Sports

I competed in a Mongolian swim meet three weekends ago. My friend from work, who swam for his University in the US, asked if I wanted to participate. I thought it would be a good incentive to work out and get back into shape, but I only got in one 30 minute workout before the big day. 

There were two events, the 50 m breaststroke and 50 m freestyle. My friend and I got first and second in both races. I had a time of 34 seconds in the breaststroke and 27.5 in the freestyle. I was actually surprised by my freestyle time, considering I had done almost no physical activity in over three months. The most interesting part of the swim meet was the ceremonies. They had an opening ceremony and awards/closing ceremony. They were the most official swimming ceremonies I had ever seen, it felt like I had won a world championship. In fact, even the US Nationals has less pomp and flair then this meet. In the closing ceremony, all the athletes processed out and lined the pool deck, there were officials dressed in white uniforms, some officers dressed in military uniforms, cameras taking video, FINA posters, a podium with a giant picture of Michael Phelps... It was pretty awesome. I also won 80,000 tugrugs (about 60 bucks) and a free gym membership. It was quite a rewarding experience haha.

In other sports related news, I have been playing basketball every Tuesday night with my co-workers. There is a gymnasium inside the Ministry building that houses our office, and we rent out time there starting at 8 o'clock. Its been really fun but I still suck at basketball...nothing has changed since my middle-school days. I bought some baller b-ball shoes at the black market for 20 bucks, so at least I look good when I play. We usually play for about three hours, so its a pretty good workout. I usually take a thirty minute break in the middle to teach a yoga class to my female co-workers in the corner. That is all...for sports in Mongolia.

Skiing at Sky Resort (UB)

Went skiing two weeks ago at the Sky Ski Resort about 40 minutes from the center of Ulaanbaatar. This was my first time skiing in over eight years and I didn't know what to expect. I was very surprised to find that I hadn't forgotten how. After just a few minutes I felt very comfortable.

Sky resort is pretty nice. I paid only 25,000 tugrugs, about 20 dollars, for three hours of skiing. This included boots, skis, poles and lift tickets (good deal). My friend and I were able to stay out for 4 hours, because no one checked our lift tickets. There are three main skiing slopes at Sky, a baby hill, an intermediate and an advanced.  Not much variety but still a lot of fun. I spent most of my time on the intermediate hill and had one go at the advanced. The best part was I didn't fall! Probably because I was being very cautious.

My only complaint was the temperature. It was absolutely freezing on the mountain, around negative 40 degree Celsius (about -40 F). To illustrate, on my first run down the mountain I didn't wear my face mask and when I got down I had a layer of ice covering may face and an ice sickle running down from my nose. At first I was just wearing jeans and two layers of long johns on my legs, but after just an hour I had to go inside and rent snow pants for 6,000 tugrugs, about 4 dollars. By the end of the four hours my feet and hands were numb, even with two layers of socks, hand warmers and mittens. When I first took off my skii boots my feet were so cold I couldn't move my toes. The process of defrosting was pretty painful and my fingertips were very sensitive for about twelve hours after finally warming up.

After skiing we had lunch in the cafeteria. The cafeteria food was very expensive compared to food in UB, but thankfully my co-worker's wife brought along stuff to make sandwiches. For instance, the hot chocolate was 4,000 tugrugs (3 dollars), which would pay for a whole meal in UB.


In conclusion, even though it was friggin freezing, the trip was still worth it. I had forgotten how fun skiing was and I am really excited to go again when I'm back in the US, somewhere where the temperature is warmer.