gO-O-O

gO is now Gavin's favorite word and activity! The past few evenings he'll stand and wait for us to say "go" and he'll repeat "go" as he makes a lap through the house- this happened at least 20 times! Our son loves running- and he clearly didn't get that from JB or I! I would rather do a million pushups than run a mile! He's also been watching a seasame street movie- Happy Healthy Monsters often... it's all about exercising and eating healthy- though grover spends most of his time jumping? So, if Gavin isn't running through the house- he's jumping!

School. I have to admit- the other day I felt like I'd overcome a huge hurdle- we finally learned how to tell time! I know you're all reading this and laughing... "why wait so long to teach someone to tell time?!". We have know forever how to say it's 10:30 but saying it's half past ten or ten minutes till 7 or 5 minutes past 8 is a whole other ballgame! Truth be told, isn't not that difficult, but it always sounded so complex to me that I figured I would never be able to do it correctly! But, it was part of our lesson last week and I now know how to do it! He's just a little taste of why I thought it was so complicated. If you want to say that it is 7:15- you would say (literally) that is is 15 minutes of the 8th hour. Or if you want to say it is 7:45 you would say right now it is without 15 minutes 8.

Another interesting school note- It was interesting for me to find out that the word for "competitive" does not exist in everyday russian language. Mostly b/c competitiveness is not viewed as a good thing. You would never strive to be 'better' than the next student. It's better to be equal than better. As you can guess this all stems out of communism, but it's interesting for me to see how it plays out- especially in a school atmosphere. A student would never raise his hand high like an american student- that would show that you know better than someone else or that your answer is more worth the teacher's hearing- instead you would rest your elbow on your desk and raise your hand. I've always seen students here do this, but it never donned on my to ask why not raise your hand high like we're used to seeing. Also, cheating is very common and almost expected. I was told by one of my russian friends that it is almost your obligation to "help" your classmates do well on an exam by allowing them to cheat. She told me of her high school algebra class and how the whole class always copied the work of 2 students- b/c they were the only ones who recieved good grades. She's a believer and I asked her how the church views cheating. She said that of course it's not "good" but that you are also doing a good thing by helping your classmates. When asked if teachers "allow" cheating to go on- she said that they often disregard it- especially when the student who is cheating is a bad student- but they also often say nothing even when they see it going on- it is that accepted and even expected. Just something to think about. It really made me realize what a very competitive culture we live in and how individualistic we are compared to russian culture.

Lastly, keep me in your prayers tomorrow- I'm flying to Moscow for a dr's appointment at 7:15 am Thursday (11:15pm Wednesday for those of you on the east coast). JB will be staying here with Gavin- My flight home is Friday afternoon.