cold.

I woke up at about six-thirty and stared out at the pre-dawn darkness, feeling like it was six thirty. Because this feeling was, after all, correct, I proceeded slowly ooze through my morning routine like a migrating slime mold. It was -30 outside, with howling wind that blasted dust and snow against the windows, making a soft hissing noise.
At 8:50 I made my way down to the class room, just as the sun was starting to climb above the mountains. The students started trickling in, and one of them greeted me warmly with an ear to ear smile.
"It's a beautiful day outside!" he said with genuine enthusiasm.
I looked at him in amazement. Did he live in the same world I did? Hadn't he just been outside?
He saw my quizzical look. "The smoke is gone!" he said.
I looked out the window. The coal smoke was indeed gone.
"Isn't it a bit cold out?" I asked.
"It's...... fresh!" he said.
Ah. -30 is now "fresh". I have been surprised by the way Mongolians react to cold. When it was thirty degrees out (Fahrenheit) they complained and bundled up. At zero degrees they complained more. At -20 they became somewhat sullen and stopped talking about it all together. However, as soon as the temperature dropped below -20 they brightened. Zero degrees is "freezing", but negative thirty is "fresh".

I think they're all insane. My definition of "cold" begins at zero degrees, but from there it progresses in a predictable fashion. Zero is cold, negative ten is colder, negative twenty is unpleasant, negative thirty burns, and negative forty is miserable, at least until you freeze.

The internet has been down for several days (I'm writing from a cafe) so I haven't been able to make activities for the children's class or look up Bible verses online.
On Tuesday I had the junior class make chocolate chip cookies instead of reading a story and doing grammar work. I told them we were going to make cookies, and they all followed me upstairs as if I were leading them to a pit of eternal suffering. However, as I organised them to do various tasks that involved making a mess of things, they brightened. After a short time they were talking up a storm in three languages and laughing at everything in general.
I got a greased cookie sheet and told them to put balls of dough on it. I turned around to get a spoon, and when I turned back five seconds later the sheet was absolutely covered in large balls of dough. Apparently they had never made chocolate chip cookies before. I removed some of the balls, but I guess I didn't remove enough, because when the sheet came out of the oven it was all one solid mass of cookie... not that they cared.
Later, when I came back to get my things after my last class I saw that Mogie (cook, cleaning lady) had observed the mass of cookieness and helpfully spread the rest of the batter across another cookie sheet.

Whatever. It still tasted good.

It was -40 this morning. I'll upload the video when the school gets internet on Monday. I can't upload it from the cafe because I can't save anything to internet cafe computers.

later y'all.