Hard to believe it, but I've been back in the USA for two years now. I've grown and changed and traveled and learned a lot in those two years--grad school will do that--and, in two weeks, I'll have finished my Master's of Public Administration. I still keep up with my Russian, listening to Russian music, watching Russian movies, meeting occasionally with my Russian tutor (a wonderful woman whom I met at a work event), and talking to friends in Russia. I'm happy to say that my Russian is still quite good--although my friends say my accent is stronger now.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from my time in Vladimir. I'm looking forward to the next trip!

 One of my first days with my host family was spent cleaning freshly gathered mushrooms--so Russian

 Suzdal

 Tea from a Samovar with my host family and friends

 My first class

 A lucky bus ticket

 Halloween

 Moscow Metro

 Winter in Vladimir

 One of many long road trips

 A friend's birthday party

 A quick trip to Ryazan

 Very Russian gifts from students

 Train to Kiev

 New Year's 

 Kiev 

 Visiting a friend in Murom

 Santa in Kiev

 Potemkin stairs in Odessa

 Jumping in a frozen lake--temperature was around 0 F

 Maslenitsa in Suzdal

 Burning winter in effigy 

 Looking teacherly 

 My Russian bike

 Fighting in Murom

 Irkutsk

 Omul and beer on the shores of Lake Baikal

 Sunset over Lake Baikal

 More cows than people in this weird town on an island in Lake Baikal

 Lake Baikal

 Rafting trip with the host family

 Camping somewhere in Vladimir Oblast

 Love Russian cars

 The Wellings come to Russia

 About to board the high-speed train to St. Petersburg

 At Peterhoff (Russia's Versailles) 

 Looking super Russian in front of the Gulf of Finland

 Family on the overnight train to Vladimir

 Summer in Vladdy

 At my desk

 Vladimir's Golden Gates

 My apartment

 Soviet kitch kitchen

 "Cleaning supplies"

 My pretty neighborhood

 The former home of the American Home

 Rome for Christmas 

 Feasting in the countryside

Getting my banya on