Days 1 and 2

What a crazy few days. I have found it exceedingly difficult to find internet, but I found an Ириш Паб (Irish Pub) with wifi. So, here are the first two entries in my Fulbright journal.

Day 1

Well, I made it. As I write, I am sitting next to the window in my room in the Buryat State University dormitory. It’s a breezy, overcast day. My window is slightly opening, allowing the breeze clear passage through my room. My window will not often be open here, so I’m relishing the opportunity right now. My flight to Ulan-Ude left Moscow about an hour and a half later than scheduled, so I arrived at about 10 o’clock. My flight was extremely interesting and enjoyable, as I am learning to be the case as I travel more and more throughout Russia. I was seated between two young women, both apparently of Buryat descent, and as the flight began and I responded to questions such as, “Do you think we’ll take off soon?” etc., they asked me where I was from. This led to a revelation of perhaps the biggest coincidence I’ve experienced in Russia so far: the woman sitting to my right went to college at Missouri State University! Missouri State is not very far from my hometown of Wichita, KS, and is a popular site for young Wichitans to attend school. She was currently on the last year of her Master’s in accounting, but was taking a semester off to attend her sister’s wedding. We mostly conversed in English. About an hour or to into the flight, she decided that she had to sleep, as she had made the same journey as myself without the overnight stop in Moscow and was naturally completely exhausted. At that point, the woman sitting to my left, tired of not being able to understand our conversation, jumped in and started asking me questions in Russian. She was a dentist in Kiev, and was returning home to visit family for a few weeks. We talked late into the flight, covering topics that spanned life in Ulan-Ude, religion, social problems in Russia, America, and the Ukraine, and of course, tourism. I asked her what her initial thoughts of tourism in Buryatia were, and her first answer surprised me. She stated that tourism would lead to changes in the population genotype, as tourists and supposedly settlers would marry or have romantic encounters with the local population. Her next answer was genuinely more interesting, and a subject that I will need to explore more as I begin my research. Many cultures native to this area find some of the activities of tourists to be strange. For example, shamanists believe that many places around Baikal are holy, and don’t think that people should merely wander around them. This clashes directly with tourists who come to camp, hike, and climb the mountains around Lake Baikal. Another interesting example is that there is a native group that forbids eating fish, but many tourists come to the area to go fishing. However, many of the fish in this area are contaminated with bacteria and parasites, so many tourists end up getting sick.

Upon landing, I was met in the airport by a representative of the International Department at Buryat State University, who has so far been extraordinarily kind and helpful. After getting my checked luggage, we drove to the Buryat State University dorms, which are located in the center of the city, just about a block away from Lenin’s head (Ulan-Ude is the home to the largest statue of a head in the world). After sleeping for several hours, I woke up and braved the shower, which isn’t too bad, and then went to a Japanese/Mongolian restaurant with the BSU representative. He then drove me around the city, took me to a grocery store, and then dropped me off at the dorm. So here I am, sitting in my room, where I am definitely allergic to something. Or maybe there’s just a lot of dust. At some point I need to summon up the courage to use the toilet without a seat. I will definitely be finding an apartment... Probably next weekend. Tomorrow I’ll be free to wander the center of the city, and then Monday I’m going in to the International Office to complete my registration and figure out my classes.

