Week 16 in Russia: Meeting a Long Lost Relative

Svetlana and I at the Chita train station

Last week, my 16th week in mother Russia, I was fortunate to meet a member of my family whom no one in my immediate family has ever met, my second-cousin Svetlana. When my Babushka left Russia for Germany when she was a teenager, her brother followed her and worked in Germany at a hospital there. When he returned to Russia, he was sent to Siberia. There, he worked as a surgeon and raised a family. Last weekend, I met his daughter, my mother's cousin. My babushka has been in contact with her for quite some time, but has never met her. I am the first one in my family to return to Russia, and thus, the first one to meet her. I was ecstatic, nervous, excited...

The morning I left, there was snow on the ground in Irkutsk. It had been 80 degrees the day before, but I quickly learned that the weather changes on a dime here (it just snowed again today, by the way). I arrived in Chita to sunny weather and Svetlana, holding a copy of "Liza" magazine so that I would recognize her. She took me on a tour of Chita by car, then we went to her apartment to drop off my bag. We ate a little bit and looked through photo albums. I recognized many of the faces, and even saw some pictures that Babushka had sent her brother and Sveta over the years. I also gave Sveta a photo album with more recent pictures of my family. She was grateful, and I felt very comfortable with her. She left to go to the hospital, where she works as a children's surgeon and professor. When she cam back a few hours later, we took a walking tour of Chita, and came back to her apartment to make dinner.

The main square with a Lenin statue, of course/The train station/The main Russian Orthodox Church

The next morning, I awoke to a thick layer of snow. The weather from Irkutsk arrives in Chita a day later. We went to Sveta's dacha after breakfast, and then as guests to a few of her friends. We also drove all around the countryside to take pictures. I had to borrow a warmer coat, shoes, a hat, and scarf from Sveta because it was so chilly with the snow on the ground. We went back home to make dinner with the onions we picked and stayed in for the night. I even got a little work done on a research paper for one of my courses. It was relaxing.

Sveta and rhododendron/Me and a Reindeer Statue/Sveta's bright green dacha

The next morning, the weather went bonkers. It was sunny for our trip to the Decembrist Museum, the World War II park, and to a lookout point over the whole city of Chita. After that, we set out to a natural mineral water spring, but the weather didn't want to cooperate. It was sunny and warm before we left, then turned cold and windy, to rainy, to hail, and back to sunny again. It was bizarre. We were happy to come home to warmth and make dinner.


View of Chita from a lookout point/Me in front of the water well/The mineral water source

I slept in the next day while Sveta went to the hospital in the morning. We spent the rest of the day running around Chita. I went to the hospital where she works and finally saw her office and met her collegue, whom we were visiting after dinner that night. We went to register my visa, get souvenirs, and go to a few churches. We went to vespers in the Russian Orthodox Church where Sveta was baptised (the blue church pictured earlier). It was a really neat experience. After vespers, we went home to fix a light dinner, and then went to visit her colleague at his brand new apartment. It was a beautiful flat, and I wish I had taken my camera. It was walking distance from Sveta's, so I didn't bring anything with me. I enjoyed the conversation and promised to come back next summer to visit.

The next day, Sveta and I visited a the regional history museum before eating lunch and heading to the airport. The weather was gorgeous--almost 80 degrees and sunny. When I arrived in Irkutsk, it was 40 and raining. Oh, Siberian weather.. That sums up Week 16, minus an end-of-the-week photo session with Sasha and Hannah, which I will add to facebook/vkontakte rather than here. Next time: building a trail in the Botanical Garden with GBT!

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Week 15 in Russia: Raccoon Dogs in Ulan Ude

This semester has fulfilled a series of life goals for me. One, to learn the Russian language. Two, to travel to Russia. Three, to see a raccoon dog.

Last week in Russia (Week 15), began with a trip to Ulan Ude, fully-organized by SRAS, my exhange program. I traveled by train with another American girl, Candace, and we stayed two nights with a host family, spending a total of three days in Ulan Ude. Ulan Ude is on the Eastern side of Lake Baikal, in Buryatia. It is known for the biggest statue of Lenin's head in Russia, and several Buddhist temples, one of which is considered the center of Buddhism in Russia. Candace and I were lucky enough to see two temples, eat dinner in a traditional Buryat yurta, visit several museums, go to an Old Believer's village to get drunk with a samagon'ka, and most importantly for me: see a raccoon dog. I'll get to the raccoon dog a little later. First, pictures of Ulan Ude, with commentary:

When we first arrived, our guide, Svetlana, took us to the center of town to see the famous statue of Lenin's head. Ulan Ude is most well known for this great leader's giant noggin:

Next, after walking down Ulan Ude's main market street, Svetlana took us for a traditional Buryat' dinner in a yurta, a traditional Buryat' home. (It's like a teepee for the Native Americans--no one lives in them now, but there are a lot of them around for tourists to see). Svetlana insisted on taking our photos with just about everything in and around the restaurant:

After that, we went to a datsan not far from the center of town. When visiting a datsan, Buddhists walk the perimeter in a circle and spin prayer wheels, laying coins at each station. Only after making the circle to the datsan do you enter, and in the datsan, it is forbidden to take pictures. We were there during a service, and quietly followed our guides as they made a circle to the idols within the interior, laying coins and saying prayers at each station. We left the datsan and finished the exterior circle and remaining prayer wheels.

