Nonmongblog - Maddy isn't in Mongolia anymore.

Back to England

2007-08-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Having been back in England what feels like a reasonably long time (OK, one month), I think it's down to me to note a couple of key differences. So here's my top ten cultural differences:

1. The traffic. Cars don't just stop for you in England - I've had a few brushes with death relating to this one, and several of my friends have been appalled at my blase attitude to cars which clearly aren't going to stop.

2. The English people. Suddenly, I'm no longer a minority, but a majority. People don't stare at me, and I can ask for a mars bar with a minimum of fuss. On the downside, I'm also now counted as short - something I'd forgotten in Mongolia - and have already got into various 'who is more tanned' competitions with my friends. Oddly enough, my terribly middle class home town of Salisbury also feels a hell of a lot more diverse than UB, because in Mongolia, on the whole, they really are all Mongolian.

3. It's so cold and rainy. From 36 degree heat to, well, flooding, is a quite a jump. One I'm not all that happy to make. My summer wardrobe hasn't seen an outing this year because I left most of it at home. That, and it's freezing outside. I have a cold.

4. I no longer have unlimited access to cheap alcohol. This is really only a good thing, but still takes a little adjustment. I don't really ever want to drink vodka again.

5. I speak English. This makes everything - from getting the train to helping out tourists - about a thousand times easier. But it does still feel a little strange not to answer my phone 'Bainuu'.

6. The food. At the risk of being culturally insensitive, I'll say I didn't like Mongolian food. In fact, that's a lie. I hated it. I was not born to eat fatty mutton and noodles or even buuz (chopped up meat and grisle in a dough dumpling fried in a big pan of grease).I've tried harder than anything but it's something I'll never grasp. The beauty of opening my fridge to whip up something involving English or European cheese, ham, eggs or bacon is a fantastic luxury. As is fresh, limitless fruit and vegetables of every kind. There is only so much cucumber and tomato one can take. My family are perturbed by my sudden desire to eat uncooked vegetables with every meal. It's absolute and complete luxury.

7. Not being my own boss. Much as I might have had some problems with UB, I loved being a 'journalist' - or rather, someone who goes and does whatever they want, when they want - and the perks of going along to interesting press conferences and meeting interesting people. I miss being out on the street. I miss walking all around UB. I miss UB.

8. The people. Not so much a difference between England and Mongolia but between being in your home town and being alone on the other side of the world. I miss the friends I made in Mongolia and the atmosphere you get when you are all young and all travelling. My friends have, literally, gone to different sides of the world - America, Canada, and, of course, Europe and Mongolia. Even stranger, my Mongolian boyfriend has gone to Japan.

9. My comparative poverty. In Mongolia, I was rich. Here, I'm about to become a student. The leap is quite a big one to make. The other thing is that in Mongolia everyone assumes that because you are a Westerner you are rich. Strangely, this doesn't happen in England. And the exchange rate for the pound is the best (or worst, depending where you live) so all my money suddenly got smaller when I changed it back.

10. Being able to joke about Stalin, Putin and/or the MPRP. It's a small thing, freedom of speech, but I like to be able to say exactly what I think, when I think it, without worrying.

Pics - Mongolia, Salisbury, Mongolia.

I am alive, well and home.

2007-07-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

Finally after much calling to UK and UB I got on the flight home last night and have now arrived in England. Very excited about this, but also very tired and hungry.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

2007-07-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am now officially stuck in Mongolia. Despite getting TPA to confirm my flight, when I turned up apparently it was the day before. As it left at midnight, this was a fairly simple mistake to make. Unfortunately, all the Korean Air flights are full until the end of July at least and I have to leave the country by the 18th because I have de-registered my visa. I also have about $200 if I need to buy a new flight or a train ticket. This is, to say the least, troubling.

I'm back, I'm back

2007-07-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

I have returned, utterley knackered, from Lake Hovsgol. We spent seven days at the Lake and one day travelling. For the first three days we horse trekked up the side of the lake and stayed at a ger guesthouse right by the water.

The Lake is about 136km long, and even with three days riding we hadn't even reached halfway up the Western side. Apparently there were a lot of tourists, but despite seeing quite a few tourist camps (groups of log cabins or gers) we only saw about seven other tourists in total. The same was true of Hatgal - when I think of a lot of tourists I think masses, but it was like an empty shanty town with a couple of westerners wandering around.

