Blooming

I'm still not sure this is really happening. Did I take the red pill + fall into a marmot hole? Is jesus's dad screwing with me because I don't take his son's birthday seriously anymore? Are the beetroots I've been living on for the past week actually magic? I ask all of these questions because the temperature has been in the 20s the past few days and:

Today I saw flowers in the Mongolian countryside for the first time.


Clearly a career in botany beckons.


Today, I smelt + felt rain in Mongolia for the first time. The ground looked like this before that happened though.


Today I rode a horse bareback for the first time. Its spindly winter battered frame supported my winter fattened body, and I felt like the most evil giant in the world... until I scored a saddle and galloped for the first time.


Yesterday, I drank beer outside in Mongolia for the first time. Andrew + Julian did too and were clearly very excited to be involved.

I think I like this floral, beetroot fuelled, springtime equine wonderland.

Getting Out Of Town

We got out of town this weekend. Given that we are currently residing in one of the most polluted cities in the world and side-stepping frozen vomit is par for the course on a morning walk to work, it is very nice indeed to get out of the city every now and then. It was also Laura The Lovely's™ birthday, so 11 of us packed into the back of a van on Saturday morning and schlepped to a ger camp 50km out of Ulaanbaatar.



Some people shot arrows. Some people got shot at with arrows. I was not good at either so I shot some vodka instead.



We walked to the top of a hill. And then back down. Although it really looked like this:



It felt a lot like this:



There was an ovoo up there.



Something died to get involved.



I rode a horse through the snow with the help of this champ. We did have to take a break while he had a snow pee though. I averted my eyes. We had only just met.



We slept in these lovely gers.





And a snow dog had his morning stretch to welcome daylight with me. His fur was frozen. Poor dog dude. Amelia swears she saw a snow cat around somewhere too.



More pics on Flickr.

Next week Clare is going to teach me to ski at Mongolia's first and newly opened ski resort. Yes, I have medical insurance.