My babushka (grandmother in Russian) is 80 years old today!

She is the original traveler in the family. In 1935, my grandma was born in the same hospital that I would be born in, 54 years later. It was an old fashioned hospital in Krasnodar, Russia. Since the time of her birth, she has moved around many different countries (including Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine and now the USA). Living under Communist Russia, she was really limited in where she could go, but every time her work offered a trip for the weekend, she would take it.

I think I get my adventurous spirit from her. While my mother was a single mom, working crazy hours to support my brother and I, my grandmother watched us and force fed us borsch. She was the one who taught me how to ride a bike and how to read my first books in English (hardly knowing any English herself!). Babushka took me and my brother on our first trip back to our home country of Ukraine, and she is the one who started that desire in me to travel and see the world!

C днем рождения!!