Random Facts About Me

As Kayleigh Fraser's challenge is getting traction, I decided to respond to it as it looked like people have fun with both writing them up and reading them. For more on the challenge, click the story below.

So, here are 10 random facts about me:

1. I love to travel. I have lived half of my life in the former Soviet Union and traveled around it for youth volleyball competitions and school cultural exchanges. My first travel to another USSR republic was a trip to Kyiv (Ukraine) when I was 12, my first air flight ever was to Moscow when I was 16. At 24, I got a full scholarship to study in a Master's program in political science in Europe, at 25 - in the USA for journalism and public relations. As an academic, I had opportunities to travel for conferences and research projects, and I also travel for leisure with my son. So far, I have visited 26 countries of the world and 67 cities, many of them multiple times. I published travel notes here on my trips to Peru, Brazil and back home to Kyrgyzstan this summer.

2. (related) When I was growing up, I dreamed of becoming an internationally-renowned archeologist. It would have been a nice way for me combine my passion for history and exploration of the world, and nearly the only way to travel outside of the Soviet Union. When I was 15, I "substituted" my high school history teacher who got suddenly sick for about two weeks. That's how I learned I'd love teaching.

3. I'm a life-long learner. I love learning about new things, events and people, and expanding my students' horizons. The passion for learning is what keeps me in higher education since 1997, both as a student (I've earned my PhD in 2008, so I am certifiably smart) and a teacher. And staying in it.

4. Russian is my native language, but because I use English so much I am equally fluent in both. If people ask me which language I "think in" I have learned to say "none" and explain that we really think in no language (read my essay here "On Thinking and Communicating" if you want to understand my logic). Yet, I will never get rid of my Russian accent in speech because I learned English as an adult. I also speak very basic French and Spanish and am actively building my Ukrainian now.

5. I learned to knit when I was nine and it became my life hobby. I like knitting for other people. When I die, I want them to post pictures of themselves wearing the stuff I knitted for them over the years, on my Facebook page. That would be some visually illustrated legacy. I love discovering natural yarns and always buy yarn in places I visit all over the world. There's a couple of pieces on knitting I published here.

6. Picking berries and fruit is another one of my favorite activities. My grandmother had a small farm with strawberries and raspberries, and she trusted me to pick more than I'd eat (big mistake, grandma!) I am a regular customer at several u-pick fruit farms in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. I make jams from the berries I pick and give them out to friends and people I like in the winter. My absolute favorite berry is raspberry, second - elderberry (don't love de-stemming it, though).

7. I have no fear of heights. I used to climb mountains when I was young, and liked standing on the edge of a cliff or top of the mountain and think what would happen if I jump. My son nearly freaked out when I got too close to the edge of the Inis Island's cliff in Ireland. I also have no fear of insects, spiders, and snakes, except for the ones I know for a fact are poisonous.

8. I love seeing movies in movie theaters. Not necessarily immediately when they come out, but definitely before they go to streaming platforms. This is something I shared with my son to such an extent that he decided to become a filmmaker. He collects stubs of all movies he ever saw, and one of the full albums is the movies we watched together. He started a new one for himself and his friends when he moved away from me for college. Movie-going is unforgettable shared experience and I love talking about it and sharing my reviews of movies and TV shows here. "Don't Look Up!" review is my third most read story on Vocal.

9. I cannot swim. Even though I love being in and on the water (went rafting, kayaking, boating and all other water-based fun activities, always wearing a life vest). I will drown if I don't feel the bottom of the body of water under my feet, mostly from panic. This inability bothered me all my life and I made sure my son learned how to swim when he was 3. He is a great swimmer now who can swim in any style. I love watching him swim, it's my vicarious pleasure and motherly duty fulfilled.

10. I write under a pen-name here because one of the things I publish on Vocal is my long-running series of satirical conversations between Trump and Putin ("Calling Moscow" and "Moscow's Calling") that I made into a book and that earned me some death threats earlier in the days. I am extremely politically active and do not hold out on expressing my views if people are genuinely interested and are not asking for a verbal fight.

It took me about an hour to write this up (I write quickly, but I edit my stuff heavily, too) and I hope you learned something that will give you a better idea of who I am. I hope you answer this challenge as well.