The best part was when we went to a 'party' which turned out to be a talent show for children. We only caught the end and then an endless train of medals for the participants.

27 June

2007-06-26T03:34:00.000-07:00

Today was, for the first time in a week or so, blissfully cool. By this I mean about 30 degrees, rather than 36, but it's a step in the right direction. I was actually able to wear my new five pound fake converse, bought to deal with the generally appalling state of the pavements.

Today in Mongolia not a lot happened. This is often the case. I'm currently working on story on whether volunteer placements are really that helpful, and a brief one on the marathon this Saturday. Unfortunately Batmunkh, the journalist who's returned from Korea, wandered off with my USB stick with the photos on, saying something about printing them out. I was confused as to why they would need to be printed - we ususally just put them in the paper - but he seemed to think it was vital so I went with the flow.

I had a taxi driver charge me a thousand togrog from work today, which is about twice the price it should be. I was not happy, even though this is the equivalent of about 50p in England, so then I felt a bit tight. It's not so much the money, just the moral point - there's no reason I should be charged more just because I'm foreign. I could be a very poor foreigner who lives in UB, for all he knows. This is one of the things that I've really found difficult in Ulan Bator, and it's something all the other volunteers find infuriating. Things can be up to ten times the price, even more, because you are a foreigner. It actually makes UB a lot more expensive to live in. It's already, for a developing country, pretty expensive. In fact, a lot of Mongolians find it difficult to live in UB because there aren't many well-paid jobs. Most mongolians will never be able to afford to buy a house, and that's the reason for the massive ger districts. Land is very cheap, and can be claimed from the government until 2008, so all you need is a ger.

I have a Mongolian friend, Zaza, who runs a travel information shop, and he says exactly the same thing. Mongolians think they should get as much out of you now as possible, rather than treat you fairly, which might encourage you to come back. All the Western or tourist restaurants are very expensive - one of the most popular, a place called Grand Khan, which is owned by MCS, a massive Mongolian company which distributes Coca-cola and P&G in Monglia, charges what is basically the same as in England. I went for two milkshakes with a friend and it cost us T7,000, which is three pounds fifty. In a country where people get paid $50, $100 a month, this is obscene. It's charging 7% of someone's wage for a month for two milkshakes. Considering that out of that wage also has to come rent, food and clothing. If you had a meal it might cost you around T20,000, so that's 20%. Five meals out and you have to live on the street. It doesn't seem right.

Mongolian Animals...

2007-06-26T03:27:00.000-07:00

After my webcaming I thought I'd put up a couple of photos of Mongolian animals etc and stuff we covered. You can see me on yet another camel, along with horses in the Gobi and some horses standing near Turtle Rock in Terelj national park.

Ulanbataar from Zaisan...

2007-06-24T04:47:00.000-07:00

Oops

2007-06-24T04:09:00.000-07:00

The mystery of the UB Post website has been solved...the web team accidentally deleted the website! Good news is that it should be redesigned and back online as soon as possible (read: at least a month).

I've added the link for my editor's blog, Sumiya, which gives an overview of the main stories, and I'll blog a couple on here in lieu.

This week's header was the tragic death of 15 people in a MIAT helicopter which crashed on its way to put out forest fires. The president, Enkhbayar, visited the survivors earlier in the week, but infortunately the pilot, T.Sugar, who has now been awarded a medal for his bravery, died very soon after.

Although the helicopter crashed on Thursday, the news wasn't officially released until last Sunday. MIAT helicopters have a particularly low safety record - another UN chartered helicopter crashed in winter 2003 carrying foreign journalists.

What makes all of this worse is that it was in fact raining in the province the day the helicopter set out, meaning their presence wasn't that vital. The helicopter crashed in a heavy fog, around 500 metres up a mountain, and the survivors were rescued two days later.

In other news, the speaker of the Mongolian Parliament, Nyamdorj, finally resigned this week. He's been hanging around since about February, when it was picked up that he had changed the words of at least 19 laws after they had already been passed by Parliament. These included laws covering mining and tax.

Gobi Photos - Three Little Goats

2007-06-24T03:48:00.000-07:00

Because I realised I hadn't uploaded many Gobi photos, here are some more, some of the best from Khongor Els, the singing sands, which has, so far, been my favourite place in Mongolia.

