The other thing is that there’s a place that makes pho here – Kenny Rogers Roasters(? which is similar-ish to Boston Market). It’s not tooo bad, but could be improved.

Randomly, the other person in the coffeeshop here is a lama who I assume is Tibetan as I can’t understand what he’s saying on skype. He also produced from somewhere in his robes an iPad and a 13″ macbook.

In other other news, no one has called me since I got here – I know I’m hard to  get to, but huh.

On the other hand, walking around checking housing for the trainees was fun – and made me miss my host family. The training site soum we were at was so peaceful and the drive there was beautiful. Sigh.

Today is Children’s Day here, which means way too much sugar, theater shows, movies, parents spending time with their kids, and in all likelihood tantrums.

The trash trucks still sound like ice cream trucks.

got through all my backlogged Mongolia and US correspondence, wrapped up a few reunion-related things, started my t-mobile plan migration (only 15 min left and still have 2 weeks before next billing cycle), replied to everything re: school and thesis so ball isn’t in my court anymore, dealt with some outstanding IT thingies, sent out a cover letter and CV for a particular job, ran around a bit, helped my aunt with driving, and saved an earthworm this morning from the sun.

2 “entertainment” lounges containing the word “willie”: “chili willie’s” and “wet willies.” I’m not sure which is more appealing…

“Midnight Rodeo” club in Lubbock – $1 longnecks(?), college ID before 9pm get in free, all sorts of music, and (really) improved security so you can feel safe there – per the radio spot.

haircut – stern lady saying that if I’m not willing to “work with” my hair daily, she can’t in good faith cut it, as no hair will look right unless I work with it.

Mom ambushing at almost 10pm to say hello/rifle through my stuff/ask leading questions/avoid my aunt who is presumably asleep.

Ah, Dallas…

A Hite beer billboard in Arizona
Start of I-40 (sign said Wilmington, NC 2300 (ish) miles)
A marked lack of “Dockside Babes” billboards (perhaps only in the SE?)

A Hite beer billboard in Arizona
Start of I-40 (sign said Wilmington, NC 2300 (ish) miles)
A marked lack of “Dockside Babes” billboards (perhaps only in the SE?)

This morning I just realized, also in Seoul, that my 11:00 flight is 11:00 AM, not PM. I realized this at 9:00 AM when I woke up. Hopefully I won’t miss it this time.

Off to change money and perhaps shower…

Oh, and by the way, I’m on my way back.

Anywho, I COSed (close of service = wrapping up Peace Corps) technically last Friday. So I’m free and clear…though thesis-less still.

On the other hand, I just heard back from IRB that I qualify for exempt status possibly, so things may move on that soon – though I’ve already purchased an open ticket back in case I need to return to do data collection…pfft.

I’ll try to trace back the past few days with all my free time in between hanging out with people for the last time here, but I do appreciate the Korean channel here with subtitles of variety shows – they just had a party game where everyone had to pretend to be blindfolded zombies except one person, who they were supposed to eventually find – which meant they “lost.”

Today I made a chocolate stout cake with candied ginger for the picnic that’s happening tomorrow and I drank a good cappuccino. At least it tasted like it was strong.

Hmm, maybe that’s why I’m not sleepy yet. I *did* drink it at 6pm or so….

brief notes of things to come (in a marked lack of temporal order):

slow-dancing with 12-year-olds
being apartment-less yet still in Khovd
being overly directive and accidentally pressuring concerning eating a green bean off the sidewalk
offending people
smushing bugs with my hands then wiping them on my pants
foreign service examinations – why me?
meringue epic fail + destruction of immersion mixer + the Day We Made 4 Kinds of Pies (sort of)
Trying not to explode re: interpersonalities

• Trip to Thailand – note that spiders = personal kryptonite and people are very very nice

• Work in Khovd – some cool stuff working with adolescents – want to keep on doing this kind of work later, as they all are on break in a week and thus work will disappear
• Close of service conference, BoarBQ, TOT, virtual moving to UB – seems to be happening too fast – as I was told really today I’m moving most-ish to UB except for like a week in July.  Otherwise exciting – there will be an Iron Chef at COS conference, and BoarBQ just sounds fun…
• Thesis – whimper ugh
• Lust – I have an unaccountable desire for a nerd merit badge laptop sash.

More eventually, but for now I should pack, as I fly out Friday til end of June and it discombobulates me greatly.

Also my official COS date is 21 August, which means I in theory leave Mongolia that day.  For those with large quantities of appendages, count up the days or something

Rarrrgh!