Integrating into a new community can be so hard, but it can also be interesting and great. Have any of you ever switched schools or moved to a new town? If you have, then you have experienced integrating into a new community. You had to meet new people, make new friends, learn where things were located and learn all of the new rules of a new classroom or city. This process can be scary and difficult, but it is something that I really love. It takes time to learn about and fit into a new place, but after a few weeks of learning my place in Mongolia, it already feels like home!
The first place I had to integrate into in Mongolia is the police academy where I live and teach. Working at a police academy was a little weird at first. Since they train police, military and border control officers, the academy can be a very serious place at times. Also, cadets and soldiers are marching at almost all hours of the day. Even tonight as I was coming home from studying at a coffee shop, cadets and soldiers were still cleaning the campus and polishing boots. Can you imagine having to polish boots at 11:30 at night?
At first, the weirdest aspect about integrating into my community at the police academy was standing out like a sore thumb. I am one of the only Americans at this school and I am also not a police officer.
