Leaving, on a jet plane...Part 1

Flying from point A to point B within Mongolia...

Procuring tickets and confirming flight times:

It all begins a couple weeks before leaving town when Danielle and I went to purchase our plane tickets, only to realize after walking across town that we didn't have our passports or even our worker cards, which are the necessary ID for foreigners to purchase plane tickets. I was working on finalizing my students' grades at that point so didn't have time to make another trip to the AeroMongolia office, which meant that Danielle had to go a second time alone. When Danielle went back they sold her the tickets but said we should check back with them to find out what time the plane would be flying (since they like to switch flight times around on a regular basis). The day before we were to leave, I stopped by the AeroMongolia office to ask about the time and they told me, "The plane will arrive here at 8am." So, knowing how often people are confused about flight times, I asked a couple follow-up questions to verify that I'd been told the right time. "What time will it be leaving UB?" "It will depart from UB at 7am." (Check) "What time will it leave from here?" "It should leave around 8:20am." (Check, check) "What time should I get to the airport?" "You should arrive at the airport at 6:30am." (Why anyone would go to the airport before the plane had actually departed from UB, I'm not sure...but they still like to tell us to get to the airport 2 hours early.) So, having asked about the time, and having had the answers to my follow up questions confirm the time they'd told me, I went home and told Danielle that the plane would fly around 8:20am and we set about finding a ride. Our former director and current coworker came over to take some pictures with us and they decided that they'd take us to the airport in the morning at 7am.