This is--no joke--my immediate superior or "мини босс" (mini-boss):
... anyway, I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately. But I think it may simply be the symptom of an overall good thing (for me), in that I've really begun enjoying it here and I've been spending a lot more time out of the apartment and consequently not thinking quite so constantly about home (as was really the case for most of the fall).
It's basically spring here already. In fact the Russians think spring started on March 1st, even though--I'm always trying to explain--the vernal equinox isn't actually for another week and a half...
So, what's new? I guess there are two particularly major points. First, I've been seeing a Russian girl for a few weeks now (those were her knees in that picture with marker drawings which she commissioned me to draw... beyond that, I understand them probably about as much as you do... oh, except that at first she wanted to name them "Monday" and "Friday", but I convinced her those weren't real names so it was better to name them "Mona" and "Frido" respectively...). But her name is Люба/Liuba (the 'iu' is pronounced 'you'--so yeah, it's really fucking hard to say), she's in her last year at МГУ (Moscow State University), studying journalism, and yes she speaks English thank god.
The other bit of news is that I've been seriously looking at coming back to Moscow for another (as my mom already likes to call it) 'tour'. No matter what, I'll be home (probably pretty evenly distributed between Beloit and Madison) sometime in August. Then, if things work out, I'll be trying to get back here sometime in October. So, I'll have plenty of time (I hope) to a.) see everyone b.) eat a ton of american food and c.) fill out all of my grad-school apps.
I've just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of the winter here at all (though it's just as well, since it's probably the most pitiful winter I've experienced in recent memory). But I'll be posting a back-log of pictures accumulated over the past couple of months in the near future.
Send me emails or something. I want to know how you all are doing. What's the dish? Any new tattoos and/or scars? Who isn't speaking to who anymore? Deaths/births/marriages?
