At minus 22 degrees, the bright blue eyes of Siberia are hidden

Perhaps because I was born in winter, sang "Fly to the tropical islands to swim", but my body honestly ran towards the north year after year. This year, my lunar birthday and Aunt Xue’s solar birthday perfectly coincide with Christmas Eve. We chose to spend our 24th year on a trip to Lake Baikal.

Going on vacation in Russia at this time is also to experience the real Christmas to a certain extent. However, we who know little about religion did not expect that Russia uses the Orthodox Church as its state religion, and the Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, which is 13 days later than the Gregorian calendar, so January 7 in the Gregorian calendar is their Christmas.

Our country is mostly Protestant, and the church style is relatively simple and simple; the Orthodox church has a strong Byzantine style, which is characterized by white gold crosses and onion-shaped domes.

The Kazan churches and Orthodox churches visited during this trip are not only magnificent in appearance and colorful, but the interiors are even more magnificent - huge candles hang from the ceiling, and intricate murals and statues are dotted here and there.

Looking up at the murals, I heard a passage from the Bible memorized by a friend who once believed in Christianity:

It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived, and the sunlight penetrated through the windows, forming a path of light that hit the prayer platform directly. Those who pray are pious and solemn.

More than 300 rivers flow into Lake Baikal, and the only outlet is the Angara River. The Angara River flows through Iraq and eventually flows into the Arctic Ocean.

"Lake Baikal" is the transliteration of the English word "baykal", which means "rich lake". The earliest relevant records can be seen in the history books of our country in "Hanshu Su Wu Zhuan". At that time, it was called "Beihai" and was controlled by the Xiongnu. It once belonged to my country in the Tang Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, and was placed under Tsarist Russia during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.

What we are even more familiar with is Li Jian’s Chinese-language song with a Russian flair, "On the Shore of Lake Baikal." 「The spring breeze is intoxicating」「Green grass」「Snow and ice」「The moonlight is like water ", every scene is so beautiful. We spent two and a half days wandering around Bei Lake, and were lucky enough to witness its cloudy and sunny days, sunrise and sunset.

I once thought that if I could have a wedding, I would use "Lake Baikal" as the background music.

The temperature that day reached minus 22 degrees. Through sign language and Youdao interpreters, the instructor taught us simple gesture communication methods and breathing methods, and also helped us choose a red dry suit (referred to as a "dry suit") that looked like Deadpool.

Wetsuits are divided into dry suits and wet suits, both of which are designed to slow down the loss of heat in the diver's body. A wet suit uses a layer of rubber to do this, while a dry suit uses air to isolate the diver from the sea water, has a better seal, and can be worn with a sweater/fleece, which is suitable for cold waters. In addition, even if you are ice diving, the underwater temperature is constant at about 0 degrees. In short, divers are much warmer than their friends and relatives on shore!

The way of ice diving is very cool - the instructor will make a square-sized hole in the ice, and the ice diver will dive through the hole. We were a little less adventurous and walked directly into the water via a ladder. Because it was too cold, my gloves always stuck to the ice on the railings. Only then did I believe that the joke about "the northeastern railings smell of strawberry" was true!

The online guide said that the instructor would tie a rope around our bodies to ensure safety. Our dive this time was even simpler and rougher. The instructor carried me forward with one hand and recorded the video with the other hand. (Maybe because I can’t swim 🤷‍♀️)

It was close to 5 o'clock when I dived. The sun was setting and there was not enough light underwater, so I only saw some plants. The girl who dived before us not only saw a worn-out iron anchor, but also caught a small shrimp underwater.

(But the purpose of posting on Moments has been achieved!

Knowing that it was our birthday, the coach gave us two extra glasses of vodka each. Brother Nan, who claims to have never been drunk (because he rarely drinks), experienced the feeling of being drunk for the first time. It is said that on the way back, I hugged the snowman on the roadside so enthusiastically that the snowman collapsed. I would like to express my real-name thanks to the family and friends who visited the Ice Diving Forum, even though I learned the next day that they were imitating my cute drunkenness while I was sleeping🤷‍♀️.

Hey, it seems that Aunt Xue hasn’t been officially introduced yet.

Brother Nan is not my brother, and Aunt Xue is not my aunt. Brother Nan met Aunt Xue when he was 15 years old. He had just entered the first year of high school and was still immersed in the pain of being separated from his good friends. He thought that there would be no happiness in the next three years. But fortunately, we met.

In an environment that advocates isolation and self-repression, we try our best to create freedom and turn every inspiration into reality. We formed a guzheng group and played "Dongting New Song" in platycodon costumes. In the second year, we found more friends to form a folk band, which performed at the New Year's Day party and performed on the streets.

After graduation, we lived together and played baking, gym membership, and maxed out credit cards (only the third item persisted), raised cats together, and had night conversations around the fire with interesting roommates, sharing every stage of confusion, troubles, and joy. move.

Sometimes I feel very scared, worried that I will be stuck in the gap between society and life like a gear, not fun, not daring to take risks, and not cool anymore.

Fortunately, we encourage each other and never lose courage, and always do what we want to do most.

To have the most wonderful life and the farthest dream, even if it’s freezing tomorrow and the road is far away.