I came to USA in 1995 with a student’s visa. Before that I had taught English to the speakers of Russian and Latvian for 5 years.
It was a short 45-day visa. I met an American and we got married in Las Vegas after three weeks after my coming to USA. All the thoughts and worries I started sharing with my diary notebook. I was adjusting in the new country, and I was describing my adventures in search for work, in my new marriage, in my studies, and leisure. Humorous attitude even to difficulties prevails in the book. It is an easy reading and I share the new words and expressions that I, an English teacher, learned in California. My first entry was published in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1996 in the magazine “Nataly” by the editor-in-chief Mark Monusov. Every time he published my story he would send me a copy of a beautiful colorful magazine with my story in it. I finished writing the book after I came back to USA from my first trip back to Russia in 9 years, in 2004. My first marriage was slowly coming to an end. In my last chapter of the book I shared the impressions about Moscow, and Paris, where I visited my French pen pal (we had been pen-pals for 9 years, and now still exchange news on and off).
The book with Russian covers – the 2-nd edition with Russian covers – was published recently by Ridero. https://ridero.ru/books/devushka_iz_shtata_kaliforniya/
