Tserendavaa Tsend-Ayush, my dad, was born on March 12, 1972 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He grew up with his younger brother and sister along with his parents. Tsend-Ayush and his family had lived in a small apartment for most of his early years. He had then gotten married to Nyamgerel Zandan, my mom, at age 23 and on February 06, 1998 I was born and two years later he moved to America along with my mom. Zandan and Tsend-Ayush lived alone in America leaving me in Mongolia for two years with my grandparents before sending me after them.

What was your childhood like in Mongolia?
It was nice. Every child has nice memories of childhood, right? I lived with my parents and my younger brother and sister. It was just the three of us and I was the oldest of the three of us. I remember that we played baseball, soccer, and basketball as children.

Why did you move to America?
Honestly, I didn’t wish to come to America. I just went to America to get visa and they gave me visa so I thought I could learn something in a different country and also English. Then, I just flew to America. Simple.

What struggles did you face when moving here?
Language. The language is different and I didn’t speak English. I knew some basic words like “Hi”, “How are you?”, “Bye”, “Thank you”, “Okay”. They were basic and easy but other than that I couldn’t make a conversation with other people since I didn’t know the language. It was very difficult. So there was a roommate I stayed with when I first moved to Utah. There’s a Salt Lake City in Utah and next to Salt Lake City there is a city called Prova City. Then there was one Mongolian guy and then he took me to this apartment and he translated things from the manager, who was an American guy. He translated everything and explained to me, “This is your apartment along with three other American guys who you’ll be roommates with”. Then there was one single bed in the bedroom and nothing else. No pillow, no blanket, no sheets. I just had one suitcase with me clothes and that was it.

I need to buy all of stuff even knife, fork, and pot. Everyone needed to get their own stuff in the apartment since there was the four of us. So I go the grocery store to get food but for the first month I was only buying eggs, sausage, and ramen noodle. That’s all I ate every single day for one month. Two weeks after I started only eating that one of the guys in my apartment asked me if eggs, noodle, and ramen were my national food. I said, “No, no,no”. I wanted to eat meat but if I get meat I’ll need some knife, bigger pot, and oil. I wanted to save my money so I only ate egg, sausage, and noodle. So, when I came to Chicago I hated those things. Imagine eating only eggs, sausages, and noodles for a whole month. I didn’t want to eat them anymore after that. So after a couple days I went to this free English school that was ten minutes away from my apartment. I walk there every day. There were many different kinds of students but there was only one Mongolian guy who was me. There were Japanese guys, even Mexicans, and some European guys. Anyway, after two weeks I found out one of my roommates was Russian so he could speak Russian. I could speak Russian too so then we were able to have conversations.

How hard was learning a new language?
It was very difficult because Mongolian grammar and English grammar is different. For example the position of the words in a sentence in English is different from the position of the words in Mongolian. But there was one thing that helped me to learn English. Later on I found out that English grammar is very similar to Russian grammar. So it helped to learn english but I only went to the English school for one month before I moves to Chicago. So when I came to Chicago, I thought that I can open a dictionary and books but to learn the language word by word isn’t easy so I learned by watching TV with caption or subtitles. I tried to learn the language by whole sentences instead of word by word. Just look at them and memorizing it. Also, I listened to how American people speak. How they question each other and how they answer each other. SO I just kept those conversations in my mind and memorized them. By sentences and not by word by word.

Did you know anyone in America? Who and how?
Yes, I knew someone in Chicago. He was Mongolian like me and he had come to America three years before I did. I did help him get application to be able to go to America. So when I got visa I called him, and he told me to go to Chicago. That’s the other reason why I wanted to come to America. It’s like I wanted to explore the world. My friend was a childhood friends of mine and we were close. We’ve know each other for a really long time. I met up with him two years ago when I went back to Mongolia for vacation. He went back so that he could take care of his sick mother.

How were you able to find a job when you first moved to America?
It wasn’t easy. First time I used to work at a fast food restaurant, and it was called Bronze Chicken. I worked in the kitchen frying chicken. My roommate, who was a Mongolia guy, helped me get the job. He used to work there but he found a new job so he introduced me to the manager and got me a job there. I was earning about $6.25 per hour and I worked there for one month before quitting. The salary was too cheap but I couldn't find a job for two months. After two months, I found a job in a moving company. It’s a company that helps people move from one place to another. I worked there for four years. I leaned a bit of English over time then afterwards it was easy to find a new job. I worked as a taxi driver for five years, and then I worked as a truck driver until now.

How were you able to time an apartment?
The very first time I moved to Chicago, I lived with my friend. So i was sleeping on the living room on the couch for five months. Five months later, we were kicked out of the apartment because the manager said there were too many people in our apartment. There were a total of 11 of us. Eleven people lived in a two bedroom apartment. Good thing was that I payed a little amount for the rent. I payed about a hundred dollars per month since the rent was about a thousand dollars per month, I think. So, I had only a small amount of money so I wanted to save it to buy a car. So playing a hundred dollars a month was nice for me.

What did you have to leave behind in Mongolia? Why?
My wife and my daughter because the first time I only got visa and they didn’t. The very first time I thought that I would just learn English and then go back but a couple years later my wife got visa so she came to America. But she left our daughter behind with my mom. After another two years my daughter got visa and then everyone came to america so we decided to stay here for a while.

Would you move back one day? Why?
Yeah I will, because I was born there and all of my close friends, my parents, and my relatives are there. Everyone is back there. That’s why one day I’m gonna move back with my family.

When do you plan to move back to Mongolia?
When do I? Hmm. That’s a hard question. I don’t know. I think I might move back in six or seven years from now. Maybe after you finish school. So when you finish school I’ll be able to be free. I think (laughs).

What are the circumstances required for you to move back?
Well, I can’t say I’m gonna have a million dollars. Right? I’m working hard of course but I don’t now. Well, I have to have money of course. I will have lived in America for about twenty years before I’m able to Mongolia. I think it will feel like the first time I moved to America. I’m pretty sure because the people would have changed everything would have changed and I don’t know how difficult it will be but anyway that’s my country so I’ll be able to adjust there.

Thank you for your time.

Tserendavaa Tsend-Ayush has been living in America since 2000 with his wife and two daughters. He now works as a truck driver and as a taxi driver under Uber. He and his wife are planning to move back to Mongolia in 2020 or right after his oldest daughter gets a job in her career field. He has come a long way from living in a two bedroom apartment with 11 other guys to living in a suburban house with his family.