Winter Break and Christmas

School went on break for us on December 17th and we have been staying preety busy since then! :-)
We've been busy getting out and walking around in the snow.

This week we went to a Christmas Market on Nevsky Prospekt and went to a new mall here called Galleria (it has almost 300 stores in it).

We've also been watching plenty of Christmas movies and we had a get together with our WP team Tuesday. Yesterday we went to the Hermitage ( a MASSIVE art museum here with TONS of art from around the world).

We went on a walk to pick up a package in the mail and we passed by these very cool houses. We always pass them on the bus ride there but we were actually able to get some pictures. If you enlarge the picture you can see some really cool old style wood work on the peaked roofs.

Below are the many presents we got from students and other teachers. We had several bags full of presents! We definitely felt very appreciated and loved!

New Year's lights on Nevsky. New Year is celebrated similarly to the US, but here it is a much bigger deal. Like Christmas in the States. So the street decorations are New Year's decorations!

Here is a New Year's tree in front of Kazanskysabor (Kazan cathedral) on Nevsky.

A large light bear at the Christmas market on Nevsky.

A New Year's tree on the way to get the package.

A statue of Peter the Great by the Gulf of Finland.

Beautiful sunset (at about 4 pm!).

More Christmas market! They had stalls lining a park with various foods and such.

A statue of Catherine the Great that stood in the center of the park the market was around.

Frozen canals!

These statues hold the building up at every corner and column on this building.

The massive Galeria.

If you click on the picture you can see the little man on the roof better. They hire people here to shovel snow off the roof and to hack of the icicles. The insulation here is terrible so we get massive icicles.

The Hermitage all snowy and with a Christmas tree.

They lit the Alexander Column for New Years. This is from Palace Square facing the Hermitage.

A lovely and huge archway that leads from Palace Square to Nevsky. Another New Year's tree and the Hermitage behind it.

We will be going to Estonia (Tallinn specifically) on the 27th so we will bring news of that with us when we return! And of course pictures.

In other news, I had a dentist appointment on Tuesday. All in all it went better than any dental work I have had done in the US and she was very through. They found that I had a cracked filling and so hopefully that will be the last time that needs to be taken care of!

Thank you for all of your prayers and blessings this holiday season!

Winter!

Greetings once more!

Well another week has ended for us and another new milestone is accomplished: first semester grades are in! We have one more week before the actual end of the semester (and the start of our three week break! Hooray!), but grades have to be turned in the week before. Amanda and I have now officially completed our work as real teachers for a full semester. The semester has been a tremendous experience and has flown by so quickly- perhaps I'll do some sort of reflective retrospective on it later as I try to process my thoughts about being a first time teacher in Russia. But for now, I'm content to sit back and enjoy the slower pace.

As our thoughts are brightened by the prospect of Christmas and several weeks of recovery and relaxation, we are continuing to enjoy winter weather. We've gotten lots of snow in this past week and according to all weather accounts we are in no danger of losing it anytime soon. We will no doubt be blessed with a white Christmas this year:-) Having as much snow as we have right now is unusual for St. Petersburg at this time of the year. Last year was one of the coldest and snowiest winters ever for St. Petersburg and early indications suggest that this winter may give last year a run for its money. The amount of snow and the temperatures aren't that different from what we've experienced back in northern Indiana, but we get the added benefit of ice cold blasts of sea air coming down on us from the Gulf of Finland.

After church today, I went outside to take some pictures around our apartment building and courtyard to document our first taste of winter in Russia. If temperatures stay like this, we could be in for quite a bit of snow since January and February are usually the coldest and most wintry months for St. Petersburg. After getting to experience the hottest day ever recorded in August, we get to enjoy the opposite now. The days are continuing to get shorter and shorter as we approach the winter solstice in a little over a week. The sun barely gets up over the horizon on the days when its clear enough to be seen at all, and it remains dark until between 9:30-10 in the morning and is dark again by 4:30 in the afternoon. For some people the lack of sunlight can be very challenging, but we feel blessed that so far neither Amanda and I have been too bothered by it. We appreciate your prayers and know that they are helping us!

Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland to get everyone in the Christmas spirit! Click on the photos to enlarge and zoom in so you can appreciate the full rich detail:-)


Here is the view looking down Kanareechnaya Ulitsa, the little street that we live on. The trees make a lovely canopy of snow.


This is our apartment building from the front. We live on the second floor and our apartment faces the opposite side of the building. Our apartment is directly behind the one with the white balcony to the right of the red door.


I love when the snow falls in thick, sticky flakes because it means that it will stick to tree branches and form beautiful designs like the one on this tree that is in front of the school right across from our apartment.


This is our courtyard. I took this standing at the far end of our building looking down its length.


Falling icicles are a very real danger in St. Petersburg and occassional cause deaths. Our building has some of the biggest icicles of any of the surrounding buildings, at least on the backside of it. It's about time someone comes to shovel off our roof!


Here is our apartment! Its the one with the chair on the balcony and the open blinds with the light on. I took this photo standing on our playground.


Here is one more photo looking down the length of our building. You can see the snow and icicles bulging over the edge of the roof.


This photo isn't from today, but it shows some fun winter accessories for Russian children:-) The little child in this photo is pushing a sort of sled stroller that is very common here. I think its a great idea- you can still take your baby places in the winter thanks to the stroller sled!


And finally, one more photo that we took a while back but hadn't posted yet. This is to show you how bundled up all the small children get here. As Amanda likes to point out, babies and toddlers here all look like the Michelin Man:-)

Well, its a good thing that Amanda and I both love snow:-)

-Matt

Beginning of the Christmas Season!

Greetings once more friends, family, casual acquaintances, and anyone who has arrived at this page by accident.

Well the snow and the cold temperatures have continued to bless us with their presence over this past week:-) Temperatures below freezing, and several days with temperatures below 0, have been the norm so far.

With wintry weather and the end of the semester breathing down our necks, what else can we do but begin to think about Christmas?

This weekend our goal was to decorate our house for Christmas. As a part of this goal, today we made yet another voyage to our favorite store: IKEA! IKEA has rapidly gone from a novelty store catering to the slightly higher-end hip/mod consumer to a necessity. In the U.S. we had gone to IKEA a grand total of 1 time, and that was only about a month before our departure. However, upon arriving in St. Petersburg we have paid 5 visits so far. Prices are higher in Russia, but quality often is not in the world of home wares, so IKEA has become our go-to place for affordable things that won't quickly break. But this is not an advertisement for a Swedish furniture retailer, it is a post about how our latest trip to IKEA has provided our recently acquired Christmas tree with ornaments!

Technically, what we have is a New Year's tree since New Year's is the big holiday in Russia, but we thought we could put it to use on multiple holidays:-) As usual, we have a few pictures of our decorating.

Moving quickly to our other main preoccupation here, life goes on quickly at school with the semester ending in two weeks and grades due at the end of this week. To top it off, we have our Christmas play and band/choir concerts this coming Friday. As you can probably imagine this has created something of a frantic atmosphere at school as everyone realize that there is too little time to get too much done.

As an added bonus, people have begun to drop like flies due to sickness:-( We have teachers in and out all week as various strains of the flu strike St. Petersburg. So far we have been blessed with good health, but just yesterday Amanda started feeling sick and went home early from school. Thankfully, she is feeling much better today, but it's just another reminder that this is the time of year for viruses and flu bugs and colds to strike. The biggest problem has been the number of teachers affected. With such a small school we don't have any substitute teachers so if someone is sick that leaves all the rest of the teachers scrambling to cover their classes. As a school, we would greatly appreciate your prayers for the health of our teachers and students so that we can finish this semester strong and in good health!

And now, some photos to get you in the mood for the Holidays!


Amanda decorating our wonderful (artificial) tree!


Some fun window decorations that Amanda's family mailed us recently.


Our box of wonderfully Scandinavian-looking straw ornaments!


