Russian and my Birthday Picknic

First off, I want to thank all of the peeps who have been commenting on the blog, its really nice to know that people are actually reading what I am putting up. I miss you all very much. I have tried calling some of you like eggy, but i never can catch you, do not worry I soon will.

Learning Russian gets harder by the day. According to my teacher Masha Russian and English came from the same family of languages, but overtime English developed into a tongue that got rid of the whole stem/ ending idea with gender. As I have discovered in the last few days Russian did not. Every new normative concept we learn, is then followed by its accusative, genitive, dative etc cases as well as plural and gender endings. I am getting it, but the fact that I have to memorize dozens of ending for dozens of stems while trying to memorize basic Russian is a bit overwhelming. Its all at once, but PC offers us the best language learning that exists, not to mention that I do not have to pay for the classes. As for Ukrainian, it isvery similar to Russian in vocab and form, and I am told that once at my site, PC will provide me with a Ukrainian tutor as well so I can try and master both languages which are spoken inter-changibly throughout almost the whole country.

As a side note, whenever away from home I always miss the

food incredibly, and it has already set in. I crave hot wings daily and the closest slice of pizza is in the capital. SO to all my homies out there, have a slice for a brotha in the motha-land na sayin?

So on to the good stuff. I turned 23 the other day, which was a lot like 22, except more people wished me happy birthday this year then last year when I was in the US, whats up with that people? Don't know what you've got til its gone huh? Just kidding, news travels fast within the Peace Corps community here and once one person knows something so does everyone else despite our lack of access to daily internet, so I got a lot of birthday wishes from other PCT's.

When I got up my hist dad Sasha gave me basketball and a firm handshake, so I'm gonna start ballin hard at the one functional hoop in all of Oster. When I got to class all the other PCTs where there with a big sign that said "Happy Birthday" in Russian and a cake with fishing lures on it, the most thoughtful themed cake ive ever had

After class my hist parents Luda, Sasha and I loaded up into their sweet blue car and headed off road driving through the woods (literally) looking for a good spot by the river, passing by horse carts and winding through trees and clearing through paths you wouldn't take Subaru down. Ukraine; No Fear.

Sasha picked a suitable spot, Luda spread the blankets and then things got good. Sasha threw some chicken on the fire and we waited patiently, but we were not bored. Of course it would not be a picnic without a little vodka. After a few toasts and some deliciously slow bbq'ed chicken we headed back for some tea, homework and bed.

Overall things are working out in my favor here and life in Oster is sweet! Miss you all!