Mindy in Mongolia: Student Outing

We had a student outing on 2 weeks ago on Saturday. They told me that we were going to have competitions for the different classes and to meet at 9:30 a.m. downtown in front of the national theatre. I got there at 9:15 and there were a lot of students there which surprised me because Mongolians are always late! Anyway, the other teachers showed up at 10:00. My students yelled at them saying, “Don’t be late! Be on time!” I taught them that. It was really funny. Then we walked an hour and a half to this big field on the outside of town. The competitions were really fun! There was a dancing competition and a version of Simon Says. They also had to take things from nature and glue them on a piece of poster board to make a picture. Well since Mongolians litter, most of them had trash and cigarette butts on their posters! Things I or most Americans would never touch! It was definitely interesting. There was another game where they picked 5 people from every class and made them stand in a line. When they said go, the students had to take whatever items or clothing they had on them and make a line. Whoever made the longest line won. People were taking out and off everything - hair ties, phones, money, bra straps, pants, shirts… I saw 3 boys in just their underwear and one of my girl students without her shirt. I felt kind of strange but no one else seemed to mind. I guess it was normal. We would all be fired if that happened in the states.