Where Natasha, Sonya, Edik, Ivan, Yoseph, and Elissa go to Arshan with minimal problems

So, we decided on Friday afternoon that we would go to Arshan for the weekend. It’s about 5 hours away by bus (4 by marshrutka). We left on the bus at 10 the next morning with way too much food (my host mother made an entire pizza. She also gave me instant potato powder, some sort of Russian version of ramen, tomatoes, cucumbers, cookies, half a loaf of bread (evidently “a small piece” in fact means “half a loaf”), cheese, kielbasa, Russian candy (which honestly…is not very good), and what else? I simply cannot remember. But there was a lot). There were times when the bus would be going up a hill slowly…and slower…and then completely stop before starting up again. This was worrisome.

But we stopped somewhere with a great view of Baikal and finally made it to Arshan around 3. Literally the second I stepped off the bus I was faced with this strange Buryati babushka, and the following conversation took place:

Babushka: Надо жить? (Literally, “need to live?” but really more like, “need a place to stay?”)

Natalie: Извените? (Excuse me?)

Babushka: Надо жить?

Natalie: Um…..дa. (ummm….yes.)

Babushka: Сколько? (How many?)

Natalie: Шесть. (six)

Babushka: hmmmmmm……можно. Давайте со мной. (hmmmm…..okay. Come with me.)

And then we trekked through this little village and this dirt path with rocks everywhere and a little stream and the largest number of cows I have ever seen in my life (and I’m from Ohio. We have many cows.) Ivan at first thought they were rocks. We were not really sure what was happening but we ended up at this woman’s house and she offered us beds for 200 rubles each (about $8) and we accepted, although still were not entirely sure how we ended up at this strange woman’s house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cows. We ate some of the ridiculous amount of food we had (homemade pizza, cookies, some sort of cheese spread, kielbasa, more cheese, bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, Eddie’s host mother gave him eggs and potatoes, some sort of jelly filled things, and waaaaay more). We were then wandering the streets of Arshan hoping we could find a driver to take us to the hot springs. These two sketchy looking Russian men asked us if we needed to go anywhere, and we told him we were looking to go to the hot springs (at this point it was almost 3:30 and most drivers had stopped for the day). He offered to take us for 1,500 rubles (about $60). We would be driven there, have two hours, and then be driven back. But Joseph said that our babushka (Baba Zina) told us it was usually about 100-150 rubles each. So we told them that it was way too expensive, and we were looking for something more like 800 or 1000. And he said no less than 1200. So we said we’d go tomorrow and walked away…and after about 30 seconds he called “okay, 1000” and we went. I was very proud of us. Ivan (sketchy Russian Marshrutka Man) soon became our best link to transportation around Arshan and to Irkutsk. He gave us his phone number and everything (not as in a “call me” sort of way, but more as a “if you need a marshrutka, call me” sort of way).

The hot springs were okay. We were literally in this rock pool with a bunch of people. It was fun though. But it was also cold, and raining, so we left after an hour. This guy that was in the marshrutka with us was talking to us about America and said the only American films he had seen were “7” and “Training Day,” and clearly all of his assumptions about America were based off of those two movies. We tried to explain that America was not like Hollywood, but it didn’t really work. He also told us technology was going to take over our world and turn it into the world in “Robo-cop”.

When we returned we were running around trying to find the “Sayan Café” while it was pouring, and finally found some little café diner thing across the street from this sanitorium (where we ended up multiple times while trying to find things. Everything in there was this strangish blue color and really quite creepy. We ended up there like three times, I’m not entirely sure how). But we ended up in this nice little café. I ordered Pozi (the national Buryatii food), which were very good. Susanna and Eddie did too (or rather, Eddie thought he did and actually didn’t, but we had enough for all three of us so it was okay). They also had blini and all kinds of other great things.

When I went to the bathroom, I came back to find no one at our table, and freaked out thinking our stuff was all alone. What had, in fact happened, was that these two strange, verrry drunk buryatii men wanted us to sit with them at there table. So, we did, sort of. There wasn’t enough room and this woman at the table behind them had all this bench space and told me I could sit there to be with everyone else (the tables were fairly close together with benches, so I was right behind the group). I then turned around to say thank you before going back to our table and she said something to the extent of “you come (talk) to us now.” They were very nice and immediately gave me this bread/meat thing, which I didn’t want to eat because…um…it wasn’t mine. We talked a little bit and the two parents introduced me to their son Sasha (Alexander) who was obviously not so thrilled to meet me. They then again insisted that I eat this bread/meat thing, so I tried a small piece and then said I really should get back to my table, especially because our food had arrived. They told me to take the bread with me, and then offered me vodka. It was all a very strange situation and I don’t think they liked me very much when I left to go back to my table. Sonya and I ate the bread thing though, because I felt bad refusing their very numerous offers. They were pretty insistent. But we sat with the strange Buryatii men, strange events ensued, and finally returned to our little room about an hour later.

When we came back no one was home and the door was locked, so we freaked out a little bit. We had already paid, all of our stuff was inside, and it was starting to get dark out. Thankfully though some woman saw us, and then some little boy came over to unlock the door for us. Eddie, being brilliant as always, then convinced the мальчик (boy) to lock the door once we were inside. This evidently took a lot of effort, because he could not understand why Eddie wanted to be locked inside of the house (this is beyond our comprehension as well). But, finally, he did, and when Elissa tried to exit the house and couldn’t, Eddie had to somehow summon the мальчик through the window and get him to now unlock the door. I think he thought we were crazy. I probably would have as well.

Later Baba Zina gave us hot water for tea and a bunch of little potatoes. But she wanted to put Elissa and Ivan in this other little building to sleep which was really, really cold, so they ended up coming back with the rest of us. Eddie and Joseph said they would sleep on the floor, so they made this whole little bed thing (we tried to hide it from Baba Zina though, because Russians have this thing against the floor). We stayed up for awhile and talked, played cards, ate, etc. We were terrified that Baba Zina was going to freak out when she found that Elissa and Ivan were not in the little shack outside and that Joseph and Eddie were on the floor, but she didn’t. Everything ended up okay.

The next day we went to see the waterfalls, which took forever to find. Sort of looked like Texas Falls. They also had this colored ribbons around all these trees…I still don’t know what that was for. We went back to the little café, where Ivan ordered “tasty soup” and they somehow knew what he was talking about. They remembered us from the day before. Before meeting our friend Ivan for the marshrutka, we went to a sauna. Nice, but not as fun as the banya.

When our marshrutka driver dropped us off we were definitely NOT at the train station we left from. We had no idea where we were and it was completely dark out. The marshrutka driver ended up taking Sonya to her stop, and told the three malchiki (guys) which marshrutka they needed. But Elissa and I needed to cross the river, so we waited for a marshrutka going to the center area, didn’t find one, so called a taxi. The driver was really really nice. He didn’t overcharge us or anything (which we were afraid of) and said the whole ride (to Elissa’s stop and to my stop) was only 100 rubles (about $4).

The whole adventure was crazy. But really really fun. Next weekend I think Sonya and Elissa and I are going on this three day/two night trip to some island on Baikal with the other international students in our department (Koreans, Europeans, and us-three groups). It should be really great, and we’ll get to meet other people.

OH! Also, Middlebury was on Russian television. I’m not exactly sure what they were talking about. It was either history, film, or historical moments in film. But at any rate, Middlebury was definitely on TV. I saw our main road and frog hollow and everything.