Temee kholiin khuruu

Camels! One of the things I was most excited about coming here. Seriously.
We came over a small rise looking for some granite outcropping, and there was a small herd (about 20) laying down in the gully out of the wind. We managed to get pretty close to em. Groups of camels do not smell very pleasant.

I've spent a couple of days out in the field mapping with Sharon Carr from Carleton University. She's an excellent structural geologist, and I feel like I learned quite a bit trudging through the sand looking for bedding. One of the days we were out 3 herders came over and seemed curious about what we were doing. Luckily I had received my Mongolian Phrasebook the night before (thanks mom and dad), and we managed to work through a few slow, horribly pronounced sentences. I learned that 1 of the guys, and the woman were married, had two children. Their animals were fattening nicely, they agreed the weather was nice. It was pretty interesting. They spoke almost no English, but they could write in Latin lettering (Mongolian is Cyrillic). it was a pretty interesting morning, and I got a picture with the two guys. The woman didn't want a picture taken as her hair wasn't done (hmm..not so different after all).

The riverbed we were working along was fairly large, and had two trees growing in it, which surprised me. These are the first plants higher than a Meter I've seen in 28 days. I'd been told they were there, but I expected old dying decrepit brown things. These were large, lush, green thriving trees. The biggest we sat under and had lunch, watching the 3 hawk/eagle/large bird of prey chicks shuffle around up in their nest. The smaller of the two trees from a ridge

Sunset, and the Moon + Venus from a couple of weeks ago

Goat!

So, I awoke this first morning of my 23rd year, had breakfast, and went over to the core shack to see what the night shift had gotten into. I've been logging core for 3 days now, kind of a frustrating process, but by the end of it I don't think I'll have any problems at all with Igneous Petrology next semester...everything is volcanic, or shallow subsurface igneous...

Anyways, I was in the shack wetting down the core, trying to decide what i"m going to call the fragmenty, intensely altered rock in front of me, when I hear the strangest sound..Sort of like a bird twittering with laryngitis.. It happens a few more times, I look around and there's nothing out of the ordinary, no birds, no...anything except core boxes. Then I hear it quite loudly, and look over towards the open doorway. A little goat..er..kidd...just sort of struts into the doorway and keeps making this sound. It wasn't quite the bleat of a sheep, or a sound I expected a goat-like animal to be making. Especially in the core shack, especially in camp...we haven't had any animals come in yet so...I was pretty surprised.

I looked past the goat and saw the security guy coming over to chase it out of camp, but it ran into the core shack instead. I gave up on the core and tried to help him get it out, but it would just bleat and run under a different rack, where we couldn't quite reach it. This continued for 5 or 10 minutes and eventually we got it out of the core shack.....where it just ran further into camp. I left the security guy to deal with it and had a quiet chuckle to myself.

(warning: bad geology joke)
I think it was telling me it's a baaaa-salt
HA!

That's...really the most exciting thing that's happened in a few days.

We DID celebrate my birthday a couple of nights ago, as 3 of the younger expats were leaving before today. We had a bonfire, lamb chops, steaks, potatoes, and a LOT of wine. They even managed to find a bottle of champagne (too sweet, and kind of meh...but still champagne!) , and stayed up late drinking beers. All in all, a pretty good birthday.

Secret Handshake

Nearly two weeks in camp, and....well...like I said, it's pretty laid back.

I've spent the last couple of days learning the GIS software Entree uses. It's pretty exciting, but I'll most likely be the only one really proficient with it when all the other young geo's go on break (soon!). Other than that I've been out mapping a bit, as well as some sampling. Nothing too excited. I'm familiar with all of the core tech duties and sample shipment procedures, so..I think I've got the job down pat.


Just returned from my first run to the Gobi Store...only place to buy beer in few hundred kilometers. It was quite the experience. My driver (a Mongol) and I ran into a few local Mongols who had rolled up on their motorbike. One of them was...very drunk and..quite entertaining. Kept wanting to shake my hand and joke around. I'm also fairly certain he was making fun of me in Mongolian (kept gesturing to his face, I'm assuming in regards to my beard....), and the lady behind the counter kept speaking at him with a bit of venom in her voice. Quite the experience.

It ended with a few kicks inside each of our feet, a thumb grip handshake and a high five...Then we left. My driver wasn't very amused, and told me so on the drive back. I had a Mongolian phrasebook with me, but unfortunately there wasn't "leave me alone you crazy drunk" in there.

C'est La Vie.

it's 5pm now on Thursday, which means it's beer and nacho night. I love this camp. I've been talking to a few of you and your laying lines through devil's club and such, and..well..I guess I've got it pretty good 'round here. At least until the scorpions come out and the vipers start to migrate.

Song - Mentira - Manu Chao

Shivvee Tolgoi, Mongolia

Camp Entrance gate and Guard tower.

Well, I've been in camp 3 days now.

