Notes on Russian notes

I miss Russian paper. I remember the days when we communicated with Russian pen-pals whom we had met at camp. Receiving a letter in the mail was doubly special because it was so interestingly wrapped.

First, the airmail envelope was nice and light. The address, if we could decipher it, seemed to be written backwards! Region, then city, then street, then house#, etc. The paper inside was equally light, and contained flowery Russian script on a grid like the kind you see in Math class. If the paper didn't have lines, then lines had been formed carefully with a ruler, and then erased.

At first, I found the Russian graph paper hard to write on. All the extra lines got in my way. When I went to Russia, I even took my own college-ruled paper with me. I once bought little notebooks for my English students, with fun designs on them. I didn't pay attention to what kind of paper was inside, and the kids complained that they didn't know how to write without the little squares.

But eventually, I got used to writing in the grid, and that is the kind of paper I prefer now. I was glad when I got home and my brother had left some graph paper that I could use.



Of course, most work is done on the computer nowadays. But still, for taking notes, I prefer the Russian way.