough time to get to the room, I won’t even be able to pee, if I have to. And I need to print out everything for my class before the lecture so that it’s all ready for my rush. But then I’ll be done for the week, at least. (Well, I’ll need to spend most of the weekend working on my class plans and lecture for next week, and my new application, but at least I’ll be home and comfy.)