Siyahamba

Greetings! A few updates from our neck of the forest:

Last Thursday was the Matriculation Service for all incoming grad students at Drew. During the service, all the students' names are called & they go to the front & sign "the book". Every single class has had this same Matriculation Service & signed the SAME BOOK since the beginning of Drew- in 1867! It was a very reverent & awesome service. As we were exiting, the choir started singing this African worship song called "Siyahamba". We tried looking for a good version to share with you from YouTube, but the recorded videos did the song no justice. But, we do strongly encourage you to check it out & listen to it. For some reason, it was so very moving, & really made us feel so joyful! Please be sure to check it out, as it plays quite frequently now in our home; love that song!

School is in full swing for Jonathan, & he's loving every minute of it. It keeps him very, very busy, but it's the kind of work that he loves & enjoys more than anything else in the world: schoolwork. It's so great to see him really excelling & immersing himself in his schoolwork, especially because Drew is turning out to be everything Jonathan thought it'd be (and more). Parisa is taking a physics class & physics lab at a local community college, and while she doesn't really love the school, she's coming to learn that she loves physics. :) Math is so fun!

Parisa is still job-hunting (very aggressively) & spent a grand total of 14 consecutive hours this weekend researching & applying for jobs online. She was offered a job at a hotel, but decided not to take it. (The interviewers for the job were the Front Desk supervisor & the General Manager, both of whom were awful to Parisa. In addition to that, the hours & the pay were pretty bad also). So, she's continuing to look for work & trusting that the right job will be waiting for her very soon. There have been lots of potential leads, but nothing has been nailed down yet. Please keep praying!

We have been meeting lots of new people & making some awesome new friends! We've made a few friends who even live in our building, which is so great. Thursday was spent hanging out with a large group of Jonathan's grad school friends at an on-campus hangout, & we had a blast. Then Sunday, we went to a church in the neighboring town with Jonathan's friend Drew (yes, Drew from Drew, haha) & loved it there. Jonathan's academic dean actually is a major part of the church we attended, so it was good to see her there too. All in all, we're beginning to make friends & really get to know the great community of people that are here. We're very, very excited about that! It's something we've been looking forward to for a long time (building a strong community of friends & really getting involved) and it's so amazing to begin to see it start to come to fruition.

This week's plans include school, work (for Jonathan), a trip to the twice-a-week local farmer's market, & Parisa's godmother is coming to NYC for a visit! We have a few things that we have to hurry up & finish at the apartment to make it presentable (Parisa is finishing up painting the living room walls dark red & khaki) but it's almost up to snuff!

We hope everyone has a fabulous week! Please let us know how you're doing. We'd love to hear from you!

Goodnight & Good Luck,
Parisa & Jonathan