Everything is still pretty exciting. I've made a couple of drill site visits, as well as prospected a pretty unexciting quartz vein. I'm starting to understand what is going on with the Geology, but it's going to take a bit to have a full grasp of it. Luckily I'm surrounded by great people who know what they're doing. It's still pretty unclear what exactly my job this summer is. For the first two weeks or so I'm just shadowing the guy in charge of the Mongolian core tech'ers and cutters (Andy), as I"ll be taking over when he goes on break. A lot of the work I used to do on other projects is done by local people, so it's really just supervising and making sure things get done.

I'm also going to be mapping some interesting things that the boss wants more detail on. Pretty excited about that.

So far the weather has been chilly. Sand and dust storms the first couple days I was here, and it is not very fun. Came back to camp with sand in my teeth, and I don't think I've ever seen more sand come out of my ear on a q-tip (yea, I know, gross). Nights are pretty cold still (5-10˚C), but I've been assured they'll warm up. Today was great, beautiful clear sky, the wind is fairly light and still cool.

Nothing too exciting is happening...the pace of this camp is pretty relaxed compared to previous years. I guess that being able to work more than 3 months a year really slows things down.

Sand storm near the drill

Interesting rock formation with a birds nest on top

Sand blowing across small dunes on a hill (shutter stuck...damn sand)

This is what 700,000 Metres of Core looks like...
Over at Oyu Tolgoi, Ivanhoe's project

My Ger (Yurt) #17
The door is about a metre and a half high, but plenty of headroom inside

More UB and a loooong drive through the desert

Ok, so I may have a been a little harsh on my early morning judgements of Ulaanbataar. I still stand by most of what I said, but the biggest difference is that there is a noticeably large amount of construction going on. Mostly new buildings going ....but here and there some of the older more culturally significant buildings are being worked on.

I spent all day at the Entree Office just kind of hanging around, facebooking it up. Still tired from the travelling I guess...I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. At the end of the day i went out for drinks with Kelly from Entree. He's been in country for 9 years, and is a good guy. We went to the bar in the Bayangol Hotel (where I was staying), the Casablanca, or just 'the Cas' for short. It's a pretty popular spot for ex-pats (i can't believe I can use that term, and also that it applies to me...weird..) I met this crazy guy who works in gaming, and knows the jockey who won this past Kentucky derby (That was neat), and more or less just sat around drinking beers listening to people talk about living and working in Mongolia. Kelly also pointed out the current and former Prime Ministers of Mongolia when they came in and went into the private room. Also pretty neat.

So at 6am I was checked out of the Hotel and on my way into the Gobi. Just outside of Ulaanbataar the landscape was grassy steppes, pleasant, but not very exciting. Reminded me of Wyoming..especially with all the sheep, goats and horses running around. As we continued south the landscape changed to more what I expected the desert to be. Rocky, some sand, small brush, very little gr as....dusty. One thing I didn't really expect with the sun out was the cold wind. It was probably about 5 degrees C with the wind chill.

Nothing very exciting happened, we got lost a few times, had to ask at some gers (yurts....round Mongolian hut things. Typical Nomad habitation), and we had a soup lunch at one. Noodles and...Sheep bits. Wasn't that bad. Like chicken noodle soup but with extremely dense noodles and...well....sheep bits. It took 12 and a half hours, but we finally arrived in camp, and..I will leave it there for tonight because I am exhausted. I have some pictures from the drive, they'll be on Facebook, and I might put some up on Flickr when I get some more shots.

g'night

Ulaanbataar

What do you see when you think of Soviet Russia?

Large Rectangular buildings, very little excessive decoration, busy deteriorating streets?

That's...about right. Ulaanbataar is a bit bigger than I expected, but as it's really the only major city, I guess it should be pretty big. I feel like I was dropped into your stereotypical eastern European communist city...much of it was built in the 30's, 40's, and 50's. The hotel I'm in screams this era, and it seems like not many buildings have been repaired or upgraded since. The only real difference is....there are no Russians. The people are all very friendly and helpful, even if they barely speak and understand English.

For some reason or another the plane I was supposed to take down into camp was cancelled this morning, and instead I will be driven into camp tomorrow morning at 6am. With guards. I find this all very strange and exciting, but it will be nice to see the country. I imagine after the first time driving through I will want to fly though.

That's all for now.. Maybe some pictures or an update later if I get a chance to wander around a bit.

On My Way

En Route - Seoul/Incheon South Korea

Yikes. First time I've left North America in ... almost 3 years I think? Sounds about right. Once again on my way to the Asian Continent.

I fly today to South Korea, arrive tomorrow afternoon and overnight there. Stay in a (hopefully) fancy hotel (it's expensive so it'd better be nice), and then fly on to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia monday night, arriving around 11pm. Hopefully someone will be at the airport to meet me, otherwise I might be in for a bit of an adventure.

I really never thought I'd be working off the continent until well after I graduate, but here I am a student for another 3 semesters on my way to work for four months in the Gobi Desert. Kind of a hard place to pack for, as it's extremely hot (up to high 40˚'s C) and can also be very cold (10˚'s and below at night). It's not uncommon for temperature fluctuations of 30˚ to happen in a single day (nuts!).

