Moving In

We made it! :-)

For the curious, we now live in Champaign-Urbana, IL where Matthew is attending the University of Illinois for a PhD in Russia History. There's been a lot in play getting us here and we are beginning to get settled.

We stayed for about two months with various family members before we were able to move. There was much activity and lots of food. 

Cirniki dinner (there's a Russian deli/grocery in Indy!)

Matt and Jarod on a zipline at the public park near my parents

Blini feast!

A good friend of mine from college and her husband live very close to us and that has been a huge blessing. It makes a big difference to be able to move into a new area and have people close by that you know! 

We loaded up a truck with all of our stuff and moved in on the 16th. We were able to go through all of the things we got from our wedding and showers, and it was like getting presents all over again since so much of it was still brand new! 

And here is the apartment:

outside 

We both like it a lot here. The community in grad housing is very diverse and we've had great experiences with everyone from the school as well. We've met people at the college and in our apartment complex and everyone has been really friendly and welcoming. 

Last week I also had time and made an Illini cake (UofI's colors are orange and navy blue). I've never done a cake with layers or frosting before so that was fun. 

There isn't going to be a ton of detail on here now that we're in the US but we wanted to just let people see where we are and hear a little about what is going on. 

Thank you everyone who has been following what we've been up to and who has been praying for us. Keep us in your prayers as we start this new chunk of life!

End of Russia and Traveling Home

Hello!
It's been a while!

If you could see our calendar for the month of June you would see that almost every day had something in it. Many friends had us over for dinner or went places with us. It was an excellent time for us and we loved being able to spend our last month in Russia in that way. It was also nice to be able to say goodbye to people at a more relaxed pace and to not rush back since we are in limbo until the middle of August.

Part of our June adventures included seeing different things in the city before we left. One place we went with our friend (who was also Matt's Russian teacher) was the Republic of Cats. It's a coffee shop on one side and on the other side is a cat heaven! :-)
The cats have all been rescued or have been mousers in the Hermitage. And there is a great variety of cats there.

Giant cat throne

mural of the city with it's famous rooftops and cats

my favorite was the "naked cat"

This one was Matt's favorite cat

Another thing we checked off of our list was riding the "retro tram." As the name suggests it is a tram that is still styled similarly to the ones from the Soviet era. In the picture below you can see a row of Soviet era ads. 

It takes a really nice route through the main parts of the city and there is a guide who fills you in on some tram history. 

Our metro station through the retro tram window

The retro tram!

The Political History Museum was something we had heard about but since there are a lot of museums in St Petersburg we had put it off. It was easily one of the best museums we've seen in the city. The museum is located in two different houses, one of which belonged to a famous Russian ballerina, Mathilda-Marie Kschessinskaya. Her house was taken over by the Communist Party (she fled to Paris) and one of the rooms facing the street was Lenin's office and the balcony was where Lenin addressed a crowd. 

Their current temporary exhibit, chronicling the beginning of political history in Russia (here marked as the freeing of the serfs). 

Soviet hand painted plate, with the center letters forming CCCP (USSR in Russian)

Wall with different items from the Soviet Era

Another exhibit was about a train line made through Siberia during the Soviet Union. Amusingly it's acronym is BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline).

A pin from Georgia, during the first World War, of St George

Near the museum, closer to the river, is a stone taken from a gulag in Siberia. It is called the Slovetsky stone, and around the base is a quote from the poet Anna Akhmatova, famous for writing poetry about life under Stalin. The quote translates, "I wish to call them all by name, but..."

Matt took his last epic walk at the same time that I played an epic board game with a friend and his family. The game is based around the stories of Lovecraft and took four hours to play. Matt walked out to this church, the St Sampson Cathedral, in the same amount of time. :-P 

We went to see the bridges being raised for the first time since we moved to St Petersburg as well. In the summer the bridges will open to let ships pass through the Neva. It happens late at night (in this case at 1 am) but it was a lovely night for us to go!

After all of this we finally flew out on June 23rd. We took 4 bags (all of which were overweight and one of them very much so) and friends of ours drove us to the airport. Another friend was there so we could give someone the keys and having people around made it easier to leave the apartment. 

The last week or so was a lot of packing and weeding out and throwing away. We gave piles and piles of clothes away to Salvation Army! We did know who would be moving in after us though so we were able to leave a lot of things behind and did not have to empty out the apartment, a huge blessing. 

We were very blessed in our flights and especially regarding our baggage. Our flight had been changed by the airline a few times and because of this we flew to Finland (one hour mini-flight) and then on to Iceland. The Finnish flight did not charge a cent for any of our numerous and very heavy bags since the flight was through Iceland Air. We were obviously very excited about this!

Our flights over all went well on day one. Matthew became ill on one flight but fortunately we had half a day in Reykjavik. Another blessing was that our bags were checked through to Boston, so when we got to Iceland we didn't have to worry about any baggage! It was a lot of fun to see Reykjavik, though most of their tourism is the natural formations and outdoors activities. 

The city from a hill along the shore

Matt :-)

Me with an abstract Viking ship (a lot of what we know about the Vikings come from Iceland)

Gorgeous Lutheran church, the largest in Iceland and named after a poet who wrote the Passion Hymns (called Hallgrimskirkja)

The back

The area the church is located in is called the Neighbourhood of the Gods and the sign explains how the stress in this central area are all named after gods in the Norse myths. The intersections of the streets are also planned to match the relationship between the characters. 

