Spotlight on Alumni: Elizabeth Kruger '06

We are pleased to hear from recent graduates, and encourage you to let us know about your adventures after Grinnell. Below, Elizabeth shares her experiences of the past two years:

In 2006, with post-graduation job anxiety on my mind and an oh-so-useful Russian degree almost in my pocket, I decided to postpone "real life" and head back to Russia as soon as possible. As luck would have it, I got a phone call from Fulbright during the graduation ceremony, awarding me a ticket to Siberia.

Now, more than two years later, I'm still in self-imposed exile in the sunny city of Irkutsk, not far from Lake Baikal and Mongolia.

One of the reasons I came here was to break some of my own stereotypes about Siberia, and Irkutsk has proven a good place to do that. As expected and even anticipated, I've grown accustomed to doing without indoor plumbing and central heating, learned to milk cows and herd sheep, visited abandoned Gulag sites, tried my hand at scything a field, spent nights conversing around the kitchen table, and learned which berries, herbs, and mushrooms to consume in the woods. But I've also been lectured about the benefits of Hare Krishna, been taught to snowboard in the backwoods, visited the Siberian Buddhist and Muslim centers of worship, debated politics with anarchist punk rockers, helped with scientific research on the world's deepest, oldest, cleanest, most voluminous lake, sang around campfires, jumped off bridges with Baikal extremists, played in a band, and helped to build a world class trail around Lake Baikal.

The people here are diverse, the landscape stunning, and the daily trials grueling. Siberia begs discovery, but reveals her secrets slowly. After only a year of Fulbright research, I knew that this place had many tales left to tell, so I decided to stay. Luckily, a position with Middlebury College opened up that year, and I became the Resident Coordinator for their exchange program in Irkutsk. Now, I get to introduce others to all the best things I've learned about Siberia and Baikal.
And, even after all the adventures and discoveries brought by Siberian life, I remain most surprised by the fact that I'm getting paid to use that oh-so-useful Russian degree every day.