The end of the Expat life

There is no doubt that my life in Ulan Baatar has been an adventure of sorts, and incredibly fun. I've got exactly 7 days left here as a teacher, and that is indeed bittersweet. I've loved the Mongol life, the ease of city life with the nearby mountains, the random trips to hike, drive a tank, or other randomness. As of late I've hosted many couchsurfers as well, which has livened up my apartment considerably during the weekdays.

As is inherent in any journey, or adventure is the unknown. I've experienced it many times in the nearly full year now that I've been traveling. Counting my time in Alaska - post college, its 13 months total so far. Either way the unknown has crept in again and thwarted many of my ideas. Horses have proven to be more expensive to find than I'd hoped. My visa is expiring at the end of the month, thus a visa run is in order. What to do? Give up? No. But one always must make the best of what they've got. As fate would have it, Russia is next door and I found a free volunteering position up in Siberia. I can do it a few weeks, then return to Mongolia and visit many of the places I wanted to before on my horse ride... but simply convert it to a hike. Yes its not what I set out to do. Yes its more typical for travel in Mongolia. But it is what it is.

As the sun sets on my time in UB, I'm sad. I've enjoyed it. But the open road is another life I enjoy. The unknown. The summer in the Heart of Asia won't dissapoint. No its not what I planned on, but plans fail, they change, they rarely work out as one would hope. They certainly dont work according to plan on a long journey, just ask any 19th century explorer. If you cant find one of those, since chances are that they are probably dead, ask your local backpacker with a lonely planet and a good gap of time. Ask them if it worked like they thought it would. "Nope" is exactly what you'll hear. Unless they speak French, then they'd say "Non."

Travel is often seeing the world not as you thought it was, but as it truly is. Without the preconcieved notions and ideas. In all the wonder and fury, beauty and savageness you could have ever imagined. Well with a week left, I'm going to have fun, run errands, and hopefully figure out a few details. And enjoy a few more cold beers, because I cant lie. Asia is hot.