2023.03.08. – International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day – bank holiday in Mongolia, no uni today

We started out by sleeping until 10 am, finally. It was still the alarm that woke me up (I’d been sure that I would wake up sooner than that when I’d set the alarm last night, but I guess my body wanted every minute of sleep it could get). Then we had a modest breakfast (some kind of pastry that looks like croissants but has a very different consistency and taste, and a golden latte) at home before getting on with our day.

First, we went to ShangriLa gym for our hour-long workout session (that I’ve been trying to get hubby to come with me to at least once a week), and on the way there, a couple of teenagers were standing next to us, waiting for the lights to turn green, and one of the boys randomly turned to me and said (in accented but correct English) ‘Happy Women’s Day!’ and after counting to eight with the help of his buddies, turned back to me and added ‘March 8… Women’s Day!’ which I thought was pretty darn cute. In the meantime, the lights turned green and as we were crossing the street alongside his group, another boy also turned to us and wished me a happy Women’s Day. We’ve also seen so many people outside, with flowers or gift bags in their hands, and many people were also wearing the traditional Mongolian clothes. So it’s not just a bank holiday but they actually seem to take it seriously – heck, even my students all started texting ‘Boldog nőnapot!’ in the group chat – so cute.

After our workout, we went to Hutong restaurant (this time we made sure to go when it was open) which was pretty crowded – probably due to the holiday, every table had lots of gift bags and flowers too – but we still managed to get a small table for two that hadn’t been reserved. We got a cucumber salad (with garlic sauce) for a starter since I’ve been wanting to try an Asian cucumber salad for so long – it was amazing. We also had a Sichuan style fried veggie plate (like last time) and my husband got some Sichuan fried rice and Kung Pao chicken as well. I tried the rice (it was really good but had eggs in it) but refrained from the chicken, of course. For dessert, we went for the fruit platter which we’d liked a lot last time, and it didn’t disappoint this time either – delicious and pretty good value (although it’s kinda expensive, but then, this is Mongolia, even tasteless fruit is expensive here, and these ones looked and tasted great). It’s kind of a posh place to eat at (makes sense, it’s in a luxury hotel complex) but going there once in a while seems reasonable as it’s much more affordable (and the dishes are on a whole different level than our usual culinary experiences) than it would be in Europe.

Look at this beautiful assortment of fruits

Bellies full and spirits high (we love the days when we can be together all day, we slept well, I love workouts, and we love eating out together as well, AND the weather is super nice, 6 degrees and sunny!), we walked home, enjoying the spring weather. I even took some pics at Sukhbaatar Square – I love when they break out the quadracycles and more and more people can be seen riding bikes or roller skating. I’ve already noticed in October how there’s a great atmosphere at the main square as locals are enjoying the weather there, and after months of everyone briskly walking burrowed in winter coats, it’s nice to see people mingling outdoors again.

It's so fun to see these bikes outside Margitsziget :)

The rest of the day was spent talking to friends at home and chilling, but I also ticked some things off my to-do list I’ve been procrastinating doing (replied to a student’s email, dug up and sent a few pictures my friends have requested more than a year ago and have been nagging me with since, came up with a title for my presentation at the conference in April, scanned pages from a workbook to later assign as homework to my students).

My Women's Day present from hubby - we bought two boxes yesterday in CU :)

Once we go to bed (hopefully fairly early) I also plan on reading for a bit.