Days 3-5

gers in UB


the gooey haze over the city of UB


me and Katie

Howdy-

Some of the highlights:

-Applesauce and yogurt and Twix, oh my! and cheese, haribo gummy frogs, beets and $2 liters of vodka.

-Playing soccer with some of the kids and teachers at the HOBBY school. A few of the foreign teachers have a soccer team for their kids- complete with warmups, stretching and drills. It is really cool and it is obvious that the kids adore it. I have a sore forehead today as I took one to the face, but all was good.

-Being roughed up by a drunk man that tried to steal my bag... but since he was wobbly and drunken, I had the advantage and gave him a knee and pushed him off me. Roughed up again the next day by a punky kid that just wanted to flex his manliness and shove me around. Knocked the wind out of me but no harm done. I'm VERY glad to be staying with friends and seeing the good bits of UB, otherwise my impression might not be so good.

-Seeing dinosaurs and penguins and camels at the Mongolian Natural History Museum. Pretty low budget but a huge museum with lots of little rooms full of interesting stuff.

-Lots of stumbling drunk folks. The unemployment rate is about 40% so there are lots of people out and about.

-Damn cold here. Frigidly, freaking cold. And they say it is Spring weather...

Off to visit an old monastary, buy my train ticket for Irtusk and buy veggies for dinner. Hope life is good.