by connal on February 15, 2010
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. 7 years ago, on that day, Anjel and I had our first date.
We had known each other for a just a week or two after meeting in our Level 1 Graphic Design class at CCA. On a Friday, the week before Valentine’s Day, I mentioned to a classmate that I was going dirtbiking the next day. Anjel overheard and said “You ride dirtbikes? I want to go!” Knowing enough not to pass up a opportunity like that I got everything ready and the next week the two of us drove down to Hollister Hills for an afternoon of dirtbiking.
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by connal on February 15, 2010
We’d been in Mongolia for about 36 hours and were sitting on footstools around a small, low table inside a ger. My wrist was starting to ache and Anjel had developed a blister on her right index finger from the large cleaver. We were getting tired, but there was a large pile of still-frozen mutton in front of us, and the dumplings weren’t going to make themselves, so we kept chopping.
We weren’t the only ones working. Mr. Ghambataar was sitting with us, going through his pile of meat like butter while his wife was preparing dough from scratch. There was a fire going in the stove and the Ger was warm, which was nice because on the other side of the felt walls it was -35°F. We paused to sip from the ever-present cups of hot Milk Tea – but not too much since after dinner we were going to have our last chance to go outside to use the toilet before the dogs were unchained for the night. “If you need to use the toilet at night,” our host warned us through the translator “wake me up. It is not safe for you to go by yourself.”
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