Privet Krasavitsa

I really enjoy traveling. While I was in college, I studied abroad quite a few times in Europe and frequently traveled on the train. When traveling by train, it is very common to share a six person room with strangers. Since many train trips are a few hours long, I would get to know my cabin mates along the way. More often than not, my cabin mates were from a European country and spoke English. Before going our separate ways, I would always ask them how to say "Hello" in their native language, which is how I learned "privet krasavitsa"...or "hello beautiful" in Russian.

Now that I am living in Germany, I am trying to learn more than just "Hallo Schöne." In my apartment building, my Hausmeister (Facility Manager or Super) told me who some of my neighbors were...

The lady right next to me is Russian and she has a very loud TV.

The couple two doors down is German and they are nice.

The girl three doors down is also German and she is younger. (I ran into her and her name is Wenke - pronounced "Ven-kah", and she is very nice.)

So last weekend, I was leaving my apartment and I saw my Russian neighbor. She is about 5 feet tall, which includes at least four inches of very curly reddish/orangish tinted hair, perhaps a typical Russian grandmother.

She said "morgen." I said, "Privet" and her eyes lit up and with a huge smile, she said (what I believe to be) "Oh dear, you speak Russian!!"

To which I said, 'Privet Krasavitsa!' This was probably the most exciting thing that she had ever heard because she came over and grabbed my hand with both of hers and started speaking Russian... which I actually don't understand at all...

Then I explained in English, with a few German words, that I actually don't speak Russian, only English, Italian and Spanish, and 24 words in German...and that I will learn more German, since I plan to be here for a while.

I smiled and said, "maybe I should learn Russian..."

She said, "Yes, I tink dat is better."