1 Canadian Dollar = 1,293 Tögrög

What this means is that the 10 Tögrög note in my wallet goes for less than one cent. There is no such thing as coins in Mongolia (although I've noticed they have a predilection for medals). Because of the pick-pocket, I've now emptied my wallet of all variety of credit cards (one), identification (like a PADI license and my Nepal VSO ID) and miscellany. It is conspicously un-Canadian. Mostly because the coin pocket isn't so cumbersome and heavy that if I ever fell off The Queen of Coquitlam I'd sink like a stone.
This enormous wad of cash? Probably about $20. I'm not kidding.

Passport pick-pocketed

Today I had my passport pick-pocketed. Was heading down to the Ministry of Visa Registration (that may not be it's exact name) with Michelle when we took a detour into the Post Office, which is apparently a pretty bad place for pickpocketing. As we went into the revolving doors one of the Mongolians was making no effort to get out of my way, which was odd to begin with, in fact he even made an effort to move into me and as we chest bumped I felt my passport slip out of my back pocket (ok yes, passport in back pocket is a *bad* idea. I wasn't thinking at all. it's the first time I've pulled my passport out since arriving, and we'd been in a rush to get out of work so I'd just grabbed it and thrown it in my back pocket. I didn't even zip up my pockets. Normally I am incredibly diligent about these things, and I think today was the first time ever I pulled a no-brainer and didn't think about security).

So yes, the classic bump and pick. I credit my knowledge of this maneouver with endless hours of aimlessly surfing the web because there is in fact a website that outlines pickpocketing techniques. And I have read it.

So I turn around and grab the guy, and there's a very brief moment of oh f**k because I immediately see that he doesn't have my passport. Luckily, very very luckily, Michelle happened to turn around at this moment to say something to me and saw me having words with this guy. I'm still not sure what happened but either he dropped the passport as soon as I turned or he dropped it because it wasn't a wad of cash, but my passport was on the ground (between another suspicious dude's feet) and Michelle grabbed it.

The security guard at the post office, who came sauntering up five seconds after this happened, was utterly useless. Everything happened so fast that by the time I thought of popping the pickpocket in the nose we were inside looking at post cards.

safe and sound in UB

well getting here was fairly painless and i found the apartment with
no problem. looks like i'm sharing a nice flat with three girls, all
very nice. i'll be sleeping under the stairwell harry potter style. we
went to the 'Black Market' yesterday (so-called for the black tarps
everywhere) and bought a mattress for me, then had dinner in a
Mexican/Indian restaurant down the road. i'm hoping that the
countryside is a little more attractive than UB, because i hate to say it but this place is the same as any other dusty, developing country metropolis.


beijing was fun though.



















i managed to get through immigration no problem, when i told them i didn't have a visa they waved me on to the diplomatic desk and i got a special stamp. spent the day in tiannamen square and outside the forbidden city.

had some peking duck at a recommended restaurant and then made it back to the airport. i got caught in no-man's land going through the custom's checkpoints, as immigration didn't want to stamp my passport until the next day, as that was the day i was leaving. so i passed out on a bench until midnight, awakened occasionally by customs officers wizzing past on their segways.

good fun.

Photo Exhibition!

Hey, if you're down in Victoria you can go check out the exhibit at the Black Stilt. It's all photos from Nepal and all the proceeds go to VSO!

ottawa ROCKS!

this morning i was skating on the Rideau Canal. woo!

and so, my weeklong dream of becoming an internet celebrity will have to wait, although i know my roomie caught me writing my name in the snow on the Parliament Hillcam (props to Kathryn). i had to break away from dinner and sprint up the hill to do that! if you look you may still be able to see a bit of the M from Mitenko. i stood on the dot in the i and held my hands in the air for something like two minutes. parliament security is remarkably lax.

anyway, although i didn't really know what to expect i was pleasantly surprised by the weekend. it actually helped me get a lot of things sorted out and articulated a lot of the things that had been floating around in my head but i hadn't actually realized. y'know, stuff like reverse culture shock, where to go from here, etc.

hung out with a bunch of returned vols from bangladesh and laughed, laughed my ass off. i haven't laughed that hard in a while. we all went out drinking and dining and had a great time, and there was an abundance of wrongness in topics.

small world facts:

• one of the Bangla vols is from Winnipeg, my hometown. She lives in River Heights, not far from where I grew up. On top of that, she's from a small town in Manitoba that's across the river from the town of Petersfield, where my grandpa lives. ok, not amazing for you but pretty neat for me.
• while i was dragging my sister through the himalayas, one of the other Bangla vols was actually in Kathmandu. And she ended up going out drinking and karaoke'ing with a bunch of people I knew as well as one miss Ciara Casey. i never even knew until this weekend. now come on, that's an interesting small world fact!

and i'm putting up a picture of my old program manager, Purna, displaying his awesome dancing skills just because that came up over drinks. and when i saw this picture i had to laugh.

The Madness of Catan

Strange thing, this little board game. When Christmas rolled around I didn't have enough money to buy everyone in my family a present, so I opted for a family present of Settlers of Catan. I'd never heard of it until my roomie suggested it as a present.

However, once the game was known, closet Catanites began creeping out of everywhere. There's expansion games, multiplayer versions... it's all madness. Catan has become the game du weekend whenever there's enough people around.

Last Saturday we had a games night. I took this opportunity to make some buttons to celebrate people's personalities when it comes to Catan (or any game, for that matter). And yes, I realize this is a sure sign I have too much time on my hands, but what can you do?

"You seem to be living vicariously thru your on-line self..." she says (in an email).

And frankly, I'm jealous.