Okay, Americans: here’s the deal with Russia, as clearly, after  3.5 days, I am an expert. Where as any student of some romance language can figure out French / Spanish / Italian, Russian words are pretty much completely impossible to dissect via Latin roots, as they have a completely different alphabet. Like, this spells Spasiba:

I’m pleased to introduce you to the one Russian word we’ve learned so far! It means thanks. It frequently comes in handy. What we’re learning, though, is that generally, you can forget the real word and say something that sounds like it, and Russian, and that definitely works too. Case in point, Betty the other night to the cab driver as we exited:

BETTY: Placebo!

DRIVER: You’re welcome.