Before Agata, Manuel and I flew to Irkutsk (the capital of Siberia), we had absolutely no idea what life was like in the middle of the world. For us, it seemed not only like a journey, but also like an adventure into the unknown. At the same time, we were looking forward to meeting the students who we would get to know and who wanted to improve their German language skills. After all, that was the purpose of the trip - to teach German. the flight from Berlin to Moscow took about 2.5 hours. Then we had to wait 2 hours at the airport until our plane to Irkutsk arrived and.... Tadammmm! Our Airbus was already waiting for us! Another 6 hours were added and suddenly we landed in Irkutsk. A strange feeling came over us. After all, we were 7000 km away from Görlitz - in the middle of Siberia. The first few days were quite difficult for us, as we were a long way from Germany and none of us spoke Russian. After a few days this changed a bit - we got to know more and more students and were able to adapt to the new environment. With each passing day, we acquired more knowledge of the Russian language. This was also urgently needed, as almost nobody in Irkutsk speaks or understands English. We were already able to order in a restaurant, pay at the till, request a stop on the bus or simply have simple conversations. We got to know a lot of incredibly nice people with whom we are still in contact after the trip.[caption id="attachment_802" align="alignnone" width="300"] Short break on the shore[/caption] We only started our lessons after three days. There were a lot of groups, about 5, and everyone was studying hard, which we didn't expect because, as everyone knows, German is not one of the easiest languages. Although the level was not as high as with native speakers, the lessons with them proved to be quite exhausting. Instead of just plowing through boring lessons with numerous tasks, we preferred to have conversations on various topics, introduce German music and then learn to translate and understand the lyrics. This broke the ice and we managed to motivate the students. But the most important thing came after the lessons, namely the bar evenings with the students. We saw this as a kind of "unofficial lesson". This allowed us to talk to the students without any pressure or stress. Not only could the students learn a lot about our culture, but we could also learn a lot about theirs. Our tactic was clear: we had to come up with something to keep the German language in our heads.[caption id="attachment_796" align="alignnone" width="300"] German lessons - Manuel plays and sings German songs[/caption] But what does the city actually look like? And is Lake Baikal really as beautiful as everyone says? The city itself is very large (almost 600,000 inhabitants) and, contrary to our expectations, surprisingly interesting and beautiful. Numerous monuments, cafés, restaurants and bars lead to just one word: wow. And now to Lake Baikal... It was truly a special experience for all of us. A lake that looks more like a sea and is just as cold. It was unimaginable for us that we were standing in front of the deepest freshwater lake in the world with a maximum depth of around 1.6 kilometers. If you now imagine what the abyss of the lake would look like without water, it is very impressive [caption id="attachment_797" align="alignnone" width="300"]. Lake Baikal with old, Russian car UAZ[/caption][caption id="attachment_798" align="alignnone" width="169"] shortly before freezing... :)[/caption] All in all, we are very happy that we took advantage of this unique opportunity. The trip was a great enrichment for all of us and we all agree that we would repeat it at any time.Daswidania!Manuel Schubinski, Andrzej Dmytruk and Agata GrabczewskiSponsored by: