The Blushin' Russian

Well... Here I am supposed to write down all the things that would make me sound interesting to others. What a daunting task, but it is one that should be done, I suppose.

Well, my actual name is Alexandra - "Blushin' Russian" is the name of a cocktail that a bar tending friend of mine created in my honor. I was born, and for the most part raised, in Podolsk, a suburb in the Moscow region of Russia. And although I have been living here in California for nearly 10 years, I have retained my unabashed transcontinental nationalism.

I love books (as can be proven by my LibraryThing account), and it is that love of them that brought me to major in English as an undergraduate. In fact, I can say that any if I know anything that appears interesting, I probably know it from the books and magazines I read.

Oh! Some of my favorite books are:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Master and Margarita by Bulgakov (Мастер и Маргарита - Михаил Булгаков), The Idiot by Dostoyevsky (Идиот - Федор Достоевский), and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

My favorite authors include: Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Oscar Wilde, Nick Hornby, Boris Akunin, Neil Gaiman, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Sand, Alexandre Dumas, and Chuck Palahniuk.

The Magazines I subscribe to include:
The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, TIME, and Караван Историй.


Whenever I have free time, I like to spend it listening to music, writing down story ideas, or watching movies, and daydreaming (particularly about traveling and seeing a bit of the world). I'd spend more time outside, but Grand Terrace isn't exactly an outdoors man's paradise.

I have a few running collections: postcard from all over the world, silhouette drawings and cutouts, and insults. Yes, insults. Though my most cutting remark is probably "Your face", I do enjoy reading witty put-downs. :)