Settling in...

Well, I suppose we arrived yesterday and despite the stress of meeting the people I’ll be living with for the next three months it’s been an enjoyable first few days. My sister ought to take pride in the fact that for the first time in my life I bought a phone that looks cool and has a few features (still, no camera – but I think I can get internet on my computer through it if I buy a USB and cell plan, which is huge here in Irkutsk – broadband just got here last year).

Let’s start with the city. Irkutsk is a delightful town of about 700,000 along the banks of the river Angara. The river leads into/from Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater body on the Earth holding appox. 1/3 the world’s freshwater supply. It is largely Lake Baikal and its location along the Trans-Siberian railroad that makes Irkutsk significant, but I still have yet to find the city’s defining industry – though the big hydroelectric dam may be a hint. The architecture is a delightful and depressing mix of ancient (200+ yr. old) wooden houses, brightly colored imperial buildings and bleak Soviet architecture. Admitted there appear to be a few newer developments, but even they at best preserve the bleak pre-fad Soviet styling with touches of the imperial colors. That said, the interiors of the buildings are something else entirely and inside character manifests. Transportation is a curious matter; there are several options: walking (simple and free, but slow, occasionally dangerous, and seemingly stigmatized), the bus (a popular, though not altogether speedy option), marshrutnoye taxi (like a bus, but smaller and quicker), tramvai and trolleybus (slower than buses), and normal taxi. I still don’t have a very clear sense of the city’s proportions, but it seems perhaps as large a Scottsdale...or at the very least South Scottsdale, but it takes about 40 minutes to get downtown by bus from where I live and 20 minutes on foot to the university.
Like a mentioned earlier, I am living in an apartment with a grandmother (babushka), mother – a linguistics and advertising professor (less glamorous than it sounds), and her four year old daughter, who made a few attempts today at pronouncing that most confounding of American sounds “th”. Yesterday, Tamara Dimitrievna (baba) and Liza (the young ‘un) picked me up at the airport and brought me to their lovely apartment. The building itself is one of those Soviet remnants I previously referred to, but on the inside it is rather large with an entry hall of fair size, 3 9x14 rooms, and a balcony. The kitchen and bathroom are the only areas lacking in size, but so little time is spent in those rooms that it hardly matters. Anyway, I have far more space and privacy than I had expected and the family is wonderful, they have apparently lived here for about 30 years. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is the food, which I very much enjoy despite the high carbs and friedness of it. So far I’ve eaten pelmezhki (sort of like potstickers) soup, kotlety (a hamburger patty with mushrooms in it), a few salads, and lots of tea. Yesterday I was overfed twice once before and once after my post-flight nap. By far the best foods so far have been the bliny (a variant on blintzes or crepes depending on your perspective) and kasha (it appeared to be rice pudding), which composed this morning’s breakfast. However, I haven’t particularly enjoyed the Russian iterations of salad and cheese. The cheese is of the “strong smelling American-type cheese variety” and salad...well, mayonnaise is basic component of the salads here...and yesterday’s was a beet mayonnaise and fish salad...interesting, but it didn’t make my tongue happy. They say we shouldn’t drink the tap water here, but I have started doing so to no ill effects and successfully had my first bowel movement (YAY!).

Orientation happened again today and was moderately more informative than that of Friday, but largely frightening and boring. Unfortunately our tour of the city was cut short by waiting to get B&W matte photos taken for our student ID’s and cell phone shopping. You’ll probably not be surprised to know this, but doing almost anything in Russia requires that you present your papers and endure enormously inefficient and bureaucratic processes. Another bad experience with Russian cheese...dammit mosquito in my room. Additionally, I got some internets for like 10 minutes today which is why some of you got short emails.

This week is mostly getting stuff together, tomorrow testing and we get our passports back after our director registers them with the city (and shopping for me! Gots to get some slippers!). Classes start on Tuesday, next week we might start checking out mainstream classes, volunteer work, and internships – I’d really like something in finance or energy but that may not be in the cards. This weekend we head out on our first Baikal trip – a 15 km day hike from a place called bolshie koty or the big cats.

We’re a funny bunch out here not really a single identity, but we’ll get along. I just hope I can meet some Russians and not become and alcoholic or contract herpes.