Blogs from Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 49

Alright, so to continue on with my Saturday adventure. During banya I became acquainted with some of Sasha’s friends, two of which speak English. They were all very friendly pleasant people, and I may be wrong, but I believe they were also all members of an extreme sport club. Their club goes on excursions to different interesting hiking/climbing/etc. areas in the surrounding area. I will be joining them at their weekly meeting later this evening to discuss the possibility of a trip to a bi-level underground ice cave about 30km away. They were quite surprised to discover that I’m not afraid of camping out in a tent when it is -20ºC outside. I’ve decided that my new slogan will be, “Я ни переехала в Россию сидеть дома.” In other words, “I did not come to Russia ... read more

So yesterday was my first day at the GCC, and although it was very tiring, I don’t feel that I did very much. I arrived at the center with Alisa at 8:30am and spent the first hour or so planning a lesson I will be teaching with Alisa today concerning actors, authors and feelings. That was fine. Then I was left alone for another hour during which I studied my Russian dictionary. After that, I met Katya and Anya, two other English teachers at the center. Anya teaches the most elementary classes (the ones still learning the alphabet), and Katya teaches the next elementary class. I liked Katya right away. She is my age and extremely energetic and interested. She started shooting questions at me so quickly all I could do was sit there with my ... read more

With the Russian rail network covering some 8 time zones, the least confusing option available to the railway administrators was to pretend only Moscow Time existed, so timetables are all in Moscow Time and the fiction even extends to station clocks throughout the country. Thus it was disconcerting to drag my bags to Irkutsk station with evening pretty much nigh but the station clock was proclaiming it was just after midday. My sole cabin-mate on the overnight train to Krasnoyarsk was an older gentleman who slurped his tea, snored, and kept indicating he either had just vomited or was about to, with constant visits to the bathroom. Fortunately the vomit situation was never in the present tense. The TSH informed me that, during the journey, we passed within 1,000km of the location of the Tunguska Event ... read more

NOTE:We know this is a bit late in getting to you, but technology can be complicated....we're back in business....so here's 2nd installment. Hopefully our next letter to you will be in real time. Let us know if you are receiving the email notifications. DAY 2 OF THE VOYAGE Departure from Whitehorse was at noon . The day crisp and clear for our longest flight of 9 ½ hours to Japan. No better way to fly than Icelandic Air . Can’t say enough about their very special service. Big excitement occurred today as we crossed the International Date Line. It was quite a thrill. Champagne was served , the captain announced a New Year’s eve countdown and pouf…..just like that , we were in another time zone. At precisely 3:00 pm on Tues. Nov. 6th, it was ... read more

Okay, where to start.. Have probably had 4 of the craziest days in my life on the train. So much fun! We got to the trainstation in time after a sweaty ride in the metro. so much for that last shower in 4 days. The train station were full of police men and mil;itaries that checked passports and visas but didn't get stop luckily. Met an american guy, Brian, on the station and it was kind of a relief that it would be more travellers on the train. Didnt manage to swap carriges so we ended up in three different. Got in to mine and was a bit confused. Didnt really know how to do on a Russian train. But thanks to the woman next to my bed, Svetlana, I got sorted. Svetlanda kept an eye ... read more