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.
About the Author: Jill McDowell was born in Canada, spent 50 years in Southern California and--hoping to see rain once more before she dies--has settled in the Pacific Northwest. The weather has not disappointed.During her freshman year at the University of Washington she performed on stage at the Showboat Theater; toured with a Shakespearean production directed by Duncan Ross, a noteworthy figure with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School; and worked as an on-camera announcer at the local Seattle PBS channel. More recently, in her role as a grandmother presenting a plateful of cookies to megastar Drake--part of a skit the pair performed prior to a nationally telecast NBA Awards show--she, at the pinnacle of fame, chose to give up her barely-established career as a commercial actor. She likewise ended her partially successful attempt at becoming the oldest living voiceover actor in Southern California where she voiced a 45-year-old elephant--typecasting at its best.During her half century in the workforce, she toiled as a publicity director at a San Francisco TV station; a medical transcriptionist for physicians whose speech was often more difficult to decode than their handwriting; a government employee; and as a starving artist with Peaceable Beasts, her own art-rubber-stamp company. She spent two years (1995-1996) teaching English at Moscow State University as well as at the Japanese Embassy School in Moscow, thereby affording her a tri-cultural experience. Armed with a 100-year-old map and the exceptional navigational skills of a personable driver, she found her way to Norka, the tiny Russian village where her ancestors lived from 1763 to 1900. She taught English as a Second Language (ESL) for 35 years, and recently retired from Glendale Community College in Southern California, where she was an assistant adjunct ESL professor. In addition to the Czech Republic and Russia, she has also travelled to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Belarus; Finland, France, Germany, Italy and England; and to most of the provinces in Canada.When not writing, she enjoys classical music. Mozart--whose beautifully maintained piano she saw and admired in Prague--remains her favorite composer.