Remembering Samantha Smith - Journey to Maine

[peacetraveler22]

Hello dear readers! I know many of you voted for me to travel to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but unfortunately finances are tight and airfare there too expensive. So, in a week, I'll return to my beloved Maine and go on another road journey to New England. During the trip, I plan on meeting with Samantha Smith's mother in Boothbay Harbor. What questions do you want me to ask her?

I've had no time for the blog recently due to a hectic work and life schedule. :(  However, next week I'll show you "good Russia," with stories about Kazan and Ples from the winter journey. In the meantime, please let me know what questions you have for Samantha's mom. I'm happy I can finally leave the office for a week, meet with her, and relax in the beautiful surroundings of cozy New England. Does the younger generation in Russia know about Samantha's legacy? How do they learn about her? Or, is she mostly known to those who grew up during the Soviet period? I think her mother will be interested in knowing these facts. :) Have a nice weekend!

Comments

[theodorexxx.livejournal.com]

Did you mean 50-60k in a year?

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Yes, per year. It is nothing, when you count in living costs and repayment of student loans.

[theodorexxx.livejournal.com]

A man who lives in NYC wrote me that if you earn less than 40k per year you can't survive there. If you earn 40k it will be enough to buy food and rent a shitty tiny apartment in Brooklyn.
BTW, is there a sinlge word for a shitty house or apartment? In Russia it's called халупа. You saw them in villages when visited Ярославль

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

In English, such apartments are often called "hell holes." But "shitty" is also a good word. :) Sure, you can survive on 40k, but it depends on many factors. Most people who have law degrees have to fork out around $1,000K per month to pay back student loans. This is a huge cost, on top of rent and ordinary bills. Some lucky lawyers had rich parents who paid for their graduate school, but this was not the case for me and many others. I regret the decision to go to law school. It was a bad financial choice, esp. since I went later in life (in my mid-30's).

[qi-tronic.livejournal.com]

You could learn some programming language instead, it would cost you not much.
I always say that higher education is not necessary to do programming as all these math that we learn in universities is not used in 99% cases of real-world commercial computer programming.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

I agree, higher education isn't always a wise decision or good financial investment. I've read that coding is the most high demand profession now, and salaries are high. But my mind doesn't really function in a mathematical or formulaic way, so I doubt I'd be good at it, or even trainable.