Over the last few weeks the snow has been disappearing but, amazingly, there have been few above freezing temperatures and no signs of melt. This is truly an amazing country. Apparently, due to the desert type climate, the snow just evaporates leaving behind various animal bones, empty bottles of all types of alcohol and dust. The dust I marvel at because as most of the snow has vanished leaving a checkerboard type landscape, little clouds of dirt trail our footsteps to and from work settling on the remaining islands of snow.
The temps are reminiscent of New England's roller coaster degrees. One day we are in POSITIVE double digit celsius numbers, and the next we have snow squalls and that familiar negative sign in front of the temp. A fellow expat, who has lived here for a few years, said that it's easy to tell whether the winds are from the Gobi or Siberia. The daily dust storms don't seem to have a preference. The veteran expats say that this place turns green with many wild flowers at the end of May/beginning of June. Since our arrival, brown has been the choice of color, from the surrounding topography to the camel haired sweaters and socks. Needless to say, we are skeptical that there are natural colors other than the blue sky and various shades of brown landscape.
Escorting the non-negative degrees are the ladies pulling out their hottest fashions of short skirts, leggings and trading in their stylish boots for high-heeled shoes, which add quit a bit of color to and distraction from the landscape. For me, this makes walking much more dangerous with the open manholes and broken sidewalks. The long down coats and woolen dells have not yet been placed in storage, so there is easy access to defend against the Siberian winds. An accessory that I've not grown fond of yet is the face mask that attempts to filter large flying particles out of the respiratory system. There is probably a market for chic face masks here.
Another sign of the change in seasons is the pine nut vendors are out again. Pine nuts are sold still in their shells, which Mongolians are fond of cracking with their teeth and somehow teething the little nut out from its shell before swallowing and spitting out the debris. It's a lot of work for little culinary pleasure. It's reminiscent of tackling whole sunflower seeds.
Also accompanying the positive temperatures is the non-Olympic sport of marathon building construction. With the first few non-negative temp days came 24 hour digging with backhoes and bulldozers. We could not find earplugs anywhere. With most living organisms, there are predictable behaviors; however, this sport does not seem to have any. The 24 hour work day will suddenly stop, and will begin again at 5:00 pm the next day or it could be 6:00 am. The gravel conveyor belt may run all day or begin at 6:30 pm as it just did while I was writing this and end when God only knows.
I recently co-lead a 15 kilometer hike to mark a trail through the Bogd Khan range walking in snow up to my thighs at times and other times raising the little dust clouds. Pam and I just spent a couple of days during our spring break at a ger camp about 2 hours from UB reenergizing. The boys' and girls' soccer teams leave for China in 10 days, so I'm learning how to get a visa from the Chinese Embassy since I'm the boys' coach. All in all, Mongolia continues to provide us with daily adventures and tests our ability to adapt.
The view from our ger at the Mongolian Secret History Camp.
Our 30th anniversary. From Morocco to Mongolia. What a trip!!!
Are you sure you know where you are??? Where is the ger?!?
Come on, we can bushwhack it back!
How did this morsel get left behind?
It's cheaper than water!!
It's almost cheaper than beer. (vodka)
Orkhon, our Mongolian teacher, and Pam, numb and not sure of what we learned after a lesson.
Manshir, the beginning of our hike and site of a destroyed Buddhist monastery courtesy of the Russians.
Marking the trail. Let me check that GPS again.
How many more K's??????
Necessity IS the mother of invention. How the locals get the pine nuts out of the trees.
Hard to believe UB is only a few kilometers away.
