Larson lived in Mongolia for 37 years before coming to America, where he was struck by culture shock and found it difficult to adapt: “For someone who doesn’t want to carry cash or a wallet, Mongolia was the place where dreams come true. The only thing you needed to buy, you could simply have the horse owner come to your home and collect payment. I never really noticed this while living in Mongolia. But whenever I traveled to China, I had to pay for every small necessity, which meant I constantly had to carry a wallet. Life in Mongolia detached people so completely from modern, contemporary living. To me, the idea of walking down a city street and being stopped by a car seemed utterly impossible—yet everyone around me does it all the time. For me, simply dialing a single number on a phone felt like science fiction; in Mongolia, there was no such thing as telephone communication. Observing the crowds in a big city’s streets is another strange phenomenon. Everyone seems to be rushing in every direction. The escalator is the most extraordinary device in this world. After reading book after book about modern life, this is what I’ve come to understand...” From the book “Mongolia Should Join the UN”