It Gets Dark So Early Now

Today was a long day. A good day, mostly - except for when Bogdan bit Alys on the leg under the table during the cookie and tea time after church and had to be made to apologize through a lot of screaming and laughing on his part and stern words on his papa's part. Bogdan is only 3, but kind of, maybe a bit, well, let's be frank, out of control and undisciplined (but Mel always asks me why I want to be Frank when I am me instead of Frank, so let's not be frank ...).

Yes, today was a long day. A good day, really. We went out to Tsurupinsk for church. Sergei N. preached on the Reformation. Alys asked me if I'd translate for her as she is just beginning Russian lessons. I said I'd at least let her know the main points and then, voila! 99.9% of my Russian left me. I found myself sitting there during the sermon watching the little cockroach on the windowsill as he explored the crack between the sill and the wallboard, and then as he scurried over to the little dictionary I had set there beside my purse, and then as he climbed up it's side, explored this new bright yellow and black plateau that had suddenly appeared in his neighborhood, and then a bit later headed off into the sunshine over by the potted plant - instead of listening to the sermon. He was a very cute little cockroach, about 1/4 inch long. When I blew a breath of Wrigley's gum minty-fresh breath toward him, his little antena just went wild for a couple seconds in excitement at that new experience in his little life. So a couple minutes later, I blew him some minty-freshness again - to his delight. He was on a minty-fresh high. I, on the other hand, was on an 'I don't understand Russian AT ALL' low. Fortunately, that didn't last long.

When Mel stood up and began the communion service I suddenly began to understand everything Sergei said. Mel spoke English, Sergei translated. I began wondering to myself - what is going on here? As I sat listening and watching Cockroach earlier, I kept thinking to myself, 'Sergei doesn't even sound like he's speaking in Russian, but it's not Ukrainian, what is wrong with my ears?' I still don't know, but I have a guess. It had to do with both the subject matter and with the quality of language he was using.

The subject matter was the Reformation (oh, I understood Reemsky Papa very well - Roman Catholic Pope, and Marteen Luter, and Veetenberg, etc.), but other stuff was history and theological stuff about why Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses and what he did and said. I understood almost everything that he translated for Mel because Mel was speaking strictly Bible and it was not a 75% history lesson.

So, I am tired tonight, but it was a mostly good day. We had lunch at a local cafe with Alys, then she came home with us and used our internet connection to check her email. She has no internet at her flat yet and the place where she usually checks it has no internet service right now, either, for some reason. It was actually quite nice to have her here. We walked her (I almost said 'home' but she doesn't live at the bus stop!) to the bus stop and she caught a trolleybus that would take her to her local bus stop.

Now Mel and I are waiting for the chicken nuggets to cook and we'll have some dinner. It has been dark now for almost two hours and it's not even 7pm as I write. It gets dark so early now. I am ready for bed.