I'm excited to start work with Entree, and looking forward to working with a prof from Carleton University, as well as an ex-BC Ministry of Mines mapper. I should be getting all the experience I could hope for this summer.


From Seoul, Republic of Korea (South)
Is it wrong that the first words I see as we break through the brown-grey haze are English? Plastered there across a hangar "Korean Airlines" It's kind of scary how thoroughly English has invaded every aspect of foreign cultures.

I also feel tall. The roof of the arm from which we disembarked from was only a bout a foot from the top of my head. Awesome.

Next time from Mongolia

Song - Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)

our wonderful modern digital age

So I'm sitting in a fairly luxurious hotel room in Incehon, South Korea reflecting on last weekend.

After a marathon 23 hour drive down to Redlands CA, my friend Corinne and I got to stop and have a sleep, and better yet, I got to see allyson again before I disappear to the Gobi for the summer. Next morning we left to drive the last hour into Indio, CA for the Coachella Festival.

Out of all the shows I was able to see, top four are Rage against the Machine, Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, and Gogol Bordello. Notable mentions are Kings of Leon and the Fratellis. The whole weekend was a blast. We arrived early and got prime location right at one of the first camping sections, closest to the entrance of the festival, and immediately found out we were surrounded by other Canadians and Australians. Our entire group eventually arrived around 5 and we set up camp and spent the evening meeting people.

The Concert started up on Friday, and unfortunately only Corinne and I had our tickets, everyone else had to go to the Will Call line which was about 4 hours long. Corinne went to stand with them, but I really couldn't waste the day (and I had just met all these very cool people) so I went in to see what I could see. Arctic monkeys were ok, Silversun Pickups were very rad...definitely the highlight of the day was Gogol Bordello. They really put on a great show, very lively, very crazy, very fun.

Saturday was good as we managed to get everyone in at the same time. Definitely Arcade Fire for top band on Saturday, though the Black Keys afterwards were very very much w hat I hoped for. They genuinely rocked as hard as they could, and were very amiable with the crowd, knowing that everyone there had a choice between them and the chili peppers (who I don't think put on a great show....)

Sunday was all about Rage. I saw some good shows during the afternoon, but to be quite honest I barely remember them. Manu Chao was great, Kaiser Chiefs were good, despite the crowd not knowing the words to the song when the singer yelled out "You all know this one" and then nooooo onnnnneee sang. I managed to get to the very front for Rage for about half their show. Before they started I had started weaving my way as close as possible by following other like-minded crowd pushers. When they finally came on I was at the separating fence section (divides the crowd up, I imagine to make it easier to control), and during the second song (Bulls on Parade) managed to get myself surfed over the barrier and walked down the central aisle with a full view of Rage all to myself with no crowd. Needless to say I walked slowly. The exit back into the crowd was right at the front of the stage, so that's the direction I went, and rocked out the whole time. as soon as I was back outside the barriers, I pushed directly into the crowd right at the front stage and stayed there for 5 or 6 songs, but eventually it was too much, too many large angry guys pushing around and falling on your head to really watch the show with any kind of enjoyment. Once again I someone got myself surfed out of the crowd, enjoyed a short view of the band unobstructed until security had me moving out to the crowd (I'd really like to thank that guy who threw the bottle of water on me as I walk past..that was a godsend..so hot in that pit). I managed find the Aussie friend of Corinne's (and I guess mine) Mike back near the very first fence near the sound stage, and enjoyed the rest of the show from there, luckily still in a group of people who were very actively enjoying the show.

I have to say..being a part of that...was amazing. And I think if I hadn't tried to get to the very front...I may have regretted it for a loooong long time.

Monday morning around 5am, since no one could sleep, we packed up and left back for Vancouver. It was a great drive, good weather, good tunes, good people. Only thing that went wrong was when Mike forgot to put the gas (petrol) cap back in the tank. Do they not use those in Oz? So we drove most of the way back to Vancouver without one. oops.

ok, so now, what is my title about? a sarcastic praise of our digital age?
well, really it's about the amount of people and cameras that I see throughout concerts I go to these days. It seems that people can't just go and watch a show anymore, or snap a couple of photos. With digital technology you can take as many as you want, instantly deleting the ones that suck. Well, whatever happened to watching with your own eyes and capturing the memory in your brain? Not to be labeled as a hypocrite, I have absolutely no problem with a few pictures here and there, I took a few myself when i could, but I didn't hold my camera up in the air for the entire concert. I think the worst example was during the black Keys. some guy (kid) in front of me was basically recording the whole show on his camera, switching out cards when one was full. While I appreciate that this is how I get to see bootleg recordings of bands...I think it's shitty to watch a show through the screen on his camera as it's right in front of my face.

Dear concert-Goers,

Take a couple shots, record key moments, but for [insert deity here]'s sake, put the fucking thing away at some point and just enjoy the music for yourself. I'm tired of watching shows through camera screens, and worse yet, camera phones. Fuck camera phones.

Thanks,
Alex


That said, thanks mike for the (short) video and photos from Rage (only a few, because he didn't over do it!)