The Russian Lessons Continue

The pace of my baby/pigeon Russian lessons has slowed because we've pretty much got the basics covered (i.e. bottle, milk, sleep, awake, feed, what time, finish, how many...). However, here and there I still get a few new words in.

I find that my brain still does not retain much and I still feel so frustrated at not being able to have detailed conversations with the nanny. Or with anyone for that matter. Once again, reminded of how lucky I am that the nanny is SO patient with me, because we really do end up "saying" quite a bit to each other each week.

January 11

• turtle -- черепаха ("cheddy-PA-ha"); I love this one. :)

a picture is worth a thousand words

• dancing -- танцы ("tahn-tzay"); to explain what I do at my weekly Zumba classes

February 28

• bib -- фартук ("FAR-took"); this apparently really means "apron," but R always calls the bib a fartook so...fartook it is! This is another one of my favorites. :)

fartook :)

March 6 - this turned out to be the day of body parts!

• ear/ears -- ухо / ушки ("OOSHay"/ "OOSHkey")

• nose -- нос ("nauss"); wow, how easy-peasy!

• cheek/cheeks -- щека / щеки ("SHAYka" / "shaykey")

March 19

• slippery -- скользкий ("skolskey"); it snowed (late MARCH!) so the sidewalks were slippery. And we tried to talk about it.

• to cry -- плакать ("plakat")

• he cried -- он плакал ("ohn plakal")

Can't believe it took this long for us to need the word for "cry."

March 27

• take a walk -- погулять ("pagoo-LAI-yet"); for my Siena.

• feel happy -- хорошее настроение ("haROshay nastraiYEN-eh"); when I put this into Google Translate it came back with "good mood" so that was interesting.

• holiday -- праздник ("prads-zNEEK") or выходной день ("veeHAUD-noy deeyen" which is actually "day off").

• class/lesson -- урок ("oo-ROCK") or занятие ("zan-YAT-yee-eh")

March 28

• refrigerator -- холодильник ("hollow-DEE-nick")

• Monday -- понедельник ("pahn-ee-DEL-nick") strangely and confusingly similar to the word for fridge when a Russian-speaker says it.

• week -- неделя ("neh-DEL-yah")

Shopping at Metro round 2

Another successful trip to Metro under my belt. Still can't get over how huge that store is! But it's fantastic because they have such a range of products.

Some new (funny) take aways:

1) when I told R the nanny where I was going she thought I was talking about the subway (as in the public transit system which is also called "Metro"). I even said "May-trah." She only realized what I really meant when I got back and she saw my shopping bags. She said, "ahhhhh, Mee-yeh-trah," so I guess my pronunciation was juuuuust a bit off. This is so typical.  I try all the time to say things 'pa ruskie' and they never understand me. I know my accent is awful, but it is so frustrating!

2) been looking for hot chocolate -- I mean, it was 9 degrees farenheit outside the other day, so kinda perfect for hot chocolate. Found these pretty packages in the instant coffee section and thought they might be hot chocolate. They were next to some canisters of powdered chocolate Nesquik, so why not?

Got home and looked up the words on the packaging....which means cocoa powder....darn. Should have looked it up while I was at the store but I didn't want to waste time. :( So now I'm stocked for life with 3 boxes of this fancy cocoa powder!

3) Found SKIM milk in my favorite brand for the first time ever! This was the only carton to be found, which makes me nervous but....still exciting!

4) bought this big bag of Brussels sprouts and the first bag I picked up had a hole in it so I dumped Brussels sprouts all over the floor. Ugh, so embarrassing in any country!

5) got some more mysterious chocolate covered cookies. This time I know they're gingerbread. But the question is, with what are they filled?? :-)

6) Finally, who knew the word for "bandaid" was SO LONG in Russian!?