Summer!

How exciting! Have fun!

I didn't speak english until I was 14 years old and started attending a compulsory class at school once a week.

But then I still feel like a stranger in the UK although I've been here 26 months.

H - it was my dad that pushed academia too, although, being his first child I was supposed to be a boy! lol - I think he would be proud of me now.

Otto - I'm always impressed when people pick up a second language like you have. I hope you're happy here and eventually feel 'at home', although i doubt it ever will be truly 'home'.

When I go to Poland it feels like i'm going home, until the journey back... that feels like coming home too!

people have been saying 'arranged' and 'approved' marriages would likely be less happy on average. well i just read an article (in german) claiming that in India divorce rates are the same for 'love-marriages' and 'arranged' ones.
i've also heard from arranged marriages in kosovo: having your husband 'chosen' for you (in the end it is you who choses, but others present you with candidates) has certain very clear advantages for women. it means that in the case it doesn't work out, you can always easily leave and your parents/family won't dissapprove.
also, 'love-marriages' are historically quite young in the west, too. there are some historical narratives that love-marriages coincided with a disowning of women. before, women inherited from their mothers and men from their fathers. after, the 'family' was the owning unit and men controlled the family, so also the property that was originally the woman's.