So, I'm really going...

I finally bought my ticket for Ulanbataar. I leave Delhi at 00:30 on January 15th-- really, 14th night for all practical purposes. I have a 15 hour stop-over in Moscow the next day; then, I reach Mongolia on 16th Jan at 7 in the morning. Of course, all of this is provided everything goes smoothly and my flights don't get grounded because of the snow either in Moscow or Ulanbataar. I am scheduled to fly back in exactly 6 months, on July 15th, hopefully after having caught the Nadaam festival (often described in guidebooks as "nomad Olympics"), which is the main reasn I extended my stay from 5 months to 6.

I also got a transit visa for Russia. I dont want to spend 15 hours in the airport, so if I can bear the cold, I will head out for a day in Moscow City. That should be exciting... I have read so much about Moscow in history books that I would love to pass a few hours sipping coffee by the Red Square, or something like that. And I better be able to bear the cold... I will be living through at least 3 months of bitter Mongolian winter, never to soon to start preparing.

Wow, so I am going? So far, this has been so "out-there" that it's been surreal; now, 2 weeks away, as I think about what i am going to pack (I am only allowed one 20 kg bag-- how many woolens can i fit into that?), as I start planning my lessons for my class there, it hits me. I am really going. I am going to live through an unforgiving winter in a foreign country, where i dont speak the language or know anything about the culture, for six whole months. I am going to attempt to teach English conversation to a bunch of high school students who have never talked English to a Native Speaker before, whose level of English competency is completely unknown to me, and who study at a school I have only seen one photograph of. I have no clue what I am doing! And that's as exhilarating as it is frightening.

I don't know if I am prepared, but I do know that I am as prepared as I will ever be. Soka, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Zoatecpan prepared me to jump into completely unfamiliar situations and create strong, even indestructible, bonds there. I learned to play trust-fall with life: believing that I would be caught when I was falling, even if i didn't know what or who would do the catching in any particular case. That's going to have to suffice as preparation.

Two more weeks, and then this blog is SURE to get more interesting! :)