Hi everyone.

It’s been five weeks and three days since my last post and believe me, I kept a count. It really wasn’t planned that way but one day led to another and I let it happen somehow. Maybe I just needed a break that I was delaying and it found a way for itself anyway.

A hell lot has happened during this time. My haiku got featured on Discover WordPress, to begin with! I want to thank you all for participating in In One Piece because it was its myriad of interpretations that made it what it is today. Thank you for that.

On the reading front, I finished War and Peace for real! Now, I wouldn’t go into cliches about how fantastic and magnificent it was because that’s old news. One thing that I do want to add, however, is that it will make you feel like you actually were present in its battlefields. Guess we have to thank Tolstoy’s army experience for the vivid battle scenes. Also, it makes me want to use terms such as ‘front’, ‘redoubt’ and ‘outflank’ all the time πŸ˜›

On the learning front (I warned you!), my Russian is going pretty well. I  don’t mean able-to-watch-Russian-shows well but just scoring-nicely-on-Duolingo well. My hiatus was not because I was lagging behind on something but just a little mental screeching that begged me for a break. I guess most of us can relate to that feeling but I really want to apologise. I promised to write weekly updates on my Russian learning and I failed. Sorry.

In order to make up for this, I have considered posting the updates of five weeks altogether but it sounds too long a post. Therefore, I will do posts for two weeks clubbed together for the next four weeks so as to give you all a more reasonable account of my progress. Watch out for Week 17 & 18 update this Sunday. Little hint. It’s pretty colorful πŸ˜€