Our tree:-D We decorated it with tinsel to make it look like the Russian flag.


Ornament close up.


Another ornament close up (please forgive the glare from the tinsel)


In lieu of an angel atop our tree we have . . . Hello Kitty!!!


Whoa, who is that handsome devil?


And to top it off, two red straw reindeer to sit atop the windowsill in our living room.

That's all for now!

Matt

Thanksgiving and First Snow!

Greetings from the Snow-covered streets of St. Petersburg:-)

Winter got off to an unusually early start for St. Pete's this week as cold winds and snow greeted us. St. Petersburg, while certainly subject to cold temperatures and snowfall, is not all that different in terms of its weather from Northern Indiana where we lived before, so even the locals here were surprised by the several inch deep snow that has covered the ground for the past half week. With temperatures in the upper teens and twenties (Fahrenheit) and a nice stiff breeze from the Gulf of Finland, we've been getting a taste of what will no doubt be the norm for all of January and February:-)

However, an early start to winter weather did not dampen our spirits of gratitude as we celebrated Thanksgiving this past week. While Thanksgiving day was spent working at school, we had the day off on Friday and spent it with Masha's family on Kronstadt. A good time was had by all and Amanda and I got to stretch our Russian language abilities a bit. Saturday was the World Partners Thanksgiving celebration with the rest of our team members. We enjoyed a meal of typical American foods like turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie:-)

We certainly have much to be thankful for this year, as these past 11 months have been extremely eventful for Amanda and I:
- graduation in May
- wedding May 22
- a summer filled with planning for departure, visiting friends and family, and
adjusting to married life
- moving to Russia and settling in to a new country
- beginning work as first year teachers at IA

Through all of this, we have been so blessed by God and what He has done through other people. The support we have from our friends and family both here and in America, the prayers and gifts of our wonderful donors, and the constant encouragement from everyone at IA has sustained us and helped us thrive through our first four months here in Russia.

So a heart-felt thank you to everyone who has prayed for us, given financially, sent us words of encouragement, told others about our work, or done anything else known or unknown to help us here!

As is often the case, here are a few photographs that cover the past week or so of our activities:


Tuesday night we watched CKA, St. Petersburg's hockey team, take on Spartak Moscow in a great game. Unfortunately, Spartak won 5-4 in a shootout. We sat right behind the fan section and took this picture of their colorful flags.


A picture of the action at the other end. Watching world class hockey from the 18th row for less than $7 a ticket is easy to get used to:-P


The goalie for Spartak was none other than NHL legend Dominic Hasek! He's still playing at age 45 and looked pretty good in the game.


A snow-covered bridge on Kronstadt from the night we had dinner with Masha's family.


A picture of our snowy courtyard taken from out of our window.


Our playground is even more fun with the added snow!


World Partners Thanskgiving in Russia! I couldn't get everyone in the picture, but a good time was had by all!

-Matt

Flowers and Q& A

So our anniversary (6 months! Not a year yet.) is the 22nd! So we gave presents last weekend and Matthew gave me a lovely daisy bouquet. :-) As of now we have spent more of our "married life" in Russia than in the US!

Pictures!

We also recieved a wonderful package from Grace Church and their kids department! It had tons of things like postits, fun computer paper, stickers for good papers, and games for our classes!

They also sent us tons of pictures they drew, some of which are on our refrigerator.

The whole thing made us smile a lot and was a lot of fun.

We also got cards with questions for us so we will answer those here!

Q) Is it cold there?

A) Yes, but no more so than when we lived in South Bend, IN. The weather is fairly similar actually. Constant, drastic changes in weather or temperature from bodies of water. But the wind here is the killer. We live fairly close to the Gulf of Finland and the wind that comes in from the Gulf is cutting and frigid! So that is much colder.

Q) Do you go to church/do they have church?

A) They do have church. Traditional Russian Christianity is called Orthodoxy, but Protestant or Lutheran is common here as well. We go to a Protestant church and the service is in Russian, translated to English.

Q) What do you like to eat?

