January 19, 2006
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Well, finally….! This morning’s e-mail brought a lovely, long message from Svetlana!
It’s been ages since we’ve heard from her, outside of a Christmas e-card back in December.
The first week of December I sent her a (I thought) beautiful, dressy black skirt and blouse, along with black stockings, so she’d have a nice outfit for the New Year, which is Russia’s big holiday. It arrived on January 9th.
Took over a month to get there! 
She bewailed the tardiness of the mail system, but said it fits perfectly and makes her look “womanly”, as the online translator put it. Said her friends at the hostel at which she lives couldn’t believe it was her when she put it on, and they took her picture so she can send it to us. Now if only she had an occasion to wear it!
Today she’s taken a bus for Cheboksary to visit; it’s been hideously cold (I mentioned that earlier), so everyone’s been hunkering down and not going outside more’n strictly necessary. She received four 5′s (A’s) and one 4 this past semester, so her monthly grant will be reduced. :^( On the bright side, she now is the proud owner of a secondhand computer, so we hope emails will be more frequent.
The morning email also brought an ecard from Dmitry’s friend, Elena, in Michigan. She’s making mostly A’s and B’s with one C….she finds chemistry hard.Chemistry?!? We’re trying to get Dmitry to really grasp pre-algebra and Elena’s studying chemistry.
Yesterday was Dmitry’s first day of tutoring in math, meaning he stays at school until 5 p.m. He was not enthusiastic about the experience, feeling from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. is too darn long a school day.
Comments (2)
I am sympathetic with Dmitry. Being really really dumb with any math past adding and subtracting. I don’t do well with anything fractions and up. I’m good at adding and subtracting. And don’t need the rest!!!!!!!!! So don’t bug Dmitry too much. Fractions when cooking are handy. but that’s all. No algebra. no chemistry, no physics, don’t need any of those esoteric mathematical stuff that are just done to make us word people feel dumb. Math, blah.
You’re singing Dmitry’s song, Mom.