Language Learning and Adjustment

We are doing all right learning Russian. It is a very complicated language, and thus it can be kind-of confusing. We do know how to buy food though, and that's pretty important!

On Tuesday Jason went out to a fruit and vegetable stand on the corner of our street to buy apples (yablikee) and carrots (markovkee). Not being as familiar with the Russian names of fruits and vegetables as Rachel, he asked for apples and potatoes (kartoshkee). After receiving potatoes instead of carrots, and having re-bagged the apples after they had fallen onto the sidewalk, he went home to reaffirm with Rachel how to say carrots in Russian. Then, because of his pride, he walked to a different veggie stand so his mistake wouldn't be as easily discerned by everyone involved.


As far as lifestyle adjustment goes, we're doing ok. Not having a bed (we sleep on our couch) has been a little rough, and we both really miss pizza. :o) We have made our own, which we did in the States all the time, but Russia (as far as we have found) has no spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, or pepperoni. The lack of those 3 things make a huge difference! (They do boast having an American pizza place here, but it had weird things like fish on it....) We are grateful, though, for the tomato paste to which we can add stuff and the various kinds of cheese and sausage Russia does have. These do make a fairly good pizza-ish thing.

Beside our bed and pizza, we also miss the freedom that came from having our own car. It doesn’t seem that most Russians have their own vehicles. Everybody walks and rides the trolly or marshrutka (like a taxi/van/bus). Most people live in apartment buildings and there are no garages, so beside the fact that cars (and gas) are expensive and most Russians don’t make very much per month, there really isn't anywhere to put the car. Anyway, the point of all that was to say that it usually takes a fairly long while to go anywhere and therefore most days we don't go much of anywhere. :o) It's okay though, because we can practice Russian anywhere there are people - such as the fruit and veggie stand on the corner….

We also know a nice zhenshchina (женщина = woman) who is a teacher in one of the schools here in Blagoveshchensk. She invited us to participate in an English class/club made up of 5th through 8th graders. On Saturday all four of us went to school, and we spoke in English throughout the whole class. We were very impressed with how well the students spoke English. The class session consisted of many personal introductions and some further questioning. They also thought it was fun to try and find Russian words that we would not be able to pronounce. We did pretty well until they found our secret weakness: Russia’s 20-something letter words! Our nice teacher friend said that she would like to have us back again. So we look forward to this involvement.

Jason was asked to be a part of a skit set to “Agnus Dei” for the Easter day service (which is one week after Easter in America). The skit followed some wonderful singing done by the worship team and some surprise demonstrations by the Chinese fellowship who share the building with the Baptist church. It all went very well. It was a joy to celebrate Resurrection Sunday with Russians, Chinese, Koreans, Ukrainians, Austrians . . . and a few Americans. God is so great and He surpasses all cultures and all time and space!