The small dots you can see at the bottom of the dune in the picture starring me and Winnie's beautiful feet are the other tourists, who stopped just before the highest dune because they thought it was impossible to climb. They were wrong, although it did involve basically crawling up a slop of sand, which isn't easy.

Photographs...

2007-06-24T03:42:00.000-07:00

Just a load of general photos of UB, one of me and the guys from my birthday...

There was a big display of gers in Sukhbataar Square this week and I thought it made an interesting image with the Government Palace behind. The others are views of the ger district behind Zaisan and other parts of UB.

25 June

2007-06-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

I didn't realise it's been so long since I got to this blog, but the time is flying by. Today I visited the Zanabazar Art Museum in UB, which was absolutely fantastic. It contains a lot of old Buddhist art from the 16th and 17th centuries, including incredible Mandalas and silk applique wall hangings. The subjects are the Buddhist gods - completely fantastical. Winnie and I were remarking on how much we preferred this kind of religious art to Christian iconography - the pictures include skulls and people with their intestines being eaten by wild dogs.

We also saw the famous picture 'One day in Mongolia', which, from a distance, looks like a vista with hills and clouds and people. When you get closer you realise that the subjects are pretty graphic - from a woman giving birthday, people going to the toilet (to be polite about it), goats having sex and basically everything you can imagine happening in the course of human existence. I can see why this is a famous picture, but it also tells you a lot about the Mongolian character - for example, they have completely different ideas of privacy. The other volunteers are always complaining that their host families walk around wearing their underwear or worse and don't seem to care. I know that my host mother does walk around in her bra, but at the moment it is about 38 degrees and it's her own house so I can understand why. I'm not deeply bothered by it - the worst thing is the toilet doors in clubs and restaurants with glass in that you can see through.

The other thing we were talking about today is the uncovered manholes everywhere. These are about four or five metres deep and they appear in the middle of the pavement. It is the complete opposite of health and safety regulations in England - on friday we walked out of a very bad club (Flux, off Sukhbataar Square, the strobes never turn off) and almost fell into a four ft trench being dug to the electricity wires. No signs, no nothing - and right in the middle of a busy pavement in the centre of town. What's also interesting is that a lot of the building/digging work is done at night, like between 10 to 1 in the morning, rather than during the day. So far no one has explained to me why this is.

I've also attached a picture of the outdoor pool tables near Turtle Rock in Terelj national park. All the guys in their russian boots and dells gather round and play pool outside. It's great.

Yesterday me, Will and Nick (who's in the pic above) climbed up Zaisan hill, a monument about 30 minutes out of UB, where you can see the whole city. I got seriously sunburnt, but the view was pretty fantastic.

More Gobi Photos...

2007-06-08T01:23:00.000-07:00

The rest of my Gobi photos can be found on my Facebook, but the public link (ie. you can click it and see the photos whether you have Facebook or not) is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2544&l=b0034&id=505153424

Extracts from a Gobi diary part two...

2007-06-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

Today we left our comfortable ger (see above, Winnie and to the right, our driver, Toroo and guide, Tuya) at the mouth of Yoliin am to travel 100km through burning desert to a nomadic family living under the shadow of the 'Three Beauties' mountain range.

We drove through the foothills of the mountains, which somehow don't seem like real desert. They are much too green and rocky, and, now and then, the floor is carpeted with purple flowers like small lilies. What I liked about our driver and guides was that, halfway up a bumpy dusty track, they called out and the jeep lurched to a sudden halt. About a metre in front of it a Mongolian gobi mouse (they call them Bortsluug) was eating a tall purple flower. We waited until it scampered off the road before beginning our journey again.

That evening we reached our nomadic hosts, Aeiyai (see above, on camel) and Oyuna, a couple with three children aged between five and thirteen. We met a couple of American girls who were full of amazement at the oldest boy coming fifth in his class of forty-one. They spent the next day riding camels 20km out from the ger, camping the night, and then riding back.

We weren't quite so adventurous, but soon after we arrived we went camel riding across the desert to the mountains and back. The sun was setting, but the wind was very strong. My camel showed an extreme tendency to stubborness, spitting at Winnie whenever I forced him to go in the direction I wanted. The camel spit that flew back towards me wasn't the best part of the ride, but looking out across the desert that stretched for hundreds of kilometres either way was fantastic. It really was like going back to another time - the horizon was misty with the heat of the day, blurring the edges of the mountains and the azure blue sky and as we rode back into camp the goats were coming in from the desert to be milked.

