A group of students from the ‘Samara International Institute of Market’ had a fabulous holiday camping on the eastern coast of Lake Baikal at the estuary of the river Selenga. They were attending a summer school in Summertown under the guidance of their teacher Albina Krasnova. Even the way to the camp was interesting, travelling first by train, then by a ferry and finally by bus.
The staff of the summer school was international, with teachers and group leaders from the USA, Australia, Ireland, Switzerland, China and Nigeria. There were also 120 students.
Baikal in its immensity alone, is unique (the length is 636 km and width up to 79 km). It can’t be compared with anything, and nothing can be compared to it. Everything about Baikal impresses the imagination and boggles the mind: its age of 25 million years, its crystal mirror – lake surface which expands to 31,471 sq km, and its maximum depth of 1637 m. The water is so transparent that you can throw a white disk of 20 cm in diameter into Baikal and it can be seen down to the depth of 40 metres.
In every aspect, the lake is outstanding. Judge for yourself: three-fourths of all living organisms (approximately 2,630 types) found in Baikal are found nowhere else in the world. Potentially, every fifth cup of water drunk by the people of the Earth comes from Lake Baikal.
Now, a month later, I’m recalling like a fabulous dream my staying on Baikal in the camp Summertown (ABCity). In spite of everything, I can assure with confidence of that these were almost the most remarkable 2 weeks of this summer.
The forest, Baikal, the sky, huge stars … and … of course people! Many people from different cities and countries – it’s the most important side of my life – communication. So you can imagine my delight when I met our teachers! With great pleasure I’m recalling long friendly chats, trifling and even heart-to-heart talks with Tom (he is from USA), Kristy (Australia), Orlagh (Ireland) and, of course, with Felix…
Even now I recollect how we were sitting with Felix on the beach and he was telling me about his life in Russia. Of course, my first question was: “Felix! But how did you come here?”
It turned out, that he arrived in Irkutsk Language University a year ago as a teacher. And some time later he found an advertisement with suggestion of going to the camp as a teacher of French.
Generally, Felix knows 4 languages: English, French, Russian, German, and now he is learning Spanish. He likes the camp ABCity very much. And the most pleasant thing for him is that there are not many people in such a big area unlike his country (he is from Switzerland).The only thing that he doesn’t like in the camp is food.
Felix would like to travel to Vladivostok and to the South Asia (Uzbekistan, for example).
Nastya Shironina (Samara)
Orlagh (Ireland)
I enjoyed the food, psychology workshops, people, songs at the camp-fire and the performance “New Year Holiday”. Sonya Korshenboim
I loved the campsite and how it was set up. I liked that there was a beach and forest together. I a liked the location very much. Melanie Anderson
I thought the camp was great. The food was excellent, the people were friendly and helpful, the activities were entertaining. Jeff Decker
I liked everything. It’s super here! I will definitely come here next year! Anya Taran
I loved the camp and the idea of getting the people to learn in such an environment is fantastic. All the activities were great and all the interesting games and happy faces from different continents.
This is awesome! Tanya Solovyova
Baikal in its immensity alone, is unique (the length is 636 km and width up to 79 km). It can’t be compared with anything, and nothing can be compared to it. Everything about Baikal impresses the imagination and boggles the mind: its age of 25 million years, its crystal mirror – lake surface which expands to 31,471 sq km, and its maximum depth of 1637 m. The water is so transparent that you can throw a white disk of 20 cm in diameter into Baikal and it can be seen down to the depth of 40 metres.
