Nijow, China! Here we come

A quick update on what we've been doing:

After returning from our tour of the West we decided to apply for our Chinese Visa's and discovered that the consulate was closed all week due to Chinese National Day. The Chinese Consulate in Mongolia is only open 3 days a week for 2 hours a day anyway...so having a whole week off set our ambitious plans back by a lot. We then decided that the most logical course of action to was to mooch off of Sam's free apartment, catch up on sleep, and play lots of games of chess while drinking cheap Mongolian beer. Mission accomplished. We even managed to squeeze a few other activities in to our busy schedule. We hiked around the mountains south of the city and got a great view of Zaisan Memorial. I volunteered at an orphanage run by an Australian ex-pat where I made necklaces out of cereal and fell in love with Mongolian children-- they're sooooo cute! They are also incredibly well behaved. I was expecting to leave the orphanage covered with sticky globs of cereal in my hair and all over the unwashed jeans I had been wearing for 2 weeks straight. But the kids all worked methodically and carefully, cleaning after themselves as they played. They made American children seem like crazy entitled little drunk people. I think my presence confused them because I look really Mongolian but respond with a blank, dumbfounded expression on my face whenever they spoke to me in Mongolian. I'm pretty sure they were thinking "who's the weird mute Mongolian chick that's eating all the cereal?"

Last weekend we were lucky enough to be here for micro-finance day. Sam Grant invited us to come and "celebrate" with his bank in one of the suburbs of Ulaanbaatar. In true Sam Grant style we were assured that micro-finance day is one of the most fun days of the year and we could not miss it. After two and a half hours of standing in the cold, watching Mongolians speak Mongolian on stage, and Shane being told that he was Osama Bin Ladin and then Ghengis Khan, and then his brother by a middle-aged vodka-loving Mongolian man, we decided to leave early to go eat homemade mutton with rice with one of our Mongolian friends.

This week we focused on the whole Visa fiasco. After 2 unsuccessful attempts to get a Chinese Visa from the US and over 4 hours of pushing and shoving in the freezing cold weather outside the Chinese Consulate in Ulaanbaatar, we finally got our f-ing Chinese Visas-- whew! I have never seen such a crazy crowd. I felt bad for the poor Mongolian security guard who's only leverage against the mob of foreigners trying to push their way in was a thin metal door which he would push his whole body against to slam shut, only letting in a small group of people every hour.

Now with our Visa's and 2 first class train tickets in hand (they were sold out of every other seat) we are ready to leave Mongolia and start the next portion of our trip. We're a little sad to leave. Hanging out with Sam Grant has been awesome, and experiencing the countryside was such a unique experience. We've also grown to love Sam's 3 Mongolian roomates who, when combined with Sam, are the most hilarious group of individuals you could cram into such a small and, until recently, filthy apartment.

We are going to try and extend our 30 day Chinese Visa for another 2 months and head South by either riding bikes, taking trains, or doing a little bit of both to Vietnam. As for where we're staying in Beijing (or anywhere in China for that matter) we're still not sure. Our friend in Beijing, Rebecca, has found an apartment on the Beijing University Campus for us to rent for a month, but spending a whole month in Beijing might be a little too much city for us. If anyone has friends in China would you mind passing their information along? All we know how to say is "hello" and "thank you", so meeting friends along the way would make things so much more fun!