After our short jaunt in Iceland we were off again and arrived healthily in Boston. There we went through customs and rechecked our bags. Again, we had a lot of bags and they were all overweight. The man at the counter was trying to negotiate with us to save us money but we told him we were moving and there was nothing we could do. In the end he didn't charge us for some of the expenses and saved us quite a lot of money. Another huge blessing! 

We were supposed to fly into Chicago but a storm hit just as we arrived there, so we were rerouted to Milwaukee. Finally we arrived and Matt's parents and brother were there to meet us! 

Thank you everyone who prayed for us and our return to the United States. We were blessed in how smoothly things went and how simple things were where they could have become very complicated. 

Last "End of the Year" with IA

We have officially completed our final year with International Academy! It's crazy how quickly everything has gone, this year and overall. 

Our last week of school was May 26 - 30th. We had awards day and there were choir performances as well. 

Me giving English awards

The junior high art class also had their final art projects on display. They were very cool and from a bunch of different mediums. Since most of our students are living in another culture than their own, many of the projects delt with identity. 

The project above is from one of our Japanese students. She explained the right side of the painting represented how she felt when she first got to the school two years ago (sad and overwhelmed). The left side shows how she feels now: that things are colorful and promising.

As always Matthew had some nice notes and pictures on his finals. The note above is from his 7th and 8th Ancient History class and she quotes the wish that the Roman Senate gave to Emperors. 

We also brought home a lot of the things we wanted to take back to the US with us. Matthew was given this lovely and gigantic Angry Bird for men's day and there was no way we could just leave it behind! :-) 

This was one of our biggest graduating classes, with four girls and one boy. Three of them had been at IA for most of their educations as well which is very exciting for a relatively young school. 

The five seniors

The annual singing of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands/This is My Father's World"

Graduation was a time where we said a lot of goodbyes as well. For several students, we knew we would be able to see them again and that made it easier to say goodbye. But for a very large number of students, if we are unable to visit the school (which we are really hoping to be able to do) we won't be able to see them again. This has been something that has made saying goodbye to Russia and the International Academy harder than when we said goodbye to move here. We knew we would see our families and friends in the US again, but at an international school there is always the possibility that this will be the last time you see that person. This is part of why people overseas really emphasize saying goodbye well. So we made sure to catch as many of our students and friends as we could. We received a lot of love and kind words and hugs, as well as some lovely cards and letters that meant a lot to us. 

One of Matthew's students drew this picture of him in a smoking jacket with a pipe and leaning on a mantle next to a candelabra shaped like the double headed eagle. Matthew would joke about how he wanted to come into class like this and so the student titled it "The Real Mr. K"

The same Japanese student who made the above painting made cards for both Matthew and I. Matthew's card has him as an Angry Bird, while sitting on a Russian history book. There is an entry in the book that has his picture and says "Taught History at International Academy of St Petersburg. Loved Angry Bids."

And this is my card! The characters on it are from a company whose parent company is Sanrio (who owns Hello Kitty). The line is Sentimental Circus and the characters are all stuffed animals who are circus performers. I'm dressed like Shappo, the main character whose hand I'm holding. :-) I discovered this through the Japanese twins I had in class last year. 

Soon after the end of school we were off to visit our friend Sveta and her family at their datcha. We love being able to spend time with them and the datcha is always very relaxing and fun. We traveled to Pskov, which was a border city for early Russia and was a prominent trading point as well. Pskov was founded in the tenth century, making it at least a thousand years old. We were able to see the kremlin there and had a tour of the building in which city business was conducted. 

Sveta and myself

This is the city's oldest coat of arms.

Replica of a desk and actual papers that belonged to clerks at the time. 

The military governor's office

Another datcha activity was planting a tree! Matt and Sveta's father dug up a tree and planted it in their garden. We wrote our name on a tag and they will tie it to the tree so they will remember who planted the tree. 

Sveta's dad and her niece with Matthew

Us with our tree! It was a very sweet gesture and we're really flattered to know that there will always be a tree in Russia with our names on it. 

The school also officially has a new location for next year! It is on a different side of the city (the side opposite us on the red line) but is really close to metro and other transport. IA will be there for five years and the building is going to give us a lot more room to grow! 

We went to check it out and were very impressed. The facade on the front of the building has been recently redone and is very pretty! The building is 6 floors and the owners of the building will be helping the school do all of the things necessary to get the building ready for us to use it as a school. The area around it is very nice and the entrance is actually on a walking street with stores very nearby. There's a really new playground behind the school as well, so that will be good for the elementary. 

The other side of the building and me giving it the thumbs up. :-)

We went to see the bridges rise as well. We are in the middle of the white nights right now which is always a lot of fun since people are out at all hours, just hanging out and enjoying the light skies. 

Even though school is out, we've been keeping busy. We've spent a lot of time with friends as people get ready to head back to the US and as we get closer to leaving as well. We've also visited places that we wanted to see before we leave, like an art museum by our apartment. 

As mentioned before, we do have an apartment in the US through University of Illinois' graduate housing. We're excited to have something that is very essential already taken care of and be able to make some plans. 

We fly back on June 23rd and arrive in the US on June 24th. We will actually be able to visit Reykjavik, Iceland for a short time, due to one leg of our flight being rescheduled. It should be nice to have a mini-vacation as we fly back to the US!

Continue to pray for International Academy as they have a lot of new faces and a new building heading into next year. And continue to pray for us as we get ready to leave our home and start again in Illinois.