The Apartment!

From Amanda

The wonderful Deb, who has been handling our apartment needs, signed a two year lease for the apartment in Russia that we will be in this morning!
It sounds like the landlord wants to help us out quite a bit and is willing to split the cost of some things with us (a vacuum, etc.).
Finding somewhere to live is always the big concern in Russia so we are very excited about the developments. I'm also very glad we don't have to move between year 1 and 2.

Thanks for all of your prayers!

So my baking sheet idea resulted in the saddest pancakes you have ever seen! But they were edible!

We dont have a griddle so my bright idea was to use a baking sheet.

From Amanda

If you scroll down you will also see that I have added an incredibly silly but very time-wasting fish thing. They follow your mouse and if you click it drops food for them!

Pointless I know, but better than the pictures of deer gadget!

Good News!

From Amanda

We have great news as far as all things Russia are concerned!

1) We have an apartment! We were expecting something close to a one room flat but instead we have a 2 room apartment 5 min walk from the school we are teaching at! It is furnished and has a real bed (a big deal I assure you!) and a water heater for when they shut off the hot water in the summer! We are blessed/spoiled!

2) We have our Russian visas! A praise that we were approved and that they are arriving so early before we are due to fly out!

3) We have books and a clearer idea of what we will be teaching! I have been working on collecting activities and lessons for the books I chose and Matthew has received a copy of his Russian text book in the mail. He has used it before and really likes it and I love the books I am able to teach, so more blessings there!

Prayer requests:

- Now is the time we have to start saying goodbye. I personally try to avoid it so it is hard for me to speak my feelings at times like these. We have places to visit and say goodbye to as well as people.

- We also have to start thinking about packing. *Boo!*

- That I won't run out of books for my students! It may not seem like a big deal but that would be stressful!

- That even though we know adjusting will be rough, we will be able to settle in quickly and make Russia home.

More PFO and some Photos

The first week of PFO is now finished, and it has been a great experience. We have been given a lot to think about as we prepare for the emotional and mental adjustments of moving to a new culture and discover more about understanding and relating to the kinds of students that we will have in an international Christian school. I didn't think that spending a week sitting through over 20 sessions/activities in rural New York would be a great time, but it has been amazing. Just being able to meet 130 other people who are going to teach in Christian schools throughout the world has made it worth the trip by itself! It's encouraging to see so many other people who care so much about education, students, and other cultures. We've met so many great people and have gotten to bond with them on a deeper level in the semi-isolated environment. Now we have another week left before the end of PFO, and I am already beginning to feel sad at the thought of not being with the friends that we've made in just one short week!

Below are some photos from the past week (the top two photos and the group picture were taken by our friends Seth and Laura):

This is of an Arabic tea ceremony that we did one evening, conducted by a couple who lives in Northwest Africa.

Me drinking my tea (it really is tea and not just a tiny beer stein:-P)


A photo of the middle falls at Letchworth State Park. A group of people from PFO went to the park Friday night. The falls are over 100 feet tall and the view is spectacular!



These are our friends Seth and Laura. They are going to be teaching in the Philippines!

A picture of our small advising group of us and three other couples from PFO. From left to right are Bob and Janice, Amanda and I, Seth and Laura, and Lisa and Jay and their two children.

And one last picture- this one looking down from the top of the falls:-)

-Matt

TCK PFO

By Amanda

For two weeks, beginning this past Sunday, Matthew and I will be in Houghton, NY for a Third Culture Kids Pre-Field Orientation. Done through the Association of Christian Schools International, this is to help us learn about the specific needs and gifts of students who grow up in a culture outside of their own and outside of that of their parents. It will also cover how to teach these students and how we as foreigners are to adjust to the cultures we will be entering.

So far things have been pretty good!
The airport we flew out of did not send our luggage on time so it ended up arriving in Buffalo hours after we had left. This in and of itself is not a big deal but we gave them my cellphone number to call when it got there (for when and where to find us) and it began to die shortly after we got to the college. We tried to get a hold of someone (ANYONE!) at the airport or at United who spoke English as a first language, but that did not happen. My phone finally died despite all efforts and I even set out asking many people if they had a charger that would fit my phone, and met great people that way. We were finally able to tap into my voicemail and another couple here who also was missing luggage was able to get through to the guy delivering it, so we waited and talked to them until it came.
While that was a stressful way to begin, we were able to meet people because of it so there was some good! And a good story!

While we know that the students at IA do not love the term "TCK" (there is a Facebook group about this!) it has been helpful to come to a better understanding of what others see in them and also what Matthew and I's culture is like to other cultures.

More updating to come!

If you want to see wedding pictures you can take this link regardless of if you have Facebook or not:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027583&id=62401192&l=b9bfaac3d6
It poured the day before the wedding and rained a bit the morning of but we were able to have the wedding outside and at the park all as planned. The lawn people were a bit far away because the grass was swampy but other than that everything was great!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Heading off

We have a date of departure now! August 2nd is when we will be leaving.

Now that we have a date it seems really close!

We've been married almost a month now and so far we just spend time with friends and family in the area.

Settling in has been pretty easy, though neither of us really look forward to packing everything back up again.

We will be attending a 2 week confrence soon as well so that should afford a bit of a break for us as well!

Thank you for your prayers!

Big Jumps

This is Amanda!

Matthew and I were married at 11:15 am last Saturday!

We've just gotten back from honeymooning in Sandusky and Cleveland. We went to Cedar Point, Kalahari, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We had a really good time and it was very eventful! Now we are settling into our temp condo for the next couple months.

We are almost through visa things which is a relief!

It's really nice to get back for memorial day weekend because we can kick back for a while now before matthew has to go back to work!

Please continue to pray and we will continue to update!

Pictures from the honeymoon!

Matthew at Lake Erie

Me after finally riding the Top Thrill Dragster

Super Fast Update!

So I'm sitting here at work in the library with a little downtime on my hands as I print off a big list of articles, and I decided I would quickly write a few lines. In case anyone forgot (or didn't know), our wedding is this Saturday. As in three days from now. Thats very soon :-) Everything is coming together very nicely and I don't feel stressed or worried or nervous. Even if something goes terribly wrong with the ceremony, at least people will remember it and we'll all have a good laugh about it later.

On the Russia front, we're in the middle of visa applications! That means we have been doing things like getting HIV tests, passport photos, and a whole stack of documents ready to send in along with our application forms. This is one of the great pleasures of going abroad, but we are very grateful to have great people to work with at IA and World Partners to help us through the forms and steps.

I'm sure we'll have some photos and things from the wedding in a few weeks after we get back from scenic Ohio for the honeymoon:-)

-Matt