Early Morning in June

Looking back it was on June 13th that Serdamba and I met Tim and Sam. I wanted to meet them because I was helping a young woman I know earn enough money to go to school in UB. Plus I knew Serdamba needs the money for his school as well. Tim and Sam are an English couple on honeymoon. I had met them on the lonely planet thorntree. They found my posts to be informative, and asked me if I knew any Mongolian herders and if I could them prepare their journey in Mongolia. I told them that I do know herders and that I can help them in any way possible. They're travelling around the world practicing skills they learned in England. The Mongolian portion of their honeymoon was undertaken to perfect their horseriding skills and to learn how Mongolians do it.

So Serdamba and I knew that they were coming and had promised we would be there to greet them as they get off the train. They were the last people to get off. I had written on a portable calender I got from MIAT (Tim and Sam) in large letters so that they can distinguish Serdamba and I from all the other people meeting people and such at the train station. In the end we met them and took them to the UB Guesthouse. They were tired from their journey, but later that night we met up with them and went to a pub.

The school invaded Terelj

Roland, most of the Russian teachers, some of the 6th grade classes and I went on a day trip of Terelj last Saturday. We started our journey at 9:45 a.m. I managed to snag the front seat of the bus for Roland and I. It provided a cool view of the journey to Terelj. We stopped off at a place owned by some Kazakhs that had an eagle there and two camels. Most of the children and all the Russian teachers rode the camels. I didn't get on as I had ridden one in Moron (the Aimag Center of Khuvsgol last summer. We went to Terelj after that; I did a bit of scampering about on the rocks. Then we went back to the Tuul river and had a picnic. We broke down into two groups: the students and the adults. The homeroom teachers stayed with their classes to make sure the kids don't hurt themselves. The majority of the teachers went off further into the scrub where we had our picnic. There was food and drink. It was the first meeting of the school year.

I don't need somebody to tell me my name is Roland

So it was in early March just before my birthday on the 2nd that I went to the Chinggis for the first time in about 2 years or so. I went there with Roland, one English guy named Dave, two Swedish guys and three Brazilians. Everybody except for Roland were staying at the UB Guesthouse. We took up most of two tables.
While eating our assorted T-Bone steaks and drinking beer, my ex-girlfriend came over to say hi. We were talking a bit. Roland and I whipped out our Mongolian and spoke a bit with her. She kept on asking if Roland was really Roland. She kept on saying he looked different. She was saying last time he wasn't wearing glasses. I said that he still looks like Roland and he said that he was always wearing glasses the whole time he was in Mongolia. There was still some confusion. Finally after much discussion, she said "aagh, tii tiim khuun Roland!" That roughly translates as "aagh, yeah that is Roland!" Later Roland and I were hanging out another day at another venue and he said "I don't need somebody to tell me my name is Roland."

Later the Swedish guys, the three Brazialians, (1 guy, 2 girls) Dave, and I went to the Hollywood which was to packed and ended up at the Tornado. On the way I needed to find someplace to urinate as it was a long walk from Chinggis. So I found a bush about 200 feet west of the Sansar tunnel. One of the Brazilian girls needed to go so she went behind the same bush with the Brazilian guy and I scoping the approach for passerbys. Overall it was a moderately crazy night.