yes, i can do cursive, and scanning is fine.
also, if you want to type in cyrillic, go to
Translit.ru - òðàíñëèòåðàöèÿ - ëó÷øèé ïåðåâîä÷èê ñ òðàíñëèòà - it's much easier than trying to actually type it. for example:
i type: moya babushka zhivyot v duxovke.
it turns into: моя бабушка живёт в духовке.
i have several russian books but i think i'm going to go to my grammar book instead of trying to work through a textbook. which text do you use? we used начало and i always thought it was a bit odd. we never learned colors but we learned how to talk about a housewarming party.
edit: also, i thought you'd lol at this. my first semester, i got an A+. the second semester i slipped to an A- and my russian teacher got very concerned and told me (in these exact words) that i was "like ice thaw before my eye". i miss him.