Greetings from Russia! Wow. I hope this is going to post the way I want it to post. I have been engaging in a pretty epic battle with technology since my arrival here. My computer has been broken since almost the first day I got here, so I'm reading all the Blogger instructions in Russian. This has been a great semester so far. I'm really enjoying living with my host family and wanted to dedicate a few blog posts to talking about each member of my very interesting family.

I live with three women from three different generations. All of them were born and raised in St. Petersburg. Babushka, or Grandmother, is 85 years old. She is very active, kind and grandmotherly. Right now, I'm actually home sick and she has been taking excellent care of me. In her working life she was an radio engineer. She has a picture of herself with the first cosmonaut in space. How cool is that? We have many conversations about a variety of interesting topics. Her favorite thing to talk about is life in the Soviet Union. I very much enjoy these conversations. It also really puts into perspective what this nation of people has gone through over a course of a lifetime. I can't imagine experiencing such radical changes over the course of a lifetime. Yet, she perseveres. It makes me really think about how amazing humanity is at adapting to different circumstances.

That's all for now.