From monuments to Buryat delicacies

We started out our day shuffling into a bus from the hotel. With our notebooks and headscarves in hand, we went about the city of Irkutsk visiting the local monuments, churches, and historic buildings. Two of the five churches we were able to explore were Russian Orthodox of the baroque style. The gold leaf and intricate icons, coupled with the smell of burning incense, inspired a different experience for each of us. Afterwards, we stopped at an Uzbek restaurant for lunch to rest from the morning tour. Shortly after, our group met with the former NGO Baikal Wave office along with its co-chairs Jenny Sutton and Marina Rikhvanova. They told us about their humble beginnings, the most imminent threats facing Lake Baikal today, and what we can do to help. Our meeting wasn't so much a lecture as a conversation focused on creative solutions to the environmental problems currently at hand. We concluded our day by celebrating the birthday of our very own Professor Hodge with fermented cow's-milk wine -- a Buryat specialty called tarasun. All in all, this day made us reflect on the historic Irkutsk and the potential paths towards a more sustainable future.

Lyubov and Hayley