A) We like our American food and they do have Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and KFC here. But as far as Russian food, there are many things we like. One is called Perogi. It can be like a pie or it can be like a pastry. They have ones filled with meat and they have ones filled with fruit or chocolate. We have a little store that makes them on our walk to school and they are very cheap and wonderful there. About $1! We also like something called Blini. They are like crepes but the Russians have many more kinds of fillings for them. They fill them with caviar and chicken, and chocolate and banana. Tons of different kinds! For more about blini, check out Matthew's post. Finally, there is a wonderful thing here called Sirok. It is a kind of dessert cheese and they have them in little chocolate covered bars. They taste just like little cheesecakes!

Q) What is your favorite store?

A) Our favorite grocery stores are called Paloshka and Lenta. They have a huge variety of things that other stores do not so we like going there. We don't really go clothes shopping because clothes here are so expensive! There is a new department store that opened here on Nevsky called Stockman's and they have a grocery store in the basement that has all sorts of things that we can't usually get here (like oreo's and Ritz Bits with Cheese!).

Q) Have you had a good time?

A) Yes! We really like being here. The city is nice and we live in one of the best areas in the city. Also the school we teach at is the best school I have ever taught in and we love everyone we work with and our students! It will be very hard to leave here someday.

Q) Have you gotten sick and had to go to the doctor?

A) No, thank goodness! We have both been pretty healthy. We've both had colds and I have a but of stomach weirdness right now but we have not been so sick we have had to go to the doctor. Matthew did have to go to the doctor for another reason though! He had to go so that the government would see if he was healthy and decide if we could stay here or not! So he went with other people from school and they had to go to different doctors who did different things and sent the results to us and the government. He is healthy so we can stay!

So if anyone else is interested in sending us questions, we would be glad to answer them! Thank you Grace for your wonderful package and constant prayers!

Amanda

Harvest Party!

Hello everyone!
It has been awhile! Things got busy and routine around here but we are back with a photo filled post for today!
November the 5th Matthew and I helped with a high school lock in. It went really well and because we have amazing kids there were no problems at all! I stayed up till about 3 am and then slept for a while and Matthew stayed up all night.
Yesterday we ran a 80's themed room for the school's Harvest Party. Very much like a Halloween party but in November and not everyone in the school is from a country that does Halloween. So this allowed everyone to get in on dressing up!
Our room was karaoke from the 80's (in theory though we had many other songs).
So some pictures!
These are two of my students. On the right we have a World War I aviator (he had goggles on and off through the day) and on the left we have an 80's punk. He used to have fairly long hair so that was a surprise! They sang various songs but in this picture it was Do-Re-Me.

Here we have Ben, one of our Australians, singing Yesterday!

One of Matthew's Korean students singing Solider of Fortune by Deep Purple. We were very impressed he knew it! Especially since the only other song he knew in the book was Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree!

In purple and also (at least the girl on the left) styled to the 80's!
Our amazing 4th and 5th grade teacher singing a very dramatic and apparently weird (it was in Russian so I couldn't tell!) song.

Her family came as the Flintstones (full picture below). She is in my 6th grade class and was a good Dino!

From the Japanese families there were paper throwing stars. The twins are Japanese school girls and the older girl is in traditional Japanese dress.

These girls went as 50's ladies. The one in front looked exactly like a 50's Menonite which was hilarious!

We had a Bottle of Coke and the one next to her is one of my 6th graders as a greaser. He has the most hair I have ever seen on a boy so it was perfect!

Again we have the meonite and next to her "Dancing Queen" from ABBA (read her sign!)

And the Flintstones in their car! You can't see Dino but you can see the rest of the family. And they sang the whole theme song which was pretty cool. :-)

Here we have the high school Mafia. Apparently these amazing clothes were left in their apartment by their landlord! Very nice!

And Pacman for the 80's! On the back they had the blue and white aliens for when they are being chased!

And finally, our Swedish family went as the Swedish royal family!

So that is all for now and there will be more again soon!

Amanda