Me: I read that Mongolians are generally viewed as a happy people, even though they were taken over by the USSR and China (I was just talking about in recent years, not over the eons). Russians usually seem more negative and cynical after having been through the communist years and being killed by people like Stalin. But lots of Mongolians were killed in those years and yet they seem to be laughing all the time.
Jared: Oh.
Sometime later, maybe an hour later...
Me: Did you know that Mongolians can't touch each other's feet? If they touch feet then they have to shake hands.
Jared: (laughs) What is all this about Mongolia??
Me: I was reading about it.
Jared: Of course you were.
Conclusion: I'm kind of like a kid, often spouting random facts that probably have no application in any part of my life. Jared finds this amusing. Or else he finds it amusing that I do research on random things. I don't know, I forgot to ask.
In celebration of Mongolia, my research topic of the day sometime last week, I give you this video about a boy racing on Naadam, an annual event where Mongolians get together and race horses and do other manly stuff like wrestling. The jockeys are all very young.
Mongolian Racer from Dan Chung on Vimeo.
