Mongolia, cont.

Got back to Ulan Bataar this afternoon after an 8 hour car (well, amazing Russian military vehicle) ride. Too tired to actually describe our tour, and also I am very bad at blogging in internet cafes, so I'll have to get back to where I can use my laptop. The train we wanted to take back to Irkutsk was full, so we have to spend an extra day in Ulan Bataar. Actually we are all delighted at this. Mongolia is much better than Russia. Man, I love Mongolia. Why am I not a Mongolian major? This place is so awesome. Also Mongolians are much more friendly than Russians. And there is peanut butter and real tomato sauce in the grocery store. And people wear awesome robes and hats. And gers (Mongolian yurts) are also pretty awesome, except that all three nights I slept in one the fire went out and no one could figure out how to restart in in the dark, so it was fairly freezing.
More to come, as I said. Sorry for the disorganization. But really, this country is not making me anxious to return to Irkutsk. I wonder how much I would love it if I weren't here immediately after two months in Russia; I had thought I was all adjusted to Russian life, but I had just forgot how much more pleasant life was capable of being. I'm sure Russia has it's advantages over Mongolia, but sudden release from the negative qualities of Russia is making me blind to them.
They drink tea with salt. In bowls. Well it's more milk than tea. It is good. As is the green tea, made from leaves rather than bags, in our hostel. We eat vegetables and food with flavor. Man. Maybe something will go wrong with the train tracks to Russian and we'll be stuck here for a month.
Oh, and I must admit that we didn't actually go to the Gobi. It's too bar away and apparently just freezing cold and boring in the winter. We were slightly north of that, in the steppe. I've never seen such a land- it's very unearthly looking, with very flat expanses with nothing but huge herds of goats and yaks and camels and sheep and horses, and then huge jutting rocks and mountains in odd places. The sky is unusualy blue, like the color a child would color it. The animals are all unusually fuzzy and/or hairy; fuzzy in the case of horses, hairy in the case of cows and camels. Rode camels, and horses. Chased a wild nomad child across the steppe. Seriously, this boy was exactly like a Mongol Darwin (for those of you who watched "The Wild Thornberries." Man, that kid was wild. He now has a keychain from the Alamo on the front of his blue metal cart that he pushes around the snowy steppe yelling for hours on end. He is much taken with this keychain. Mother, hope you don't mind my regifting.