Leaving for Russia in 27 hours. Ура!!

Taught another fun swing class on Sunday, Charleston kicks this time, though it was sad to say goodbye to the kiddies. They were so lovably enthusiastic ( Read more... )

Apologies for the technical difficulties. Hopefully I've got them figured out now ( Read more... )

Yesterday I taught a lesson at the teen swing club which left me profoundly grateful for a few things ( Read more... )

Last night a massive joint effort between me, my mom, and my sister (well, mostly my mom) produced a delicious Russian meal for us, one of our neighbors and three of Chelsea's friends. My mom cooked up two huge batches of borscht, standard and vegetarian, and Chelsea and I made hochipuri. It wasn't nearly as complicated as you might think, since ( Read more... )

Spotted at the Alaska State Fair last night: a pile of about eight little pink piglets, some spotted and some striped, all extremely squinty-eyed and kinda fuzzy, with a sign saying they were born on Thursday. Cuteness OVERLOAD ( Read more... )

This is for my American Home peeps ( Read more... )

Just got my plane ticket--I'll be in the bay area from Sept. 22 to Oct 1. Who wants to hang out?

Spent this weekend reacquainting myself with the pleasures this country has to offer. Friday night my mom, my sister, and I went to a screening of the best British TV commercials since 1975. It's extraordinary how much the technology for making commercials has changed in the past 25 years--the talking animals from the late 70's were hilarious. ( Read more... )

Yesterday, in a hopefully not futile attempt to keep my Russian from disappearing, I had lunch with one of my sister's awesome friends who studied in St. Pete for a semester, and we spoke Russian more or less the whole time. All those familiar feelings washed over me: low level frustration and agony with little flashes of inspiration and triumph ( Read more... )