Saturday,
September 24, 2005
I
wrote an e-mail to my friend Pasha, who is Russian:
Hi Pasha -
How are you? How is your job going? Is it getting cold there yet? [He is working on a Korean oil project near Sakhalin Island]
We have have unusually warm weather lately - we still run the air conditioner all the time. It's only cold in the movie theater...
Alesia's English is coming along well, although I can't seem to break her of saying certain things like "will don't" as in "We will don't have ice cream now?" She also tends to get pronouns mixed up, referring to inanimate objects as "he" and men and women both as "she" sometimes. I can't seem to get her used to the idea that all nouns are just "it" and have no gender.
We have had bizarre weather here, with Hurricane Katrina and just today Hurricane Rita. I have friends and distant relatives who were affected by both hurricanes. One relative, my cousin Terri, fled Houston with her family, the dog, turtle, etc. but they were able to go back home today and their house was fine. There was a panic yesterday and our governor asked all the school systems to close Monday and Tuesday so to conserve gasoline, since he was sure Hurrican Rita would damage the gas pipelines. I don't think that happened, but Alesia is happy to be out of school for a couple of days.
We are leaving this Friday for Myrtle Beach, which is on the Atlantic ocean. We have rented a place for a few days. I am excited about Alesia seeing the ocean for the first time. I love sitting on a beach, reading and relaxing. Alesia doesn't like long car trips, but I intend to use the time in studying, so she doesn't get behind in her classes. Myrtle Beach is about a 5-6 hour drive from Atlanta.
We are watching "Dr. Zhivago," an old movie, but a favorite of mine. I told her it was a movie about Russia, and she was very disappointed that the characters don't speak in Russian. They have Russian names, but of course English accents, and you hear almost no Russian, unfortunately. It's a good story set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, and I am trying to teach her some Russian history. She is woefully ignorant about it.
I am taking Alesia to her first baseball game tomorrow. I explained to her that my grandfather was a baseball player, and my family loves baseball. I think she will enjoy the game. She has watched it on TV with us. It's much more exciting being in the stadium, however.
I took Alesia and her little friend Elena to see a movie this afternoon, and they were sitting in the backseat giggling and speaking Russian. Alesia forgets that I do know SOME Russian, enough to get an idea of what they were saying. I noticed the word "malchick" [boy] being mentioned a lot. Elena is originally from the Ukraine, but speaks Russian well.
I hope you are doing well, my friend, and getting some sleep whenever possible. Be safe. Stay warm.
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Alesia was a pill most of the day. She didn’t feel good – is having her period – however, Mother wasn’t in a great mood either. We cleaned out about a third of the garage today, and hauled a lot of stuff to Goodwill, but there’s plenty more to go. It’s just exhausting work.
We went out to lunch at Hickory House, then by Kroger to pick up Mother’s prescriptions. Alesia was sighing every time Mother asked her to do anything, acting like it was so difficult and she was very put upon. Finally, Mother just blew up and screamed at her in the car. Alesia deserved it.
Alesia and I had a talk when we got home. I told her I wanted to see an improvement in her attitude. I hope it has some effect – so far I’ve only noticed one tiny change, she said “Yes m’am” without prompting. Oh well, it was a little progress.
Tomorrow is a busy day and I am really tired...
