Monday I headed off on my own for my second lesson. I had done all my homework and tried to memorize as many vocab words as possible. I was nervous about traveling by myself, but I felt very Russian with shopping bag in hand carrying my books. Cultural note--most people carry things in shopping bags here. I felt like I blended in a bit better with my nice bag that formerly carried my jeans (see previous post).
My language lesson went very well, which means that my brain was completely oatmeal by the time the lesson was over. One of our friends described learning Russian in the beginning as making baby sounds, and well, it's true. My teacher had me make sounds over and over and over again before I graduated to real words. She was very patient and encouraging. My favorite sounds were goola, goola, goola, goo. She told me to practice this with Isaiah. :) (yes I understood her instructions in Russian!)
On my way home, I stopped by a store and bought a few things and even talked to the lady checking me out, sort of.
At the metro a man asked me for directions, I think, and as I tried to tell him what I thought he wanted to know, he looked more and more befuddled, before I finally pulled out the old trusty "I'm sorry, I don't speak Russian well", which earned me a laugh and kind smile.
Wednesday I got to learn tons of verbs, which will keep me very busy until my next lesson on Monday. I'm thankful that God is tuning my ears, so to speak to this language. He has provided for our learning in so many ways, and I pray that I will honor Him in my learning.
For those of you interested in what the rest of our flat looks like, I have finally posted the rest of the pictures. I hope that you enjoy your "visit". We would love to have any of you come and really visit!
2 comments:
Hi Cristy!! I'm finally checking out your blog! I love all your pictures, and I'm going to read the archives of all your adventures. So exciting!
It's funny to see pictures of summer in St. Petersburg, since the one time I was there it was January. I do know that summer does exist there, but sometimes I forget. It looks so beautiful in your pictures!
By the way, when I was there, ALL directions were (something like)
"priama, priama, priama, prava" with gestures indicating "straight, straight, straight, then right." :D
I love you and I'm praying for you! You go, white American girl!
love,
Grace
Wow! I have to say you are very brave. Someone asked me if I had taken public transport in Zambia. No sir! I have to say I think it is LESS scary in Russia from what I remember. But I never went out on my own since I was a kid! :) Have fun with that language training. I can say thank you. That is all I remember. Hehe!
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