Welcome to Siberia!

So I'm publishing my first post after I've already been in Russia for two weeks, but what can I say, getting internet set up wasn't exactly easy, and getting adjusted has in itself been time consuming. I arrived in Moscow on the 28th of August, spent 2 nights there, and one 6 hour flight later, I landed in Irkutsk, the most important city of East Siberia. I'm here to teach English as a foreign language at Irkutsk State University as per my Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assisant) grant. Despite having the title of 'assistant' I have in fact been teaching mostly my own classes so far. Students are motivated to learn from a native English speaker, which apparently, the university has not had in many years, if ever. The weather has been beautiful so far, but at night it can get quite chilly, and, I'm afraid to say, the mornings and evenings foreshadow what's to come in only a few short weeks. Clearly I need to make use of the good weather while I can by seeing glorious Lake Baikal before it freezes over with over a meter of ice. Hopefully I'll update my blog periodically (maybe once every two or so weeks) depending on if anything exciting is going on. Really, this blog is more of an online journal and I do not intend to do too much research or include outside information, at least for now. So far, so good.

Week 2 in Irkutsk: As group of about 40 people from 10 different countries we traveled to Olkhon island which is located in the center of Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater lake by volume. The lake is famous for its wildlife, which is about 80% indigenous, and its indescribably beautiful terrain. Baikal is the center for two diverging tectonic plates so eventually, in millions of years, the lake will be an ocean, and Russia will be located on two separate continents. Already, however, Baikal is really more of a sea than an ocean. The water quality is unbelievable: it is clear and almost tropical looking despite its near freezing temperature currently and it is perfectly fine to drink the water straight out of the lake. So swimming in the lake was a great experience albeit barely tolerable - after about 30 seconds my body went numb so I couldn't feel it after that anyways.

We stayed on Olkhon Island for 3 days, 2 nights. On day one we got settled in and met native Buryat inhabitants who have lived on the island long before Cossack explorers 'discovered' Baikal. They introduced us to native Buryat dances, cuisine, and other practices. They practice a form of shamanism but unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to meet shamans at this point.

Day two: We had a 7 hour excursion around the island, transported by what appeared to be Russian military ATVs from the 1960s. We made about 7 stops of various lengths and each was specifically selected for the incredible beachside or cliffside views of the lake. I'm slightly afraid of heights so while I was able to climb up certain places, I wasn't able to jump over to some of the more perilous rocks - left that to the Swiss and the Austrians, the most natural mountain climbers.

Naturally as it seems to occur when you have such an exciting group of young absolutely different people (German, Austrian, Chinese, and others) good times abound. Night two was especially fun and included a multinational mix of campfire tunes, nighttime volleyball, and of course, vodka. Three of us decided it would be a great idea to go swimming around two in the morning so we set off in the pitch black night, and using an ipod for light, we were able to navigate to a field where we wisely decided to turn back due to the abundance of steep cliffs in the area. Nonetheless, it took us about half an hour to navigate back to the hostel.

Day three: We went swimming in Baikal and I realized where we had wandered to the night before and frankly it would have been impossible to scale cliffs down to the beach using only an ipod. Despite appearing so close on a map, it took us seven hours by bus and ferry to get back to Irkutsk.

Next week: going back to Baikal but to a different area - Listviyanka - which is much closer and located on the southern shore of the lake. Stay tuned - pictures of nerpa seals coming soon.