Learning the lingo in UB, Mongolia.

Hello from Ulaanbaator, capital of Mongolia, or UB for short. I arrived yesterday via Singapore and Beijing. We landed amid rolling hills on a grassy windy plain in 22C heat. It felt just like Acheron back home. The travel company that collected me from the airport took the 'mountain road' into town along a windy potholed dusty road  past groups of gers and bus stops with young people in western dress and old people in traditional Mongolian garb. Then we reached the city and the traffic jam the driver was avoiding. It took us about 30mins to go about 2km. It seems that in September as summer is ending, the whole of Mongolia descends on UB, and maybe they were all on the road yesterday!
The Hotel Edelweiss (how Mongolian is that!) is small and only a couple of minutes walk from the UN building at Orient Plaza. It was good to meet up with UNICEF rep  and Australian, Rana Flowers and her team (we worked in NY at the same time) and then to get to work. At least knowing what you have to do and having a workspace organised means you can hit the ground running!
Last night electricity was cut at about 7.30 and came back on about midnight so I slept long and late.
Today, (with a drop in temperature to 11 C)  I met with the research team that will undertake the survey we are planning, and all of them had long names with short nicknames...seems that's how it is in UB!
I'd just had a UN security briefing telling me not to walk alone on  the streets (apparently a UN consultant lost everything a fortnight ago) and to be aware of street crime and also the possibility of an earthquake (they had one last week 5.8 on the Richter scale 400 km away and are expecting one in UB sometime). So when, at the conclusion of our meeting at the university, there was no transport, my Mongolian colleague Sode (for short), suggested we walk, I was feeling somewhat ambivalent. But we made it back to the office. I've found a lockable space for my purse, passport and credit card and now feel that I'm set to get on with life here in Mongolia.
One of the researchers in the team has just returned from completing a masters degree at Melbourne Uni and living in Flemington, so she has been very welcoming and we will get together at some stage. Another UN consultant staying at the same hotel has suggested the Mongolian opera (she goes to it every time she comes to work in UB) and I guess I'm up for it.
At lunch I tried seabuckthorn juice..a weird aroma but a good taste from a Mongolian fruit.
I've also just finished reading Peter Fitzsimons'book Batavia (after visiting the VOC -Dutch East India Company HQ in Jakarta). What an amazing story! And I'm on the lookout for a good Mongolian novel.