Some of the oddities of immersion.

So, I just got back from an hour and twenty minute drive with Anya. She had previously been having a hard day and it suddenly all passed and she was happy and asking for a ride in the car. We headed to nowhere in particular and she asked for the music to be put on, Jingle Bell Rock specifically. I gathered that the commands she yelled at me in the beginning were “sing” and “stop singing” since she and Dave were taking turns singing in the car the day before. 

I just listened to her singing that song for 80 minutes straight, and since the song is 2:12 minutes, I figure that’s about 40 times. She sang it EVERY time and I am so thrilled she is learning such useful phrases like “What  a bright time, it’s the right time, to rock the night away,” and “Jingle around the clock” as I am sure they will serve her well in the future. We got home and the song was over so I said, “Bye bye, Jingle Bell Rock” and she pouted. I really don’t know how much longer she would have sung. Her other favorite is Let It Snow. If you listen carefully there is a good pattern of words ending in the long “o” sound followed by “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,” so she gets it right every time. I told her in Russian that it meant “please snow” and she thought that was really funny and will often sing her rendition which is “Let it snow, let it snow, Papa (or whomever) let it snow.”

People think I am so fluent in Russian when they hear me talk with her, but all I am really doing is stringing together English with a few Russian nouns, adjectives and poorly conjugated verbs. The other day we were in a throng of people, and not liking to hold my hand in public, I spoke to her in Russian and grabbed her hand. A friend commented about how great my Russian is when all I literally said was, “many man, woman” and grabbed her hand. Obviously the idea gets across, but trust me, my Russian ain’t as great as it sounds. It’s all a ruse.

Anya is losing a bit of her Russian which must happen for awhile in order for her to learn English and apparently I am losing some of my English as well. Matt pointed out to me the other day that I said “forgetski” to him, which is neither English nor Russian. One of my favorite things to hear Anya say in her deep throaty voice (when Dave comes home from work) is, “Oh!! HUH-lo Papa!!”

She is insane and intense when it comes to sports. We visited Dave again and played on the racquetball court and she was all in. And how did she manage to hit me with the ball three times on the second bounces? Maybe it’s because I don’t move and I just close my eyes? One of them came almost from the ceiling and landed right on the top of my shoulder next to my ear!! She loved it of course, but also apologized over and over. 

Note the faces in the pictures below...

She loves doing headstands, without her hands!

Anya has a couple of friends her age already and it proves to be great bargaining power when she isn’t in the mood to obey. She loves the neighbor family around the corner and they love her, so we try to see each other every day.

Poor Anya thought we were moving when we told her we were going to visit relatives in the mountains for Christmas. She was worried about leaving Chico and her new friends. She told our translator she didn’t want to go, but we got it all straightened out, her fears subsided and after asking to see pictures of their house, she is excited now.

The friends around the corner have Anya for a half and hour so I can get this typed up and posted (I poop out at bedtime) so I’d better go rescue them!

~Monica