Sunday again!

Time is just going by waaaaaaay too quickly! I'm up to the last week of my Russian course. Which I am both sorry for and thankful for. Thankful because my brain is quickly reaching its capacity so I am finding it harder to apply myself to my studies because I tire out so much more quickly. I am just finding it hard to absorb all of this new information. But sorry because I have felt it to be a really helpful course. The teacher has commented a couple of times that he feels my grammar has improved already. I hope it is so, although I personally am not quite so convinced, but I hope he feels encouraged by that! lol
Over the past week I have realized that I learn Russian very differently from everyone else in the class. For everyone else it is a foreign language. They spend a lot of time translating from English into Russian, which totally messes up sentence structure because in Russian things are just phrased very differently (like often the subject is not stated it is just understood; or when you are showing possession you don't say, "That is dad's car;" you say "That car dad's [or That car of dad.]."). I frustrate a lot of people becuase I don't translate things from English into Russian, so I make a really lousy translator because I understand it all myself, but when I think in Russian I am in Russian; I'm not half in English. That will probably only make sense to those of you who have studied a second language. I learn Russian from within Russian. Most of my new vocabularly is explained to me in Russian. I rarely use an English-Russian dictionary because I learn new vocabularly from context or by having someone explain a word to me (Actually, I don't even own an English-Russian dictionary, which I am a bit embarassed to admit.). If I really need a word translated, I ask one of my office staff. :D I love to delegate! The problem is that language learning can't really be delegated.
Anyway, because of the way that I have learned most of my Russian, I have had to backtrack a little during this course and review some things so that I could work in the same way as the rest of the class. I am still not there, but I'm catching on. I don't think I'll ever make a good translator though. When I am in Russian, I am in Russian. I catch myself thinking in Russian all the time--and sometimes it drives me nuts because I know that I am saying things with incorrect grammar in my head, but I don't know how to correct it; now I will! Actually, now with this course, I have been literally eating, sleeping and breathing Russian grammar. When my mind is not otherwise occupied I discover that I am declining nouns or conjugating verbs or forming scentences. I'm sure my teacher would be proud, but it gets a little wearing when you can't get away from it.
Obviously, I am really enjoying this Russian course and feel that it was worth every penny. I'm very glad that I've had this opportunity and I do really feel that the Lord has been blessing it and helping me to grasp a lot of the information that is being thrown at me.
This next week, being the last week, will be the heaviest, but even more so because we have decided to finish a day early so we are adding an extra 1 1/2 hours of class time to every day. Which means for me, that I will be in class from 8:30am to about 3:30/4:00pm Mon.-Wed. Then on Wed. we have a take-home exam and Thursday will be our last day. Naturally, this is somewhat insane. The more so, considering that I already have about 20 hours of homework that I haven't been able to do and with doubling up classes we'll have even more homework every day as well. I feel daunted just thinking about it.
Please be in extra prayer this week. For a clear mind for studies. For good health (I didn't really have any migraines this week, PTL! but I did miss a day of class from being sick in general). For motivation--as the homework piles up and I know there is just way more than I can do I am losing some of my motivation to do any of it. And just in general that God would bless this time for all of us. I was not the only one who was sick last week. Several people missed one or two days of class. And it is just obvious that we are all getting tired. We frequently get onto rabbit trails now.
After this week, I will spend a few days at my sister's place and then I am going to Turkey to renew my visa and for a vacation. Please pray that everything would go smoothly with the arrangements for that too. I've had some problems with my bank in trying to get the trip paid for. And now it seems that there might be another problem with my bank. Please pray that that would all get sorted out quickly and painlessly as that is, of course, adding to my stress at the moment.
Thanks.