Hello, Goodbye.... My heart is a bit heavy. I just found out that my friend had to rush back to his native country Uzbekistan. His father passed away a few weeks back & he was extremely saddened. My friend came to America hoping to make some 'real' money & go back to help his family. This was not to be unfortunately. He struggled to find work as his English wasn't so good. I would teach him a little, explaining certain aspects of the language. For example he was confused about words containing 'ough' in them. I would explain to him that English has many exceptions to the rules. What was very cool is that he showed me the Russian alphabet & explained the sounds, etc... Russian has 33 letters as opposed to English which has 26 letters. I have it all written down & find it intriguing. The past month he was alone & very sad. Homesick for his family he left without saying goodbye. I think he was so sad & lonely for his family that he feared his American friends would talk him out of going back home. This is understandable & I don't hold it against him. I hope to see my friend again. He was & is a good person.