It was a long day yesterday, but very informative.
I didn't get home until LATE last night-- which makes 2 days in a row I was up WAY past my bedtime.
I'm getting too old for this.
It was nice to meet some of the other host families... and GREAT to learn that one family (who is also hosting a Ukrainian boy) lives only an hour or so from us. Hopefully, we'll be able to get together this summer.
I was relieved to hear that Vlad will very likely know SOME English as well as the Latin alphabet. Communication will still be difficult at first, but not quite the impossible task I was envisioning.
The English he will learn over the 4-5 weeks he's here is the equivalent of 2-3 years of English classes at school.
Oh- and by the way.. if you ever find yourself in the position where you need to tell someone "I love you" in Russian, phonetically its "yellow blue bus." I'm told you'd normally only use that in a formal setting, but in a pinch it would suffice.
We heard a lot about cultural differences, societal norms, and what these kids have seen and experienced in their short lives. I'm not going to go into detail here, but I was horrified/angered/saddened by much of what I heard. These kids-- the deck is stacked against them in nearly every way imaginable.
We should hear sometime in the next week or so specifics on travel dates and times.. I'll keep you posted.
I didn't get home until LATE last night-- which makes 2 days in a row I was up WAY past my bedtime.
I'm getting too old for this.
It was nice to meet some of the other host families... and GREAT to learn that one family (who is also hosting a Ukrainian boy) lives only an hour or so from us. Hopefully, we'll be able to get together this summer.
I was relieved to hear that Vlad will very likely know SOME English as well as the Latin alphabet. Communication will still be difficult at first, but not quite the impossible task I was envisioning.
The English he will learn over the 4-5 weeks he's here is the equivalent of 2-3 years of English classes at school.
Oh- and by the way.. if you ever find yourself in the position where you need to tell someone "I love you" in Russian, phonetically its "yellow blue bus." I'm told you'd normally only use that in a formal setting, but in a pinch it would suffice.
We heard a lot about cultural differences, societal norms, and what these kids have seen and experienced in their short lives. I'm not going to go into detail here, but I was horrified/angered/saddened by much of what I heard. These kids-- the deck is stacked against them in nearly every way imaginable.
We should hear sometime in the next week or so specifics on travel dates and times.. I'll keep you posted.
