Time has come!

This is what I kept thinking when I was in the field trip to Arkhangai (500-600km west from the capital) at the end of May. The extreme winter has gone and green has returned, and there was a nice car window between great landscape and my smile.

As I mentioned in the previous entry (Learning from Extreme Coldness), Mongolian winter is so extreme that you feel like getting depressed if you let your mental guard down, and getting the sense of being frozen. As of mid-May, a year has passed since I came to this country, and long day (sunset after 10 pm!), green land and blue sky, not to mention active animals who survived from this winter disaster have returned.

To show a better sense of the difference, here are two pictures from the same area taken in the winter and this early summer (with temperature difference of the capital). How drastic the change is from white to green (land) and from being stuck to freely running around (horses)!!

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Furthermore, towards the summer (July and August), the temperature will increase even more (and more green), and I cannot wait (be patient!).

As said before, being patient is the key to success or learning (failure). No matter how hard it was, I managed to survive this cold winter. First time is the most difficult time in most cases, so I think it’s fair to say that I am prepared to be patient next time, too.

At this time of last year when I arrived, I was excited and worried about the winter. Now that that worrisome turned to be experience for the future.

This time, I learned that:

Although it was just merely a change of season and nothing else changed, Mongolian winter taught me that hard time will go through and pleasure will appear if you stay patient.