Russian Class Week 3

Tonight we focused on greetings and Russian names. I already knew the basic greetings like zdratdstvootye (which means hello) but I didn't know that that's the formal use of the word. When speaking to adults or people that you don't know, you use this version but when speaking to friends, or people younger than you, you say zdratstvooy. To just say hi, you say pree-vyet. Most people know how to say goodbye in Russian but the shorter version is paca.
The other thing we focused on was the patronymic middle name. Not that it's all that important for visiting the country. It was very interesting none the less. In case you are interested, the middle name comes from the father's first name. If you're a man you add an ovich to your father's first name and if you're a woman, you add an ovna. You actually go by your first an middle name among your peers, not your last name. I'm so glad that we don't go by our first and middle names in this country, aren't you?
I'm mostly enjoying hearing the pronunciation of the words so I can better speak the language.
There's a guy in the class that is fluent in Russian so I asked him what he was doing in our class, he just likes to hear the language being spoken. I think he talks with the teacher after class to keep his conversational skills fresh. He taught English in Russia for a year and got to travel alot around the country. He said he spent some time in Krasnoyarsk. He was there in the summer so he didn't get to experience the Siberian winters. He did mention that the Hotel Krasnoyarsk was under construction at the time and there was no hot water. I hope this is not the case when we stay there!