Do you speak Russian?

Yesterday I was swimming with my son. We've been going twice a week for a month, as he really likes it and we thought that it would help him to make more progress to go more often.

Progress is not done at a linear rate for most things in life. Instead it often comes with plateaus, then suddenly making a big jump. From last Friday until yesterday, our son has made great progress swimming. On Tuesday he suddenly got bolder and asked me to start throwing him into the water. This is from a 4 year old who has generally been afraid to jump into the water from the side without me catching him. Today I spent a lot of time throwing him in. While he occasionally swallowed water, he did get better at keeping his mouth closed.

Pierre, one of the lifeguards present each session commented to me on his progress this week and said that I had been "very patient" this year with him. Sometimes he has fussed when I tried to get him to try new things in the pool.

Today a young girl asked if he could swim. He was wearing the arm floaties, so she didn't think that he could. After I responded, she must have detected an accent, as she asked if I spoke Russian. I couldn't figure out where that question came from.

She later asked if I could say the word "Da," which I think is Russian for "yes" or "no." At that point, I asked her father if he did. He said that he was Russian and that his wife (the girl's mother) was French.

I remember being in Albertville, France for the national music festival June 21, 1999 and thinking it strange to hear a band from Russia. That was just a few months before communist governments in Europe began crumbling. Who would have guessed that 17 years later, an American would be interacting with a Russian in the course of spending time with our kids? Like me, we're both foreigners living in Paris.

His daughter (whose name they told me, but I've already forgotten) is a little more daring in the pool than my son. However, he didn't want to be outdown by her, so he started jumping off the side of the pool like she was doing.

We look forward to getting to know our Russian acquaintances better in the remaining weeks of this swim class before the summer. The chance to cross paths with those from around the world is another part that I love about Paris. The swim classes provide more natural opportunities to do so.