"Society, you're a crazy breed. Hope your not lonely, without me."

Rain drummed lightly on the roof of my ger.  Drops trickled between crevices in the glass to land with a steaming hiss atop my stove below.  These rainy days of solitude always got me thinking about my situation.  Adaptation in Orkhon was a lot easier when I had the camaraderie of my fellow trainees, now I was truly doing it alone.  No site mates for easy social interaction, or to share experiences and frustrations with, just me.

The next day was sunny and breezy, two weeks in Omnodelger and I hadn't seen much, save for the school and a few delguurs (shops).  As I arrived in Omnodelger in the dark I was eager to get a birds eye view of the lay of the land, I decided I'd go for a hike.  Almost every weekend in Orkhon me and my fellow trainees would pick a new outlying hill to hike.  We'd set out, drink some beers, listen to music, and take in the landscape.  Always seeming to find a view more beautiful then the last.  I picked one of Omnodelger's lesser and closer hills and set out.  It was weird hiking out alone.  No idle chatter, or joking, no one to comment on the thousands of jumping grasshoppers or obscure animal bones.  I listened to music and climbed, picking the largest ovoo at the crest of the hill as my destination.  When I reached the top I did the customary three lap walk around the ovoo adding rocks to the pile as I went.  Then I turned around and faced the town to take in the view.  To my back stretched the legendary Khentii mountain range.  Misty peaks with sporadic trees that once shadowed the childhood home of Ghengis Khann.  My location couldn't be more Mongolian.  At the base of this mountainous throne lies my sprawling soum of Omnodelger.  Beyond its chaotic grid of fenced hashaas and gers stretches the steppe.  In contrast to the steppe of Orkhon the steppe here is flat.  No rolling hills or gentle rises, just a pure flat expanse, void of elevation, stretching forever on to the distant outline of another far off mountain range.  Omnodelger literally translates as "Before the spread," this name while seemingly confusing at first, now made total sense.  If the steppe were an ocean, Omnodelger seemed an island, with the far flung mountains being the ends of the Earth.  My soum was the only vestige of mankind for as far as my eyes could strain to see.  I stood and took this all in.  Eagles circled overhead, the shadows of mammoth clouds crawled across the landscape, their outlines unbroken or tarnished by any obstacle.  With that I turned up my music and began trudging back down the hill towards my soum.  My home for the next two years.