Manic Bookstore Cafe

My calendar tells me that today is the annual reception at my university to honor the Fulbright scholar exchange program and its grantees. Cancelled, of course. But I woke up thinking about the Fulbright exchange program --what it has given me and my family, the opportunities it has created for students and scholars all over the world. It was April 2012 when I learned I was under consideration for the Distinguished Slavic Scholar position at the University of Warsaw, and we spent spring semester 2013 in Poland. Since then I've been back to Poland several times in spring, and I meet up with former students who are doing amazing things, stop by the Polish Fulbright Commission office to see what's new, share a meal with a friend from the American Studies Center. She has had formative intellectual and cultural experiences while in the U.S. on a Fulbright grant, and she regularly interacts with visitors from the U.S. to Poland. We were grateful to the American Studies Center...

It's that time of year. The semester is almost over, and everyone is desperate for spring (today is 75 degrees and windy, more snow expected on Monday). Our forsythia has given up trying to bloom. Жаворонки But as I was preparing for a talk I gave this week in Missoula, Montana, I was reminded of my lark buns. These traditional Russian buns can be made with milk and butter or according to the "lenten" recipe, with oil and water. Depending, of course, on whether spring is due before or after Orthodox Easter or, if you're just a regular American, on whether you are vegan. It seemed appropriate to end my Missoula talk on Russian cookbooks and cuisine with this slide -- especially as I had been invited to campus by my PhD student (who coincidentally is actually  vegan). It was such fun to stay with her family, to dine with my old grad school chums who happen to work at the University of Montana with her, and to meet many of her students and colleagues. My for...