Hi Robert and welcome to the forum. This is definitely the best place on the net to get help and online company as you study Russian.

This place has been great inspiration to me and I have learnt a lot about Russia and the CIS countries; history, politics, culture.... Not to mention all the help I've got - even asking the same question more than once, until I "get it". (I am not the best at languages either... I think I "used up" my quota for learning English.)

The general idea is that everyone helps everyone else with English or Russian, depending on background. The Russian speakers are on average a bit better at English than the rest of us are at Russian though...

Alaska seems like such a wonderful part of the USA - great to meet someone from there.
Were you born there or moved later in life? Interesting connection with Russia, too!