Columbus Day weekend

Wow, we haven't written in awhile! I've been so busy doing last-minute studying before the boards (just one week away, yikes!!) and Shane has been working on a honey-do list and substitute teaching at the school. We had a really busy but fun Columbus Day weekend. First, we got some great news - our household goods made it here! Well only half the crates, but at least it's better than nothing. We were up until almost midnight on Thursday unpacking boxes and putting things away. We got most of our living room furniture, some of our bedroom furniture, and almost all of our books and office supplies. We were very excited to get our TV and our Mac. We DIDN'T get our bed or Shane's motorcycle, so that was a little disappointing. But we're making progress! Hopefully we'll get the rest of our things soon. And the Jeep is here, we're just waiting on the registration process. We're finally getting settled in!

Saturday was busy. It was Shane's birthday, but unfortunately I had to study most of the day. He was sweet and helped me do things around the house in preparation for our guests later. I wanted to put some pictures up on the walls, but it's much more difficult to do that here. The walls are solid concrete, so you can't just use a hammer and nails. You have to drill holes and put special hooks in the walls. And certain areas you can't even drill into with a normal drill because you run into rocks - so you have to use a hammer drill. Shane was able to hang up most of the pictures I wanted, so now it looks much more like a home. I'll have to post pictures soon. Saturday night we went to Mujdat's for Shane's birthday dinner, then our friends came over for cake and board games.

Sunday we went for a short day trip with our friends Jeremy and Mimi. We drove out to Anavarsa, where there is an old castle up on a hill. It was a gorgeous day for a hike. We had a fun time exploring the castle and taking pictures. There was a "tour guide", although we kind of randomly found him. We were driving through the little town towards the castle and we waved at this guy in the street and he waved back, then motioned for us to stop. He explained (in very broken English) that he was a tour guide, and asked us to let him in the car so he could show us where to go. I was a little surprised by that, but he had a name tag on and everything, so we figured it was legitimate. He showed us where to park, then got out and started leading us up the path to the castle. After we toured the castle, he hiked back down with us and took us to a little house in the village where there were these stone mosaics that apparently used to be baths. He walked us through a little orchard, and gave us mandarin oranges. It was a unique experience.

Today was the last day of our 3-day weekend, and it was a pretty boring day. I studied most of the day, and Shane continued to work on things around the house. We seem to be getting into a routine now. Shane wakes up and makes me coffee and a bagel, we read our devotional and pray, I go to work (or study), he does things around the house, then we lounge around, watch TV, or hang out with friends. It's kind of nice, minus the studying part. I'll be so glad when the boards are over.

That's all for now. Hopefully we won't wait so long before writing again next time. Stay tuned!