Misplaced Arc

A ferocious thunderstorm raged last night and kept me awake virtually all night long. The thunder was intense, the patter of rain relentless, and I just kept tossing and turning. This was highly unusual because I could sleep through a nuclear bomb explosion under ordinary circumstances -- not sure why my senses were heightened last night. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that while drifting off to sleep at the beginning of the night, I hallucinated that a bat was on my ceiling (we've been talking about the Houston rabies fatality in class, in which a high school student awoke from a nap to find a bat in his room and he later died of rabies at Texas Children's Hospital). I jumped out of bed and turned on my bedside lamp, knocking it over and almost breaking the lamp shade. Then the rain began and that's when I knew it was going to be one hell of a long Monday. Here we are 24 hours later and I'm on my last ounce of energy for this terrible day.

And what of that horrible thunderstorm? Well, it just so happens that a low pressure system is stuck over Houston, sandwiched between two high pressure systems (identical to the Tropical Storm Allison situation of 5 years ago). When I reached the light rail this morning, I found that one track was down. Fortunately, I was able to board a train that was going in the northbound direction. I scoffed at the silly public transporation system -- always running late or breaking down in rainy weather. It was only later in the day that I realized this was no ordinary thunderstorm: many parts of Houston were underwater and a state of emergency was declared! National Guard troops were dispatched to rescue people from their homes -- scenes on the news resembled New Orleans. In all, we received 10.5 inches of rain today (during one stretch, Hobby Airport got 6 inches in 75 minutes). And worst of all: the storm is still here, and we are predicted to have perhaps even ANOTHER 10.5 inches or rain tomorrow!

This brings me to the title of this entry, "Misplaced Arc." While Houston is suffering the storm of the century (well, storm of the decade), the leaders of 5 Scandinavian countries gathered today on a frozen tundra for the groundbreaking of an ambitious project to store thousands of seeds from the world's food crops in a frozen "Noah's Arc" within the side of a mountain. In these conditions, the seeds will last 1000s of years in dormancy. In the event of a pestilence or nuclear war that might wipe out an entire crop worldwide, the seeds will be forever preserved for such emergency scenarios. This modern-day Noah's Arc idea is terrific, but it was H-town that really need the arc today.

JLo: Return to Ulaan Baatar. Enjoy free time exploring the sights on and just off Sükhbaatar Square. Dinner and overnight -- hotel.