Здравствуйте!

Hello!

That's what that big long word up there says. In Russian. I decided to learn Russian. I really like foreign languages, even though I only speak English. I used to be fairly fluent in Spanish, but then I lost it. That's what happens when you never speak it. First you can't remember the words to speak. Before you know it, you can't even understand it anymore. It's like touching your toes. You can so easily reach them, you think you'll never not be able to. Well, guess what. You turn 30, your kid asks you if you can reach your toes and you say "of course" and start to bend over. You feel this weird burning sensation that you realize is muscles that haven't been used in forever being stretched. You push a little harder and feel the blood run toward your head. You grunt a little and open your eyes so you can see your fingers touch your toes except when you open your eyes and focus you realize you are touching YOUR KNEES!!!! What in the world happened?!

Anyhow... when the boys were here a funny thing happened. I think it's natural for most people to talk slower than usual or louder than usual when speaking to someone who doesn't speak their language, as if it may help the person understand them. (Great story: Huz's awesome 92 year old grandma was eating dinner with some Germans one time about 15 years ago and was trying to ask them if they would like some corn. She said, "The Indians call it maize." hahahahaha. That always makes me laugh.) For whatever weird reason I somehow managed to pull from the cobwebs of my dormant brain Spanish. I would first say it in English, as BoyOne actually understood more than I had expected. Then he would say, "BoyOne no speak English." Then, instead of speaking slower or louder, I would start speaking in Spanish. What?!? A language I had not spoken in twelve years?! I didn't even know that I knew those words any more. BoyOne would say "BoyOne no speak..." and kind of hold his hands out like "Lady, what language is that?" You want to know what's even weirder? When I try to speak Spanish intentionally, I can't remember anything?! When I talk to the boys on the phone though, it falls out of my mouth. So weird.

Back to the original intent of the post. I found this fabulous website, russianlessons.com, that teaches Russian for FREE folks!! It is written and parts of it are audio. Jackpot! I love it. I started to feel smart again. I rediscovered my brain:) Russian is fabulous because each letter makes only one sound, unlike the English language (i.e. c says both kuh and sss) so everything is phonetic! It's so easy to read! And they don't mince words either. We say, "Please pass the butter." They say "Butter please." They don't use words like she or the. I have learned their alphabet, their numbers and basic phrases and restaurant language. By the way, they don't have a song that they sing their alphabet to, so I borrowed "Itsy Bitsy Spider." It works great and made it sooo much easier for me to remember.

In a nutshell, I'm happy to know that I can still remember things besides how to put on a diaper (someone else's, not mine) and these lessons are giving me something to do when I don't feel like doing laundry.

I also want to thank everybody for your support through this adventure. Thank you also for all of your sweet comments and phone calls and texts. It's nice to know that there are people out there and that maybe we all have something in common. Maybe even more than we thought.

Good night and happiness to all!