What made the article written by Catherine Texier in the NYTimes that I wrote about earlier today so absurd and yet interesting to me was that my husband and I spent a night in a similar Russian apartment in Moscow, completely by accident and under duress, and we ended up loving it!

(The article was about her trip to Moscow with her boyfriend and how she didn't like it there - it was too poor and her boyfriend and his family dressed liked slobs, etc. etc.)

I haven't gotten to that point in my "Our story"... more

A couple of days ago a column, "To Russia With Notions," was published in the "Lives" section of the New York Times. (You may have to register to look at the article, but it's free. I can't say that you'll enjoy the article if you bother to link to it, but in any case, I'll summarize the article below)

The writer, Catherine Texier, traveled with her Russian boyfriend to Moscow, his home city, to stay with his family in their apartment. They go despite his protests. She really wants to see where he's from.... more

It's not so often that I actually sit down and read my cookbooks, but A Year of Russian Feasts, by Catherine Cheremetoff Jones, is one that I read from cover-to-cover.

Jones does not just list recipes, or even list recipes with a pithy little comment to precede the ingredients, but rather writes her book as a part-travelogue, part-cultural evaluation, part-family history -- with recipes liberally sprinkled throughout. It's a very enjoyable... more

This is a continuation of the listserv posting Jeannette F. allowed me to re-post about the Roma people in Russia. See Part I here.

Their origins are from North West India, from the Rajasthan region. The Roma began migrating out of India around 1000 A.D. traveling through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and then branched off into the European routes and some branched off into Egypt/North Africa. The term "Gypsy" comes from the word "Egypt" which is where Europeans first thought the Roma originated from (they have been traced to India linguistically. Their language, Romanes, is of Sanskrit roots, along with being... more

I think when most people think of the Russian people they imagine blue-eyed, blond types (like Vladimir Putin) or maybe the dark-haired, dark-eyed types (like Rasputin). The Slavs. Maybe, just maybe, they might consider people of Eurasian origin to be Russian. But Russia is actually very ethnically diverse.

According to Russiansabroad.com, there are more than 100 national minorities in Russia. Here's what they say:

Besides the Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians), who account for about 85 percent of Russia's population, three main ethnic groups and... more

The Littlest Matryoshka is by Corinne Demas Bliss and illustrated by Kathryn Brown. This book is sweet and a little sappy and can easily serve as a metaphor for our children's adoption experiences. It's probably most appropriate for little girls (because it's about sisters) but my little boys like it well enough. If you have matryoshka dolls around it helps the story.

The book is about a family of matryoshka dolls, lovingly created by Nikolai the doll maker in a little village in Russia. They are all sisters: Nina, Nadia, Vanda, Varka, Olga, and Anna. Nina is the... more

Book review week continues here at the Russian adoption blog. Wish me luck in my move. I'm posting this for Thursday when I'll be completely off-line and frantically covering my kitchen cabinet shelves with contact paper! Here are two books I heartily recommend for the smaller set of kids adopted from Russia. Russia ABCs, by Ann Berge, and Look What Came From Russia! Harvey.

Russia... more

Hey - Happy International Women's Day! This is a holiday we don't really celebrate here in the U.S., except as part of "National Women's History Month," but it's widely celebrated in Russia as a day to honor women, especially working women. One of the consequences of Communism was that a large number of women work outside the home. I've seen estimates that about 90% of Russian women have paid employment. On International Women's Day working women get presents, flowers, and sometimes the day off of work.

It's actually kind of ironic we don't celebrate this holiday in the U.S.... more

About 2 years ago I started my own publishing company, DRT Press, to publish my children's book about Russian adoption, When I Met You. Because of my experience starting a small press I have a soft spot in my heart for others who do the same. One such independent publishing company is Pumpkin House Press, publishers of A Little Story about a Big Turnip and Silly Horse, to name just two of their titles.

Pumpkin House specializes in Russian folktales... more

For Christmas I got my husband a bunch of DVDs. I got him season I and II (part I) of the new Battlestar Galactica (which is great, by the way), Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Batman Returns (are you seeing a pattern in his viewing?) and on a whim, I also got him Long Way Round, a reality mini series in cameras followed Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman as they rode motorcycles around the world.

The route they took went from London to Prague to Kazakhstan into Russia and out again, through Siberia and Mongolia and then on to Alaska and... more