In short, I got the Fulbright. It's kinda odd when everything works out exactly as you want it to, its such a rare occurence in life. I've been dreaming of going back to Siberia ever since I traveled there two years ago, and getting the government to pay me to do it is about as good as it gets. I'll be studying at Buryatia State University and researching tourism in the area around Lake Baikal. Here's some background:
The Republic of Buryatia is a member of the Russian Federation and is named after the native Siberian community that resides there. It is located just north of Mongolia and south of Lake Baikal. The Buryat are an offshoot of the Mongolians, and their language is often considered a dialect of Mongolian. They are one of the most populous native Siberian communities and are often considered to be one of the strongest culturally. Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Buryatia has been experiencing increased tourism flows, mostly from within the Russian Federation. My research agenda is to study whether or not this increased tourism has focused on Buryat culture, thus allowing them to more greatly influence the Russian Federation, or whether it has focused on geography, leading to a watering down of the culture (like Hawaii). I will spend 9 months in the area and take classes in Buryat History and Language at Buryatia State.
One of the perks of being a Fulbright scholar is that the college now considers me someone to show off. This has not been more apparent than it was tonight when I was invited to go to the trustee "progressive dinner event" (this is what it was actually called, and Stevey P actually called out "progress!" after dinner). The evening started with appetizers in the Rec Center. I knew literally no one at this event, so I just wandered and ate food and chatted with trustees that were hanging around the food table. One of the first things that I noticed was that everyone asked me who I was with: the majority of the students invited were the children of trustees. After appetizers, we all made our way to the Goodhue Super Lounge for dinner. I noted that I was seated at Table 1, so I took a seat and sat down. At first I talked with several people who weren't trustees or alums, so I was completely unaware of the relevance of Table 1. Then, a music professor sat down next to me, and it turned out that he was retiring and being honored that evening. Then, the president of the board of trustees sat down with his wife. Finally, Stevey P took a seat next to me. I was with the big boys. During dinner, I chatted with Stevey P about Carleton and how the food should always be as good as it is for the trustees. He gave a speech about the music professor next to me that left the crowd in tears (Stevey P is a classy dude). After dinner, we went to Evans Dining Hall for dessert, at which I met a trustee who's an astronomer. All in all, this was the closest to real world networking that I've ever been to at Carleton, and also the proudest that I've ever been of myself.
So the Fulbright is my plan for next year. This summer, I'll be a coach/counselor at Stanford swim camp for a month, before going to DC for Fulbright orientation. Then I'll go home and leave for Siberia around the beginning of September.
After the Fulbright, it's still up in the air. I passed the Foreign Service Officer Test back in the winter (something Stevey P also did, actually), and I'll hear further from them in the next few weeks. If the news is good and I can defer, I'll go straight into the Foreign Service after the Fulbright and then into grad school after a few years.
I went from having everything up in the air to having everything solidified in the course of a week, its crazy how fast things change in the real world. It will definitely be strange not having everything broken up into 4 year chunks anymore.
Well, seeing as how I should be leaving to go to Rotblatt in a few hours, I'll leave this post here. Have we raised possibility of a summer Brocation? Also, if any of you want to visit Russia or Siberia and want a Russian speaker there to help you, you're more than welcome to come visit me (I'm not sure, but I imagine that I'll be able to go to Moscow a few times, so if you don't want to venture beyond European Russia, I can also meet you halfway).
