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.