Broke my foot but I still had a good day.

Forget everything that I said I wanted to do in my previous post- that doesn't matter much anymore!

The weather has been beautiful in Ulaanbaatar recently. It's been 75 degrees, and can you believe it's going to be 80 on Monday? Chris and I decided to go out to eat at this awesome little Cuban place for lunch. (It was delicious) 

After that, we decided to walk home.

I do love him so much.

On part of the walk we got to cross a river, and that was so much fun! We were laughing and joking the entire time...just completely relaxed and really enjoying the nice weather and great company.

Chris wanted to stop in a restaurant called "Moose" on the way home to check out the menu (for future dates, I'm sure :)) and on the way out I started to dance. Chris was like "yeah, Lisa, dance it out" and two seconds later, I missed the step out of the restaurant and crashed to the pavement.

I heard something in my foot go SNAP and I knew right then something was horribly wrong.

We got ice from the waitress inside Moose, and I called up my Fulbright friends asking for hospital recommendations since my usual Korean hospital is closed on the weekends.

We got a recommendation for a hospital, Chris flagged down a taxi, and then Chris picked me up and placed me gently inside. Once we got to the hospital, we had a 30 minute wait to get an x-ray. Chris wasn't the only sweet guy carrying his girl; we saw other women with potentially broken bones getting carried in, but none were so attentive (or funny) as mine :)

I ended up getting an x-ray (no radiation coverings at all, and Chris was in the room the whole time)

A low point. I actually kept a pretty stellar sense of humor the entire time.

And then I was very professionally fitted for a cast. I'm still not sure if the bone is in the right place or not. No adjustments were made.

Chris had to go home to get more money and I waited around patiently in the cast-making room for about an hour. When he came back, a new-found Mongolian friend offered us a ride home. He unfortunately got a flat on the way back, but that was more funny than frustrating.

Now Chris and I are home safe and sound, although neither one of us is really in tip-top shape. Chris carried me from room to room in the hospital and he also carried me to the car and up 5 flights of stairs to our tiny apartment. He helped me get into the taxi after I broke my foot, helped find the proper doctors for me, and he even sat in traffic for 30 minutes trying to get home so he could get more money for this unexpected expense. I think I would still be on the ground right now, or probably still in the hospital if it wasn't for him. 

Per doctor's orders, I am on 28 days of bed rest and I need to elevate my foot constantly. Chris and I spent the rest of the evening re-organizing the room to work with my new handicap. We're both weary, but we still had an awesome day.

May 10th, May 10th, May 10th

I have accepted an offer from the University of South Dakota and I will be starting my PhD program in Clinical Psychology this coming August! Chris and I will be moving to Vermillion, South Dakota this summer!! We're both looking forward to moving back to the States and I'm especially excited about getting started on a higher education.

I have 5 more teaching days (Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) before I can say that I'm done teaching. I'll essentially be on vacation from May 11th to June 9th and on June 9th I'll start my long journey back to the United States. So, there are a few things I'd like to do in Mongolia before I leave.

1) Get a Mongolian haircut. For about 15 dollars you get a neck massage, a hair treatment, and a supposedly fantastic cut. Chris did it earlier in the year and he ended up getting green goop put in his hair and then he was stuck under a hair dryer for awhile. Oddly enough, I'd like that experience, and since I haven't cut my hair in nearly 10 months, I think it's kinda necessary at this point.

Sometimes I braid my hair and my students are always so surprised.

2) Go to Lake Hovsgol. It's the deepest lake in all of Mongolia, takes approximately 3 weeks to go around it, and it's supposed to be absolutely breath-taking. Wikipedia says that  the lake area is a National Park that is bigger than Yellowstone! The drive to get there is over 24 hours, so Chris and I will be taking a plane with a trip time of only an hour and a half :)

3) Hike up the Zaisian Monument. I live in Zaisian, which is the "rich part" of Ulaanbaatar and maybe 15 minutes away from me is a beautiful monument that offers a great view of the city. It's a small hike up and it's ranked highly on TripAdvisor, but I just haven't made time for it...yet.

4) And directly to the right of my apartment is a mountain. The last time I hiked that mountain I was diagnosed with appendicitis the next day, so I'm jokingly a bit concerned about what organ will go next (gall bladder, maybe?) But it's time to make the hike back up the mountain and say good bye to Mongolia and the city I spent 10 months in.