>From baikaltour@gin.global-one.ru Sat Sep 27 08:13:37 1997 Subject: Saturday night in Irkutsk Эдравствуйте! So, how did that turn out? The keyboard that we're using has both Russian and English letters, so we tried it out on the Russian greeting: phonetically "zdrastviytye". What does it look like on your screen? This is one of the few words that we have learned in Russian and attempt to use whenever possible. If we can't seem to apply one of our words, we just smile real big... Many of you are probably getting this message right on top of yesterday's. Sorry about that. Just as we finished writing two things happened: the manager of the hotel Business Center left for the evening, and the system went down. Naturally. None of the very pleasant workers who followed knew what to do, and I wasn't particularly helpful when faced with Russian dialog boxes. (Windows 95 in Russian is pretty interesting to play with, by the way.) Fortunately, at about 10 this morning everything was fixed and the message went out. In that note we told you a little bit about driving in the city. Well, let's talk a bit this evening about highway driving, shall we? Today we visited Lake Baikal, which is about 70 kilometers from Irkutsk. For background purposes, it is the deepest lake in the world, and contains one-seventh of the world's supply of fresh water. But that's not where our story lies. Remember we told you that the lines on the highway are considered optional by Irkutsk drivers? Well so, evidently, are the speed limits (if there actually are any). And the highway lines remain optional. This trip was a lot of fun. I sat in front this time -- on the left side, actually. About 50% of the cars here have the steering wheel on the right side. All cars drive on the right side -- in theory. All the way along the two-lane highway we would unhesitatingly pass any slower vehicle in front of us. This would not have been so bad except for the driver's lack of concern about whether or not something was coming the other way! Barreling down the left lane past a car while a blind hill is approaching is truly an experience to be, well, avoided at all costs! What's interesting is that this is standard driving practice. Cars going the other way simply expect to pull over to the shoulder if someone is passing in their lane going the other way. No big deal! Except to us skittish Americans, that is. On two occasions we actually were one car in a three-abreast situation -- two going in our direction and one in the other (on the shoulder). We both kissed the ground when we reached Lake Baikal. Speaking of which, we had a very nice time there. It was a beautiful day in terms of weather, and the lake itself is gorgeous. We saw where the Angara River, which runs right past our hotel, begins, and visited one of the historical Cossack settlements nearby. At this settlement several schoolboys became quite enamored of us, following us around and getting into all of our pictures. It was rather cute, actually. On the way back we stopped by at a little roadside zoo near the lake. We were both in hysterics when we discovered that this "zoo" had just two kinds of animals on display -- goats and bears! Somehow, that odd combination struck us as side-splittingly funny. Julie commented that this was kind of a hazardous plan because if the bears get out and eat the goats then the zoo is in trouble. This really cracked up Valentina, our guide, who complemented her "black humor." (Julie has always been known for her black humor!) We also enjoyed the juxtaposition at lakeside of souvenir merchants with fish salesman. You're walking along checking things out: trinkets, trinkets, trinkets, pile of dead fish, trinkets, etc. Rather unusual. Benjamin was pretty much oblivious to all of this. He was well behaved all day, but slept through the Goat & Bear Zoo, unfortunately. Several have asked for the stats on him. All we have to pass along at this point is his weight: 14.5 lbs. Physically, he's roughly the same as a 6-9 month-old. He has extremely small feet -- we think Zack's were bigger at birth! He's very ticklish, and enjoys sucking the third and fourth fingers on his left hand. (Milly also did this for a little while, but with her right hand.) He uses this as an interchangable signal for hunger or sleepiness. We're figuring out his signals slowly but surely! Interestingly, sucking fingers and/or thumbs here is a big no-no. The orphanage workers keep taking Ben's fingers out of his mouth when we're there, and frequently mention to us that we need to work on that. It's not something we ever stressed about with the other kids. Earlier we mentioned our growing use of common Russian words and phrases. We're doing okay with these, but our desire to hear English spoken grows unabated. We've made the acquaintance of several Army officers who are passing through, and of an Irish travel agent who is traveling around as part of her training. (Tough life!) We've also met another adoptive family in the hotel (in addition to Tim and Regina Smith, our traveling partners). They are from Portland, OR, and adopted two kids, a 2.5 year old boy and an 8 month old girl. We're very jealous of them, because they got a judge who did waive the 10-day waiting period. They're heading to Moscow for the final paperwork on Wednesday. We're also jealous because they brought all four grandparents along with them on the trip. As soon as we met them Julie and I looked at each other and pondered the question of how much begging and pleading it would have taken to get Mom over here with us! ;-) So we've had a few opportunities to speak English with others in the hotel. We would be able to get a fix from TV too, if there were any English programs other than CNN on! Most of you know that I like my TV, so I'm going through withdrawal right now. :-( I'm doing my best, though. Last night I watched the Russian version of "Wheel of Fortune." That was quite interesting. ("You want to buy a *what*?! You idiot!") And this afternoon while giving Ben his bottle I actually watched "The Simpsons" dubbed into Russian. I'm hopeless! We learned on CNN International that some British guy set the new land speed record the other day. Too bad for him. We broke it today on the way to Lake Baikal! We also learned that the Astros clinched the Central the other day. Steve, how did that happen? I thought the Bucs were hanging in there. Upon our return from the lake I had another interesting, first-time experience. I got a little detergent, filled the sink in the bathroom and did my laundry! (For some strange reason I couldn't convince Julie that it was her job to do it...) I have to admit that I had that in the "Things I'll Never Have To Do" file. Now it's in the "Things I'll Never Have To Do Again" file! That's it for now. Time to indulge in a rockin' Saturday evening in Siberia. We just have to find our all-black wardrobes and hit the town... We think of you all the time, and truly cherish the bundles of messages that we've received through my dad. We miss you, and look forward to seeing you soon. Love, Kevin & Julie P.S. Greenvillians, don't forget about Eddie From Ohio at The Handlebar tonight (9/27)! Terrific vocals and acoustic guitar. (Sal and Amanda, be sure to check this group out!) We'd be there for sure, if we weren't otherwise occupied. Oh, and have we mentioned the return of SGGL to The Handlebar on December 13? Even from half a world away we can indulge in our alternate roles as concert promoters...