Pre-Departure Orientation

Mayor of Honolulu

I know some of you cannot imagine a group of people wanting to spend an entire day indoors listening to presentations while in Hawaii – in the summer - but… let’s just say they exist. Tuesday was all about Mongolia. We were starved for information since Mongolia isn’t exactly in the news so often. Most of what I learned I’ll mention later – in the context of an experience - but I do want to share a few surprises about the language. The director of the American Center for Mongolian Studies in Mongolia, Charles Krusekopf explained that Mongolian has many influences from Turkish, Russian, and Chinese. For example, the language is written in Cyrillic when in print, and also has a script form which is reminiscent of Asian languages. Many Mongolian words are derived from Turkish, but the language itself is in the same family as – you ready? – Hungarian. I actually might be able to understand some words! I haven’t discovered any in the few I’ve encountered so far, but I will certainly be listening for them. Who knew – I should have brushed up on the Hungarian…

We were also informed of correct pronunciation of some common words. For example, ger is “gair” - Genghis Khan is “Chinggis Khan” and Ulaanbaatar is “oo-lawn-baw-ter” (think of daughter with a “b”).

Well, today is all about New Zealand and we will meet the mayor of Honolulu! Then, we’re off to New Zealand tonight. Expect the next posting over the weekend. Oh, good news about Sheep World by the way. We also get to have the Working Farm Tour which has hands-on experience with “animals of all descriptions”. Can’t wait! :+)