Өвөл муухай хүн байдаггүй!

Өвөл муухай хүн байдаггүй! Or in English, "Winter Ugly Person Is Not There" -- or as it was interpreted for me, "In Winter, Everyone is Beautiful" is the new Mongolian phrase I've learned this past week. Since returning from my Pork Production Value Chain Adventure, or "Fall Break 2007 -- Pigs Gone Wild" as I've started calling it, my coworkers have decided that I am in fact a crazy person.

This started about a month ago, when the winter really began to settle in. I got a cold-- and to the shock and dismay of my counterparts, continued to drink my average 3 liters of "cold" (room temperature) water per day-- and even drank more than that during my worst days! Everyday I heard, "You will not get better if you drink that water! You need to drink hot tea, hot milk tea, and garlic soup!" Well, I did get better-- thanks to Mucinex and lots of water and rest. And if you ask them, that bowl of garlic soup I ate for lunch.

For IST (In-Service-Training) coming up in December, my counterparts were asked to fill out a questionnaire so that Peace Corps can tailor the training to our needs. One question asked was, "List 2-3 things your American counterpart has done that is confusing to you." Their answers were really interesting-- one of course, related to my avid water drinking habit, and the second was "Our American doesn't wear enough warm clothes! Doesn't she know that when she doesn't wear a hat and layers of long underwear her eggs will freeze?!"

The second was the most interesting to me, and we had a really good conversation about it. I explained that I am feeling pretty warm with the layers I have been wearing, and that in fact, I am more worried about the 30 and 40 below temperatures ahead, so I am adding layers as it gets colder, so I can actually feel warm when it's REALLY needed, especially the pants long underwear. I'm only wearing one layer right now (it's about 17 below, and I'm feeling pretty comfortable and thankful for smart wool!). During our conversation they explained that if I don't start wearing more layers even when I feel warm, my өндөг (or "eggs") will shrivel up and my kidneys will hurt. So, I brought that back to the first point, and said if I don't drink my 3 liters of water, THEN my kidneys will hurt! :) But, to appease them, and my ovaries, today I wore the full long underwear, my warmest hat, gloves, and scarf. I will just have to triple layer when it gets to be 30 below. Because like the Mongolians say-- it's not about fashion in the winter... It's about being warm, because in winter, everyone is beautiful.