Fall Retreat

Hello! Last week IA had their 3rd annual Retreat. Since we had a bigger group this year only the high schoolers came and the Junior High had their own Retreat. Matt and I were both with the High School. Our theme this year was Breaking Through, meaning finding a breakthrough into new spiritual depth.

On a different note however below is a dog that lives in our neighborhood. He's super old and adorable. I call him Wheels. :-)

Matt and I were in the freshman van on the way there (doing our penance for the trip :-P).
We were responsible for the games the first afternoon we were there. The second game we did was rock, paper, scissors where a whole team would choose what they were and then the losing team had to run to their safe zone.

Second game was Ninja, which I had never heard of until we went to the US this summer. You are trying to hit someone else's hands and you get one offensive and one defensive move. We played where you have to stay frozen until your turn comes back around so we got some fun poses from the students. :-)

The speaker this year was a friend of our head teacher; he coaches in Ohio and he was in Russia to speak at Retreat and have a basketball after school the rest of the week.

Based on the feedback at the end of retreat, he was really able to speak to their hearts which is wonderful!
The first night we had our traditional apple bobbing (listening to the Russians trying to say that is the BEST by the way!). Mercifully this year we narrowed it down so only a few people from each grade had to do it. They were given a minute to get as many as they could.
Two brothers we have (one above) are apparently apple bobbing experts because one got 15 in a minute and the other got 17!




Our shirts this year were red and white, our school colors. Hence the sea of red above.
One of the guys who came with the speaker had them play Musical Chairs of Death. The students do the usual thing but two people end up without a chair. Then you throw a ball and whoever gets the ball first stays in the game and the other person is out.
(Mr K with students!)
When it got to the last chair, it was one girl against one of our basketball players and it got really intense! The chair was actually broken in the process but the girl did win!
We also had our last night marshmallow roast and share time. The Korean guys sang a Korean hymn which was very cool since we don't get to hear a lot of that.

The speaker also brought US marshmallows and grahmcrackers. There is nothing in Russia with the same lightness as grahmcrackers so we had to use cookies and the marshmallows in Russia are awful! So we were all very excited!

All in all retreat was a big success! The students were great and prayers were answered!

Matt and I also went walking this past weekend and we refound this sign. It apparently is a pub and restaurant. :-)
The Peter and Paul Fortress from the other end of the street.
There is this stunning mosque in the city as well so I was able to take pictures of that. It's covered in turquoise and blue tiles.

The whole time we were out there were just amazing clouds, big and puffy layers.

In other news, it looks like Matthew and I may actually be in better financial condition which is a huge answer to prayer. We are still about $350 short a month but that is a big step down from earlier figures. Please continue to pray about this need!

Settling In

It has been a few weeks since our last post, and what a busy time it has been. The new school year has consumed quite a bit of our time, and there have been several moments for each of us where we have felt fairly overwhelmed. With our new classes (and more of them for both of us than last year), it's taken a bit of time to feel like we really have a grip on what we are doing.

Thankfully, things have started to fall into place and we both feel comfortable and positive about how all of our classes are going. A new year and new classes always presents new challenges and for Amanda especially this year has been a chance to get to know a whole new group of students for the first time which always takes adjusting. This year I (Matt) am teaching World History for the 7th, 8th, and 10/11th graders (all of these are different courses with different textbooks, etc.), Geography for the 9th graders, a once a week fine arts class called Humanities for the 8th graders, and the same philosophy of science class I did last year for three of this year's seniors. Amanda has 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10/11th grade English literature/composition classes and is also teaching 6th grade Social Studies again this year.

Additionally, after school three days a week Amanda has been tutoring a student and I am taking Russian lessons with one our teachers twice a week after school. Between all of this, we haven't felt like we've had a lot of down time, but as we settle into a good rhythm of lesson planning and preparation we are doing a better job of finding time to relax. It's kind of scary to think that this is already the fourth week of classes for this year. It still seems like its just the beginning, but we are almost halfway through our first quarter!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us during this past month since we returned to Russia. It has been busy and at times quite stressful, but we are doing well and know that God is sustaining us and working through your prayers! I'm sure this year will continue to have its share of challenges, but we believe it will be a good year for the school and that we will continue to grow and adapt as teachers. We continue to feel incredibly blessed to be able to be here.

One of the most important events of the first quarter is coming up quickly for us. Next week is IA's third annual spiritual retreat for the High School students. Amanda and I will both be going on it again this year and it will be held at the same location outside of the city as last year. Look for a post sometime next week after it is over! The retreat will run from Monday to Wednesday of next week and we will have speakers flying in from the US to lead our sessions. This is a very important time for our school spiritually as we take time out from normal classes to spend time bonding as a school and focusing on knowing God better.

Please join with us in prayer for this year's retreat. We have many students who are not Christians and this is a great opportunity for them to experience His presence. Please pray that our students will have open hearts and be receptive to God's leading during this time. Pray also for our speakers and for us teachers that will be going along to supervise, lead small groups, and lead games that we would all have wisdom and do our part to make this time not just a fun time but a spiritually significant one.

