Мальчики читают

I am well on my way to becoming a Ukrainian!! This past month I have made Borsh and Olyvia, and I am slowly but surely learning some russian. Currently my favorite phrase to say is :Мальчики читают, which means the boys are reading... but it is SO much better in Russian! It is the most fun combination of letters and sounds, it will wake up your ears and make them want want to do a jig!! Also I work with a Ukrainian woman who was in the SLC olympics... how does that help my transformation? well it doesn't directly but it's just one more connection, so yes, I am practically Ukrainian.

Here are some of the other things I can say in Russian:
pen, child, children, rice, apple, horse (although I don't like to say it because it sounds like a bad word to me!!!); writing, reading, 1,2,3,8,0, red, read, bicycle, car, drive, walk, run, swim, lets go, what do you want, what's this?, slippers, sandals, hello, goodbye, goodnight, i love you, and what are you mumbling under your nose?

Ok, so I'm not THAT close, and when I hear Dima talk to his mom on the phone I realize just how far I still have to go in order to really be able to communicate to anyone, but at least I'm on my way, and hopefully by the time we go to Ukraine I'll be able to say more than "the boys are reading" to his family.