Where is Mara now?

Moscow, Russia - The title of my travel blog used to be "Where is Mara now?" The idea was that the blog would answer the question that is burning inside all my faithful readers. (I have recently changed it to the more straightforward "Travel Blog" just in case it's not burning so much.)

Anyway this past week I was hard pressed to answer that question myself! Up until yesterday, I was home in the pink house. But I was being torn in all directions - answering editorial queries about my manuscript on Belize, showing photos and telling stories about my hiatus in Italy, and trying to prepare myself for my upcoming month in Russia. All that without leaving my house (in America). Four countries on four different continents left my head spinning.

Nonetheless, I managed to get on an airplane yesterday and this morning I woke up in Russia.  Belize and Italy are far behind me - as is America for that matter.

Not quite, though. In Moscow, I am sharing an apartment with an Italian woman and I already had to field one phone call from her monolingual mamma. The sun is shining and temperatures are up - not quite Belizean weather, but certainly warmer than when I left Boston. And the days are so long! I'm writing at 11:30pm and the sky is only now losing its last shades of light.

Just to ease my transition into Russian life, I had dinner at that all-American institution, the Starlite Diner. For those of you who have not been to Moscow, the Starlite is a long-standing icon for expats in Moscow, easing the transition for many people like me over the last decade-plus.

On my way there, I noticed that Bobby McFerrin (of Don't Worry, Be Happy fame) will be here next week. Did anyone else think that he committed suicide? I guess that was a nasty rumor - an urban myth - the work of somebody who was trying to be ironic, no doubt. Get to the bottom of it here.

In any case, you better believe that I'll be at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall next week, grooving with Bobby, not worrying and being happy.