Spring in UB

After months of frigged temperatures, spring has finally arrived in Mongolia!! Over the past few weeks the daytime temp has gone from the high 40s to the low 70s! It seems like everything that was frozen for so long is beginning to thaw. There are signs of new life around the city, small though they may be. It has also been evident by the number of people out and about. Here are just a few picts of the area around our apartment.

This is the main artery of the city, Peace Avenue. Across the street is the bus stop that we use at least twice a week. We can get a bus from here to take us across town to the school we teach at. In the past couple weeks, this bus stop has become a haven for vendors, gobs of waiting passengers, and pickpockets!
The majority of the city and surrounding area is mostly dirt. Now that the ground is not frozen or covered with snow and ice, the dirt has been loosened and stirred by the constant wind. The trouble now is dust storms. On our way home from class the other night, we drove through dust as thick as fog. The wind, which was blowing at blizzard speed, was bringing the dust into the city from the surrounding country.

This is a school that stands between our apartment and our teammates' place. Other than when this picture was taken, there are usually thousands of little kids everywhere most of them eating ice-cream!
We are not really sure what this means, but we think it is a little funny.
Most of the trees and bushes are still leafless, but grass is slowing coming up in patches. Many places have begun planting new trees and watering existing ones. We asked one of our students when the dust stops blowing in and things get green again. She said June! Well, at least we will see green things in the States!

There has certainly been a change in the air. As with spring in the States, it seems like people's attitudes have been changing, and life has been taking a different aspect. For one thing, the sun is up by 6 am and does not set til well after 8 pm. Fourteen hours of sunlight is a bit different from the 6 or 7 hours we got all winter! Another change is the increase of tourists. All winter, we were looked at by the locals as belonging here. Now, we are getting more and more suspicious looks. We don't mind much. Not many tourists can speak Mongolian!

Knowing that we are leaving soon has made us to look at UB from a familiar aspect. Over the past eight, almost nine, months this place has become our home. It has its ups and downs, but this is our town. It will be good to be in the States for awhile, but we will miss this place and will look forward to getting back. We thank our father for this, because the feeling has not come on its own.