perfect day out in the countryside (without leaving UB)

so yesterday, our friend ninj invited us out to her sister's house out on the border of UB at the edge of the ger district. we met her at 10am in front of the tinggis movie theater and took a microbus out to the northern ger district where her sister's summer home is.

quick notes about a mongolian microbus -- they're the cheapest way to get around UB. they cram way to many people into them. the drivers are usually borderline psychotic. all-in-all they are an entertaining way to get around. the morning ride there wasn't bad at all, because the buses weren't busy yet.

riding through the ger district though was a bit surprising. the descriptions we have heard about ger districts make them out to be slums, that are too dangerous for foreigners to go to. however, i didn't really find that to be the case. maybe the mongolians that live in the ger districts are not as wealthy as those who live in the city, but there were some damn nice houses in the area. if you know nothing about ger districts, they are where the overflow of people who come from the countryside looking for jobs settle down. land is not regulated, so people just pick a plot of land, claim it for themselves, build a fence around "their property," and then put up a ger or build a house. the ger districts stretch for miles outside of the main city of UB, kind of like a makeshift suburbia. all the houses are complete random colors ranging from an acid pink to a vomit colored orange-green, which could potentially make more sensitive types break out into a seizure. but in all honesty, i think its a nice change of pace from the drab brown-grey buildings of pittsburgh.

ninj's sister lived in a gated community though, specifically for wealthier company workers who want to move out of the city during the summer. ninj's sister (who is also named ninj; ninj is both of their short names, they have different long names but those are harder to spell/remember) works for the mongolian equivalent of the U.S. FCC, her husband works for the USF (which i think is sort of like the U.S. FDA). the take-home message of that is that they're fairly well off compared to the average mongolian couple. they have a daughter who was one and a half, named heeshkai. i think she was not used to seeing foreigners though, because she was very shy around us.

ninj took us hiking around the area -- which was amazing. it was a beautiful day. if you reference my past blog entries, you'll notice that i've never actually experienced a nice day in the countryside, only sandstorms, rain, etc. this day was PERFECT. blue skies, not too hot, seriously amazing. we hiked up a few mountains and talked to ninj about her favorite movies, music, that type of thing. she'll be coming to stay at pittsburgh pretty soon, so we also taught her some necessary slang terms to know in america, like "bring it on" which she had heard but never understood from that corresponding awful movie with that exact title.

there was a freak rainstorm that blew in, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes. we had dinner after we were finished hiking. ninj's sister cooked us some sort of mongolian stirfry that was pretty awesome. we decided to head back to UB around 6pm. it took a while to catch a microbus back. this one was not as empty as before. in a van that should not seat more than 9 people in the back, we fit 16. impressive yes, comfortable no. luckily i was near a window so my clausterphobia didn't kick in too bad. plus when you are crushed against the wall with two people on your lap, you don't notice the manic driving as much because you can't move.

we got back to the apt around 7pm, and we were all fairly tired and sunburned so we decided to have a calm night in, in spite of the fact that this was the first night we could go out without a curfew. i've been following the wimbleton tournament since i've been here (seeing as how it's one of the few stations we get) but i fell asleep before i saw who won the championship match between federer and nadal -- apparently it was a really exciting match that nadal won after a gruelling 4 hrs and 48 minutes. i caught 15min of it and passed out... oh well, there's always youtube for the highlights.