Soon to be Retreating

Hello!

It has been a while since we updated and especially been a while since I updated!

Things are finally calming down for me so I have some time to sit down and update this!

Teaching has been going really well. Matthew and I are settling into a routine and our students are generally doing well and improving. This week was a little sad for some students because it is progress report time, but overall all is well.

I had a student lose a tooth during the day last week and that was a bit stunning! I A) have never had anyone I knew lose a tooth in years B) don't have any kids so forgot about all of that and C) frequently forget my class is young enough they still lose teeth and such!

Today my 6th graders had a class party for a student's birthday. I made lemon bars and we all brought food and played games. I've never done a birthday party for a student before, but everything went very well!

Matthew and I have been trying to be deliberate about getting out on the weekends. It is easy to get sucked in to lesson planning and grading and such. Last week we went to Nevsky and saw a man wearing an Indy Colts sweater. That was a big surprise and I took a picture of him.

Here are some other pictures from our time there! It was cool outside and the sun was setting.

This last picture goes with the old tradition of chopping the front off of ships you beat in battle and posting them on a column so that other ships could see them. There are two and the figures at the base are figures representing the major rivers. They are called Rostral columns.

The past two Saturdays we have also been helping with the worship band practices for the upcoming high school/junior high retreat. Matthew and I will be heading out tomorrow with the high school and junior high groups (minus the 6th grade, so I have a sub) to a wooded conference center outside the city for a spiritual retreat. Hopefully God will be working in the lives of our students while we are there! But anyway! Matthew has been letting everyone in and out (since we live the closest) and I have been giving pointers to the bands as they practice. So that has been exciting as well!

We were able to meet with the other World Partner people here last week as well. It was a really fun time and it was very relaxing to spend time with others from our group. The family that hosts it has a son in my class so I feel bad that he gets stuck seeing me on those nights too! :-)

Matthew and I successfully picked up our packages that each of our families sent us and that was a lot of fun. It's always just nice to get something and open something!

If you would like to send us a package, we can give you our mailing address (just email us and ask for it at amandaandmattk@yahoo.com). We do have one request. Because of my visa being in my maiden name, if you send us anything just send it to Matthew. Don't put my name on it at all. They can be very picky so if you put Amanda K or Amanda and Matthew K they may or may not actually give it to us. This is not unusual even in the States though so just keep this in mind!

Well that is everything I can think of!

Please pray that retreat will be a growing timefor our students and that things will go smoothly! We will take tons of pictures and will post them over the weekend