2021

Time for the yearly blog post! Which honestly seems like just enough to me, so let's get into it. 

First off, I'm writing this one from America, where I am visiting for the first time in over 2 years! How about that! But already stuck in the house for over a week with covid.  How about that.  I was home for about 5 days before I came down with the sniffles, and isolating for another 5 when I took a test that came out positive.  And getting a test at all turned out to be lucky, since apparently there's a huge testing shortage in the US. How? No shortages in Russia, I don't get it.  But here we are. 

What about the rest of the year? Not a single business trip for the first time in a long time, although I did have the pleasure of speaking remotely for the 5th annual FISU Leadership Academy - a nice treat, as I was a speaker at their first in Kazan 5 years ago.  

There were some personal achievements to be proud of as well.  I had my first kickboxing fight in April! Officially it was a tie. Technically I lost.  But I still have a first place medal, thank you very much. And I won a pair of new boxing gloves, which were sorely needed. In July I went to Sochi with some of my kickboxing group and our coach to train 3x a day for 10 days.  That was another first, and something I'd love to do again.  Then in October I had my second (!) kickboxing fight. That one I also lost, so you can take a guess at what my 2022 goal is. 

I also took my first pottery class when my lovely friend Anna invited me to one for her birthday, the results of which I'll have when I get back to Moscow. Other than that I can't say there was anything super exciting to report. I worked, a lot. I read, also quite a lot. I got vaccinated in the end of February and my second dose in the end of March. I lived as normal a life as I could hope for "in these difficult and unprecedented times."

So as we all ease cautiously into the new year, my plans are to keep making progress in my career, keep learning, and keep moving forward. I hope you'll do the same!

Happy happy new year!

It's time to stop being lazy and write about my year, for the friends and family who've asked me to! We'll brush aside the fact that this is the only thing I've bothered to write in 2017. I think I can manage to stop eating cake just long enough to get this all down...

January: The temperature went down to -33C/F (it's pretty much the same at that point).  Luckily we were all on vacation and didn't need to go outside.  Which we didn't.

(skipping months where nothing much happened and moving on)

March: Steve announced that he was ABANDONING ME to find his own place.  But then I found Masha, who is even more awesome.  Also I turned 27 surrounded by close friends (or as I like to say, celebrated the 2nd anniversary of my 25th birthday).

May: We had nice summer weather for the May holidays, followed by snow.  First attempt at a business trip to Tatarstan foiled by Moscow traffic.

June: There was more snow, but I dodged that bullet by going home! Attended my best friend's engagement party and said yes to the bridesmaid dress.  Visited Williams for my 5 year reunion, which was everything I expected and more. Had another mini reunion in NYC, and attended my first Pride parade thanks to Ben and Bill.  Was home for both my mom's birthday and Father's Day for the first time in 5 years. Spent a lot of time on the beach.

July: 24 hours after arriving in Moscow I was on my way back to the airport for Kazan, where I was a speaker at the FISU (International University Sports Federation) volunteer training academy. Then I went onward to Aktanysh, ie the middle of nowhere, to observe lessons at a summer camp and speak with some of the children (many of whom had never met a native speaker before). 

August: Our friends from Aktanysh came to Moscow for a week of training seminars that I got to help lead.  Then I fulfilled my long-time dream of travelling to Barcelona! More beach time, plus great food, amazing people, and all the Gaudi architecture my little heart desired.  We also managed to visit the highest point around at Tibidabo. 

October: The memory that sticks out most is Halloween, which I hosted at mine before heading to a club.  I did my Pinterest best and introduced the Russians to worms in the mud.  I was also responsible for the Halloween event one of our clients requested, where we discussed and then planned extreme pranks 💀

November: Thanksgiving! As usual, we celebrated twice.  This was the home stretch until Christmas.  But first...

December: ...I got really sick for a couple of weeks.  What's winter without being out of commission for a week or two? But thanks to the internet I was able to get all of my Christmas shopping done and watch loads of movies.  Speaking of which, STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. We celebrated Christmas with 2 feasts as well, and I lead a whole bevy of Christmas events for the companies we work with which was actually really fun.  I showed them how to decorate Christmas cookies American style, and then got shown up by them. My lovely students gave me tons of cake and tea and chocolate that I'm currently working my way through.  I've walked around plenty and seen Moscow in all its New Year's glory.  Now all that's left is to wait for the New Year and see what it has in store for all of us!