Lost in Mother Russia: A Memoir

Lose yourself in Mother Russia as this directionally-challenged memoirist narrates episodes from her two-year stay in the land of her ancestors. Schastliviye puteschestviya! Happy travels!From Brits to bugs to bureaucracy, you’ll accompany author Jill McDowell as she visits the 1000-year-old village of Suzdal on Christmas morning when the weather is a nippy 39 degrees below zero. You’ll follow along as she traces her family history in Norka, a Volga-German settlement established during the reign of Catherine the Great, and join in as she and her Japanese Embassy colleagues lose their way on the dusty backroads 350 kilometers from Moscow. Experience the miles of red tape at the Russian Embassy in Estonia, and meet a cast of unlikely characters aboard the Polonaise as McDowell journeys by train from Warsaw to Moscow and-with a stroke of good luck-back again.This entertaining travel memoir will take you on a humorous journey through Eastern Europe as the author researches her ancestry, teaches ESL to Russian and Japanese speakers, and gets lost in the vast and snowy expanse of Russia.