Wednesday

Wednesdays are a day of preperation.

This morning I woke up in time to get some e-mails out before my Urkainian lesson. Lyu and I swap teaching skills for two hours on Wednesday mornings. At 10 AM I learn Ukrainian and at 11 AM she learns English.

I'm begginning to form sentences and straining for case endings - so the first hour is a relentlessly painful experience where my brain goes into hyper-drive and I try to retain as much as possible. We're to the point where most of the class is in Ukrainian and Lyu doesn't speak any English to me.

I look forward to the second when the tables turn and we only speak English! I basically help Lyu polish her English skills. I'm not teaching her English as much as sanding smooth some rough edges.

I spent a few hours going through files after my lesson. We're looking for some documents (everything is in Ukrainian and my head hurts most of the time) and so I'm tearing apart every file at the student center.

I also managed to finish sorting the file cabinet full of English resources. It's full of really good resources that I will never use, but which shouldn't be thrown away because someone else might use them in the future. It's a little frustrating to not be able to create your own system, but to just tinker with someone elses and hope that future people can understand it better after your changes.

I put the final touches on my sermon for tomorrow (really, I'll re-work a few things tomorrow, but it's finished enough that I could preach it right now and be satisfied)and sent out a few e-mails about Pilgrims.

I'm in the process of spring cleaning the apartment before David and Shannon return. I've been slowly working my way through the house - moving stuff out of a room, mopping and dusting, and then moving things back. I'll hit the "half-way mark" today!

After a relaxing meal and some TV, I went to Ukrainian language club. This was my first time, and I'm glad I went. It's a group of foreigners from all over the world, and Ukrainians who love their language and want to help people learn it better.

I made some new friends and had a chance to practice my Ukrainian.