The последный post - for now.

Whew! It's been a while since I've posted. After a wonderful, relaxing, family-filled stay at home, it took a red-eye flight to Boston, a bus trip, and a car ride, an all-nighter packing, one U-Haul rental, several sweaty hours of moving, lots of cleaning, many Goodwill trips, and lots of unpacking, but I am finally settled in the new apartment and as of today have internet access at home. Hooray! I think the new place and the new roommate are going to work out fine. Now if I can just convince the kitty to come out from under my bed...

Classes started this past week. I'll be teaching ESl for international graduate students, and they're a lovely group: bright, hardworking, funny, and curious. We spent most of the first class discussing American greetings - for example, the first bump, and the appropriate answer to the question "What's up?". I love my job.

This weekend I've been greatly enjoying the pleasures of life on the east coast. I hit up the farmer's market yesterday for heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, chard, the last of the summer squash, and the first of the potatoes. After a day of bustling around with my roommate getting the apartment set up, we and two more friends drove down to the beach, to toss a frisbee in the surf and watch the sunset. Is there anything better than rolling up your jeans to wade into the waves, and feeling the sand shifting under your toes? Sitting with my friends in the fading golden light, I felt truly lucky to be alive in this beautiful place.

And with that, plus the very last of my Russia pictures, I'll sign off the russkiblog once more. It's been a wonderful summer - I've made so many excellent memories -but now the air is growing chilly and it's time to buckle down to teaching, studying, and of course, actually writing my paper.

Vladimir, I will see you again soon. In the meantime, I'll be at www.livejournal.com/bona_lector.