Sunday I went to the Museum of Natural History. The exhibits are really old and quite poorly done. But it interesting because it mostly focuses on the geography, flora and fauna of Mongolia. And they have a pretty awesome dinosaur exhibit. Rawr! There are lots of dinosaur skeletons, bones, and eggs all of which were all found in Mongolia! I couldn’t sneak any pictures of the dinosaurs. That is pretty much the only place in the museum they had staff to make sure you were not taking photos. I also was able to find the 0km marker, the point from with all things in Mongolia are measured. Later I found a Lenin statue and the Wedding Palace. I was doing really well not being bothered by anyone for most of the day, but then it was one after another. A few people trying to sell me paintings and post cards and then a street kid begging for food or money, who would not leave me alone until I walked away. I think maybe if I can cover my hair and wear sunglasses I can be left alone. Today I did a bit of shopping too. I checked out the souvenirs shops and cashmere shops. I found this really great fair trade shop and bought an awesome necklace made of felt and silk. The cashmere is a bit more expensive than I thought it might be, and the options are a bit behind in fashion. And it was quite difficult thinking about buying a sweater when it is 85 degrees outside. I was also able to find a shop that had second hand books in English, so I picked up two books. And they will buy them back when I am done. Score. There is another bookstore that has books in English but they are not open on Sundays so I will have to check them out next weekend. It was so nice out I couldn’t bear to go back to the hotel, so I sat outside of the Choijin Lama Temple Museum and read for awhile.
Other random thoughts about Mongolia. People on the street sell cigarettes, gum, suckers, socks, and somehow phone calls from this old looking phone (not quite sure how it works). Mongolians like to share.
Monday was another day at the office. I got a lot of work done on the PfCC document, and hopefully I should be able to get the rest of the documents I need soon so I can finish that up. It has been a major pain that only some documents are in English. I feel like I am missing parts of the whole picture. Also I have been thinking about this proposal they would like me to do on integrating climate change into disaster risk reduction. So I have been jotting down some notes and worked a bit on ideas for communication materials. I feel like there are a million thoughts and ideas floating around in my head and I just have to get it all together for some sort of coherent thought process. The DM office is pretty busy these days too. Oh and I am official English spell checker. I get to read over the presentations they have to give and make sure they make sense. So I’m just doing my thing.
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