First Post, Part II: How and Why I am Where I am

When I came back to Russia, from day one we started our distance relationship on msn and Skype. At first we were doing it English and I was trying to remember Spanish that I had learnt many years ago but had never really used it. As a result we now speak only Spanish. Very seldom I use English or Italian when I do not know a Spanish word.

Those who know, distance relationships are very hard to live and very hard to maintain, and I have already had one of this and did not want to have another one. However, everything in general was going very well between us, we were getting to know each other more and more. In the beginning M. wanted to come to Russia in summer working very hard during the tourism season in Chile. But then, we decided to go to Rome, the most romantic city for me, the city where I spent 3 wonderful university years, and the city I am in love with. We went to Rome in May 2008 and that’s where we had the chance to get to know each other well. We obviously spent a wonderful time and this time it was my turn to be a tourist guide for M.

When we returned back to our countries, we started to think how we are going to continue our relationship. And that was the time when we started to think about getting married. Some women remember with all details how her husband proposed her, but I can’t remember anything on how it all happened, how we decided to get married. I asked today M. if he remembered, but surprisingly he did not remember the details either. Anyway, I think it does not really matter when you are already married.

We obviously continued to talk everyday on Skype planning our future. The next step before we could get married and move to live together was to get to know each others’ parents, and for M. to ask my parents if he could marry their daughter. It can sound really out of fashion or very ‘machistic’ but here in Russia or at least at my family, this is more the act of respect. 

It was planned that M. will come to Russia in August and that’s when he was going to meet my parents. Unfortunately, my parents were in some business trip when M. was coming and were supposed to go on vacation to Spain in August, and it would be really little time for M. to get to know my family well. Thanks to my mom, we booked a holiday apartment with my parents in Spain, and spent 3 weeks in Moscow and 10 days in Spain together with my parents. And that’s when it was formally decided that we would get married. My parents were very happy that we had planned to live in Russia, even though for us it was difficult to decide whether to live in Russia (where we had a house and I had a job) or live in Chile (where we had to start everything almost from scratch).

In November 2008 it was my turn to get to know M.’s family and I went to Chile. We spent about a week in Santiago because M. had to do some paper staff there, and then we went to Punta Arenas. I had a very warm welcome by M’s family there and enjoyed 100% of my time with them and with M.

M. arrived to Moscow on the 30th of December and celebrated the New Year (it is a big deal in Russia like Christmas for most of you) with my family. On the 31st of January we got married and in a week we left for our honeymoon to Mexico.

Each of these events deserves a separate post, and I hope to do them one of these days.

It is probably all what I wanted to write about our love story with M., but my post has not been finished and I will continue explaining “How and Why I am Where I am” in the next one.

First Post, Part I: How and Why I am Where I am

Where am I now?  I am living happily in Moscow with my husband and I am currently unemployed (hope temporally unemployed). I am Russian and my husband is from Punta Arenas, Chile. Surprisingly enough (even though Russian school education was always considered to be at a good standard) I found out that not everyone knows where Chile is and I think those ‘some’ Russians are not the world’s exception.

Despite Chile is located far from the large part of the world it has a significant place on the map (38th largest country in the world), very interesting shape (just look at the map) 4,300 km long and 175 km on average wide and has climatic zones ranging from the desert in the North to the Mediterranean  – in the middle, to glaciers - in the South. 

When you heard about Chile, it was probably when someone mentioned you:  Augusto Pinochet, Salvador Allende, Magellan, and the city of Santiago. However, Chile is much more, it is an amazing country for travelling and discovering especially if you are found of nature. And, yes, Easter Island is also in Chile.

But let’s come back to the main topics of this entry. How come did I marry a Chilean that has lived all his life in Punta Arenas, a city that is located almost to the Sothern end of the world, close to glaciers?

When I was planning my 2008 winter holidays, I wanted to go far from Russia, somewhere where it might be difficult to visit in the future, somewhere where I can discover new cultures, see something I have never seen, and pass my holidays in the way that will distract me from my broken relationship.  Since at the time I had a decent job that paid me well, I could choose almost anything. My first choice was Peru and Bolivia, I was very excited when I saw the program of the tour, but unfortunately there were no more airplane tickets (it was a very high season) and in Latin America I was offered a tour either to Mexico or Chile. It did not took me long to think when I decided that Chile would be the one, because I thought Mexico was not “far enough” for me :)

So my trip started on the 29th of December, I was in quite a boring group of some Russians, and I had to translate to them what our tour guides were saying  in English together with a young couple because they did not speak English. I found this quite annoying because I wanted to enjoy my the 100% of my holiday time. Anyway, the trip was amazing, during two weeks I visited Santiago, Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, Easter Island (what you feel there is something unexplainable, but it is the life must see place), Northern Patagonia and Sothern Patagonia (that does not even have a land frontier with the rest of Chile). On my last day in the Southern Patagonia and my last day before returning to Santiago to then go back to Moscow, we had a tour to Paine Park, and that is when I met my wonderful husband.

At our hotel we were met by two tour guides and we were driven to Paine. As you can guess, one of them was my husband. He wasn’t actually planning to do the tour that day, but since he was in that area that day and he had to start to tours to Paine he thought it would be a good opportunity to go with another tour guide to feel more comfortable when he will be alone. However, he has never thought that day would change his life.

I think all tours that lead to Paine pass the Milodon cave (where the rests of the extinct herbivore animal that looked like a bear with a tale and that walked on his 2 feet, were found). This was the place where we started to talk. At that time we spoke in English since my Spanish was pretty dead. My husband M. then took all the opportunity to do almost a personal tour for me to show the beauty of Paine. I remember it was really freezing because of the wind, but the place was amazing.

Although M. asked me my msn messenger,  he did not really hope to see me anymore after the tour. However, there was one Russian guy who asked me to go for dinner with him because he was tired from fighting with his friend and told me that I can call M. Obviously I did not want to go with that guy alone and invited M. (at that time I haven’t thought that all these was so important for our future life).  In reality, M. had to return to Punta Arenas that day, but surprisingly he was told that he would have to bring my tourist group to Punta Arenas the next day. I see all these coincidences were part of our destiny.

In the evening three of us met in the restaurant to eat the delicious Magellan sheep (sorry for vegetarians) and drink some Chilean wine (that made us more relaxed), however the Russian guy disappeared quite fast and we spent a wonderful time with M. Next day we were together in the tourist bus and some hours in the city of Punta Arenas before I had to take the flight to Santiago. In the airport I promised M. that I would call him when I arrive and, surprisingly for him, I did call (even though I haven’t really planned any long-term relationship with M. at that time).

The rest of my story, and it will not only be our love story, I will write in my next post and hopefully it will happen tomorrow!