Sorry it’s been so long. It’s not as easy to update blogs when you’re sitting at home doing not-so-much and there’s no wifi internet to just update things with (I’m a bit lazy, it’s way easier to do it on my laptop where my photos are, and it’s not connected to the net).
Anyway. So, I went to Sydney and had a wonderful time staying with Lai, visiting lots of friends and eating lots of dumplings. I spent a lot of money, had 5 vials of blood taken to be testing for TB, Hepatitis and whatever other nasties I could have got in Mongolia. I was very busy just doing stuff. It was so nice.
Then it was home time. It’s been great. I’m going a bit stir crazy, as I don’t have anything to do. I could find something to do – I’m sure dad has a bunch of things I could help with BUT I have to just do NOTHING for a bit. Then I can start up again. I’m so surprised I haven’t got sick yet. I thought once I got home I’d get super sick just because I had time to calm down and actually be sick. But nope, nothing. Which is great!
Supermarkets are still a bit hard to handle. I really don’t like them, or shopping. There are so many reasons why and I’m sure I’ll get over it soon. They just represent so many things that are unsustainable in so many ways; as well as greed and all the problems that stem from becoming a developing country. I could write an essay on it, and it wouldn’t be right so I won’t bother.
The photos above are of all the Mongolian volunteers at the end of our debrief, and then of Sydney – the Harbour Bridge as I was driving over it and of Darling Harbour.
I did end up going to Sydney again, on a fleeting visit to Parramatta Births, Deaths and Marriages Department. Turns out, Ebony’s passport was out of date by two days and her birth certificate was no where to be found. So we went to Sydney (4hour one way trip) to get the birth certificate. We could have ordered one, but because of our distance from Sydney and our 3 days/week postal delivery, we weren’t guaranteed the birth certificate in time to send away for a new passport. So we’ve almost got them both now – yay!
Which is good because we leave in less than 1.5weeks to Europe. I’m not looking forward to the long flight. I really wanted to buy a new Canon 7D to replace my Canon 450D SLR camera, but I just can’t justify it. I can in a lot of ways. I’ve well and truly outgrown my 450D, but the money I’d spend on that new camera could make or break another trip to Cambodia or Sri Lanka when I get back from Europe. It’d mean I’d have to go back to work (i.e. find work that I actually get excited about) sooner too. Blah blah blah. I REALLY want this camera, but I can’t justify paying money for a material thing when I could spend it on meeting a totally new culture and trying all their food and everything that you learn that goes with traveling.
I can take good photos with my 450D. I think I'll wait til I’m a millionaire before I buy a 7D to take BRILLIANT photos.
Speaking of, I’ve got some photos published on the World Bank Mongolia website. If you google the aforementioned, you’ll see some of my photos on their website homepage and splattered around the site. They’re not credited though, so you won’t know which ones are mine. They are also on the World Bank Mongolia Flickr site – where they publish a select number of photos to represent the country (Mongolia).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/sets/72157627990826652 (there’s a photo of shearing sheep, and a photo of two policemen on those walky-wheely things)
http://www.worldbank.org/wb/slideshows/mongolia-economic-growth/ (can’t remember what ones are mine and the internet’s not working at the moment for me to check!)
There’s a couple of mine also when you open up the Mongolia World Bank page. One of a young guy in a white deel with a red ribbon on his chest, holding a mobile phone. And another of the city skyline. Cool!
