My studies in the Amharic language are progressing—though not fast enough for me. Tomorrow will be the fourth session I have with my teacher in Toronto. We have been finding a quiet table at the Reference Library is a good central spot to meet. Just don’t tell Abe that I use my time on the train to Toronto, cramming…

I have this little fantasy of arriving at the Addis airport in November for the 10 km race and speaking fluent Amharic with the customs officials, etc. Hey, a girl has gotta have her dreams!

My teacher, Abebe Worku, is very tolerant of my enthusiasms. He thinks that even after all these years, there is some residual memory of the language somewhere deep in my bones and it will surprise me when it resurfaces. Wouldn’t it be nice if it resurfaced to give me some wonderful proficiency??

It’s silly, but I enjoy the recorded conversations on the cd’s that come with my text. I listen to them just to surround myself with the language and it evokes the feeling I had lying in bed early in the morning, sleepily listening to Elli-tati and Martta-tati jabbering away as they started baking karjalan piirakkas and sounding so like Mom that I thought I was at home in Canada, remember, so long ago when I was visiting in Finland? The music of the language is powerful without my even being able to actually understand much of it at all.