2007-06-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

At the top you can see the baggage unloading at Dalangadzad airport. When our driver told us the baggage would be outside, we presumed there would be some kind of system. It was basically a truck and then a free-for-all. Next down is the way to Yoliin Am - it was a 2km hike from where we stopped the jeep. The fab Winnie, my fellow traveller, is in the next picture, at the first piece of ice along the valley. The others are assorted views of Yoliin Am. The pictures don't really capture the atmosphere.

Extracts from a Gobi diary...

2007-06-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

I have just walked across a desolate gravel plain to a tin and wood pit toilet. The desert is so deserted it seems like a nuclear testing ground - and far above it, one star shines in a fading blue sky, while the wind whistles and blows from the mouth of Yolin Am.

I can't believe I am really in the Gobi desert, in a lonely ger with Winnie and three Mongolians. The flight from UB was horrible - the plane chugged reluctantly into the sky at Chinggis airport, and when we landed in Dalangadzad, the plane circled and circled, buffeted by the desert winds. It continued for about 20 minutes, while around me Winnie and several Mongolians were being sick. I may have only been on two flights on my life, but I'm pretty sure you would have described it as bad by any standards. I barely warded off airsickness myself, dilligently looking away until we landed and stepped off into the sweeping, gale force wind, that blew hot air across a flat unbroken plain.

As we left the airport, we drove towards the three beauties, in the East of which lies the ice valley of Yolin Am. They are supposed to be three Mongolian women, who refused to marry their rich foreign suitors because they wanted to stay in Mongolia. They asked the spirits of the land to save them and in return they were turned into mountains, to remain here forever. They break the drear, gravelly and stifling plain with their red-brown peaks and sandy valleys.

Our gers are situated near the mouth of the Yolin Am valley. The wind bursts from between the hills in gusts that shake the ger. I am reminded, as I sit here drinking vodka and writing by flickering candlelight, of the way to the valley of the dead...the brooding cliffs of Yolin Am are both beautiful and harsh. The highest peak, the highest point in the Gobi, reaches 2,800m. Here is the haunt of the Yol - a type of eagle, officially a vulture, with a white chest and white along its wings. It only lives between 2,500m and 3,000m and survives by collecting bones to drop from these heights to the ground, where it, presumably, eats the bone marrow within.

Here, when the wind ceases, all is utter silence. The desert is empty - starkly, wonderfully, fearfully lonely.

Oh, and I forgot...

2007-05-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

Can't leave out Dave's Place. And there's another one of Terelj for good measure.

More pictures...

2007-05-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

I'm uploading these very slowly, one by one because otherwise the internet just crashes. The subjects are as follows: man making ger, Terelj from a monastery, me on a horse!

National Folk and Dance Ensemble

2007-05-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last night, several of the other volunteers came back from their nomad families and we all went out to the national folk and dance ensemble at Tsuki. It was really interesting.

The acts ranged from Mongolian throat singers to what I like to call 'Techno shamans.' The throat singers are absolutely amazing. They can sing in two tones at the same time, basically harmonising with themselves. They sound like a cross between a whistle and a bullfrog.

The best part (for me) of the whole concert was when this Mongolian came out, all decked out in traditional costume, light blue silk embroidered all over with gold, the high-peaked hat and the curved shores, and he brought out this wooden Mongolian flute and started playing. About five minutes in, I started thinking 'Wow, this sounds like Simon and Garfunkel. Isn't it weird how music can be so universal?'

Then suddenly it dawned on me and about five of the other volunteers, we all looked at each other and realised it WAS Simon and Garfunkel. It's the song 'I'd rather be a hammer than a nail' - I'm not sure if that's the exact title. It was the strangest experience.

The flutist was rivalled, in my opinion, by the 'shamans'. There was an announcer saying something about 'the ancient mongolian tradition of shamanism' etc etc, and then green strobe lights start flashing across the stage! About five men dressed in what looked a lot like native american indian costumes started dancing round the stage, a bit like backstreet boys, banging these big canvas round drums...not exactly traditional.

Another highlight was the contortionists...they must have been about thirteen at the eldest, these two girls and a troop of dancers. One of them could roll her entire body up in a ball, backwards.

