Hi all,
I’ve resurrected this blog, after an absence of several months. The short story: I got the Fulbright I applied for, so I’m spending this year (September ‘08 through June ‘09) in Velikiy Novgorod, doing sociological research on perceptions of young women about mother capital, a government initiative to grow Russia’s dwindling population by providing financial support to women having two or more children. The weather is rainy, the streets pockmarked and muddy, but the hospitality is as warm as ever. Last weekend my boyfriend Alex visited from Moscow and we went to the banya, the Russian version of a sauna (just add communal beatings with birch branches), and ate some delicious blini. It’s good to be back.
The necessary disclaimer: Though I am a Fulbright recipient, this blog is not an official Department of State website. What I write here does not represent the Department of State or the Fulbright Program.
Hopefully this brief re-introduction will appease the family members wondering where I’d disappeared to, and the two dozen people who have my business card, which has this blog address on it.
My boyfriend Alex is also in Russia for the year; you can read his sporadic musings from Moscow at http://nemowatching.vox.com/.
-Lisa
