Mongolia's Best
There are days when I feel right at home in Mongolia. There are other days where that couldn't be further from the truth. It's not a big difference; but in life, as the cliche goes, it's the small things that count. I want to share with what I think is different, in a positive way, about life in Mongolia in comparison with my life back in South Dakota.
First off, the stress level here is much lower in comparison to the United States. I consider my personality to be Type A. A Type A person might be called a perfectionist. We like things to be precise, exact, punctual, and with few surprises. In the USA, I always felt like I was "in control" of my life. I could drive myself to work, go to lunch at McDonalds, do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted with whomever I wanted. This worked out well for my Type A personality as there were few surprises. Even with this control obsession, there was one elusive situation, one thing I couldn't seem to get control over: finances.
In the USA, I lived with a roommate. We shared the expenses of our two-bedroom apartment: rent was about $350 each, electricity about $25 each, we did not have a house phone, but my cell phone bill generally ran about $80. If you are an American, you are probably nodding your head thinking, yup, that's life. If you are Mongolian, I want to remind you that my parents had little involvement in helping me pay my bills. That's not to say they wouldn't help me -- they would, but I have always hated to ask for money. I was a career woman in the USA earning about $1700/month, and spending most of it.
Normal living expenses in the USA aren't small. I lived in South Dakota, which is an inexpensive state. It seemed there was never a month that went by where something didn't "come up". Every month, I would spend my savings on some bill that needed paid. They came out of nowhere. In addition to those bills, I had debt I was trying to pay off -- college loans of about $15,000; credit card debt of about $8,000. It was very stressful. It was also quite discouraging to see all my hard-earned money slip from my hands so easily.
In Mongolia, it's a different situation. For my Type A personality, there have been some difficult transitions for me. I say without a doubt that Mongolia has made me more flexible. I think it has to do with the fight-or-flight instinct -- if I didn't adapt to Mongolia's standards, I would have gone crazy and chose the flight option. Instead, I went with the fight option. Stick around and see what happens next.
And you never know what will happen next.
If someone tells you to meet them in an hour, it really means about two hours. All definite plans end with Maybe. Hey Sher, let's go to the movie this weekend! Maybe! Ok, that sounds great. Let's go on Friday! Maybe! And you can't really count on Maybe to be a Yes maybe or No maybe. With my parents, an answer of Maybe ALWAYS = NO. Mom, can I go to the dance this weekend? Maybe (NO!). This was a difficult adjustment for me, but now I am used to it. I just ask the question, take a deep breath, and if they don't say Maybe for me, I assume it in my mind. And I certainly don't get my panties in a bunch if things don't go quite as planned. I would say 50% of the time, they do go as planned. Usually. This situation first elevated my stress level, but now I am adapted. The financial story of Sheridan is Mongolia is much less stressful than my story in the USA.
Things are pretty cheap here. I should restate that; things like food are cheap here. What do you really need to survive? I lived without hot water for almost four months, I didn't have an income for more than four months, yet here I am. My belly was always full and I always slept with a roof over my head (unless I was camping, of course!). It helped that we have an apartment that is paid for. That means no rent payment. No car means no car payment. No cell phone means no phone bill. No computer means no Internet bill. No TV means no television bill. I was living a pretty simple life here in Mongolia over the summer. I use "was" because now we have many of those things. However, they are pretty cheap. Phone bill? Depends how much you use it; about 40,000T for both phones (about $40US). Cable TV, about $6/month. That's cheap living.
Life in the USA is expensive and quite predictable. Life in Mongolia is considerably cheaper and leaves many decisions to fate. Here in Mongolia, I'm not always worrying about where the next car payment will come from, if I am working enough hours to pay the bills. There is more value for family and friends. I'm sure in one of my next blogs, I'll discuss that thought.
First off, the stress level here is much lower in comparison to the United States. I consider my personality to be Type A. A Type A person might be called a perfectionist. We like things to be precise, exact, punctual, and with few surprises. In the USA, I always felt like I was "in control" of my life. I could drive myself to work, go to lunch at McDonalds, do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted with whomever I wanted. This worked out well for my Type A personality as there were few surprises. Even with this control obsession, there was one elusive situation, one thing I couldn't seem to get control over: finances.
In the USA, I lived with a roommate. We shared the expenses of our two-bedroom apartment: rent was about $350 each, electricity about $25 each, we did not have a house phone, but my cell phone bill generally ran about $80. If you are an American, you are probably nodding your head thinking, yup, that's life. If you are Mongolian, I want to remind you that my parents had little involvement in helping me pay my bills. That's not to say they wouldn't help me -- they would, but I have always hated to ask for money. I was a career woman in the USA earning about $1700/month, and spending most of it.
Normal living expenses in the USA aren't small. I lived in South Dakota, which is an inexpensive state. It seemed there was never a month that went by where something didn't "come up". Every month, I would spend my savings on some bill that needed paid. They came out of nowhere. In addition to those bills, I had debt I was trying to pay off -- college loans of about $15,000; credit card debt of about $8,000. It was very stressful. It was also quite discouraging to see all my hard-earned money slip from my hands so easily.
In Mongolia, it's a different situation. For my Type A personality, there have been some difficult transitions for me. I say without a doubt that Mongolia has made me more flexible. I think it has to do with the fight-or-flight instinct -- if I didn't adapt to Mongolia's standards, I would have gone crazy and chose the flight option. Instead, I went with the fight option. Stick around and see what happens next.
And you never know what will happen next.
If someone tells you to meet them in an hour, it really means about two hours. All definite plans end with Maybe. Hey Sher, let's go to the movie this weekend! Maybe! Ok, that sounds great. Let's go on Friday! Maybe! And you can't really count on Maybe to be a Yes maybe or No maybe. With my parents, an answer of Maybe ALWAYS = NO. Mom, can I go to the dance this weekend? Maybe (NO!). This was a difficult adjustment for me, but now I am used to it. I just ask the question, take a deep breath, and if they don't say Maybe for me, I assume it in my mind. And I certainly don't get my panties in a bunch if things don't go quite as planned. I would say 50% of the time, they do go as planned. Usually. This situation first elevated my stress level, but now I am adapted. The financial story of Sheridan is Mongolia is much less stressful than my story in the USA.
Things are pretty cheap here. I should restate that; things like food are cheap here. What do you really need to survive? I lived without hot water for almost four months, I didn't have an income for more than four months, yet here I am. My belly was always full and I always slept with a roof over my head (unless I was camping, of course!). It helped that we have an apartment that is paid for. That means no rent payment. No car means no car payment. No cell phone means no phone bill. No computer means no Internet bill. No TV means no television bill. I was living a pretty simple life here in Mongolia over the summer. I use "was" because now we have many of those things. However, they are pretty cheap. Phone bill? Depends how much you use it; about 40,000T for both phones (about $40US). Cable TV, about $6/month. That's cheap living.
Life in the USA is expensive and quite predictable. Life in Mongolia is considerably cheaper and leaves many decisions to fate. Here in Mongolia, I'm not always worrying about where the next car payment will come from, if I am working enough hours to pay the bills. There is more value for family and friends. I'm sure in one of my next blogs, I'll discuss that thought.
posted by sheridan | 6:40 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Sheridan, Love the blogs! I hear you loud and lcear about live in the good old usa! sounds like you are having an adventur of a life time. YOu GO GIRL!!!!!
Love Jessie
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