So far, so good

So I started Anna Karenina over the weekend, and so far, it's going well. I have wanted to read this book for years but was completely intimidated by it. It's long. Like 754 pages. I'm going to get a nice little arm workout by carrying this around with me!

The good news is that the language is very accessible. Some of the older books are tough for me to read since I stubble over the language at times - so far, that has not been the case with this book. There's lots of adultery going on - very scandalous - especially for the time it was published (1875-1878, it was published in installments).

One interesting thing I've learned about Russian names - they use both their Christian first name and another name that is called the "patronymic" - they take your father's name & add "yevitch" for boys and "yevna" for girls. So if I was Russian, my name would be Lisa Paulyevna. Kind of cool. A little more interesting than Anne. But given the length of my last name - yikes - that would have been a mouthful.

By the way, years ago, I took this grad school class about International Education. I had to give a big presentation about education in Russia. After the presentation, one of my classmates asked me if I was from Russia... Very bizarre since I obviously don't have a Russian accent. Nor do I think I look "Russian".

I do hope to someday visit Russia, though. My good friend at work is from Russia and said she'll be my tour guide/interpreter if I ever go over there with her. Perhaps that will be my next overseas adventure!