Big Night for Babette

Yesterday I was contacted by a Mongolian friend of Anita's, Davaa (pronounced Dawa) ,who suggested we meet in the evening. Although this would seriously disrupt my plans to wash out my socks & underwear, I agreed, figuring that the excursion would do me good. Her English is excellent. We met at the MetroMall, site of the legendary Minii Supermarket, and walked across the street to a restaurant. I had "Ladies Soup" for dinner and we had a great chat. I stayed out until 9pm, that's how much fun we were having.

A little word about painting & cleaning, Mongolian-style: They have been painting the lobby and first floor of the school building, but they're doing it a bit differently than the expected way. First they sanded the walls (no drop cloth), then they painted (no drop cloth, no concerns about edgings, etc.). The sanding dust is all over the place, as would be expected, and gets dragged up the stairs & into the rooms. Every floor has a cleaning woman, who is constantly mopping up our dirty footprints, so this painting project has just made her job twice what it was. I mentioned the fact that they don't tape the edges, therefore the paint often covers more than what was intended. There are some tiles on the walls & these get slopped with paint. Drips stay where they fall. It's fast & efficient (for the painters), I'll say that for it.