On a different note, last weekend we managed to get out for a bit and pay a visit to New Holland, the formerly closed-off area of St. Petersburg that we posted a few photos of from our boat trip in the last blog entry. The island is finally open to the public regularly for the first time since the days of Peter the Great. In the past it has served as a military barracks, shipbuilding yard, prison, and radio station among other things. Now it is being redeveloped for public use and currently has a restaurant, art displays, a small garden and farmers market, and sports fields for public use. Below are some photos we took along with a few other photographic odds and ends we've accumulated in the past few weeks:-)


A view of the pond in the center of New Holland. It was a gorgeous clear day and the sky reflected wonderfully off of the surface of the water.


The garden area. Each of the small plots is sponsored by a local business and growing a variety of different plants.


Our more horticulturally savvy readers may know what this plant is, but I have no idea what it is. All I know is that it looks fascinating!


In the distance you can see part of the main gates that flank the waterway leading out of New Holland. We posted pictures of what the arch looks like from the water in our last post.


It's Amanda!


The white ship in this photo is the yacht of the Danish Royal Family. The Queen of Denmark was in St. Petersburg paying a state visit and staid on this yacht during her stay. The ship behind it is a Danish naval vessel that I assume came as an escort.


This is a mural that we walk past every night on our evening walk that Amanda is particular likes.


Night sets in on Maly Prospekt.


A giant inflatable character stationed outside of the exposition center near our apartment.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

-Matt

First Week of School!

Hello everyone!

Matt and I are currently looking back on our first full week of school at IA! Things are certainly different this year for many reasons. Our administration is changing and evolving this year so this is also a year of flux. Matt and I are also teaching all new classes and this is the first year I am with the high school.

Our first day was Bell Day and we didn't actually have classes. First students brought in flags for each of the countries that we have represented in our student body. This year we have a British family so that was a new addition.

Everybody gathered on the third floor.
Each teacher took a different group of students and talked to them about policy, etc. Then we were off for some fun!

Below: The old Singer sewing machine building currently houses Dom Kinigi, a bookstore.

We went with a group of teachers to get food. Then we went with our friends Jarrod and Christina on a boat tour of the city. Since the city is built over water you can see a lot of the major sites of the city by boat. This is something none of us had done before and it was a lot of fun. We found a less touristy area and had the boat almost to ourselves.

Below: A statue that people throw coins onto.
The Venice of the North!
Below: The building with the green roof is a famous school. The men who would go there wore distinct fur hats and there is a well known song about them.
Above and Below: the Anichkov Bridge. Each corner features a man with a horse in various poses. It runs over the Fontanka Canal, a major waterway through the city.
We found that being on the canals really makes it clear that the roads were never intended to be the main way of traffic. The canals are huge and give access to a lot of important things while the roads are narrow and there is next to no parking in the city.

Below: One of my favorite churches in the city. The domes are a deep blue with gold stars. Dostoevsky was married in this church.

above: The St Nicholas Cathedral
Above: This is one of my favorite buildings. It has no significance at all but all the sides are painted in this abstract geometric pattern. Christina told us it is a hostel.
These pictures are of New Holland. It was an old shipyard and the waterway gate here is super impressive!
Below: The Moika Palace. (Warning: the following story is not for the weak of heart) This is where Rasputin was killed. Personally I find this to be one of the creepiest stories I have ever heard. Rasputin was a "religious" figure who rose to power in the early 1900s. He claimed that he could cure Tsar Nicholas's son who had fits. He would threaten that some harm may come to the boy if anything happened to him and so gradually he was able to gain significance in the royal family. There had been attempts on his life before but he always survived. The story goes that finally some princes became worried about his negative control over the royal family and decided to kill him. They tried to poison him but it had no effect at all (his daughter later suggested he may have developed an immunity to it). He was then shot in the back, beaten, shot some more, and then tied and thrown in the river. At the time it was concluded that what killed him was drowning (though now this has been contested). He was one seriously scary guy!

A lovely read bridge. We saw several of many different colors on this. It is funny too because you never notice they are colored when you are going over them.

Yesterday, after school, we went to AgroRus. It was described to us as being like a county fair and it was held literally four blocks away from us.

Below: You place a piece of metal between the two huge pieces and then hit it with a hammer. You get an imprinted coin you made yourself!
Camel and pony rides! The saddle below has a cartoon character on it that Matt and I really like.
We also had the Russian equivalent of fair food. Fried dough with meat and cheese in it.

There were many plant stalls and this lovely rosebud.

This stall is selling samovars which are traditional Russian kettles (of a sort). They vary from smallish to gigantic.

Above: hot corn stands are very common at events and sports. They also sell lollipops shaped like roosters (I have no idea why). :-)
Above: Perogis can be just shaped like buns but more often they are decorated. The full pies can be very elaborate. These are pigs and bears!

Below: One of the ways we started off the school year was with Matthew burning his lip and chin fairly badly. He has a new thermos and we had no idea how hot it would keep things. So he went to take a drink and it burned him badly enough that his lip and chin turned white and then blistered. He's doing a lot better now but here's a picture. :-(

Above: A cafe I must eat at because I think it is so cute!

Below: This is the store we do 90% of our shopping at. There are ones that are a lot closer but this one is much bigger and has a meat counter in it and another next door. We realized as we were walking home that we had never put up a picture of it!

So there is our first week of school! Classes have been going well and we feel confident that this will be a good year. Pray for us and the school as we all have a lot to do and a lot of transitioning!