Здравствуйте России! (Hello Russia!)

Something Learned Sunday

At times, I obsessively checks my blog stats to see what post is being read the most at any given time, or how people are finding this blog. But most impressive to me are the countries from which I get pageviews. Being an American living in Germany, these two countries go back and forth for the top spot, which makes sense. Getting a few pings from the UK and Australia here and there also makes sense since I've got friends in both places. But the ones that totally throw me off - and in the best possible way - include places like Brazil, Peru, Ukraine, India, and China, places I've yet to visit. I'm curious what brings people from these places to my little blog, and who they are. (I also wonder if I have family members secretly using proxies to make it look like I'm getting hits from around the world to brighten my day.)

But the subject of today's Something Learned is that the most surprising high-frequency visitor to my corner of the web, the country that holds the #3 spot in my all-time audience pole, is Russia. Seriously, I'll give you the stats as they appear right now. Check this out...

Pageviews by Countries

   

Entry	Pageviews
United States	3798
Germany	3228
Russia	366
United Kingdom	214
Ukraine	64

This graphic reflects my all-time history since starting this blog. Granted there's a large difference between my top two and everything else, but I'm fascinated by Russia's number, especially given I know actual human people in the UK, and no one in Russia (that I'm aware of). I'm thankful that there are people I'll never know who find a reason and the time to stop by and read, and I hope I make it worth it for every single one.

So what have I learned? I've learned that regardless of how I feel from day to day about blogging, there are actual people who read, and they're not all related to me :) I've also learned that being mentioned in a blog gives me a little thrill, so maybe it'll do the same for someone else.

Thank you to all the people who swing by to read my words, whether or not we've ever met. And for today especially, thank you people from Russia for stopping by often enough to make me really wonder what's going on over there to bring you here. And if my translations are wrong, blame Google Translate.

Спасибо за чтение. (Thanks for reading.)

PS - Honestly, I'd love to hear from you, my lovely Russian readers. I'm curious what brought you here. Please feel free to leave a comment or send me a message. I've changed my comment settings to allow anyone to leave a note, so no worries if you don't have a Google account.