The next day, we visited another datsan, further away from the city center, and considered the center of Buddhism in Russia. We took a similar trip around and inside the temples, and I particularly enjoyed the environment and surroundings at this datsan:

We also went to an Old Believers' Village, about a forty minute drive from the city center. The Old Believers split from Russian Orthodox church in the 1660s, wanting to preserve the old traditions when the church changed. They were sent by the tsar to Siberia, the Ukraine, and Poland, where they were allowed to preserve their faith in closed-off communities. We visited one such community, their museum, church, and had lunch in one of their homes. Our hostess, as it turns out, makes her own alcohol, which, apparently is about 90 proof. I, out of politeness, continued to drink 4 shots of this potent stuff, and well...let's just say it took awhile for the buzz to wear off, and poor Candace was certain she would get sick on the bumpy car ride back to Ulan Ude:

We also visited the ethnographic museum, which happens to host a zoo with native Siberian species. Candace and I saw camels, bears, moose, reindeer, wild boar, foxes, eagles, but what stopped me in my tracks was an unassuming little fur ball with very important species name..

Now, when I was younger, think 11 years old or so, I was in love with the idea of being a veterinarian or a marine biologist. In my spare time, I liked to pour over the pages of my enormous "Encyclopedia of Mammals." There, by family, each species of mammal on earth is catalogued and described. One day, I was reading the canine section, and happened upon the raccoon dog, native to East Asia. I showed the picture of the raccoon dog to my brother, who was convinced that an actual canine species that looks like a raccoon didn't exist. I was upset, at 11 or so years old, trying to argue with him that they do exist, and they didn't just paste a picture of a raccoon under the title "raccoon dog" to trick little girls like me who read the "Encylopedia of Mammals" in their free time. I swore that I would find a raccoon dog someday, proving that they really exist, but couldn't fathom how far away its natural habitat was located, somewhere on the other side of the planet. Well, Nick, my darling brother, last week I saw a real live raccoon dog. Actually, four. And here are the pictures to prove that they really do exist, and in Siberia, no less. One childhood life goal down, many to go:

The trip to Ulan Ude was a success, in more ways than one. I accomplished a life goal I had forgotten about, buried somewhere in the back of my mind, and had a great multi-cultural experience. When I said I was going to Ulan Ude, many Russians asked "for what?" or said that I need only see the datsan and Lenin's head, and then come back to Irkutsk. But I disagree, Ulan Ude had much more in store, from getting tipsy with an old believer to seeing a raccoon dog. :)

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Week 14 in Russia: Our Hearts Were at Wesleyan

Last Wednesday, a life was taken at our small, quiet liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Johanna Justin-Jinich was a friend, a daughter, a classmate, and a student, whose life ended tragically in a brutal shooting on the Wesleyan campus. Those shots were heard around the world, echoing in the minds of students on campus and abroad, alumni, faculty, staff and the surrounding community.

When I heard the news, I wanted nothing else but to be on campus, supporting and embracing friends during this terribly tragedy. These events consumed not only my thoughts, but the thoughts of each person connected with Wesleyan. For this reason, I forego my usual update, and instead ask that you say a prayer or take a moment of silence for Johanna and her close family and friends. There is a wound in the heart of each person connected to this too short of a life which will only heal with time, support, and loving remembrance.

If you have not yet heard about this in the news, I recommend that you follow the link to a New York Times article, which outlines the events well, and I believe, does Johanna's memory justice.

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Week 13 in Russia: Singing in a Park and Climbing on Boulders

Week 13 began last Sunday with my volunteer training course where I learned how to safely operate a chainsaw (There are pictures floating around somewhere of me chain-sawing some trees in a skirt). I then went straight from the woods of the Botanical Garden, where I had cut myself a ring of a tree as a souvenir, to meet my friend Olya. It took me awhile to find the bus stop to meet her, but once I was there, I went with Olya and her friend Aleksei to a park across the Angara River. We were gathering there with a Russian folk ensemble that preforms Russian traditional dances and songs. They were meeting in the park for a picnic in belated celebration of the Easter holiday, called "The Spring Walk." (There is also a "Winter Walk," I am told, after Christmas/New Year's). It was a beautiful location, and I really enjoyed listening to the music and learning the dances. I spent about four hours there, happily enjoying the warm spring air, before going home to do some homework.

Below is a video of my friend Olya and Aleksei taking their turn down the line during one of the dances (Yes, there was an accordian player accompanying us):

The rest of the week went by quickly, as Friday was a holiday and we didn't have classes. ("Into the streets, May 1st..." -- a Socialist holiday we don't quite celebrate in the States). My friend Paul, from South Africa, was heading home for a few weeks, so he organized a picnic as a little going-away party. The weather was gorgeous and there were so many people outside by the river. We played games, had a lovely picnic, and looked at all the fountains. There are fountains everywhere in Irkutsk, and they turn them all on for the May 1st holiday. I took many many videos, but included only one, which should look familiar if you saw last week's video:

After the picnic, I gathered some camping gear and met two friends from GBT at the train station. I had been invited to go with them camping about an hour and a half outside of Irkutsk, in a park known for it's "Natural Statues." We arrived by electrichka Friday night, found a place to set up camp, fixed dinner and spent the night. We woke up early to pack up and hike for the remainder of the day, returning at 7pm on the last electrichka. I am so glad that I agreed to go--I had the time of my life. I want more than anything to return here next summer after graduation and just hike around the wilderness, working on the GBT summer projects. The nature here is unparalleled--take a look:

Hope you enjoyed the multimedia. This week was very different than last in terms of weather--it was 74 degrees here today! Spring has arrived and I have about a month left to enjoy it :) Until next time!

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