It was a pretty interesting evening!

May 25

2007-05-25T03:15:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in the internet cafe in the main post office trying to pick up my email. I'm supposed to be checking over a piece from a work colleague, but it hasn't arrived yet and I'm meant to be at the British Embassy for a book launch at seven. I don't know where the British Embassy is or how far it is from me. My best directions so far have been 'Go down Peace Avenue and keep walking and keep walking for ages.' I think google maps might be getting a visit.

Today it is very hot and dry, as per usual (except for when it snows). I went into work but there seems to be some kind of unofficial 'friday' rule, so I didn't have much to do.

I'm getting a bit sick of carrying my laptop too and from work every day. This morning, I got on a really busy bus and it was so crowded I did need to hold my bag - it was just wedged between me and the person in front.

On the up side, I'm very excited about my new discovery - the Bombugur trade centre. It sells, quite literally, everything. It's not the Black Market (Naraantul) which is really cheap, but it seems to be the place normal Mongolians go. There's an entire meat market downstairs (which is an experience in itself), a vegetable market and then a whole load of food booths. There are three floors and it's in two buildings that join together. I saw a Chinggis Khaan (Genghis Khan for Mongolians) passport cover, which I think I might have to get before I fly home. I also managed to get a pair of earrings for T500, which is around 25p.

I went shopping on Thursday after a Save the Children discussion. I walked in and sat down, thinking I was in the press area, and it turned out I was sitting with a load of important Mongolians from the police, the universities and the government. By the time I'd realised it was much too late (about 3 hours in) but no one seemed to mind too much.

Anyway, my time is very nearly up - I'm leaving myself half an hour to find the British Embassy - and my email hasn't arrived!

May 21st

2007-05-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't exactly kept up my promise to blog everyday. The problem is that the only internet access I have is in internet cafes.

And also, I recently spent two whole days in the Terelj National Park, away from any form of internet. I went with the other people at the UB Post office to celebrate the newspaper's 11th anniversary. I have to say I really enjoyed it, although my knowledge of Mongolia still hasn't improved!

I rode a horse and a camel and slept in a ger. The ger was one in a camp, though, and had very modern beds and furniture, so it was a bit like camping but one step up.

The national park scenery is very spectacular but it is more populated than I had thought. Perhaps it was just the part we drove through, but there were a lot of tourist ger camps and there seemed to be little settlements every 3km or so.

I'm going out to Terelj again this weekend, but only for a day trip with the other TPA volunteers. We have four new people this week, two english girls, one canadian girl and a french guy.

Last night we all went out for a Chinese meal - there were about 12 of us and we got the 'VIP' room, apparently. The food was nice but nothing spectacular.

As promised...photos

2007-05-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Stranger and stranger

2007-05-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

I have arrived at the UB Post. It's not really like an English newspaper, it's really laidback. Not necessarily in a bad way, but different even from how I expected. I've met this very entertaining Indian guy who is the English editor. This morning I interviewed an English woman who is teaching the Mongolian peacekeepers English. She said that she has been to over 30 countries and that Mongolia is the biggest culture shock so far. Seems like I picked the best place to visit for my first real time abroad!

The odd thing about Mongolia is that all the stories you hear are true. Every car really is a taxi, there really are street children, Mongolians really are friendly but very, very laidback.

In a week, I've met one of the founders of the Mongol Rally, a genuinely random but fabulous group of volunteers from around the world, an Australian miner, and some genuinely bizarre Mongolians. I took a taxi back out of town yesterday. The driver was a burly man wearing what appeared to be a Soviet outfit. And his car was covered in leopardskin.

I love the old people and they way they dress. The old women wear dells and then what appear to be berets. They talk to you in a general chit-chat way and I tend to nod and smile, not knowing any Mongolian! The traffic police are also genuinely bizarre, much like the traffic, and dressed in Soviet-style uniforms.

The traffic system is akin to herds of migrating cattle. Cars veer off in any direction, green lights are more a guideline rather than a set rule, and roundabouts, well, they are only for the very brave. There are pedestrian crossings but these are like the lights- a sort of take it or leave it if you're in a real hurry.

So far I've avoided the cars with increasing skill. Mongolians don't run if they see a car coming at them, so I have an advantage in that Mongolian drivers don't actually expect you to try and avoid them.

