Hello, Greetings from Tucson.

My name is Mona Damdinjav. I am 17 years old and a student at the University of Arizona. I am from a far away country of Mongolia. Mongolia is located between China and Russia. I came to the United States about 4 years ago and went to high school. I graduated from high school last summer and decided to continue my education at the University of Arizona.

Mongolia is not as rich or developed as the United Stated, so for some time it was very difficult for me to adapt to living in Tucson. The surroundings and environment were completely different from what I was used to see in my native country. There were many houses and not many apartment buildings. The weather was so hot and humid compared to the dry and cold weather of Mongolia. The food was completely different than in Mongolia, I tried my first McDonald’s and pizza. Even the shops and supermarkets were different. But slowly I was able to accustom to the lifestyle here.

My typical day starts off as I wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning. My apartment is far away from the university so I take the bus to school. I take the bus at 7 o’clock and arrive at my school at 7:30. Then I go to my math class, which starts at 8 o’clock. My English class then begins at 9 but I often almost run to that class because the buildings are too far from each other. I don’t have any other class until 1 o’clock so I go to the library to do my homework. At 1 o’clock, I have my language class, which has over 400 students in this really big lecture room. After my language class, I go home and do some more homework and then everything start all over again. On Saturdays and Sundays, if I’m finished with my homework I go to the movies with my sister. My sister is a college student at the community college. I really like to go to the movies because it is lot of fun and the screens are really big and sometimes you even feel like you are in the movie. My sister always begging me to go shopping with her on the weekends, but I hate shopping.

The tuition of University of Arizona is very expensive for me because dollar is very expensive in Mongolia. My parents work really hard to let me get a better education and I am thankful for them. I am trying to get a job to help out my parents but I don’t think I have any time because of lot of homework. But when this semester ends in January I think I will be able to get a job.

Even though I live in this great country I always miss my country.

I wish you guys the best of luck in everything and hope to hear from you all.

I posted some pictures of my hometown, but I couldn’t find any good pictures of Tucson.