Catching Up

Hello one and all!

A few weeks have passed since our last post, so it is about time to post an update of our goings on here. Mostly we have been wrapped up in things related to school. This past Monday was when our grades for the third quarter were due. That meant that last weekend was full of grading for both of us. For me it meant that I had two drafts of essays for two of my classes to go through in the previous week, so I spent quite a bit of time writing comments on essays for my 9/10 American History and 11/12 Russian History class. I am enjoying watching my students grow as writers and thinkers, but any time I get a nice thick stack of essays I begin to regret having assigned them:-P

Last Friday, Amanda and I got the chance to lead the youth group that we help out with. Most of the kids in the youth group are also IA students, but it provides a great chance to interact with them outside of school. The students took a survey at the beginning of the year that asked for topics that they would be interested in looking at this year, and one of the topics of interest was marriage. John, our fellow World Partners teammate who leads the youth group (among his myriad other responsibilities), asked Amanda and I if we wanted to take this topic since we are much closer in age to the students and would have more recent experience with the kind of questions they would be asking. With ten months of marriage under our belts, we felt exceedingly well qualified to be addressing such a topic:-)

We were able to get some good discussion going about questions like why should people get married? How do you know if someone is "the one"? Is there such a thing as "the one"? How old should be when you get married?, and a host of others. Its always fun to hear our students thoughts on things like what sort of characteristics each gender would like in a potential spouse. The girls managed to come up with a list that was easily twice as long as the guys:-) Who knew that having a husband with musical talent would be important to so many women? We also got to answer some of their questions about us, like how we met and got engaged. I'm always surprised when our students show any sort of interest in us as people, but its a good kind of surprise. We are always glad when we have a chance to invest time in the lives of our students and have the chance to share the wisdom (limited as it is) that we have.

With grades turned in, we get to look forward to Spring break next week! We are going to be spending part of our break in Helsinki, Finland. One of the benefits of living in St. Petersburg is that it is very close to a wide array of interesting places, and Amanda and I are eager to take in as many of them as we can. With that in mind, we saved most of the money our families gave us for Christmas so that we could travel somewhere over Spring Break. Two other teachers from our school asked to come as well, so Amanda and I will be joined by Svyeta and Kristina. I always enjoy traveling with other people, so it should be fun. I don't consider myself to be a very good traveler- I get stressed far to easily and can easily get caught up in ridiculous worries, so its always good to have a few other people around to help relieve any self-produced tension. I think there is a major distinction between people who are good travelers and people who are good at living in a foreign country/culture, but that's probably a subject for another post. It's always fun to get outside of the city, which we don't often have the chance to do, so we are both looking forward to it. I'm sure we will have pictures to post once we return!

It's hard to believe that 3/4 of the school year is already completed. I'm sure the next quarter will seem to fly by as well. Time keeps marching on, but we are reminded daily how blessed we are to be where we are with the people that God has blessed us with. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and gifts- this would not be possible without you!

-Matt