Some thoughts...

Ok so like my buddy Katie Mac who wrote an amazing piece on her thoughts about the UK, here is my attempt on my thoughts on Mongolia so far:

• I kept bumping into people thinking, stupid Australian, walk on the right side here (right hand drive - get it?). So I walk on the right yet I still keep bumping into people. Hmmmm.
• Hardly anyone understands English and if they do, its at a beginner level, so I can mumble the most crass curse words on the street and no one understands me.
• The driving is a little chaotic but at least drivers stop when you cross the road (even though you think they might not stop).
• I am still no more productive at study and finishing my research paper here than I was in Australia. Ah fuck it.
•  You can get everything you need here. Maybe not everything you want but after a while you think, who gives a shit if I can’t get the same shampoo or the same stupid moisturiser. The sunscreen is not great though which is kinda bad for burnie skin types.
•  The fruit and vegetables are not very fresh as it needs to travel a fair way to get here. Still, who needs it when there is so much meat and dairy. The yogurt, cheese and milk is usually sold at market stalls with no refrigeration. Stuff in the supermarkets are in fridges but they aren't that cold. Even in pubs I order a coke and its warm so you always have to ask for ice in a glass. In the markets, meat is just left out on benches in the meat room. There is all this crazy stuff like sheep heads and just about every animal part and organ you can think of. Chicken, however, is properly refrigerated as far as I could tell. Well I haven't been sick yet and I have eaten the food here so its no problem.
•  Water is high in heavy metals but apart from that it is totally fine to drink. I don't really like the taste so I just get bottled water delivered to my house and its really cheap.
•  My house mate wasn’t thinking straight when she bought a stack of toilet paper from a guy off the street. It is essentially recycled sand paper. Its so recycled I could see bits of the original matter – some kind of candy packaging or something.
•  There are many varieties of international foods such as Korean food (even North Korean) and other stuff that’s a bit more familiar to the western palate. Mongolian food includes delicious dumplings steamed or deep fried with meat inside, these awesome noodles and heaps of other meaty stews with cabbage kinda like Hungarian food. I like it and so do a few other volunteers but most people don't like it at all. Mongolian lamb as we know it doesn't exist here - maybe its central Mongolian which is actually now part of China.
•  Coffee here is still good so yeah I haven’t given up that addiction yet. Chocolate is also ok here but I am not that fussy when it comes to chocolate.
•  Fermented mare’s milk aka airag is ok.
•  Going to a public toilet – work out those legs ladies. Be prepared for squatting, especially in the countryside just like when camping. I had some serious trouble with this when I had strained my hamstrings but I got through it!
•  A feat of mankind is the Mongolian squat. Mongolians squat right down with feet flat on the floor and its their way of just hanging around when there are no chairs. In fact, I think they prefer to chairs. Its especially useful in the countryside. Its really hard to do but I am working on it.
•  Not all horses are small. I got put on a big one and then promptly got off while whimpering about how high it was up there.
•  The shops here are changing me back to shopping girl, which I am horribly ashamed of. There are so many with lots of variety and kinda cheap. Unfortunately nothing fits or the clothes are way to cool for me so I go to the grown up shops, which are arguably better quality and cost almost the same as back home.
•  Everytime I go out I realise I don’t have enough cash on me. This place is like cash city. You use cash everywhere and I don’t trust the shops here to use my card anyways – just being paranoid I suppose. There are ATMs to get cash but they are either all lumped into one part of the city or scattered around. Not all banks have an ATM and you need a passport to get cash over the counter. Also, I don’t always have my card with me – pick pocket gangs are pretty common here.
• Not all the girls here are super thin. So my question is, where do they get their clothes from? Larger sizes are usually at the more expensive shops and people don't earn a great deal here. A high salary is around $1000 AUD per month and I think the average is less than half. You can get clothes made here quite cheap and nice too if you get a good tailor.
•  Girl power - there are lots of girls that work in the middle level jobs but its still very male dominant in the upper ranks. 
• It was hard to find a kick boxing club that would train women.
