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.
