Russia

So I am going to Russia in June. Some of you may already know that, but oh well. I am going with the choir that I am in. We'll be singing at some churches, some cultural events, and perhaps elsewhere. I don't really know too much as I'm not on the planning committee.

In preparation for my trip, I have started tutoring. Two times a week a very nice Russian lady named Marianna comes to my house and tutors me. It is quite comical. Learning Russian has taught me to stretch my mouth in the strangest of ways, to put my tongue in the strangest of places, and to laugh hysterically at my horrible attempts at both. I've learned basic phrases, and probably know about 2/3 of the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet is the absolute coolest. I love the fact that it's so much like a code. When I was younger I used to love making codes. It was so much fun to give the "key" to only those who were special enough to have my trust. It was fantastic!

When I started dating Nate, I learned that his family had their own special "language", called Oppengloppish. Apparently they aren't the only people that know this language, but I certainly had never heard of it. Nate's parents used this language so that their kids couldn't understand what they were saying. As the kids grew up, they started understanding and communicating in Oppengloppish. Now I am trying to learn it. I'm pretty slow, but I can get by.

So Nate and I have the best of both worlds. We can speak in Oppengloppish and write with the Cyrillic alphabet. Our kids won't know what hit them.