Life So Far

I feel as though its time to speak again about life here in UB. The reason I've neglected doing so is that for the most part things are pretty lame which drives me to the outdoors on weekends in order to escape the misery that is that damnable city. The weather is starting to turn and public schools are back in session. This means no more children's classes, a relief. My schedule for the last week has had me start at 5pm everyday which is more welcome relief. Now I can do what I do best, namely sleep in.

One benefit to cold weather is that the hot water has been turned on again. You see, the winters in UB are so harsh that every year pipes burst and there are maintenance problems throughout the city. Because of this the summer is spent fixing pipes which means district by district hot water gets shut off for a month. The water that you are left with isn't just cold, its fuckin' icy! Truck stop showers for a month are no fun for all parties involved.

This brilliant new government decided it would be desirable to repair the main traffic artery. When Mongolians repair roads they don't do it like we do in the states. None of this weak ass work on one lane at a time bullshit, hell no! We're Mongolians dammit! We're gonna shut the whole damn street down, and you can suck it! Fortunately for me this is my walk to work so for a whole month I had the luxury of lumbering down the middle of the road completely uninhibited. My favorite was walking home from work at night. Headlights in the distance backlighting silhouetted figures shambling through the darkness. I thought I was in some sort of George Romero movie. Never once got jumped. Perhaps I'm the scariest zombie of them all. That's a comforting thought.

Last Saturday I went with a group of friends to the rivers edge to enjoy some BBQ shish kebabs. What should have been a pleasant afternoon turned into a shitstorm of bickering and animosity. What's more the meat had been marinated in too much ginger giving it a soapy taste. Afterwards I went home and sulked. I made Sunday into a consolation day by taking a nice solo hike up on Bogd. Read about it in the next post sucka!