Introduction

I have been doing a lot of introductions recently, and it made me think that I should do one here on Medium too. Introductions always seemed easy (I am an extrovert, sometimes to the point of annoying the life out of my defenceless introverted friends), because there is always context. I am your friend’s daughter, roommate, or girl sitting next to you in Physics. More personal information will come out later (won’t have to wait long, I am an oversharer), but first, it is my relationship to you that matters. Now that I am applying to jobs, more and more copies of my email-formatted biography are being requested with no context or guideline as to what any of them want to hear.

So let me try this out:

I am 18 years old – which means I get called a child for having an opinion and ma’am in coffee shops

I am half Russian half Ukrainian by origin, and left Moscow to live in Andorra when I was 10 years old. That is where my alias comes from, birch trees being a recognisable feature of Russia’s natural landscape. Pretty much since then I have been told by anyone who cares to weigh in that I don’t look/sound/act Russian. We also smile sometimes!

Andorra is a Catalan microstate, nestled at the heart of the Pyrenees. Despite the growing modern economy, it preserves the aesthetic of a mountain village, with charming houses made of stone, and skiing as a…