Fragments from a Glorious Weekend

This evening I went to dinner with Tachibana and Undraa, a Japanese Mongolist here in UB for a conference and my Mongolian friend/big sister and former Fulbrighter to IU respectively. We ate at a bistro just outside a movie theatre on plush brown couches surrounded by glossy pictures of food, like you do in the crazy metropolis that is UB. I was sitting there munching through my meatballs and cheese, and I was suddenly struck by the realization that I could follow the entire thread of the Mongolian conversation. Here is the topic of the conference Tachibana is attending, a question about a prominent scholar, the expense of his hotel compared to another one that has an Indian restaurant on the second floor, a mutual friend has moved to New York state with his wife and small son, etc. Sure, there were words I was unfamiliar with and I didn't contribute much to the conversation, but I understood it.
There are many times here where living in a foreign country with a foreign language makes me feel small and incompetent. So it was wonderful to have this evening, an outing where no one was purposefully pandering to my skill level, to realize that I really have made progress in three years.



And now for something much more facetious, the Babushka nesting dolls being attacked by the dreaded Mongolian death worm.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_worm

And

It was, indeed, quite the weekend