"I'm kind of excited about classes. Just nervous, too. Even if I'd gotten a full education back home, it would have been painfully outdated now," he noted, hoping what he knew was at least right albeit basic. He winced at being called a 'muscle-brain', his shoulders slumping a little at the implication he read into it: dumb Chukchi. But he made a valiant effort at keeping his face neutral.

...that's your mother?! She's beautiful but even I know you can't breathe in space, so how does that even work? He's in awe. And he recalls his own mother, coming home once with her coat covered in blood and torn, cheerfully reassuring her stunned husband 'it's not mine; we got a bear today!' and smiling with childlike pride despite the state of disarray she was in.

They had very different childhoods, it was safe to say.