March 1st is the 2 year anniversary of Mila and Kirill's arrival in Canada. Highlights of the years....

Mila volunteered helping other immigrants get work in downtown Toronto. With this experience helping her she got her first job in a call centre for an International Long Distance company. 20% of the time she spoke Russian there. The hours sucked, the job sucked, but it was her foot in the door of Canadian unemployment and looked good on her resume as Canadian experience.

Kirill went from watching his DVD's of Russian cartoons and movies and knowing how to say "Hi...I am fine" to doing everything in English within 3 months. He still has a little bit of an accent but is slowly losing even that now...except for when he says the word "three". Russians really don't like the english TH sound eh?

Mila started a certificate program at Sheridan College in accounting. She has a few more courses left and she will have her first piece of paper from a Canadian school.

Mila at first did try to find Russian friends for Kirill. We have made some good friends this way and have a small circle of Russian friends now. It was through this network that Mila learned of a job available at Scotiabank. It was part time and non-permanent, but it had bankers hours and was more alligned with her schooling in Economics and Accounting. She started this job last March so only had to suffer the call centre for a short time.

Kirill took his first trip back to Russia. While he didn't complain while there or anything, when he arrived back home he was very happy to be back in Canada. Mila was happy to hear him voice this opinion.

Mila's sister came to visit in the fall of last year. While her English still needs a lot of work she did enjoy her time in Canada a lot. So much that she is now trying to plan another visit to come to us again. Maybe meeting us in Florida at the family condo later this year.

Speaking of trips...Mila and Kirill got their 10 year multi-entry visa's to the USA. We went on one shopping expedition...and also had our trip to New York City which Mila loved.

Mila in her short time at the bank, was trained on many aspects of the branch and quickly got moved into permanent part-time work. She was even put forward by the branch as a candidate for "fast track mentoring". They know they have a good worker and are trying to keep her...but the hours are not enough for Mila and she wants more so...

Mila soon starts another new job for a small engineering firm here in Mississauga doing Accounts Receivable. She is sad to leave the bank because she loves the people, but the new position is full time, salary, and will be experience directly related to her schooling.

With this new experience she is already thinking about a Chartered Accountant designation in the future and has started to plan that for after her college course.

Kirill meanwhile is now learing French and has agreed to enter Extended French. He did not want to at first but when we explained to him that IF we moved, he could stay at the same school IF he was in Extended French because it is the only school in the south of our city that has Extended French. Staying in the same school with his friends is important to him so he agreed to learn more French without a fight once it was put to him that way. Now if only I could figure out a way to get him to take out the recycling all the time and it would be awesome.

Coming up next year...
Trip to somewhere new. The Caribbean or somewhere with a beach is what Mila wants. Starting the Citizenship process at the end of the next year will be our final paperwork hurdle I guess. And Mila doesn't know it yet but she is learning to drive this year. Heh.

Hi Dave... that's a neat summation and I'm just posting this in case you thought no response meant 'no interest'... Thank you [ if we had a bow emoticon ] that wasn't called 'accept' - I'd put it here

Some things I post for comment...some I just like to share. I don't necessaryily need a reply. :) Thanks though.

Are you going to continue?

I find your comments very interesting!

Sure...I'll post an update in another year. Hehe.

You could tell us about your near death experiences.

Hmmm...I haven't had any near death experiences...yet. Mila learns to drive this year though so that might change. Haha.

It's a Canuck thing Wiz. We're proud and not very puncual. Some of use F*** up on simple words too from time to time.