Our transition into Russia has been a good one. After our 36 hour train ride, we got to the beautiful Lake Baikal town of Irtusk. Since we don't know any Russian, we've been looking to find ways to remember how to say things. We found that if we said it really loud and fast it would somewhat sound like Russian.

Does your ass fit = Welcome

Bin Laden Fishnets = Thank you

Does Freed Anya = Good bye

We have been doing a homestay, which means we've been bunking with a family. Leavitt and I stayed at a family who has just been so kind to us. On the first day she asked what we don't eat and so I mentioned i wasn't a big fan of fish. I didn't think that it would kill off 80% of Lake Baikalan cuisine (we had chicken that night). I did end up trying some fish, it was ok. The smoked fish or ulma tasted like bacon bits.

Lake Baikal is huge. Then again, it's the largest freshwater lake in the world. It seriously looks like an ocean and the water is pristine clear. They said that it had been an especially cold summer and so the water it is only 8 degrees celsius-- so in the 40s maybe? Was that going to deture us from swimming? Heck no!

Leavitt, Nat, Keri, Quarantine Girl and me went down to the lake's edge. I really wish it could have been warmer, the lake is full of so many cool things than any other lake I've been in. They have these weird coral looking things, neat species of fish and freshwater seals. When we went to the museum they had two seals there and they seriously looked like fat little butterballs with button eyes swimming around! They we're pretty adorable.

Leavitt and I did the "1, 2, 3"and ran into the lake. It wasn't bad at first, then the sharpness of the cold goes through your body and it's piercing. Your feet are the first ones to suffer, after that you become stiff with cold. We got back and shore and collapsed on to the rocky shore. Nat and Keri went in next and then Quarantine Girl. Nat and I then went back and I wanted to do a hand stand. It wasn't so bad, but I had to open my eyes to see where to place my hands. I have never felt my eyeballs freeze before. It's a really weird feeling.

Quarantine Girl challenged Leavitt yet again, to another competitive thing. You would think that after losing to archery and then something else she would give up any sporty challenges. Nope. The duel was to stand in Lake Baikal the longest.

Leavitt had already been walking around in the lake, it was hardly a challenge. After a few minutes, you can see the silent struggle Q had internally. Leavitt propped herself against a rock and sensed that Q was ready to give in. She perked up and Q waved her off. Leavitt was like, "Oh I thought you were getting out, I'll go sit up against my rock then". It was easy to guess who won. I wonder what the next challenge will be.

It was a great day. I love Siberia-- ok, at least in the summer. One of the things that threw us off was when it was 9pm and we were dog tired. Leavitt and I looked at each other and were like, "Is it time to go to bed yet?" We've been used to China and Mongolia where their sunset times are closer to 8pm. It didn't even get dark in Siberia till around 10:30 or so. We'll be entering white nights soon, so that should be really interesting.

Our next leg of the trip is the worst, it's a 54 hour train ride to Ekaterinburg. This is where the Romanov's were murdered. We'll be spending 2 nights there and I'm looking forward to that. It's been a great few days, I am really surprised how the trains are really not that bad. It does help having Keri around, she stirs even more life into our train cabin. It's a lot of fun.

For my birthday today, the group got me a Lake Baikal shirt and all signed it. It was very sweet of them. Then Natalie was kind enough of to regift the hotel slippers I slipped into her bag. Keri gave me the Raisinettes I was coveting. We'll be opening those up tonight on the train! I am definitely loving it here. The best part about it is that the mattresses keep getting softer the further west we go!

I'm glad you are liking the emLogs-- I'll talk to you soon or really, in about 60 hours :)

Emily the Siberian Tiger Wrestler

Life in a Mongolian Ger Camp

Greetings All!

We started our rural Mongolian experience yesterday by traveling to the Terelj National Forest about an hour and a half outside Ulaanbaatar. It's probably one of the most beautiful places I have seen. Green rolling hills with statuesque granite boulders that are more like building blocks for giants. Ger camps are dotted here and there with herds of horses, goats and cows wandering all over the country side. I could seriously live here.

Our first stop was to this hill that by tradition you throw a rock on to this large pile of rocks and walk around it three times. You're supposed to make a wish for a safe journey or something. I got about half way around the rock pile when I saw that you can hold an eagle! Yep, we totally held an eagle! The bird dude put the leather arm piece on us and we held up this gorgeous brown eagle. I didn't realize how large they were till it was up close (within pecking my eyes out range). Leavitt, Nat and me were the adventurous ones on that.

As our little bus continued on we came across some camels. They apparently come with 2 humps here. Leavitt got into overly eager puppy mode and we stopped to ride those. It's seriously like an outdoor Disneyland for us here! In India they say the camel represents love. I guess if you can love a camel you can love anything. Seriously though, these things are dog ugly and smell bad. Needless to say, Leavitt has lots of love.

Our eye opening experience is when we drank this Mongolian drink. It was good until we drank it. Apparently it was fermented mare's milk. Geez, does every culture ferment something? Keri said it best, it tasted like cat vomit.

Our ger camp was nestled back in this hillside. In our ger we had 4 beds which we shared with us and U.K. Keri. We dropped our bags immediately and headed for horseback riding. The Dutch's, Quarantine girl (she was in Chinese quarantine for a week, I think her name is April), Leavitt, Nat and me went to do a 2 hour ride.

My favorite horse is a buckskin and I saw this Mongolian looking buckskin horse. He was beautiful. The horses are a little smaller than the ones back in the U.S. but are still pretty awesome. The guide kept warning me saying that he is a little more frisky. I told him it was fine and I want him.

I didn't realize until we got on the trail that he wasn't really frisky, it was more like he liked going fast. He would go into a trot just to stay ahead of everyone else. I called him Alphahorse or later, just Alpha. Leavitt got one that she named Biff, who was a bit on the sluggish side. She ended up getting a tree branch and wacking him on the side to move along faster. Nat's horse was the biter of the group, she was just mean that way.

After I got a bit more comfortable with Alpha and knowing that our guide could careless about me going into a gallop, Leavitt and I cut loose a bit more. I loved it so much. The terrain is grassy with rolling hills and to gallop along hillsides and stuff was absolutely liberating.

We wanted to go back for a run today before we left Terelj, but we didn't have any time. I walked down to Alpha this morning and our horse guide was there. He saw me and gave me a big thumbs up and smiled at me. I guess he was okay with my horse handling :) As it turns out, my horse used to be a Mongolian race horse, which would make sense that he was always on the go.

To top of our evening we did some archery. Our tour guide G said that she has never seen anyone hit the target before. It's 30 meters away and the bow is a recurve one and its a little tough to shoot the arrow because the arrow has to rest on your hand. The first to hit the target was Nat! She totally hit it from 30 meters. Not to be out done, everyone else went through again and again and then Leavitt hit it as well. So gold and silver medals in archery went to Canada. Tonight we'll be eating Mongolian BBQ again and heading to the train station after wards. We'll be taking a 36 hour train ride across the border and over to Lake Baikal. The trains aren't that bad, it really does help when you have fun people to share it with.

I'm looking forward to Siberia, but I will definitely miss Mongolia. It has definitely been more my speed than all the busy cities we've been to. Since we'll be on train for the next few days and I'm not sure what the next leg of our trip will bring, I will be officially in the communication black hole!

Talk to you all soon!

Emily the Mongol Horse Rider