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Ivolga School, Ulan Ude Datsun

The  next morning was an early rise and a quick scrub up as the family flat did not have hot water in the summer. Ivolga had a simple layout and one or two main streets. It was a quick walk to the school, past a local war monument. I was pretty excited about seeing the school in action. It was certainly one of those moments when I felt like I was transcending my role as a tourist and becoming more of an observant traveler. The school certainly seemed like it was one of the nicest buildings in town. It was a bustle of students dressed up nice clothes. Yet they didn't have uniforms. Many of the little girls had extremely large frilly hair ribbons. Vika's mom took me to a teachers lounge and I met the two english language teachers at the school.

After some intial pleasantries it became clear to me that despite having Natasha tell her the night before, she was still worried about my onward ticket.  She was certainly more worried than I was, and it made me feel a strange sort of guilt.  Why wasn't I concerned?  I was very close to overstaying my Russian visa and in a hurry to reach Mongolia.  I quickly explained that I was going to visit the travel agent after I was finished at the school. For some reason I was more interested in seeing her teach a math class than I was in meeting the english language students.  The language of math is universal.  Its something perhaps that I understand better.

I sat in the front of the class room at a large desk and the students piled in.  Since it was one of the first days of school there was a lot of confusion about organization and which room we were supposed to be in. The students were beginners aged ~8 and we didn't get much past name introductions.  The teacher continued a lesson plan and then at some interval as a group we left the classroom, I never did figure out why. I followed the class and then at some point the teacher sent me back to the room. I think she might have had her hands full since it was so close to the first day and perhaps I was too much of a bother on top of that.  She sent me back towards the original classroom and then followed me long enough to find 2 teenage girls with good english proficiency to send me to the bus stop.  We chatted most of the way was all on the same road as the school and the flat. The girls were nice and perhaps even a bit mature for their age. I got the last seat on the shared minivan and was quickly whisking away the 40 minute ride towards the bus station at Ulan Ude.

When I got there it was still pretty early in the morning and while I thought I was heading towards the town center a 20 minute walk away, I was actually walking in the wrong direction.  It was no matter as this put me walking towards the local market.  It was just getting started and many of the vendors were still setting up.  I walked around for 15 minutes just to take in the spectacle.  There was certainly nothing I wanted to purchase and my luggage was still too heavy.  I had observed the day before that the street car line went directly to the center, so I got on the street car.  The ride would have lasted about 5 minutes except that I was feeling like the stop should have been closer to the Lenin Head.  It wasn't and once I rode past the correct stop I decided to just keep riding and see where the street car would take me.  It took through some dusty residential neighborhoods.  It was a dry area and wasn't suitable for more than dry scrubby grass and an occasional bush. After I felt like I had seen enough of the city and not just its center I got out at a stop and walked a couple of minutes to a stop going back the same way I had come.  I wasn't interested in messing around after some of my lovely time consuming lost experiences in Russia.

I hadn't seen any internet cafes so I went to the one sure thing in town, the main post office. Sadly though it wasn't letting me log into my google email account.  I still killed a bit of time and then went to the very same happy food and had myself a burger and milkshake.  When I ordered the milkshake I couldn't make myself understood. So in response I enthusiastically pantomimed milk shake by making a vigorous stirring motion with my finger.

I met up with Natasha at the appointed time in the central square.  Central squares figure prominent in soviet city design and were often used for political gatherings and military parades. We went to a café that was just upstairs from the Happy food and the cinema. At one point there were 5 of us and it was interesting just listening to them chatter away as those young people do.  Well they were a bit younger than me, and of course very friendly. After the café there was some debate about what to do. After a short while we ended up taking a long shared van ride towards the outside of the city and to the top of a hill overlooking everything.  Right at the top was a Newly constructed Datsun or Buddhist temple. There were four of us and the girls were pious and helped explain to me the proper protocol. It was important to remain facing the Buddha, enter the temple from the left and walk around in a clockwise circle. They also suggested that I take my backpack off my shoulders. It was certainly a great introduction to Buddhism by followers of Buddhism. I also learned that Buddhism has lots of complicated doctrine that I really don't know much about. There were also prayer flags tied to some of the trees near the Datsun.  We then  road another shared minivan around the city down close to the local market. It was my idea to share a round of ice creams. Natasha's friend Natasha successfully engage me in a round of geopolitics while we were eating. We then made our goodbyes and I walked to the nice walk down the bus stop.  I was glad that I might it back before dark because I was having a heck of a time figuring out which door led to the flat of Vika's family. Eventually from the address I had in my pocket and the pattern of the flats I figured out the correct door and starting knocking loudly on it.  No one inside heard me.  That morning I had acquired vika's mothers cell phone.  I was just starting to try and pick my way through the Russian menu when the door opened.  Vika's mom quickly made me some delicious meet dumplings.  She was talented in welcoming the hospitality train.  That evening I made some conversations with Vika's father.  He showed me a large illustrated book of Lake Baikal. Later in the evening Galya came back to the flat and again we shared a conversation until it got late enough that we should be in bed.

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