Дома! (at home)

Well I am home in Maine now (in present time). I was pretty jetlagged for the first week or so, getting tired at really random times of the day--waking up at dawn almost every day and then feeling really tired around 2pm and between 9 and 11pm. Annoying. The day after I got home I went to go pick up Patrick at the bus station. He was in DC all summer doing an internship with the Department of Defense. We hadn’t seen each other in two and a half months (the longest time ever), so it was wonderful seeing him again, and I’m glad that we passed this small test and it makes me less worried about the possibility of going away again in the spring.

My brother, Josh, got home a few days after I did. It’s been a lot of fun hanging out with him, since we don’t get to see each other that often (we always seemed to miss each other growing up the last number of years, with my leaving home when I was 12 for ballet school and returning home right when he went to college). We're very different (different personalities, different interests), but it's always been easy to pick things up where we left them off and be able to talk to each other about pretty much anything. He graduated with a CS degree from Stanford this past June, and is leaving for Africa in less than a month. He joined the Peace Corps (despite some great offers from startup companies and Google) and will be doing information technology (not really sure what that means yet). He’ll be gone for two years in Tanzania. Even though it's potentially dangerous and maybe a little foolish in a way, I'm really proud of him because he could just be living a cushy life in San Francisco or Silicon valley making tons of money and living the typical empty 20-something life. He's always been extremely supportive of everything I've done (when I was in ballet school, when I got injured, by rebuilding my self-esteem, helping to convince me that public high school wouldn't be that bad, making me join cross country even though I just wanted to crawl under my bed, letting me know that a mysterious 4th grade rival named Patrick had been asking about me, letting me call him at 4am to freak out about something that's probably just stupid); he thinks the world of me (which I really don't deserve at all), and he's far nicer (too nice) to me than I ever was to him. He's also probably the one person who has complete faith in me, rarely points out my faults, is always proud of me, and who I could never disappoint. I'm not sure why I've been blessed with such a brother. It will be hard having him gone for so long, and in not the safest place in the world. (I figured very few people are even reading this anymore, so I'm allowed to be mushy). I leave for Brown in two days, and it's possible I won't see him for 2 years. So, good luck Josh and I love you very much.



(Josh has a big head)


(I think that's a hug and not an attempt to strangle)


(this is pretty much how things still are in my house--Josh always asleep)












(I actually added this in September when he came to visit me at Brown. Last hug before Africa!)


His blog he’ll be keeping there is linked on mine in case you're interested in following what he's up to.

It has been nice being home for the last few weeks. There was a lot I should have done but didn’t… Oh well. I finished up a paper for our culture/literature class along with a few other small things. I’ve been spending a lot of time with friends and family and slowly gearing up to go back to Brown, although I’m not sure how much I’m looking forward to all the stress and paper writing after having such a busy and amazing summer. It will be nice seeing everyone again though. It’s crazy that I’m going to be a Junior, and pretty scary that I’m already halfway done with college. So I'll be preparing my independent study, applying to study abroad programs, writing proposals, researching grad schools, studying for GRE’s, applying for scholarships and fellowships, writings theses, blah. But it’s all very exciting. I’m torn about going abroad second semester just because there are so many classes at Brown I still want to take and the school is just an amazing place to be, not that Russia isn’t.

Anyway, I miss Russia a lot and it took a little while to adjust to things here. I kept almost saying things in Russian to people, especially to the types of people I was used to speaking Russian with—strangers, waiters, store keepers—basically my “formal” speech to people I didn’t know well automatically slipped into Russian. But that stopped pretty soon. It's also been hard trying to express myself in more complex english sentences (verbally, at least). Ah well.

So here are some pictures from home. I love Maine!

Dawn, low tide, first morning home:


Mom gardening:


Home:


Pat fishing off the dock:


While I was gone my cat has discovered the dock and likes to sit on it when people are down there:


Looking majestic:


On the boat:


Mom and the best cat ever:


Josh in the "morning"


Black eyed susans:


Dad working on the deck:


On the dock:


Small time Maine Lobstermen:


Yum!


Josh has a friend:


Dad being goofy:


Car ride lameness:


Mom:


Josh and Patrick at Morse Mt beach:


Coast:




Home:


Storm one night:










Hanging out at Popham beach with friends:


Nothing like Ben and Jerry's and takeout (don't worry, I've gained back that lost weight):


Martin's:


Demolition Derby!




reflection of that in Pat's pupil:








Random woods walks with Pat:



baby mouse we found:


Spider!






Weird little flower things we found:


Plant growing in coastal rock:


Dolphin marina:


Katie (a friend from Brown) on the rocks:




Mom:








Well, I guess that's all...
Part of me just wants to delete this thing, but I can’t let myself when I remember all that time it took on the Russian internet for one picture to upload… So for now it will collect cyber dust in cyber space. If I return to Russia in the spring I will start it up again (my life at Brown is not exciting enough to warrant the continuation of blogging, e.g. “today I read, wrote a paper, and drank 8 cups of tea at tealuxe”). But if anything interesting comes up you might find a post on here, if you remember this site exists.

До свидания!