Finding a lab, getting business cards

Well the weeks are flying by! I can't believe I've been in Mongolia for 2 whole months already!

These days I am buckling down to work on my research. I met my official advisor for the first time, Dr. Ariunsuren. She seems like a very capable woman who gets things done through a mixture of competence, no-nonsense, and possibly a little intimidation. I'm just glad she's on my side. She also introduced me to her boss, Uuganbayar, the head of the biology department, who is working on introducing me to HIS boss, and eventually the director of the school. I'm working my way up the food chain and hopefully that will help me get things done that I need for my research. My pet project right now is finding a lab/work space to conduct my mad scientist experiments in. All I need is a spare room with outlets, tables, a window, lights, a door that locks, and access to a source of running water, but nothing is that simple in Mongolia. However, it looks like the Ag school might actually have this sort of space available! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well and I will be able to use that space to build a prototype garden.

Before the garden making starts, I will be doing interviews in the countryside with nomadic herders, as I did during SIT for my Independent Study Project and eventual thesis. I just met with Ana, the latest, and last, Fulbrighter to arrive this year in Mongolia. She is going to do water quality testing around mining sites. We are going to be doing some pilot countryside trips together as soon as next week to each get some initial data and build some momentum for later research. We will be going to either Darkhan or Northern Khentii. I am really looking forward to doing my research in Northern Khentii, in summer it's the most beautiful part of Mongolia!

Besides preparing for research, I also finally got myself some snazzy business cards! Wooo my first set of business cards! I spent about 2 hours in a little kiosk filled with printers chatting to the guy in my limited Mongolian and his limited English and designing them. I basically let him design it and commented on things when they needed to be changed. But I think it worked out pretty well and he even managed to translate "Nomadic Gardens" into acceptable Mongolian! One side of the card is English and the other is Mongolian. See the photo!

That's all for now!