Irene calls me Alex, the short form of a long title of her research about birds.

"It is 'Avian Language Experiment'." She usually says, but I still don't know what does that complex term means. I'm not that good yet, though I'm progressing my skills under her guide very rapidly, when it turns out that I do have a little talent of recognizing learnt vocabularies.

She teaches me new words and their meanings every time I seem to find something strange. She will say the term, again and again, until I can parrot it perfectly, then show me the picture or the object, in that way I'll remember both the word and the thing and never forget them. The studying process takes much time, but I can improve.

"Alex." Irene says, "Alex."

I repeat her sounds. She points at me and say the word "Alex" several more times.

"You are Alex." She speaks, and like usual, she repeats her sentence. "You are Alex. Alex. Who are you?"

"Alex." So now I have a cute name, Alex, and I like it. Nice to meet Irene, I'm Alex, the grey, small parrot.

She gives me the name, and teaches me other things, too.

"What's this color?" She holds up a toy cube.

"Orange." I say. It's the easiest to memorize colors, mostly because I can relate all of the beautiful shades to the scenery, colorful woods where I grew up. Orange is the tender, lovely sunset I used to fly past every evening. Yellow, the sunlight shining onto the forest early in the morning. Green like the soft layer of leaves around, enclosed me in my dreams. Red like the rare, gorgeous flowers that sometimes I would see popping up from a bush. Irene knows that too, for her to be revising colors every day.

"Good boy. This?" Irene asks again and pulls another one from her tray full of cubes and blocks under my standing branch. She gives an encouraging grin and lift the block closer to me, "What color is this, Alex?"

"Green." I say, after a few seconds interpreting my memory for the correct answer. Irene pats me and her smile broadens, as she puts into my mouth a sweet slice of banana. I love her smile, right from the beginning. She makes me feel comfortable, and when she's happy, I'm happy too. I really like the way Irene rewards every right answer of mine with a favorite treat, and her beautiful smile.