Day 2

Today was very rainy. The weather, combined with the fact that I had nothing to do, only know 3 people in Ulan-Ude (1 of whom was busy and 2 of whom I met on the plane), and do not know my way around the city at all and have no map, led to today being a pretty dull day. I woke up early, at least by my standards, because I wanted to go and wander around some. Well, to my chagrin it was overcast and looked like rain. So I read and watched TV. I ate some pastries that I got at the grocery store (which were quite tasty), had an apple, and then had some bread and jam (terrible). It finally started raining, rained for a few hours, and then I decided that I could go for a walk. I grabbed a bite to eat at a small stolovaya, which is basically a restaurant that is very similar to a dining hall, and was happily surprised to see that my decently sized meal cost me less than five dollars. I may be able to pay more for an apartment than I originally intended. Exiting to a quick stream of consciousness: my wall has a hole in it, and I think it’s filled with asbestos. I’ve never seen the stuff, but that might be what it looks like. My bathroom light also burned out, making an unpleasant place even worse. I can’t wait to get my own apartment... The representative from BSU informed me that a simple apartment would likely cost me $300 a month. I think $600 a month should be my maximum, so I think I ought to be able to find a decent place. So breaking out of stream of consciousness: I then strolled around. I found a path that was built by some foundation whose name I’m shocked I can’t remember, given that I just walked past it. Oh well.

My 2 days here have already been more than enough to make me feel more confident about my choice of tourism in Ulan-Ude as a research topic. I have seen a banner about some sort of international tourism forum (which I would love to attend), advertisements for schools that specialize in tourism (including BSU), and general advertisements directed to tourists specifically. I should try to interview teachers at tourism schools, which until now I didn’t really know existed.

Another interesting thing that I’ve been told a few times is that the number of foreigners in Ulan-Ude is growing, not due to tourism, but due to missionary work. It has also become apart that these missionaries are, for the most part, not appreciated. This is extremely interesting, considering that I am living in the center of a society that generally believes in 3 conflicting religions, all at the same time. Shamanism, Buddhism, and Orthodox Christianity all have a strong foothold here, but Protestantism, Mormonism, and other various sects are largely ignored. One interesting opinion is that only the impoverished in the region are attracted to Protestants. This will be another topic to explore out of purely intellectual curiosity.

Well, enough for now. I guess I’ll watch TV and read until I pass out again. At least I’ll have something to do tomorrow.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog about my travels in southern Siberia! I will be spending the next ten months living in Ulan-Ude, Russia and traveling around the region. I was fortunate enough to receive a Fulbright grant to fund my endeavours over the coming year, and as such I am legally required to state that the views presented in this blog are neither the views of the Fulbright program nor the U.S. Department of State.

As a brief introduction, I'm going to describe the area that I will be going to as well as what I will be researching. Ulan-Ude is a city of about 400,000 and is the capital of The Republic of Buryatia, a subject that lies between the Southern shore of Lake Baikal and the Mongolian border. Buryatia is the home of a native Siberian community called the Buryat, which are closely related to the Mongols. While Russia remains the predominant language spoken in the area, many Buryat also speak their native tongue, Buryat, which is a dialect of Mongolian. The Buryat are generally both Buddhist and Shamanist, often seeing both lamas and shamans for various reasons.

Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume. It holds 25% of the world's fresh water and is over 1500 meters deep. Lake Baikal is home to a unique ecosystem due to its' remarkably pure water; Baikal contains several organisms that actively scour the lake for impurities. As such, Baikal is home to hundreds of endemic species. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the nerpa, the world's only freshwater seal.

The climate of the area is less severe than other parts of Siberia, due to its southern location as well as the presence of Baikal (although the lake effect does not extend all the way down to Ulan-Ude). The months of May - September are generally pleasant, but winter draws out particularly long in this extraodinarily land-locked region.

I received a Fulbright to research how the growth of tourism in the region around Baikal since the fall of the Soviet Union has effected the Buryat. More narrowly, I will examine whether the Buryat have been able to take advantage of increases in tourism (which has largely been domestic, not international) by inserting their history and narrative into tourist stops at various geographical locations, or if tourism development has largely occurred outside the influence of the Buryat. In order to do this, I will be taking classes at Buryatia State University in Buryat history and language. I will also travel throughout Buryatia, visiting tourist attractions and interviewing tour guides and operators. I am most interested in discovering the motives of tour guides in the region: what new information do they want tourists to return how with?

I will be updating this blog as frequently as I can with updates on my research as well as anecdotes on everyday life. Feel free to leave questions in the comments, and I will respond to them as quickly as I can.