Brokedown apartment

I'm going to just rant for a minute here. I hate it when things break down. How inconvenient! I have just spent the last hour cleaning up a flooded kitchen because the water hose in the washing machine has a hole in it. I was not happy! I also have a broken window, a leaking ceiling from the upstairs apartment's bathroom, and an out of wack dresser drawer. I just don't understand how things know to start going all at once! It'll take at least a week to get everything back in order. I know that it's part of life and particularly more so in Mongolia. Just a little frustrating to deal with. I guess I'm still more American then I thought---things shouldn't break down and if they do break down, it needs to be fixed right away! How aggravating is that thought! :)

Asia

You know one thing I really like about Asia is it's diversity and it's samness. I just got back from spending four weeks in Thailand and it's really different then Mongolia. It actually has water close by, and shock of all shocks--fruit! I loved it. The last week I was there, I sat on the beach eating fruit. It was wonderful. It is also very humid, where as Mongolia is very dry. Thailand relies a lot on plants. Mongolia depends a lot on animals. Motorcycles are everywhere in Thailand, but not really in Mongolia. So there are many differences. But there are many likenesses. Family, respect, hospitality, superstitions are all very important in both places. They both have people that they idolize. In Thailand, it's the king. In Mongolia, it's Chinggis Khan. It's amazing how they can be so different, yet so much alike. It's really cool. I'm sure it's like that everywhere. I just noticed it between these two countries.