things that are different: daily life

It's five days from it being one year of me being in Mongolia and I've got my second-to-last list.

my eating habits have shifted, my language skills have adapted and my daily life has changed.

It turns out moving to the other side of the world will do that for you.


Things That Are Different: Daily Life edition

1.) No hot water on Sunday mornings.

i don't know why this is so, but we have never had hot water on a Sunday morning. which means I usually spend my busiest day of the week with dirty hair and a bit smelly.

2.) We boil all of our water before we drink it (well, when we remember/aren't dying of thirst).

have you ever had a parasite? if so, you know why we do this. I still cringe when I think back to my parasite in Bolivia.

3.) I take micros or buses to get wherever I want to go. And occasionally, taxis that aren't really taxis.

and through the vast adventure of trial and error, I actually now have a pretty good sense of how to get a variety of places without getting lost.

4.) In Dallas, my daily walk to classes meant passing by frat houses and fountains. Here it means I pass by a pile of sheep skins waiting to be sold when I walk to work from the bus stop.

fun fact: often you can still see the blood on the skins.

5.) I cannot be inconspicuous anywhere I go.

i stick out like a sore thumb with my light hair and blue/green eyes, not to mention my accent. it doesn't matter where I am, what I'm doing or what's happening- I am obvious to everyone around me. People stare, people whisper, people yell various English phrases at me. The introvert in me is still not used to this and probably never will be.

6.) My early bedtime habits have only gotten...earlier.

it was a joke (founded in truth) among my night owl Dallas roommates that we never saw each other because I was always asleep by the time they got home and gone before they awoke. With a lack of daylight during our long winters, my internal clock has only become more intent on going to bed ridiculously early. Like 9:30 p.m. early. Now I'm usually up by 6 and in bed by 9:30 or 10.

7.) It is a daily routine to inform people that I am not Russian and do not in fact understand a word of Russian.

8.) Checking the weather is a necessary part of my morning routine. How many layers? Which coat? Which shoes? The great long underwear or not debate? And then it becomes deep winter and it stops mattering again because the only thing you need to know is PUT ON EVERY PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU CAN.

I cannot tell you how many times I have cursed not being properly dressed for the weather here. When I forget to check the weather for the day is always, always when we get bizarre mid-day snow or dust storms or rain or a 20 degree change in temperature.

9.) I went from a dog and two cats at my parents house, to no pets for four years, to two cats here in Mongolia. Two Harry Potter-themed cats at that.

luna and dobby! They make me laugh, they keep me company and they make our apartment a home.

10.) Cooking is an adventure- of ingredients, of creating, of tasting and of eating. I have the time now to cook and it has become the main activity of my evenings- nothing is fast here and that's a-ok by me.

My daily life is not what it was a year ago. And it's certainly not always the same each day.

Mongolia is nothing if not the provider of variation- which is exactly why I've come to enjoy it so very much.

How is your daily life different from this time last year?