Urban UB with ger areas stretching up on the surrounding hillsides Shortly before I left Mongolia last June, I had the opportunity to meet with Enkhjin Batjargal, the CEO of GerHub, in their offices in Club Coworking, a shared workspace on the 13th floor of the ICC Tower in downtown Ulaanbaatar. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) … Continue reading GerHub: “Common Problems, Uncommon Solutions”
My life as a ghost
Sunrise from my living room It’s my second morning waking up in Ulaanbaatar. I actually woke up several times this morning, starting at 12:35 am, then back to sleep sometime around 2. I woke up again at around 3:30, and after a decent-feeling sleep I woke up for the last time at 5:30. Tonight, I … Continue reading My life as a ghost
Heading back to Mongolia
The summer, like most things, didn’t go according to plan. I had thought that I would have plenty of time for writing and for making progress on the book that is emerging from our experience in Mongolia. Emma wanted to focus on her drawing and on hanging out with the dogs. Instead, inspired by our … Continue reading Heading back to Mongolia
What we miss about living in Mongolia
Our view of Misheel Expo and Bogd Khan Uul on our last day in Mongolia Now that we are back in the US, our experience of Mongolia has entered a new phase. We both miss it and talk about our life there a lot. Emma of course misses her friends. She had her first couple … Continue reading What we miss about living in Mongolia
It could have been worse: Our trip back to San Diego
Our luggage... Our trip back to San Diego was just about bad enough to turn me off air travel forever. In order to save a few hundred dollars, I had booked our flight with United Airlines and their partner Air China via Beijing (the best alternative, which would have taken us through Incheon, Korea, cost … Continue reading It could have been worse: Our trip back to San Diego
Reentry
Approaching San Diego As usual, I am not writing in chronological order. If I were, there are many posts in line ahead of this one. But this is what has prompted me to shake off the jet lag and get back to writing. Coming back to the US was hard. Very hard. We were only … Continue reading Reentry
Summer in the City
Writing a quick post from rainy Takayama, Japan, where we are on vacation for the next few days, after six days in Tokyo. Japan makes quite a contrast to Mongolia, though navigating a Tokyo train station at rush hour reminds me a lot of crossing the street in Ulaanbaatar. I’ve been thinking about UB a … Continue reading Summer in the City
