Digenis.org

There have been quite a few important events in the last few months and I felt impelled to take a hiatus from blogging in order to enjoy each of them to the fullest extent, soaking in the significance of each moment.

Most notably, Katya and I were married on September 8th. Planning a ‘western’ style wedding in Moscow proved to be an arduous undertaking, regardless of the fact that we set aside eight months to do so. I feel like I could write a book (or at least a few blog posts) about it all. Surprisingly enough, the simplest part was actually the legal paperwork, something which is usually a terribly long and bureaucratic process in Russia. The ZAGS ceremony, which was at the end of June, was actually a breath of fresh air. We kept it simple, just showing up with a handful of friends and family and signing on a few dotted lines, but the day was still a special and memorable one.

Then on September 8th, two years to the day since we started seeing each other, we sealed the deal po Amerikansky with an all out traditional wedding at a local Protestant church, followed by a reception at the Marriott Courtyard. Family and friends flew in from abroad (the US, Haiti, and Switzerland) to celebrate with us. Though the 8 months of planning was laden with unexpected changes of plans which were out of our control, the Big Day itself went on without a hitch!

We took a short trip to St. Petersburg and are now enjoying settling into our new apartment.

I’m also working in a new job as of May. Things are going well, though I’ve had to work extra hard to climb the learning curve in an industry that’s quite new to me. Perhaps I’ll share more about that later. I’ve also finished up the two side projects I took on with Moscow State University Geography Department and Russian Standard Insurance.

Needless to say, I anticipate having a schedule slightly more conducive to blogging. Along with more frequent posting, I intend to do some housecleaning as a restored Wordpress backup seems to have botched up the Cyrillic encoding of some older entries. Do let me know if you see anything quirky or have any suggestions.

Cheers!