Quote:
Dear Grandmother,
I hope you are doing well. Our Christmas break just finished, and now we’re back in university. For both me and Monika, this is our last semester in our undergraduate programs. In a month or so I will be receiving an “Iron Ring”, which is a small ring that symbolizes my specialization in engineering. I do not think such a thing exists in Ukraine, but in Canada it’s considered important. I have also applied for graduate school, but only time will tell whether I get accepted to a good university. If it appears that I will not receive acceptance to a university that I find good, I will probably take a position in the workforce. That being said, I need 2 or 3 years of experience in order to receive a Professional Engineer of Ontario license. This will essentially indicate that I am a mature engineer with reasonable competence.
This semester I have numerous projects and assignments, most of which require the use of a computer. So with some hesitation, I bought a small portable computer that I can carry anywhere. It’s certainly not the best available, but it will serve the purpose for which I need it for. The computer has a small camera on it, so I can take pictures of myself, like this: *picture here*
Thanks to this little computer, I can type this letter while on the bus. In fact, I’m on the bus to university as we speak!
While we’re on the subject of school, have I ever showed you where I go to university? I think we’ve shown you photographs before, but here is a map of where we live (A) and where Monika and I go to university (B): *pictures here*
As I sit on the bus, the streets outside are covered with a blanket of snow. The sky is a solid tone of grey, and the air is dry and blurred. We`re driving through a part of town that seems forgotten: old, broken homes and local industries right in their front porches. A drive through here will only last a minute, and after that we`re back onto the busy streets: generic square houses and wide asphalt streets. In the summer the streets are full of life and the world looks vibrant and alive. I find that in these months of snowy gloom, only quiet parks are pleasing to the senses. But I do love the sunny winter days, those days where cold snow still lay on grass and road, but the air is warm with the radiance of the sun.
As you know, the wedding is merely a year and a half away. We hoped to have the wedding in July or, as an alternative, August, ideally on the feast of St. Veronica or St. Maximillian Kolbe. But the date primarily depends on availability. As in most places in the world that share this type of climate, the summer months are very popular for weddings. So on our meeting this Friday with our priest, we will have a set of possible dates. Then we must face the arduous task of finding a place to house our wedding party! And that will surely be a challenge also.
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I’m writing this after our meeting, and I’m happy to tell you that our wedding is on July 4, 2010, at 3PM at St. Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
I’m going to finish this letter by telling you that we love you very much. We think of you often and hope that you are living life to your fullest capability, looking past the physical pain of this world and into the happiness that is to come after our life on Earth. God has us living here and now, and for a good reason. I hope that you and I both find what these reasons are, and live our days in this world in joy, humility, and obedience to God.