• Work work work. In some offices, it can be a little unproductive over the summer months that people play games on their computers or sit around and have cups of tea and chat away when there is nothing to do. Yet for some dumb reason they stay at work from 9 til 6pm rather than go home to make up for all the times they have to work on the weekends and not get time off in lieu :( That sucks ass.
• Kids are adorable here. I may adopt a child before I go home. I was lucky to see the first day back at school after the summer. They had music and balloons and people were everywhere. How fun! I did witness one poor small child screaming and pulling her father in a particular direction - either she didn't want to go to school or she did but she is too young. Its hard to tell. Her father was laughing and so was I. School is goes from 9am to 5pm or something crazy like that even for pre-schoolers because both parents work here.
• There is some statistic that there are more pubs, cafes and bars here per capita than anywhere else in the world – or something like that. I can’t remember the exact details and quite frankly I am not going to bother verifying it.
• There is a fair bit of poverty and you see it on the main roads. When its raining or its a bit cold, they find a stairwell and sleep in it. In winter, homeless kids used to live in the sewers because its warm but things have gotten better apparently. Many go to safe houses or stay as a group with an estranged family member – safety in numbers. Usually they leave home because of drunkenness and domestic violence. It only really happens in the city not the country side.
• Its warm and apparently too hot indoors from September because “they” centrally turn on pipes and all of Mongolia is magically warm inside all the buildings and apartments. The pipes come from underground so that’s why the sewers are warm. Don’t ask me who “they” are. Probably the government.
• Onto the stairwells to apartments – most are not secure. Most people know the codes or can easily crack them so yeah, that’s how the homeless guys get in. Its ok though, they are pretty harmless. I walked past one sleeping in my friend’s building. Unfortunately my friends reported having seen a pooh in the stairwell. That is kinda shit (no pun intended). Having said that, my apartment has a relatively secure building but people leave the door open all the time. Sigh.
• The apartments are mostly lovely but...my friend’s entire kitchen cupboards fell down crockery and all!!!! It could’ve killed someone. So yeah, trades people here are not always very good and sometimes arrive drunk to fix things…oh dear.
• Washing machines are not all automatic. Ours is all manual. You have to fill it with water and switch it on and tell it what to do then you have to take the clothes out and put it in the spin section. I never knew such contraptions existed.
• There is a small minority of men here who don't appreciate it when foreigners including Chinese and westerners get with their Mongolian women. Good point. Why is it that the most ugly white guy can get a hot Asian women. Its totally wrong.
• Homosexuality is not tolerated here so don’t even try to be openly gay. Its not worth your jaw.
• Taxi’s here are not really official. You pretty much flag what looks like an ordinary car but its actually kind of a taxi. You will find some people who aren’t driving a “taxi” will still give you a lift. The standard rate I believe is 500 tugrugs for a 1km. That's basically less than 50 cents thanks to the strong Aussie dollar. Yes, that is dirt cheap and we catch them everywhere here.
• They have a public garden with fake flowers.
• You can get OPI nail polish for $1.50 and it seems real.
• You shouldn’t walk on the drains and manhole coverings as they tend to be loose and you might fall in.
• The streets are a little on the dusty side and the pavement is kinda broken up. I think its because the winter is so harsh that it messes up the concrete and its too expensive to maintain. Apart from wearing the shoes out, its not too bad.
• The standard of dress is much like Australia - some people dress well, some people don't. Heels are ok to wear here, even I could handle it, but just be prepared to walk over a lot of broken up pavement and sometimes sand. Oh and your feet are always dirty - I wash my feet at least twice a day. 
• Hot water outages – just when you think you have hot water after a week of “baby baths” its not quite hot enough. Hot water outages are regular during the summer while the pipes are getting fixed. Unfortunately I also heard these outages happen in winter as well. Never mind. I quite like the baby bath anyway – heat up water in the kettle, mix with cold water, lather up, rinse. Easy and fun all at the same time!
• There are people that don't drink here and so I do my best not to add to the massive drinking problem in UB. Vodka is cheap, imported wines aren't bad and Chinggis beer tastes good apparently. I think all beer tastes like something people shouldn't choose to drink if you know what I mean. Its not very tasty.

Congratulations, you just read a long boring piece of crap. Oh come on now, there were a few gems in there. Thanks for reading!!!