Northern Wilds

I went for a walk this afternoon and spent a lot of time trying to take a picture of a magpie. But though they flew right by me many a time, flashing the metallic-green feathers on their back, I never had my camera out at those times. So you will have to take my word for it: there are lots and lots of magpies here.

I did, however manage to photograph one of the other principle factors of physical reality in springtime Irkutsk:


[note especially the depth of mud on the foot in the background]

I promised to write about my spring break. But there’s not that much to say. I spent lots and lots of time on a train with middle-school girls (my host-mother’s choir). I heard the new Brittney Spears song (“Do You Wanna Piece of Me”) many times. I answered lot of questions about whether I had ever seen the king and queen of America, how I liked London, was all we ate hamburgers, doesn’t Irktusk seem small when Americans live in the world’s largest cities, etc. I am still puzzled by how often I get asked about kings and queens. Something is clearly wrong with our democracy propaganda. But then, I think it’s just part of everyone thinking that Great Britain and America are the same place. And not just middle schoolers.

Ust-Ilimsk, the little city to the north where Valentina Petrovna’s choir sang and I hung around, was not really differentiable from any other small Siberian city, except that it’s only 30 years old (like Syeverobaikalsk), so it’s somewhat less run-down looking. Like Syverobaikalsk, it was built by the Young Communist League, and the main streets are called: Karl Marx Street (standard), World Street (the name could also mean Peace Street, but I was told that it was so named because it was built by the whole world), Friendship Among Nationalities Street, Romantics’ Street, and Dreamers’ Street. All these streets were rather broad and un-crowded, and the city had a pleasant, open feel. I spent a nice two days there being away from Irktusk. I mainly hung out with the very nice family I stayed with, especially with their middle-school daughter, Nadya, who was very sweet and non-teenagery. She had also just won the “Little Princess Ust-Ilimsk” pageant or something, and I got to go to her big TV interview with her.



Me being a cool kid and hanging out at the movie theater with Nadya and her friend- here we are pretending to play a motorcycle-racing game. DDR was also played. That’s how cool I am.

Oh, and here I am talking to Nadya’s English class, who did not understand a word of English. Here is how their teacher introduced them to me: “This is the 6-M class. They are the class of English. But they do not like English, because they are not interested in travel or in being well-educated people.” The students were not offended, because they did not understand a word that she said.


Final note: there is special mayonnaise for Lent. But not special cabbage. You must go one eating the same cabbage that once sat in your hallway in the fall, and you must eat it in greater quantities than ever before, because, in the words of the great cabbage-preserver herself, “It is spring! We must constantly eat cabbage! Needed acids!”