Russian/Cyrilic handwriting.

How different is Russian handwriting from typed letters? When writing in russian, is it normal for the letters to look how they do when they are typed (sort of like, what if my english writing looked like Times New Roman--it's readable, but kind of weird to do), or is there a particular type of handwriting that i should learn?

Here anon, I found this on wiki:

"The Russian Cursive Cyrillic alphabet is used (instead of the block letters) when handwriting the modern Russian Language. Some letters look much like Latin/Roman cursive alphabet letters but most have different sounds. Most handwritten Russian, especially personal letters and schoolwork uses the cursive Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet. Most children in Russian schools are taught by 1st grade how to write using this Russian script."

---Led To--->

"Russian cursive is the handwritten form of the modern Russian language, used instead of the block letters seen in printed material. Some letters look much like Latin/Roman cursive letters, but most have different sounds. In addition, Russian italics for the lowercase letters are often based on Russian cursive (such as lowercase Т, which looks like Latin m). Most handwritten Russian, especially personal letters and schoolwork, uses the cursive alphabet due to the fact that it is much faster to write than block letters if learned correctly. In Russian schools, most children are taught by first grade how to write using this script."

And here is a page with sample letters:

http://www.masterrussian.com/blalphabet.shtml