This week marks us being in America for more than a month! It's been a lot of fun seeing so many wonderful people (you can see weeks one, two and three here) and we've still got a few more weeks to go!
This past week was filled with some great Peace Corps discussions with friends both new and old. First Tunga, Jonathan and I were able to visit our close friend Michael Lee who teaches at Riverbend Middle School and Bunker Hill High School. There we met with dozens of ESL (English as a Second Language) students who had great questions about Mongolia's foods, culture, people, landscape, and animals, Peace Corps' history, purpose and my experiences learning another language, living in another culture and much more.
Since Jonathan will be coming back with us to Mongolia, the students also asked him to do things for them that they wished they could do like help build a Mongolian ger, help prepare an animal for dinner, visit the Gobi desert, visit a ghost town like in the movie Paranormal Activity and of course take lots of pictures. We had a lot of fun and it brought back a lot of memories walking through the hallways, eating cafeteria food and remembering what it was like to be in school. 
Last week I also had a chance to talk with Hal Rowe for an hour on WHKY, which was great! You can read a little more about that interview here. All three experiences were very rewarding and inspiring and I look forward to upcoming opportunities to share more including on Monday Night Radio in two weeks. I really love Peace Corps and feel very grateful to be part of this amazing organization.
Tunga and I also had a lot of fun this week by organizing the house together and visiting Boone in the North Carolina Mountains for my mom's birthday, driving to McAdenville with my brother and sister to see an entire town covered in Christmas lights, visiting the Art Museum, playing plenty of video games with Elias and the boys, visiting with our good friend Amy Lee for dinner, doing lots of shopping, and even watching a few movies at the theater including Harry Potter yesterday.
It's certainly been a packed week for us, as I'm sure it has been for everyone else as well. I hope you each have a wonderful holiday and enjoy being with people that you love!
