Today was one of the first days it seemed a bit nippy to me as I trudged to the Immigration Office to face their verdict on fines for being late back into the country, etc. Some sweet-talking by my translator brought it down a touch, but still, dinged about 150 bucks. Now back, and see from Weather Underground (A Geek’s Best Friend™) that the bottom has in fact been dropping out of the temps. Tomorrow’s forecast high/low will be -5/-31F (-21/-35C). With about 8 ½ hours of daylight. Don’t be jealous!
But it’s cool (ahem), tomorrow I’ll be cozily tucked into the Ulaanbaatar Hotel, digging the independent project presentations wrapping up the semester abroad for the School for Int’l Training students. I’m especially looking forward to Jeffrey Sinick’s “Faith and Freedom: A Profile of the Religious Environment in Mongolia’s Emerging Democracy.” I arranged a couple interviews for him; hope they paid off.
The temps also make me happy each time I see Padma’s content little face. News flash in about her. Guided by a hunch, I took her back to the vet on Friday. Doctor Karen was on duty and deep-massaged Padma’s belly. It was like a children’s patty-cake game: “kidney, kidney, bladder, gut,” but nope, no kittens. Such was my hunch after watching her for three weeks. A big loss of blog-fodder, but what to do? So I scheduled Thursday for missy to be S-P-A-Y-E-D (another $80). Then after her recovery, I think we’ll find her a new home. Mooj likes her OK, but I don’t think Nita will ever move beyond bare tolerance and, occasionally, outright oppression.
This morning, for reasons unknown, I was called in to re-do my TV interview. Maybe cuz I mouthed off a little about China's ongoing brutal occupation of Tibet (you must see this short film, Leaving Fear Behind). But this is fine, as I’m sure my skin tone last time was a fine shade of gecko green, and I got in another small dig about China anyway. If you’re in UB, tune in to Gereltei Tsonkh tonight on the Mongolian National Broadcasting station maybe 10-ish, after the movie and a ten-minute newscast. Tell me how it went. I don’t have TV.
I want to write some about Mumbai, but I’m still too sick about it. Maybe Thursday.
Ooops. Hit the button too soon.
Check out the post "Angry Asian Buddhist" at Dharma Folk. Sorry no link in my comment.
Posted by: Rinchen Gyatso | December 03, 2008 at 06:14 AM
When I read your title post, I thought you were having some more health problems (in addition to last week's barf-o-rama). What a relief!
Posted by: Sangye | December 03, 2008 at 09:47 AM