Doesn't mean I haven't been languaging. I've kept my Esperanto up and as I've spoken about before, I'm still doing weekly assignments for my Coptic course.
This week, had COVID not happened, I'd be in Montreal at my first-ever Universala Kongreso (UK). For those not in the know, the UK is the annual gathering of Esperanto speakers. Usually thousands show up for a week+ of seminars, gatherings, social events, concerts, plays, opera, skits, excursions, general get-togetherness. I attended the US/Canada annual congress last year as it was in Boston and it was a really good time. And such an immersion experience that I literally forgot all my Russian when trying to speak to a Canadian Esperantist who's originally from the Soviet Union. Seriously, couldn't produce one syllable of Russian. It was weird.
The UK comes to North America maybe once a decade, so it was sad that it didn't happen this year. (Yes, I understand there are more pressing & important issues out there. This is my blog, though, so I'm allowed to be selfish.) Thankfully, UEA (the international Esperanto organization) and the local organizers in Canada agreed to moving the Montreal UK to 2022. The attendance charges have been "forwarded" to the 2022 UK!
In place of an in-person UK this year, they decided to do a virtual one. Stupid me, I forgot about it till yesterday. Which sucks as there was a lecture on Esperanto and WWII, which readers of this blog will know is a great area of interest for me. (Here's hoping they'll make the videos available afterwards.) But today I "attended" a couple gatherings and it was great to hear Esperanto again. And I've found a bunch I want to attend tomorrow, and this time I've set alarms in my calendar so I won't miss them!
So, dear reader(s), there's the update. The future might hold another language, but who knows. For now, Esperanto and Coptic are enough!
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