Day 8: The Day I wore a dress. Dun dun duhhh
So today is the Nadaam festival. It’s a big deal in Mongolia. They do wrestling, archery, horse races and sell a bunch of stuff.
At breakfast all the guys came in with their fancy traditional Mongolian shirts while none of the girls wore theirs incase it got dirty. After breakfast all the girls went to get ready. I did all their braids the night before so their hair would be wavy for the festival. I just put on my dress and let down my hair. Boom ready. My dress is yellow and fitted. Unfortunately because it was fitted I couldn’t lift my legs or man spread or wear shorts under them. It was pretty though and most of the girls wore matching dresses but different colors.
Once we were all ready we drove to the festival. We got there around 10am. We had an hour to kill before the opening ceremony so we explored. They had a lot of things later out on mats to buy. Each little vendor had most of the same things. I don’t know how they expect to make a lot of money if they all have the same thing. If I was a vendor I’d kill it because I’d bring a bunch of different but super cheap things and honestly horribly made but it’d be different so I’d win the vendor game. Anyway at 11am we went to the wooden benches under the shade to watch the opening ceremony. The Mongolia students joined us as it was starting. They sang a few Mongolian songs and national anthem. After two groups of little kids did some dance routines. They were so cute. Sydney you would’ve killed your dance moves, you’d be their Shakira.
Anyway after the dances the wrestling event started. So I do kickboxing and jui jitsu so I was totally hyped for this event. They dress in underwear, sleeves and some belly rolls. They start standing and try to take the other person down by tripping or other stuff. It’s kinda like jui jitsu with the takedowns but if your knees, elbows or butts(either cheek), touch the ground you lose. Some military men participated but compared to the professionals they were a lot smaller so they lost. This is the only sport girls can’t compete in.
After a few matches of that, the horse racers started coming in. Mongolia horse racing is very different from the American version. Mongolian racing is like cross country and America is track. Also many of the riders are kids and they ride bare back because that is very light. The amount of distance is based on the horses age. The older they are the longer they run. The first one was 21km. I know super long. The first place boy was way ahead of the others and going super fast. I also learned Mongolian horses are a lot smaller than the ones in America but they run just as fast. The second place boy was also going super fast and way ahead of the rest. He was also the younger brother to one of the Mongolian students we are with. It was super cool to watch. I always wanted to ride a horse like a pro. Like all the Disney princess or an Amazon warrior.
After the horse race we went for lunch. There was multiple places to have lunch but they were all serving the same thing. They have yurts as the kitchen place and picnic tables set up outside to eat at. We ate the traditional Mongolian dish, hushu. It’s a Mongolian empanada. It’s very good and fresh. And it only cost not even fifty cents. Very cheap and very good. Perfect combination.
Once we finished our lunch, a few of us went to watch the archery. I was also super hyped for this because I just watched brave the night before and was totally channeling my inner Merida. It is my dream to learn how to shoot an arrow and ride a horse like Merida or Wonder Woman. That mixed with my martial arts is the ultimate badass statement to everyone saying “don’t mess with me.” I’ll never have guy problems with all that spiciness happening. Anyway the bows were simple without any pulleys. The target was little boxes stacked with the middle few painted red. It was very low to the ground and the archers were super far from it. While I was watching only one dude hit it but one girl was super close.
After archery we explored the vendors where I got a few presents but I quickly got bored since they were all selling the same things. Some of us went to go watch the volleyball tournament. Mongolians are very big on volleyball. Their all super good and can spike like pros. It’s really fun to watch. Although after half an hour of sitting in the itchy grass and watching you get kind of bored. We all met up at the wrestling place and watched a few rounds but we were all a bit tired by then. After a bit Leah, one of our leaders, called the bus while we waited by the volleyball place since some of the students were playing. When the van came we had to squeeze in 16 students because some of the Mongolian girls came with us. The van fit 12, so we all got up close and personal for the ride back to the dorms.
When we got back we were all kinda pooped from the day so we all sat in the living room of the dorms and the students taught us how to play Mongolian version of spoons. It was super fun and if you lost you had to sing or dance. This one student had a great voice and also kept losing so we got
Tonight we weren’t allowed to leave the school campus because there was a huge festival and that means a bunch of drunk people. So instead we all hung out in one of the unused dorm rooms. It was really fun. We painted some of the guys nails and they helped me with Wordscapes. We hung out till about 11pm then went to bed. It was pretty good relaxer before bed.
