Some days you just have to laugh. It's either that or cry. I choose laughter. Here are some funny moments from my life in the last week or so.
"Tea Boats?"
Background fun-fact: As I learn new words in Russian, I start to forget/mix up the easy ones I learned forever ago. This is an example.
I wanted to buy 5 tea spoons as a christmas present for Rochelle, so I went to the bazaar and the market where I knew I could find them. I asked three different women, "Do you have tea spoons?" and each time they asked me to repeat myself and showed me metal tea infusers for loose tea, not spoons. I thought they just didn't have them there, so I walked home. As I was walking, I literally laughed out loud- I realized instead of asking for tea spoons (chaini lozhki) I had actually asked for tea 'boats' (chaini lodki) three times.
"Amanda: Closet Activist?"
Every Friday morning, the workers at Living Hope Church have a meeting for three hours to talk about what's been going on in the church, debrief recent events, plan ahead and make the schedule, and pray together. So, every Friday morning I tell Valiya I have a meeting, and every time she gives me a weird look, asks me where it's being held, and who's going to be there. It was always a little weird how she asked so many details about a simple church meeting. I had no idea what I was really saying.
In Russian lessons last week, my tutor was telling me about places that use certain prepositions in Russian (в and на places, if you must know). One of the ones we talked about it the word 'митинг', which is pronounced almost exactly like the English word 'meeting'. However, the meaning is very different. The Russian 'meeting' is the word used for large-scale, outdoor, public events like picketing and protesting. Guess which word I've been using to describe my Friday morning church meetings? Yep- apparently I've been saying that I will be attending a protest at church every Friday morning with the church leaders and pastors.