Inky Marina!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I haven't updated in months.  I haven't really been busy, but I haven't been blogging.  Since I don't have a lot of new photos to share, I thought I'd update with another post about my friends! This is Zoya Yumiko Yamamoto.



Zoya Yumiko has lived in NYC for her entire life, though she often spends summers in St. Petersburg, Russia, with her mother's family, or in Japan with her father's family. She is thrilled that a few months ago, her Japanese cousin, Hanabi, has moved to New York with her family. Zoya Yumiko attends a local public school in her neighborhood, which focuses on arts and culture.



I love being friends with Zoya Yumiko because we both have different cultures in our families. Even though we both have connections to Russia- Zoya's mom's family is European Russian and my biological family is from Khabarovsk; I am Asian Russian!  Zoya knows a lot about Russian and Japanese culture because of her heritage.  In this photo, we're celebrating Hina Matsuri, the Japanese holiday of Girls Day!



Zoya is a fantastic friend. We met because we live in the same apartment building. She goes to school down the street and I'm homeschooled. We still get to hang out together a lot since we live so close to each other. She goes to a special youth group for Slavic kids with me; usually we ride the train together!

Zoya has a really cute dog.  I'll have to ask her if I can take a photo of them together to add to the post later on! He is small and brown and white.

Do you have any friends with whom you share your heritage?