Sorry it's been so long.  I've been teaching a lot the last couple weeks so my free time has been taken up with preparation.  Things are back to normal though so I'll try to be more diligent with writing here.

To lead off, a funny story.

Former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Meyers wrote an article for Vanity Fair in January claiming that President Obama is the "Most Famous Living Person Ever".  It's the usual unrestrained media gushing about how we can thank him for 'making America cool again'.

Well, Mrs. Meyers, I have a story for you.

It is pretty incredible to be an American living in such a remote place as M*ngolia and to talk to students about our politics and president.  Around the election time, many of the doctors in my class were curious about Obama and asked a lot of questions about him.  

Our friend Jonathan, who runs the non-profit EduRelief, teaches English at a school in Erdenet.  A couple weeks after the election, his high school students were asking him about Obama as well.  One of the students described him as looking "just like" Jonathan, who is a 6'3" white guy.  To which Jonathan blurted, "What?!  Have you even seen a picture of Obama?!"  It turns out that some of them hadn't.

Jonathan, for some reason I'm still unsure of, had a picture of the new president on his iPhone.  He quickly pulled it out of his pocket, scrolled through and found the picture, and held it up in front of the class like it was the Holy Grail.

"See!  Here's Obama!  Does he look like me to you?!"

The room became hushed as they stared in wide-eyed and open-mouthed wonder.  "iPhone!", they all gasped.

So, if Obama is the "most famous living person ever", then the iPhone is the most famous plastic thing ever ever ever.