Prologue:

I first came to Russia five years ago, wide-eyed and youthfully inexperienced, excited by the prospect of my first international travel, as well as my first extended period of time away from home. As a dreamy, sentimental youth, I immediately found that the experience fiercely, almost violently, sparked my already hyper-active imagination: the canals of St. Petersburg glimmered under the milky midnight sky, their waves gently rocking, as though to the cadences of Pushkin's hypnotic iambs, the hills surrounding the city pulsed with vernal wildflowers, supple birch, and stately conifers, all through the dreamlike haze of the otherworldly fuzz emanating from majestic lindens, wafting into the city and collecting along the tops of statues like some sort of prжternatural halo. Yes, in those days, the entire country seemed animated, even supersaturated, with spirits and free-floating emotions: excitement, danger, romance, satisfaction, and even revelation seemed to be waiting around every corner.
Indeed, I must admit that a part of me now even envies that young, daydreaming traveler... my subsequent experiences in Russia have only allowed me to go deeper in my knowledge and understanding of the country and, in a sense, my love for it has only deepened all the more, but, nevertheless, nothing has ever managed to successfully replicate that quintessentially youthful feeling of frothy, all-encompassing inebriation with one's surroundings. I sincerely apologize for waxing sentimental, and I doubt that further posts will incline -- at least to so great a degree -- toward such maudlin sentimentality, but I thought some reflection might serve as a fitting prelude to a journey in which our young protagonist, no longer the bleary-eyed dreamer, nor even the sardonic cynic of my previous trip, has decided to use the opportunity -- coming, as it is, in such a transitional period of my life -- for contemplation and self-reflection.
I see I should now offer a couple words about myself and my purpose by way of an introduction, particularly for those with whom I am not yet acquainted. I am a recent graduate of Georgetown University (hence the GU in "GU-Blog") who has decided to teach English in Siberia for a month and a half with the Learning Enterprises program -- an entirely student-run non-profit organization dedicated to providing students with the ability to help in local villages around the world and gain significant life experiences abroad free of any program charge. I hope all those reading will be inspired to support or continue supporting this organization, and, most importantly, I hope that all of you -- family, friends, and people who I don't yet know well enough to call either -- can derive some sort of enjoyment from my experiences.