It isn't much, but it's home...

So I realized that I have been a horribly rude hostess and not offered up a tour of our abode (aside from the orange couch of course). Given that we have just past the four month anniversary of our arrival in Mongolia, we're long overdue. Here we go...

You've been in this room before, but now it looks a little more...lived-in shall we say? (please pardon the clutter)



It's cozy and warm despite the fact that the heater over there by the flat screen (which displays human beings in oompa loompa colors - yep, she's a fine piece of equipment) doesn't seem to put out any heat. I would begin to worry, but it's thirty below outside and we're still warm in here, so it seems like we're doing okay.

Onward to the "reading room," if you will. Please take note that, yes, Mongolians use toilets much like our own. You can breathe a sigh of relief now (I know I did when I stepped into my first Mongolian bathroom).



That machine is the lower left corner is a twin tub washing machine. It ties clothes into the most impressive knots you have ever seen. It also needs to be prompted into each and every cycle from wash to rinse to - switch the clothes over to the other tub - spin. Despite it demanding more effort than a washing machine at home, it's a washing machine, a glorious, glorious washing machine.

Out the reading room door, back into the kitchen we go:







It's little, but we do okay with our two burner stove top. No oven to speak of which is a shame as far as I'm concerned, but so it goes. We have to rough it somehow. That tall silver thing on the counter is our water filter. The water doesn't look terrible (usually) before you boil and filter it, but it's amazing what is left behind in the filter. Floaters, metal, red stuff. Blech.

Onward we go, back through the living room (about three steps) and into the bedroom. Again, it's little, but it's all we need. That said, I sleep on the outside so I imagine Chris might have a different opinion about the amount of space that we need. Oh and they have really weird sheets here. When you buy a sheet set, it comes with a duvet cover and a flat sheet that is just big enough to cover the top of the mattress. Literally. Nothing to tuck, not even if you wanted. It took some fancy cutting/sewing upon arrival to finagle a functional sheet. Anyways, here you are:





You might have noticed that we are still in need of a laundry basket, and that we have a new friend. That's penguin, and he's a humidifier that we inherited from the land of migratory friends.



Anyways, before I show you to the door, I would like to show you to my cellphone which offers me temperature readings at various points in the day. It doesn't matter that you (I imagine) cannot read Mongolian. You can all read numbers, and the numbers speak for themselves. Sometime in the last week it got COLD. Not cold like brr, it's cold, cold like I show up at work with ice boogers (not icy boogers - actual ice chunks in my nose that feel like boogers until you blow your nose and really it's just ice balls coming out). Here you are:



And here's our door (the inner one). Thanks for visiting and sorry it took so long for us to invite you in.