February 7th, 2012 -- the date when I made the first related entry on my old Russian blog. But it started earlier than that. I think maybe October 2011? September maybe? It was warm. I just had Indian food for the first time in my life (I hated it). I still have the deck of cards we got from the grocery store (do I?)
People were snooping on my computer. The first and last time anyone has ever been to my apartment. People were snooping on my computer, and looking through my music folder (how on earth did I ever allow that). It had subdirectories, “soundtrack”, “russian”, and “foreign”. “Foreign? Is that what I am to you?”. And I realized, that moment, that everyone in that room, everyone in this new country, but also everyone in the old country, all my friends, everyone in my family, everyone I’ve ever known and everyone I’ve ever met, are foreign - with the one exception of person asking it. The first and last time in my life I’ve felt not alone.