At breakfast all the guys came in with their fancy traditional Mongolian shirts while none of the girls wore theirs incase it got dirty. After breakfast all the girls went to get ready. I did all their braids the night before so their hair would be wavy for the festival. I just put on my dress and let down my hair. Boom ready. My dress is yellow and fitted. Unfortunately because it was fitted I couldn’t lift my legs or man spread or wear shorts under them. It was pretty though and most of the girls wore matching dresses but different colors.
Once we were all ready we drove to the festival. We got there around 10am. We had an hour to kill before the opening ceremony so we explored. They had a lot of things later out on mats to buy. Each little vendor had most of the same things. I don’t know how they expect to make a lot of money if they all have the same thing. If I was a vendor I’d kill it because I’d bring a bunch of different but super cheap things and honestly horribly made but it’d be different so I’d win the vendor game. Anyway at 11am we went to the wooden benches under the shade to watch the opening ceremony. The Mongolia students joined us as it was starting. They sang a few Mongolian songs and national anthem. After two groups of little kids did some dance routines. They were so cute. Sydney you would’ve killed your dance moves, you’d be their Shakira.
Anyway after the dances the wrestling event started. So I do kickboxing and jui jitsu so I was totally hyped for this event. They dress in underwear, sleeves and some belly rolls. They start standing and try to take the other person down by tripping or other stuff. It’s kinda like jui jitsu with the takedowns but if your knees, elbows or butts(either cheek), touch the ground you lose. Some military men participated but compared to the professionals they were a lot smaller so they lost. This is the only sport girls can’t compete in.
After a few matches of that, the horse racers started coming in. Mongolia horse racing is very different from the American version. Mongolian racing is like cross country and America is track. Also many of the riders are kids and they ride bare back because that is very light. The amount of distance is based on the horses age. The older they are the longer they run. The first one was 21km. I know super long. The first place boy was way ahead of the others and going super fast. I also learned Mongolian horses are a lot smaller than the ones in America but they run just as fast. The second place boy was also going super fast and way ahead of the rest. He was also the younger brother to one of the Mongolian students we are with. It was super cool to watch. I always wanted to ride a horse like a pro. Like all the Disney princess or an Amazon warrior.
After the horse race we went for lunch. There was multiple places to have lunch but they were all serving the same thing. They have yurts as the kitchen place and picnic tables set up outside to eat at. We ate the traditional Mongolian dish, hushu. It’s a Mongolian empanada. It’s very good and fresh. And it only cost not even fifty cents. Very cheap and very good. Perfect combination.
Once we finished our lunch, a few of us went to watch the archery. I was also super hyped for this because I just watched brave the night before and was totally channeling my inner Merida. It is my dream to learn how to shoot an arrow and ride a horse like Merida or Wonder Woman. That mixed with my martial arts is the ultimate badass statement to everyone saying “don’t mess with me.” I’ll never have guy problems with all that spiciness happening. Anyway the bows were simple without any pulleys. The target was little boxes stacked with the middle few painted red. It was very low to the ground and the archers were super far from it. While I was watching only one dude hit it but one girl was super close.
After archery we explored the vendors where I got a few presents but I quickly got bored since they were all selling the same things. Some of us went to go watch the volleyball tournament. Mongolians are very big on volleyball. Their all super good and can spike like pros. It’s really fun to watch. Although after half an hour of sitting in the itchy grass and watching you get kind of bored. We all met up at the wrestling place and watched a few rounds but we were all a bit tired by then. After a bit Leah, one of our leaders, called the bus while we waited by the volleyball place since some of the students were playing. When the van came we had to squeeze in 16 students because some of the Mongolian girls came with us. The van fit 12, so we all got up close and personal for the ride back to the dorms.
When we got back we were all kinda pooped from the day so we all sat in the living room of the dorms and the students taught us how to play Mongolian version of spoons. It was super fun and if you lost you had to sing or dance. This one student had a great voice and also kept losing so we got
some great performances during the game. Unfortunately they had to leave so we just did some puzzles and I played James Bond and to quite Fat Amy, “crushed it.”
Tonight we weren’t allowed to leave the school campus because there was a huge festival and that means a bunch of drunk people. So instead we all hung out in one of the unused dorm rooms. It was really fun. We painted some of the guys nails and they helped me with Wordscapes. We hung out till about 11pm then went to bed. It was pretty good relaxer before bed.
Nadaam
Mongolian girls at Nadaam
Making horhus
Horse racers
Love your dress choice! I can’t wear yellow but you look beautiful. Hope you get a video of you showing of the guys your jiujitsu moves.
ReplyDeleteU look cute in a dress!
ReplyDelete