Russian is very difficult to learn..But English would be worse!

Russian is a very difficult language. Every day I am reminded of this as I sit in class. Today we learned the verb "to lay." As in "a book is laying on the desk." When asked to use this verb, a classmate attempted to say, "Madison, do you want to lie down?" ... If only Russian were that easy! I've learned very quickly not to deviate from our teacher's examples, because when you do- you're always wrong. Come to find out the verb we learned can only be used to express the location of where something is laying. It doesn't reflect the action of actually laying it down! That's a whole separate verb- The more questions I ask, the easier it is to become discouraged over the complexities of this language. Everything you want to say takes a different ending or a different case or a different tense...Not to mention every other noun, adjective, or verb is an exception to the rule. Some days I wonder why they make up rules to begin with?! In spite of all this, class was very good today and I am very thankful I am not a Russian speaker attempting to learn English- because that just might be even more difficult- who knows.

JB is meeting with his language helper, Dennis (pronounced like Denise) right now. Dennis is the husband of one of our teachers- Tonya (not to be confused with Tanya- which a completely different name is Russian- hence my complaints of the language's complexities for English speakers!). He is a young Christian guy who plays guitar and is part of his church's worship team. He loves green tea and staying up late. Dennis is often very late, by american standards, for appointments. Interesting point about Russian culture is that everyone is typically what we would call "late". Class starts at 9am- our teacher arrives in our classroom at 9:10. JB meets with Dennis at 2pm- Dennis arrives at 2:45. What an adjustment for an American! As a very punctual person this is very difficult for me to get used to. Fortunately my language helpers as well as our nanny are usually on time, and if they'll be late- they call, which, from what I can tell, is not a common practice for Russians. Part of the reason for the lateness is public transportation.

Public transportation. Yesterday we were riding the trolley bus home from school when we were stopped in an intersection because the bus had become disconnected from the cable. What caused the bus to become disconnected? The driver was attempting to go around a broken down truck that was sitting right in the middle of the intersection. The driver hopped out and attempted to get the bus back on the lines overhead. After 10 minutes the driver asked passengers to...Ready for this one...Get out and push the bus around the broken down truck!!! Too funny. By this time JB and I were already off the bus and walking home. We watched the "show" from a block away. Needless to say, our typical 10 minute bus ride very quickly turned into 45 minutes. It seems like something like this happens to us every time we step onto public transport...The doors won't close so everyone has to get off and catch a different bus...Or the tram/bus quits working, or becomes disconnected...I thing public transportation will continue to be involved in a story in our newsletters for many months to come. If you didn't receive our last newsletter- check out JB's latest trolleybus adventure at www.heyhecocks.com .

Gavin is sleeping, so I need to take advantage of this time and go study...Wonder what the Russian verb is "to go"...? Maybe I don't really want to find out...?

Iris and her language helper, Svyeta