Learning Russian!

As we wrote in our first blog, one of the big areas of our preparation for moving to Kyrgyzstan is to learn Russian - well, at least making a good start. There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet, and so the first task was to learn those; for Rosie this has meant a daily Russian lesson on her Ready Brek! To start with we felt quite illiterate when faced with our Russian books, but now feel that we can at least read it - and even if we don't know what it means we can find our way around a Russian dictionary! But it will be a lot of work, time and breakfasts before we are reasonably fluent!

Nevertheless, it will be great to arrive and live in a Russian speaking context - but it will definitely be quite a challenge and will no doubt cause a few raised eyebrows and smirks. Hopefully we will not end up saying anything too rude or offensive by accident...!

Preparation

Since January we have been starting to to prepare for our move. In particular we have made a start at learning Russian; we (Jim and Jane) have been having regular lessons whilst the children have been doing odd bits and pieces (Felix using an i-pod app and Rosie having Russian letters scribed in Golden Syrup on her Ready Brek!). Yesterday they had their first proper lesson (thanks Phillippa!).

Now, with about eleven weeks to go, there are more things to think through. We have started to get winter clothes (it gets pretty cold - minus fifteen or so in winter!) and begun to get rid of some of the 'stuff' we have accumulated over the last three and a half years in England. Over the next weeks we need to work out where we will store a few items of furniture, boxes of books and other items, sell the car and of course pack!

We have loved living in the UK for the last few years - we have all made some good friends and enjoyed the school(s) and community that we have become a part of. So as well as getting ready, we want to make sure that we enjoy these last few weeks too, and say proper goodbyes. It will definitely all end in tears!