After 2 Ѕ years of studying politics and cultural science in Leipzig/Germany I felt it was time for a break, to leave the theories for a while and to see what one can do in real life with them. So it seemed a good occasion to realize my old dream of coming to Russia and to live here for a couple of months. I contacted the DRA (Deutsch-Russischer Austausch) in Berlin to connect me with an organization to work with, possibly in Irkutsk. I don't know why but the name of this city and of Lake Baikal was still hovering a lot of time in my head, a strange force attracted me to Siberia more than to the big cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. DRA managed to get me there, it's really an excellent address for all who would like to go to the east.

Arriving at the end of March I was still prepared for the big cold. This winter (2000/01) the awful Siberian cold spell had always been on the news in Germany. I even brought a pair of ski trousers with me to withstand the minus temperatures – I was never to wear it. Instead of this I would have been  better if I'd packed some pumps and nice skirts into my backpack, because Siberian summers are very hot and Russian women like to dress always very elegantly. Probably even in the strongest winter no-one of them would dare to wear ski trousers in the city.

At the beginning I felt like being on another planet, all seemed strange and unusual to me. It was my first time in Russia, of course I had read and seen a lot of reports but that's not quite the same like reality. The office of the BW is a bright and friendly oasis in the chaos of the Russian daily life, from there I carefully began to explore my new surroundings. Soon I noticed that it's not all chaos around me, that there exist principles and rules – you only have to know them. I began to feel comfortable here and now at the very end of my stay all has become familiar and usual to me.

The people at the BW have helped me a lot to adapt here. They were always very open to my questions, gave me advice and explained me the Russian style of life. In the beginning they spoke slowly to me, letting me time to find the Russian words in my chaotic mind where all languages were making some sort of crazy tribal dance. Eight years learning Russian at school didn't help so much talking to real Russian people. Since this time my language skills have improved a lot, sometimes I even understand the jokes.

Concerning the work I was mainly involved in the preparations of a conference on sustainable development that is going to happen next spring. I made information researches on the internet, analyzed and summarized the results of my findings. I also read some journals and books (they have a very good library here) on the theme of  sustainable development, that helped me very much to broaden and to deepen my knowledge. Furthermore the work gave me the possibility to learn a bit about other themes that usually don't play any role in my studies: ecology, agriculture, landscape planning etc. Although I didn't like it too much I did some translations for the BW, this helped me to understand better some work fields of the BW and trained my language skills. It has also the nice effect that you immediately see the result of your work and it is a direct help for the organization. There always take place a lot of actions like protest demonstrations, cleaning parks from waste, meetings of the NGO-Council of Irkutsk and so on – it can be very interesting to assist at them because it reveals much about function mechanisms of the BW. There are still other working possibilities at the BW, the staff  of the organization is generally very open to new ideas, you only have to express them frankly.

But I can tell you that Baikal summer isn't the best time for work, you just can't support sitting on your computer in the dusty and stuffy city when the sun is shining so brightly in the wide Siberian sky – nature calls. If you love to go on hiking trips you are unlikely to find more beautiful and less spoiled places than here in Siberia. Of course you have to know where and how to go, it's difficult to get good maps and paths are often not very well marked, so the best is to take somebody with you who really knows. But when you go you have the chance to get in touch with real wilderness. In June and July you can see there are so many different flowers with bright and shiny colors that your eye hardly can support all the beauty it sees. You will understand the real meaning of endlessness standing on the top of a mountain and seeing nothing else than other forest covered mountains with no sign of civilization. Here nature's heartbeat feels clearer than in overcrowded Europe.

Coming to Irkutsk and living here for a while will provide you with a wide range of new experiences and capabilities and probably it will teach some very interesting facts about yourself – maybe that's the best reason to come.