Shelekhov

The school in Shelekhov

The 'Acts Hall' with all of our group and some others in it

So today, Jakob and I both had to go to university to go to the presentation / trip to a nearby town, Shelekhov. We arrived slightly early, but we waited there and soon enough the other people arrived, including JungHeum, and we all went out to get on the bus. Shelekhov is a small, industrial town only a short distance from Irkutsk (about 20 minutes by bus), and it was quite enjoyable to go there. As soon as we arrived, we were hurried through into the cloakroom where we were left to hang up our coats before being ushered into a dining hall and asked what we wanted to eat. I got some borsch, salad and a plate of pasta and sausage, which was all very nice, followed by a sweet juice tea, which was very curious indeed. There I sat at a table with the other foreigners; Jakob, JungHeum, and Yin Sun (representing China), and a Russian boy, Alexei, who lives near to the Chinese frontier, and has spent some time there (he studies Chinese and English at the university here).

The Shelekhov museum

Jakob and self with two Russian girls who asked
if we could take a photograph with them

Map of some of Shelekhov's conquests
in America

Shelekhov

After eating, we were taken up to the 'Acts Hall', where all the students soon assembled and we watched a short clip about the university. After the initial presentations (There was a lot of tittering amongst the teenage girls as Jakob and I stood up to be presented), we all once more left the Hall, and the teacher in charge of all this ushered us out of the hall, and asked me if Jakob and I were still keen on going on a tour of the village, to which I replied affirmatively. JungHeum decided it would be more interesting to see the village than to go to a talk about Korea, so he skipped out on that and came with us too, along with one of the teachers. We drove around the village a bit (next year is its 50th anniversary), before going to the museum. Here we learnt about Shelekhov, the man after whom this village was named, who was also the man who conquered Alaska and other territories in America on behalf of Russia. Despite dying in Irkutsk at the relatively young age of 47, he managed to do an awful lot of travelling, having been born in Western Russia and then travelling out to Eastern Russia and Alaska in that time.

Model of the village of Shelekhov

Some aluminium and aluminium-based figures
created in the town

We also got, whilst  in the museum, a brief (the teacher kept glancing nervously at her watch and hurrying the guide along) talk about the history of the village of Shelekhov - strangely enough, I feel that I understood everything the guide was saying, although she was clearly speaking as slowly and clearly as possible so that I could understand (It was all a bit beyond Jakob, but JungHeum translated for both of us what neither of us understood). This used to be a small settlement for people who worked in aluminium, and back in the day, before the settlement was called a town, it used to be a group of huts no better than tents, and yet they persevered and carried on. Next year, in the celebrations, some of the founders of the city are expected to be present, as some of them are still alive! On the way out, we were given a coin-thing as a souvenir, and as we drove back, some of the older, two-story houses in the village were pointed out - not very many houses are built higher than this in this region, as it is dangerous as a result of earthquakes in the area!

Jakob and self during presentation

Self and Jakob with the two Russian
girls we gave the prizes to

Soon, we got back to the school, and sat through a a number of presentations on several countries by teachers and pupils who had studied in those countries for some time. This was also interspersed with live music from some of the students if IGLU (ISLU). Eventually, though, as was bound to happen, they presented us (we almost didn't realise that we were being referred to when she mentioned it, I thought that JungHeum or Yin Sun would go up before us - apparently Yin Sun had already been, and JungHeum had missed his presentation) - still, the two of us dutifully went up and tried to coax the children there into talking. Our job, apparently, was to talk to them, and in so doing, ask them questions and try and gauge the level of their English. Both of us asked questions in general, and I eventually resorted to being that horrible person who picks on the children to answer. Only two girls were even slightly responsive, and they were quite keen to talk, but I kept picking on random people in the audience to try and get the thing flowing a bit. It definitely didn't work as well as I had expected, so eventually the two 'prizes' which we had were given to these two girls, who definitely deserved them more than the rest of the children there.

Afterwards, all of us once more piled onto the bus and headed back to Irkutsk - the lady in charge asked us if we would be free to do the same sort of think in Angarsk in November, and I said that I at least, would be happy to do it, especially if it lets us see a bit more of Russia!

Self, Yin Sun and Jakob outside the school