March 8th

I was just sitting outside, enjoying the beauty of the day. That’s right, gone is the cold bitter winter and now spring has finally come. I munched away at an ‘Alibi’ candy bar made in Poland and tried to figure out if it meant something else in Polish and considered all the slogan and ad possibilities with a name like that. Two white lines divided the sky as they went somewhere across the Mongolian blue. If I was savvy enough I could have figured their general place of departure and arrival but I can never remember if the sun sets in the east or the west. I don’t know why I can’t remember that but I can still recite the first 20 elements of the periodic table, thank you very much Mr. Allan.
Today has been a relatively lazy day, which is okay I guess since its Saturday. This is also what is celebrated as “Women’s Day”, which the WV staff had the day off for yesterday. Seems like a good idea to me, I wonder if they celebrate mother’s and father’s day as well. Anyway, I got up late and got myself some breakfast of bread and jam alongside instant coffee before Bathuyag came a knocking at my door. He wanted to take me to the small FM radio station so I could pick whatever songs I wanted played and also to copy them for me. A nice offer but I kind of wanted the day to myself so I told him I would just stay here. I think he was alright with it, he comes by almost everyday and we do stuff together.
I did some cleaning up around here and washed a small batch of clothes. I don’t know why but I like cleaning my clothes by hand, somehow it gets you in a thinking mood or something.
I went for a walk around town and for the first time since coming here it was too hot. As weird as that sounds, I wasn’t prepared for the warmth of the day. I went with my usual 4 or so layers and was getting sweaty by the time I got home.
Anyway, now some catching up. Let’s start with yesterday.

I got up at the usual time for work and while I was eating my breakfast my supervisor, Ganaa, called me from UB(Ulaanbaatar) to let me know that today was “vacation” because of women’s day on the 8th.
A few hours later Bathuyag stopped by my room and offered to take me around town and see some sights. First we went to the “local” museum. It cost me 1000 tugrik to get in because of my foreigner status. As much as I expect it I always hate that even though it’s a lot less money for me than for a local person. The funny thing is that they had to give me 3 tickets (300 t each)for an adult and 2 (50 each) for a child so that it would work out to 1000 total. I guess they don’t try to hide it from you like they do in Thailand.
Anyway after busting out my camera I was told I couldn’t take pictures. Since we are in the capital of the province it was history and famous people from Khentii. There were paintings, old books in the traditional Mongolian script, stuffed animals to represent the variety of wildlife, and more. Bathuyag did his best to explain to me whatever I asked him and also decided to try and snag some pictures with my camera.
After that we went to the library for a little while before we were informed that it was lunch time for the staff. So we decided to take our own lunch nearby. Soup with flour noodles, meat and lots of fat was the meal of choice. At first he wasn’t going to eat but then ran into his high-school buddy that is a cook at the place and wound up getting a free meal.
We then went to the historical museum which I had seen the outside of once before as it was closed the last time I tried to go to. It consists of about 5 old buildings that bore resemblance to Chinese architecture and a ceremonial ger. The buildings are 300 years old and each one was themed differently, one had Buddhist paraphernalia, another sports and games, another traditional household life. I should mention that part of it was a courtyard for a Buddhist temple, while another housed the governor at one time.
Again, here I paid twice as much as Bathuyag and was told that it was going to cost me 500 tugrik for every photo I wanted to take. That just seemed ridiculous to me so I initially avoided that. When we got to the ceremonial ger which was decked out with beautiful wood carvings and furniture we decided to take some pictures and we weren’t charged.
It was good to get out and learn a little history for the day. Bathuyag was nice enough to spend an entire day with me so that I can get some more insight to this country and its people. We spend a lot of time together talking, hanging out, eating meals together. Despite his limited vocabulary and grammar he has an understanding for ideas that goes beyond just words. This is rather unique as others I know that have better knowledge of the English language are not able to communicate as much as he. He isn’t shy and has a good sense of humor, making it all the easier. He says that we have the same mind, even though we are from different cultures, that’s why we are able to understand each other so well. Perhaps.