Leaving on a jetplane

I remember that old song - "I'm leaving on a jetplane... don't know when I'll be back again.." In this case I do know she'll be back next year in July, but it still means a long way away and I'm going to miss her like anything. I'm  talking about my youngest, Sara, who's studying in Russia. Sara is now almost 22 years old and since she was 17+ she had been living overseas, all because she could not get a place to study medicine here in Malaysia. Life in Russia is hard - especially for my  little girl. There she has to learn to cope with the harsh winter, learn a new language, cope with studying Medicine (which she says is not hard) cook for herself and overall be independent. These days when I look at her I see a young woman who is very independent, full of initiative, caring and sensitive. Maybe I am a bit biased but I think she has grown to be a really remarkable young woman, and will be a good doctor when she comes back next year.

In April 2005 when Sarah went to Nizhny Novgorod she was still a teenager - full in of  dreams. Today she's more down to earth, in fact more so than myself. She's very practical and has a clnical way of looking at things. Maybe its the training that she's getting as doctor so that she can be objective. In the two months she was here for the summer break we spent a lot of time together. We joined a fitness centre (Celebrity Fitness) and went nearly every day except weekends. We went shopping for her stuff to take back to Russia (mainly spices and other foodstuff that you can't get there), she learned to cook curry and made cookies and pastas. We talked about her and Neville (her Sarawakian boyfriend and a Christian) and discussed about marriage and what it takes to keep a marriage going. She's well read, this daughter of mine yet is not a book snob as my elder girl is. We can talk and laugh about things without her getting uptight if I happen to say something she didn't like. She knows that I love her and want only the best for her. Sigh... I miss her already.