I should really get back to work, typing up my peacekeepers story, which has to be OK'd by the woman before it goes out unless I write something that the government will be unhappy with. You can tell that freedom of the press is a really new concept in a lot of ways. Newspapers are still careful with what they say and press conferences don't have questions, just a written statement that is read out!

UB

2007-05-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

Arrived in UB Thursday night, severely jet lagged. We had some trouble getting in to the county as we had forgotten the address given on our visas. They let us through once we said we were living in a ger.

The flight wasn't as long as I expected - a total of around 20 hours travel time, with the first flight to Incheon about 10 and a half hours. We hung around in Korea for a couple of hours, mostly trying to sleep. We then flew the three hours to UB.

Ulaan Bataar is a really interesting city. It's on the cusp of westernization - all lot of people wear Western or Chinese style clothes but there are still absolute nomads wandering around in traditional dells. Most of them will have a mobile phone though!

I'm living in what I suspect to be old soviet flats, that have been painted bright colours since. Luckily I only live three floors up, as there isn't any lift I can find. My family are absolutely lovely - the mother particularly, Dooya, doesn't speak any English but we communicate quite well through sign language.

The eldest son is also very nice, he speaks really good English and plays Age of Empires a lot! The younger son speaks a bit of English, but is pretty much your average teenage boy, pretty much the same as in England.

At half one, we are going to plant trees at the orphanage that TPA sponsor, which should be fun as it is about 23 degrees today and absolutely cooking everywhere. I went out with wet hair just to stay cool and I can't sleep in my room without opening my window. I'm also suffering slightly the after-effects of last night's visit to 'Dave's Place', the expat bar, where all the volunteers seem to spend a lot of time. No one else has turned up to plant trees and I'm guessing this is why.

My fab family woke me up and made me a Mongolian fry-up, for which I was very grateful. I had to boil up a kettle of water in the middle of the night as the water isn't really drinkable and then wait for it to cool as I was dying of thirst. Still, the house has better facilities than mine - it has a shower, which when I first came only ran hot water, narrowly avoiding third degree burns, but now has been fixed.

Right, I am going, and will also at some point upload some photos.

UB Post

2007-04-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

I've had my placement confirmed with the UB Post today, so I will definitely be working there. The UB Post is the main English language newspaper in Ulan Bataar. You can find it at http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/.

The big news of the week is that Nambariin Enkhbayar, the president of Mongolia and head of the MPRP (Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party), has visited the UK and held talks with Tony Blair. Of course, this isn't quite the big story in the UK press.

I did, however, find an interesting article about Enkhbayar's views on Tony Blair on the BBC website at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/817356.stm.

Still leaden

2007-04-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

I've had my second round of injections now and I'm getting slowly innured to them. I've also found out that another English gapper will be on the same flight.

After a bit of mild Facebook stalking, he seems like a nice guy who will hopefully be quite interesting. I'm also taking my 'Learn Mongolia' CD on the flight, along with a DVD or two, because it really is 17 hours or so long, as far as I can work out from the timetable.

It's getting to the point where I'm slightly overexcited about going - I can't wait to just get out there. Unfortunately, I've also got to organise something to do next year (having decided to take a second gap year), at this rate, from Mongolia. Slightly worrying, but I'm sure I'll find something. The problem is finding something paid and something not in the Salisbury area, because I can't face another year at home.

I'm thinking of blanketing foreign newspapers abroad, in places like Vietnam, India etc, but it's unlikely these will be paid. I'd like to get a job as a trainee journalist, but mostly journalism training takes two years.

My arms are made of lead

2007-04-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

As part of my preparation for my trip to Mongolia, I have to have injections. More specifically, a lot of vaccinations, in both arms at the same time. Today I had my first Rabies and a Tetanus-Diptheria combination.

At first I felt fine, possibly because, doing a lot of typing, I kept my hands down. When I tried to put on my coat at lunch, I realised it hurt to lift my arms above about chest height. Ouch.

After lunch, they started feeling rather heavy and leaden. This led to some traumas with the phone. I'm currently on work experience at a newspaper and hence had a variety of calls to make, but I had to work out a suitable position for this.

So, what have I learnt? Plan your injections in advance and don't have too many. Really quite a simple lesson, I'm not sure why I couldn't have learnt this in an easier way.