Aaaannndddd...I'm back! I had a nice, long (longer than I anticipated) winter break in the US but everything must come to an end. I've been back in Irkutsk for about a week now and it's gearing up to be a great Spring semester.
The thought of returning to bitterly cold Irkutsk wasn't so pleasant when I was lying in bed with the flu but now that I'm back and feeling better, I realize how much I enjoy it here. True, it's insanely cold, so cold that my face freezes from time to time and there have been a couple occasions in which I thought I might lose a finger or two, but it's also really sunny, which is pretty much the most important thing for me anywhere so it sort of evens out. Of course, the best thing about Irkutsk are the people who have made this my home away from home in Siberia. I've gotten such a warm welcome back from my friends here and even got a phone call from our head professor within a couple hours of my arrival to make sure that I was back in one piece. Of course, no one can compete with Ludmila Danilovna, who was up waiting for me with a hot breakfast when I flew in and has been consistently force-feeding me delicious food ever since. She decided that I lost weight while I was home and has made it her personal mission in life to fatten me up. This weekend I was fed about every two hours with portions that would put a hobbit to shame. I live a hard life.
The biggest change so far this semester is that I'm no longer the only Middlebury student in Irkutsk. We have a group of five undergrad guys whom I met this weekend during our first excursion of the semester to Lake Baikal. So far, it seems like we have a really fun group and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what this semester has in store. The only downside of having other Middlebury students around is that all of my classes are sort of squished together to accommodate other peoples' schedules since I'm a group of one person ...the plus side to this is that I get a four day weekend every week if I can find a mainstream class that works into my schedule so I can't really complain. Of course, said four day weekends are going to be used primarily for getting my grad thesis done but as long I focus on the "four day weekend--yaaay!" part of the deal, it sounds pretty great.
The thought of returning to bitterly cold Irkutsk wasn't so pleasant when I was lying in bed with the flu but now that I'm back and feeling better, I realize how much I enjoy it here. True, it's insanely cold, so cold that my face freezes from time to time and there have been a couple occasions in which I thought I might lose a finger or two, but it's also really sunny, which is pretty much the most important thing for me anywhere so it sort of evens out. Of course, the best thing about Irkutsk are the people who have made this my home away from home in Siberia. I've gotten such a warm welcome back from my friends here and even got a phone call from our head professor within a couple hours of my arrival to make sure that I was back in one piece. Of course, no one can compete with Ludmila Danilovna, who was up waiting for me with a hot breakfast when I flew in and has been consistently force-feeding me delicious food ever since. She decided that I lost weight while I was home and has made it her personal mission in life to fatten me up. This weekend I was fed about every two hours with portions that would put a hobbit to shame. I live a hard life.
The biggest change so far this semester is that I'm no longer the only Middlebury student in Irkutsk. We have a group of five undergrad guys whom I met this weekend during our first excursion of the semester to Lake Baikal. So far, it seems like we have a really fun group and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what this semester has in store. The only downside of having other Middlebury students around is that all of my classes are sort of squished together to accommodate other peoples' schedules since I'm a group of one person ...the plus side to this is that I get a four day weekend every week if I can find a mainstream class that works into my schedule so I can't really complain. Of course, said four day weekends are going to be used primarily for getting my grad thesis done but as long I focus on the "four day weekend--yaaay!" part of the deal, it sounds pretty great.
Our group at the Lake Baikal museum in Listvianka where we learned about the Baikal ecosystem, took a fake submarine ride, and watched a traditional seal fight.
--Back to our excursion. As I may have mentioned in other posts, Lake Baikal is one of my favorite places in the world and by far makes up for anything that I don't like about Irkutsk (see: transport). Baikal in and of itself is a really interesting place. It's the world's largest fresh water lake and contains 20% of fresh water on planet earth. It's also the oldest lake in the world, about 25 million years old or so, and is roughly the size of a small ocean. It's also located about an hour away from where I live which makes it a perfect location for outdoorsy-type things, even in the dead of Siberian winter. The last time I saw the Lake was sometime in September when it was still warm enough outside for me to go cavorting about in the water in my underwear. Coming back in February is coming back to an entirely different Baikal. The Lake freezes over completely in January and I mean completely--none of this Hans Brinker nonsense of slipping through the ice and drowning. Walking across the lake is like walking across a pane of glass, a very cold, slippery pane of glass, and the water is so pristine that you can actually see to the bottom of the lake through the ice. It goes without saying that it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Some of my friends went dogsledding on it while I was away in America so I'm thinking that that's in order once it's slightly warmer outside.
Out exploring on the ice.
We had a pretty full day in Listvianka, the small town on Lake Baikal about an hour or so from Irkutsk. As it was everyone's first time on Baikal (excepting me and Phillip), we checked out the local Baikal museum and tooled around the town. Of course, any authentic trip to Lake Baikal means indulging in omul (омуль), an endemic of the lake, which is super tasty once it's been smoked and salted. As long as you can get past the shock of what it looks like, it's something I would recommend to anyone. That, along with shasklik (think various grilled meats), made for some pretty good eating as we thawed out in a local cafe.
Eating omul, a Baikal delicacy. It looks terrifying but it's actually really tasty. Warning: your hands will smell like smoked fish until the end of days after eating it. Your breath too.
In short, good times were had by all. I definitely want to get back to the Lake once it warms up a little and do some more exploring before the thaw. I'll try to keep this blog updated better than I did last semester with all sorts of interesting Siberian tidbits and stuff. Until next time.
Привет из Байкала!
:-)
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