day one of 365 in UB

this is it. finally here. for the next 12 months at least.  midnight arrival as before, this time tho to a warmer temperature.  today was a pleasant 17oC. the sun was actually out in the afternoon.  a mongolian colleague remarked that i brought the rains with me.  mongolia is very dry and the noontime drizzle was appreciated by many. considered a blessing in fact.

 
amber my counterpart is holidaying in spain but dalai (pronounced with a guttural sound, thus, although spelled like the dalai lama actually comes out with a lot of "acchs"), picked me up from the aiport and is attending to my needs.  dalai, a bright young man who worked with my mongolian boss, his excellency l. erdenchuluun (ambassador emeritus, aka mr. e) when mr. e was the foreign minister.  dalai came back to the country last year after a four year posting at the mongolian embassy in paris, and was recruited to the trafficking project last april.

one of my luggage went missing in beijing but was told this morning that it has been located and will be brought in tomorrow’s flight.  apart from this bit of mishap, the entire 12 hour trip (with 8 hrs of flying time) was uneventful. 

the girls at hspsc (human and social policy studies center), where i am deployed, welcomed me warmly and i treated them to lunch by way of pasalubong and a chance to bond. i had to have my favorite lamb stew, bantan.  the girls were vastly impressed upon  learning that my all-black-chic outfit for the day altogether costs less than ten dollars bought from toultumpung.  jeans and other toultumpung outfits will definitely be in the mike and daden’s shopping list for the boxes to be shipped.

urna (pronounced uuhrnach), the office secretary,   later accompanied me to get a sim card and a few grocery items, then dropped me off at sdc (swiss consulate) to say my hellos, etc. also visited one flat for potential occupancy.  begged off from the invitation to join the sdc crowd from geneva to a concert and dinner. too tired to make chika. 

it’s almost 8 pm as i make this entry but its still maliwanag outside.  tomorrow will still be easy pansy with only two meetings. then a trip to the countryside on friday.