Whereabouts

For all of those following our trip with the blog, it may be hard to distinguish where everyone is and what they are doing. Here is a current breakdown of what everyone is up to:

Amber: Went to the countryside for an archaeological dig. She changed locations after being kicked out by locals, and is currently at a new location (near Kharahorin). She will leave separately from the group if they extend the dig, and will return to UB on June 29th. If they finish the dig on schedule she will finish with the group and return around July 6th.

Emily: Yesterday she received a phone call at 9:30am to leave for the countryside at 10:30am! She is with a group led by an ecology professor from the National University of Mongolia, who knows quite a bit about the relationship between tourism and the environment. She is located fairly close to UB, and I think will be gone for about 10 days.

Michael/Molly: Yesterday as we were leaving the apartment from dinner, Molly and Michael returned from the countryside after spending 10 days with students/professors from the psychology department. It seems like they had an extremely positive experience and made some great friends. Look for more stories to come from them! Now they are back in the apartment, and will probably spend there time exploring UB and reviewing the surveys they conducted while they were away.

Tim: Tim's adviser is currently in the country side, so his travel plans are unknown at the moment. Eventually he will meet with a red hat Buddhist monk, so he may have to travel some where in the future with an unknown location and time. Additionally, he met a woman last night that owns a travel company that may help him travel to the Hinti province, where he could see another monastery. Oh yeah, we cut his hair last night- yikes! Haha.

Yelena: Yelena is working frequently on her project with her adviser, Dandi. I don't think there are any travel plans in her future, but her project seems to be going well. However, Dandi is leaving for the countryside soon, so she may find another expert to work with for her project.

Melissa: Melissa is no longer traveling to the country side after being rejected by Germans who were funding the University's field work. (Just not Mongolian enough -haha!) Last weekend we were able to get a tour of Erdenet's Mine, and maybe she will be able to see another one in the future. In the mean time she is working her way around UB making contacts with mining companies, and looking for information for her research.

Evan: Evan also doesn't have any travel plans, but has been devoting some of his time to the preparation for Allison's debate camp. His project is still focused on Japanese aid in Mongolia, which has been interesting to learn about here. They are the biggest donor! They helped establish the bus system here, and are planning to improve the infrastructure further with an airport, roads, and a railway, maybe? Whoa!

Allie (me): I also had plans to go do field work with the University, which were unfortunately cancelled for the same reason as Melissa. While I am in UB I will continue researching projects conducted by various NGO's, mining companies, and other scientific institutions that are testing Mongolia's water quality and quantity. I want to compare and contrast the methods the groups use to test water quality with limited funding and resources and few educated/trained participants. We'll see what I find...


That makes 7 of us in the apartment now, and everyone is healthy and well! Our trip is already half way over. Time is going way too fast, but I guess I predicted this would happen. Still so much to see and do... better get to it.