I have now officialy completed my 3rd year in Siberia. That is a happy event. I can now celebrate that I am 3 years closer to leaving than when I arrived. Tadaa.
It is funny how I did not notice that I actually spent 3 years here. You wouldn't notice either if you heard me speaking Russian, in fact I am still struggling with sentences other than the subject-verb-complement type. Still, I get better everyday and God knows where I will stop. I may not even stop at all, maybe I'll keep on moving asymptotically toward the holy grail -intermediate level-. What will I then do with all my Russian language skills once I leave Russia? Keeping up the level by practicing with Urmik? That won't do it... Call me a condescending jerk, but the truth is that Urmik is not even a the subject-verb-complement level yet. 'Verb only' is good enough for all the messages I usually convey to Urmik (run, shut up, eat, get off the couch) and he gives me a confused look when I try to initiate him to more complex phrasal construction (like "mais qui c'est le gros toutou a son pepere?").
What else will I get out of those 3 years beside the semantics to talk to Urmik? Hmmm... character? I guess living in a bureaucratic country with very cold climate is good to build character, which is nice if you still want to build character at 34. And I also grew a thicker skin by living in cold in Siberia. Literally.
The highlight of my 3 years here is that I met Katya. She was well worth a few frostbites, and if I had to do it again, I'd give away a few toes all over again without hesitation just to meet her. Katya and I are now going to get married so we can stay together for life. We will do this in Moscow once all our preparative paperworks is done -no big party, sorry, just something between me and her. Still, that will be a happy event... May the 4th year bring more happy event to us (and to all y'all).
