update

it’s been more than a week since my last posting. not only that i was busy, but also because my laptop conked out.  must be the power surges in UB. 

in any case, it has been a wonderful mongolian experience, although in my eight days in the country, í didn’t manage to get a taste of THE real authentic mongolian barbeque.  what i did discover, and which i became totally hooked on, was a kind of traditional lamb soup called "bantan" - a thick lamb stew made of thin slivers of lamb and wheat flour to thicken the soup.  kinda like arroz caldo but more savory… very hot and filling.  eaten with new-found friends, it’s a nourishing comfort food to warm chilled bones and lonely soul in a new environment.  

on my last day, my hosts treated me to a korean dinner where we had the most fantabulous beef and mutton bulgogi — chunks of meat that i’m normally not keen to sink my teeth into, but these were just soooo tender and tasty i ended up literally with a bloated stomach.  it was too bad  that i and sergio, their swiss-italian intern, had to rush to catch a traditional mongolian opera. being stuffed made me succumb to the "swine" syndrome. although i enjoyed the opera and was pleasantly surprised with the good singing voice of the main cast, i slept through most of the spoken parts.       

the performance ended at about 9.00 pm. i’d have wanted to head back to the hotel but nathalie wanted me to look at her flat to get an idea of the housing possibilities. sergio, nathalie and i climbed four floors to her flat, which is centrally located - near the state department store, the grocery, eateries and shops.  nathalie also suggested to take a quick look at the flat beside sergio’s.  this one is a one-bedroom affair, just like nathalie’s, but bigger and located in a more quiet and secure compound.  it’s actually owned by amber’s parents.  it has the added advantage of having sergio a door away and amber’s brother a floor below. 

sergio walked me to the hotel, and on the way, showed the route to the office.  it was a pleasant 10-minute amble, but Sergio said that when he came in january, he’s forced to take a cab to keep his nose from freezing in the dead of winter.

good manners dictated that i invite sergio for coffee or tea, which we did have at the hotel coffee shop.  we ended up chatting for two hours — he orienting me on UB, how his fascination for mongolia grew and why he’d dearly want to come back after completing his degree, etc.  me — asking most of the questions and giving my two-cents worth of advice on being a development worker, that he has to keep his options open and not rush into deciding areas of specialization etc.  we had a good bonding moment and said our goodbyes with dutch-russian-swiss style 3-kisses-on-the-cheek.  by the time i relocate in june, sergio will have two more months to go to complete his internship. feeling like an old hand in mongolia, he promised to take me around and mentor me in the ways of the country.  nice…