language barriers and nauseating laughter...

well my first full work week is officially over...it was really interesting, but sometimes boring...the hospital does a lot of the same surgeries, so when all we are doing is watching the same thing over and over, and still no one can explain to us what is going on, we get a little bored...but today was incredible...i got to watch a heart surgery...apparently something to do with the aortic pipe...it was the craziest thing i've ever seen...they did all the normal prep work for any surgery, but then they started packing this guy down with ice...it was really odd...i mean, they basically just tied this rubber apron thing around the patient and shoved as much ice as possible all around him...i asked what the ice was for...i didn't get that great of an explanation...it has something to do with the brain's ability to survive without circulation for a longer amount of time when it is at a lower temperature...so once his temperature was down to about 31 degrees centigrade (someone convert that for me) they began the operation...they cut about a foot long incision underneath his left arm...and then they had to break his rib cage to eventually get to the heart...i wish i could explain how crazy this is...i mean, they had this guy basically in two pieces...it was really awesome to watch them pull open the rib cage...because then, all of a sudden this beating heart comes into view...it's really remarkable...and guess what...you get to see it! they let me take pictures...after work, AB and i went back to this memorial thing we had been to...but we wanted to go again because it was so pretty...the first day we went, there had been some forest fires and we couldn't see anything...its quite breathtaking...literally...we had to climb a bajillion stairs...it was worth it though...we even got to hold this guy's pet eagle...and on the way back (after some interesting bus confusions) we got in our first mongolian fender bender...shockingly, this has been the only wreck we've seen...they drive like they are squirrels on ritalin...but within a matter of minutes, our bus was on its way again...

Projects Abroad took everyone out for Korean food tonight (by the way, the majority of Korean food makes me gag)...there is this girl volunteer named Venus (from Cananda) and for some reason, one of the staff members named Otgoo decided to ask Venus if she wanted more food...except, Otgoo has a very thick accent...so when she asked it sounded like this... "Wenus, are you hungry?"...Ashley and i lost it...we laughed for 10 straight minutes...it was the most ridiculous thing...and poor Otgoo had no idea what we were talking about...man, it was funny...that combined with the extremely gay guy Brandon from L.A. made for one memorable evening...

tomorrow we are heading to the Terelj National Park...it's about an hour and a half outside the city...i'm sure i'll have some great stories, so keep reading!