What I Learned in January

February 2, 2016 / No Comments

  • I learned the Russian words for please, thank you, car, store, yes, no, sister, brother, hello, tea, penguin, bus, airplane, shower, and some others too.
  • I learned how DIFFICULT it is to pronounce things in Russian.
  • It turns out I like borscht, even though I hate most of the ingredients that go into borscht:  cabbage, beets, onions, ketchup.
  • I learned NOT to drive up steep hills with the van when it has recently snowed, even if the hills are short, little, steep hills.  The van will not make it, and then there is the arduous process of backing back down the hill on the street while slipping and sliding.
  • I gained more bow flexility on my cello.
  • I now know exactly what head lice look like, up close and personal.  And I’ve gotten efficient at searching through heads for them.  (I’m extraordinarily grateful that we seemed to have gotten rid of our lice on the first try).
  • I learned how a police officer files a car vandalism report.
  • I can still do algebra.  It just takes a few hours to figure out my eldest daughter’s homework. (Kudos to my Dad, who spent hours patiently figuring out MY math homework when I lived at home, even though I was frazzled and frustrated because I didn’t understand).
  • Doing algebra automatically brings forth all sorts of anxiety about getting the problem wrong or right and whether or not I will figure out how to do it the right way or not.  One little wrong step, and the whole math problem is toast!  I was surprised how that anxiety popped up even though I’m a grown up and I am not handing in math homework anymore.
  • READING a math text book is actually really helpful when you are stuck.  Too bad I didn’t know that when I was taking advanced algebra the first time around.

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