{"id":9,"date":"2019-03-16T07:12:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T07:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mashaholl.russiannotes.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-07-02T16:59:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:59:53","slug":"about-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/about-2\/","title":{"rendered":"About Masha"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Welcome to my home in cyberspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born in France in the Russian \u00e9migr\u00e9 community. I grew up transitioning from one cultural environment to another daily \u2013 from a close-knit, insular, family-based group that shared the same language, religion, and goals, to the outside world of a completely different language, religion, and a multiplicity of goals. I was as familiar with morning coffee and fresh croissants as I was with bliny and borshch, with the Cyrillic alphabet as with the Latin, with the rhythm of holidays of a predominantly Catholic host country, as with the demands of the feasts and rituals of the Eastern Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But clearly, the motley diversity of Paris, as big and energetic a city as it is, just wasn’t right for me. I grabbed the first opportunity that presented itself to cross the ocean \u2013 in the guise of a summer internship in a language school. There is a pattern here \u2013 language and culture, traditions and histories, are where I find inspiration. The planned three months in the US turned into a lifetime in America, two daughters, a Master’s degree in Russian literature and folklore, and life in South Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In keeping with my multicultural life, I write and teach about culture and far-away places, about languages and communication, about understanding and misunderstanding. My favorite focus is folklore, but I will happily put together a lesson plan \u2013 or a full syllabus \u2013 for the study of the Russian language, literature, or cinema. Just ask my students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to my home in cyberspace. I was born in France in the Russian \u00e9migr\u00e9 community. I grew up transitioning from one cultural environment to another daily \u2013 from a close-knit, insular, family-based group that shared the same language, religion, and goals, to the outside world of a completely different language, religion, and a multiplicity… Read More »About Masha<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1006,"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ottercreations.org\/MH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}