One week complete!

Well, the first week of school has come to an end. . .

It was a great week! My day consisted of:
15 sophomores graders in Algebra 2
16 freshmen graders in Geometry
0 sophomores graders in Algebra 2
Lunch!!!
11 juniors graders in Pre-Calculus
3 Study hall students
4 seniors graders in Calculus
2 Study hall students

My 3rd period Algebra 2 class was on my schedule at the beginning of the year, but many of the tenth grade families moved out of the country, and thus the class wasn't needed. Thus for this first week I have had it fairly easy, only four class periods! That will change this coming week though as I am taking over a ninth grade computers class for another teacher who has way too much going on!

The lunch here is great, there is a company that serves meals each day for the students, it has been fun eating at the "canteen" and getting to try some local foods at a great price (S$2.50 equivalent to about $1.50).

My Calculus class has been interesting. . . I have four students, but only four books and no teacher's edition, so until we can get another one ordered, I just have to photo copy pages! And, the school is fast out-growing its campus, so we had a bit of a struggle finding a room that we could have class in!

Pray that Joe Beeson (our principal) will be able to find a campus that the school can move to next summer. Finding school building can be a very difficult thing and Joe has already been looking for many months, but nothing is available. There is actually a campus that is unused right now and would be ideal for the school, but the government doesn't want to lease it out. Pray they change their minds!

Also, the school is still looking for teachers/advisors for this year: Spanish, Newspaper, Yearbook, and ESL. Pray that the right person will come forward to fill those roles.

Pray for me as I take over this computers class and try to develop a curriculum for it.

Pray for Betsy as she continues to try to find the niche God has for her. We are confident He has a plan for her, and want to be patient for His leading.

Thanks again for all your love and support!

The view out my window and a few students playing basketball after school.

A shot of my classroom, I am in here most of the day, if you look closely, you will see a couple disc golf discs, and some Mariners players!

First Day of School!

Well, this is it, the first day! Things have been going well so far, I've had Algebra 2 and Geometry so far. This is a free period, later I have a Pre-Calculus, Calculus, and Study Halls.

Pray that it continues to go well!!

PICTURES!!!

OK everyone, the pictures you have all been waiting for! You will probably want to scroll to the bottom and work your way up as the posts are placed from newest to oldest.

Enjoy!

Love you all!

Our first guest! We were going to leave him alone, then realized he was eating the leaves! He took a tumble to the next floor down!

One of our new houseplants, we bought some used bookshelves from people who are moving and they through in four plants for free!!! Betsy is excited to have orchids!

Yesterday our shipment finally arrived! 13 tubs of clothes, books, photo albums, etc. We were so excited to be able to begin setting up our home! (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the new arrangement, I guess that will come later!)

Here is Betsy at the Orchid gardens, the school sent all the new teachers on a tour of the city and this was one of our stops, BEAUTIFUL flowers, but she is the beautifulest!

This is a major symbol here in Singapore, a mer-lion!

The business center of the city/country. The highest buildings here are over 900 feet tall.

Here is the drying method of choice by most locals.

This is a very common sight here in Singapore, construction is a constant!

And here is the rest of the view from our balcony, the harbor (part of it) It is kind of interesting watching all of the loading and unloading.

This is the view looking out from the balcony. TREES!!! It is also a protected area, so those trees won't disappear for a new building. And, if you look real close in the upper right-hand part, you will see our ocean view!

Here is the view from our deck. Our own pool! We are told the pool gets very little traffic from the 84 apartments in our complex, we will make use of it!

Here we have the kitchen/dining room. Not huge, but lots of counter! The washing machine is also in this room, no dryer here, everything is hung out to dry. The inset is the dining area and the table that came with the apartment.

Here is the master bedroom, it came with the furniture you see here, bed, nightstand, and vanity. In the inset pictures here are the built in cabinet/closets. And the continuation of the room toward the master bathroom and the master balcony!

OK, jump forward a few days and this is our new apartment!! We moved in last Saturday (the 31st). Here is the living room, with an inset picture showing the rest of the left-hand wall and the doors to the master bedroom and the kitchen.

Looking out our window on a rainy day. Notice all the green scattered amongst the streets, this is a very beautiful city. Also notice the raised MRT (Mass-Rail Transit) line. There is a great public transit system here with the trains as well as busses.

Jump ahead a couple of weeks. . .
When we arrived in Singapore we were taken to this building where we would be staying until we found our own place. 38 floors! We were on the 14th floor.

We also celebrated our 4th anniversary while at PFO, this is us at the Mississippi River just before dinner in Memphis.

While at PFO, Betsy got to lead worship every morning, it was a great blessing!

For the first couple of weeks in July we spent many hours in this room at Pre-Field Orientation, learning many things about the organization (NICS) and the types of students we will have in our classes.

Here we are saying good-bye to our old home back on June 28.

Pictures coming!!

Ok, I finally have things set up and I'm going to attempt to give you a pictoral view of what we have done so far. . . Enjoy!

Because of the way posts are done, you will want to start at the bottom and work up, hopefully that is what you are doing!!

Getting settled at school

Well, new teacher orientation is almost over, I now have a week and a half until students arrive on Monday, August 16. Pray for me as I get my classroom organized, my lessons prepared, and as we continue to try to get our home established. We do have a phone now as well as some furniture. We are going to be picking up a couple more bookshelves tonight, and we just found out that our shipment is now in the port of Singapore and could be coming to our home as early as this evening!! God is so good!

Love you all lots!