Adventures in Mongolia

On Saturday 18-June I landed in Chinggis Khaan Airport in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to begin 9 days of adventure!

I am officially a millionaire!!!  The currency is the Mongolian Tughrik, and the USD equivalent below is approximately 740 : )

Mongolian Parliament.. 

On Monday 20-June we began our four night, five day trek into the Gobi Desert.  

We spent the night on the 20th in a Ger owned by a family off the main road.  

On Tuesday morning we set off for Yoliin Am (Eagle's Mouth).  

Yoliin Am is known for having ice many months out of the year.

Traveling through a gorge is not for the faint of heart, this picture does not tell the complete story; but I could have reached out the car window and touched the cliff wall.

Roads?? Where we're going we don't need roads!  This is the drive to Khongorilin Els (Singing Sands)

This is me, I am riding M.C. that is what I named him (her?).  It stands for M.iddle C.amel.  He (she?) smelled REALLY BAD, like REALLY BAD..  it has given me a new basis of comparison in which to judge all other bad smells!

FUN IN THE SAND:

Angel

Greetings

While we didn't hear any singing, the dunes gave us much to look at.

Poor guy!  (or gal!)  The sand claims another victim!

The shoe of the above??  Actually if you look at the back of the shoe you will see our little desert friend : )

On Wednesday 22 we drove to Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs), once again roads are optional

Bayanzag

The sun dries and peels up the top layer of mud

Uh-oh.. another one bites the dust!!

Fun in the mud

So we decided to go looking for dinosaur bones (what this area is known for), needless to say we did not have success.. however we did have success finding something.  I saw what looked like a sign on top of a hill, up the hill we went; assuming to see directions to these talked about fossils and finds.  Needless to say it was not a sign, and all I could think when we stumbled on this was 'only I would find a car part in the middle of the desert!'

The Ger camp we stayed at for our last night.  The man who owned the place was VERY excited about his turtle building, he also has an elephant building and a museum.  

Fun times

The 2015-2016 Black Forest Academy Track and Field Team

English Camp March 2016

Just another Sunday bike ride : )  

Graduation 2016

Construction begins to renovate and add a floor for the Middle School

The current view from my office : )

Unified Berlin

Section of the Berlin Wall, picture taken standing next to a building that has been called The Ministry of Aviation, The Ministry of Ministries and is now the seat of the German Finance Ministry:

Buildings in the Bebelplatz, Berlin

Berlin State Opera House:

The Bebelplatz:

St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale built by Frederick the Great:

On May 10 1933 students from 34 University Towns around Germany burned an estimated 20.000 books.   This exhibit in the ground of the Bebelplatz depicts the empty library shelves left behind.  There is a plaque next to the exhibit with a quote from 1820 that says "That was only a prelude, there where they burn books, they burn in the end people":

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, in the words of the Architect, "The stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. The enormity and scale of the horror of the Holocaust is such that any attempt to represent it by traditional means is inevitably inadequate ... Our memorial attempts to present a new idea of memory as distinct from nostalgia ... We can only know the past today through a manifestation in the present."

 The graffiti of Rosenthaler Strasse 39:

 Cosmonaut Mural by Victor Ash

Pink Man Mural by BLU:

 Shrouded in night and fog, the Berliner Fernsehtrum:

 The East Side Gallery (longest open air gallery in the world), "The East Side Gallery is a special place, where art has become the expression for a unique point in time of the history of a separated Germany.  It is a meeting point that talks about an old Berlin and a new Berlin, a separated and a unified Germany."

2016 Happenings

Hike to Hochblauen in Kandern.

Fasching Parade in Kandern- the rain prohibited confetti.  From what I have heard the confetti is EVERYWHERE, so I was thankful for the rain.

Here is a link that explains what Fasching is: Fasching in Germany

Welcome to 2016!!!!  I spent New Years Eve at the house of a BFA'er and was delighted to see this symbol of New York on the landing leading to her apartment.  The shot is not fabulous, but it is indeed a Statue of Liberty made of Legos.

I took a walk today and loved seeing the sights.  This picture is a male sheep, or a ram.  I am almost positive I have never seen one outside of a zoo.  I couldn't resist taking the picture.

And off in the distance is France, and past the brown of the tilled field, and the rolling hills of green (not something you would see in Northern NY this time of year) are magnificent snow covered mountains.

One of the events I have been fortunate to participate in was this Christmas celebration with refugees.  

Hearing all the different languages, watching all the kids run around, seeing them get their Christmas gifts that had been selected and wrapped and included special personal messages for each of them from members of the community was overwhelming.  Considering what their lives have been like over the last four years of conflict in their home country made me introspective and appreciate the freedoms I take for granted coming from a place that doesn't currently know such violence.  Living in a place that has a past and a current struggle with what it means to have open borders makes me glad that there is a God who loves us and that we are all made in His image.

The youth performed the Christmas story and it was in English and German.  The performers were definitely the stars of the day, the youngsters in the audience were glued to the performance and the youth performers were kind enough to stay in their costumes after the performance and let the kids hang out with them.

On December 17 I went with four ladies from the BFA community to Strasbourg France to walk around the Christmas Markets (Weihnachtsmarkt). Strasbourg is home to the Strasbourg Cathedral de Notre-Dame and ranks as my favourite Cathedral seen so far.    To learn more about the history of this remarkable Cathedral you can visit this website: http://www.strasbourg.info/cathedral/

This is one example of a building decorated for the Market

Oper fun sites around the city: