Many things have been happening here in the North lately. The weather has been gorgeous and getting pretty cool in the evening. Our tomato plant lives happily on the fire escape as we patiently wait for the tomatoes to turn purple on it. Thomas and I have been blessed in so many ways this past week. I have gotten a job at a Yale merchandising store that is a 20 minute walk / 10 minute bike ride away. The people that run it are super nice and friendly and retail seems to be something I am naturally good at - talking to people. They have me working about 35 hours a week - so I am now fairly busy with that.
We have lived in CT for a month and a week and it is starting to feel a little more like home. We miss everyone in SC dearly and are looking forward to visiting in January. With Thomas' job we will be unable to be home for Christmas (not to mention that plane tickets are really pricey in December) so we have decided to visit after all the holidays and before Thomas starts back in January. All of this of course depends on how much time I can get off from work and such. So, in short - you should come visit us! :)
I have found a community orchestra is pretty decent that I would like to join - auditioning me in September. I went to a reading session and we read hard literature - so I have high hopes. Thomas is starting to prepare for entrance exams for music and German, he is going to do well on all of them.
Well, I need to get ready to go to work - we will post more at a later date.
In Christ,
The Russells
Thomas and I have officially been living in New England for over 3 weeks now. Lots has been going on as we are still settling in and getting used to what real rush hour traffic is. (Greenville, you haven't seen anything!) Thomas has received the job at Zion Lutheran Church and we are so pleased to see this answer to our prayer. I am still looking for a job but am now expanding my options to the realm outside of music. There are several places near Yale campus that will be hiring for the transition into school starting and I have decided to apply to some of these places. I believe that my southern charm will help me become the most awesome waitress New Haven has ever seen. :)
We went contradancing last Saturday night and found a really great group of people. The call, Bill Fischer, was a super cool guy whose house is an old barn (turned into a house). Once a month they host a festival for music and dancing where you can bring your instrument and they help you learn more about fiddle/folk music and then they contra later. Everyone jams together and Thomas and I know that this is where we might take our little bluegrass "band" next. Haha! We have found a church that preaches the Word pastored by Johnathan Holst. We are trying to get plugged into this church and do what we can to praise the Lord with our skills and talents. We are very blessed to have this church to go to.
We are trying to get back into the habit of running daily (the move stopped us for a few weeks) but we have found that it is a bit harder than anticipated. One problem that we have run into (hehe - no pun intended) is that the air here is not nearly as humid or heavy as the air in Columbia, SC. Our mouths get dry here when we run - it's strange how something so small like that seems to have a huge impact on our running.
In other news, we are huge fans of Chef Gordon Ramsey and we hope to go to his restaurant in NYC in August for my birthday. We watch all his shows online and we feel like we know him - so if we meet him, it could get weird. Our tomato plant is doing really well - we hope to have ripe juicy purple tomatoes by next week... and hopefully our oregano will decided to start sprouting soon as well. It's raining now - I was hoping to go running after this - but it has started raining (something we see A LOT of here). So, I guess I will go play Risk 2210 A.D. with Thomas. I told him I would play with him and he needed to set it up before I change my mind. ;)
Continue to pray for us while we are here. We thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.
In Christ,
The Russells
