"It's So Nice to Have a Wolf Around the House." It's Even Nicer to Have Natasha Around the House!

When I was little, my momitchka (yes, even moms have a diminutive name here) used to read me a book called, It's So Nice to Have a Wolf Around the House. In this children's picture book, the wolf, a former criminal, sought to redeem himself from his crooked past by assisting an old man around his house. One day, the old man discovered that his wolf was actually a former bank robber, but forgave him and allowed him to continue to be his trusty home companion anyway. Now, I'm not sure what exactly made me think of this once-forgotten literary gem of my past, but here are two possibilities:

1. I have my own trusty home companion these days, namely my roommate, Natasha!
2. Taxidermy seems to be the decoration of choice for many restaurants in Minsk. Sorry wolf...

Now more about possibility #1:

I have a great roommate. Some of you may recognize her from my post entitled "Scoot over Sarit Chadad..."

Here's a little something that Natasha wrote about herself:

"For a start, I would like to introduce myself to you. My name is Natallia (Natasha) Kirykovich. I was born in Pinsk, but now I live in Minsk - the capital of the Republic of Belarus. I am 23 years old and I finished university last year. My profession is translator. My first foreign language is German and my second is English. After university I moved to Germany for a one year in order to improve my language skills. My hobbies include music (play piano, singing), traveling and reading."

Natasha is helping me learn Russian and I'm helping her improve her English.
(Check out all those dual language post-its in our kitchen!)

Also, Natasha has this fantastic Alf doll that giggles when you squeeze his foot! I love Alf! When I saw it for the first time, I was overwhelmed by a sudden sense of kismet; indeed I had chosen the right roommate!


We are so excited about our new apartment and we've put a lot of effort into making it home.

Thanks to Mr. Proper, our place is squeaky clean!










Natasha and I love to cook. She makes a mean latke and I got her to try some specialty items I brought from home, like Chilula hot sauce, and Skippy peanut butter! But not together, of course!

(Natasha and Olga eating latkes, or "draniki" in our kitchen)

I'm sure that for the aforementioned old man character, having a wolf around the house was quite lovely. For me, having Natasha around the house is even better!

*Important note: The Natasha/wolf analogy was just a figment of my silly post-midnight musings... While the wolf was an ex-con, Natasha has the pristine past of the nicest of nice Jewish girls!

(Our apartment. Here they're called the kukurooza, or corn buildings.)