We are back!!!

Hey everyone, it has been three months since our last post, so I am not even sure how to start this one... So many things have happened to us during this time. To summarize what we have been through, I can surely say that it has been the busiest time of our lives!!!

Well, a week after our last post (on Mansur's birthday), we found an apartment that we liked and all of a sudden we got ready to move. The contract was signed on April 29th and though the real estate wanted us to move in within two weeks, we begged for a little more time. We received the keys on May 21st and moved all our stuff by the 29th. I could not have done it if it were not for LeeAnn, who came over one weekend and totally helped me out. We packed all day long and she did what I was avoiding (books and papers from our study room). Since I had a presentation at university on both May 30th and June 6th, you can imagine how this was all driving me crazy! However, God is good, and so is my husband, and we managed to live among boxes, without stressing out much, as we carried on our daily routines. It has been 2 months in our new home. Time flies. Mansur was saying it would take this long to clean it up and organize it all. I thought he was teasing me. On the other hand, he was right. We still have boxes in two of our rooms and our flowers in the balcony have not been taken care of much! The truth is we have not yet spend one whole day at home when neither of us have something to do. Life has just been so busy, and our holidays do not match! Anyway, the good news is that today was the last day of work at the elementary school we teach at, and we will have a month off. Although Mansur still works a few days a week and I still have to study like a nerd, we are planning to get everything in order, so that our home really becomes a SWEET one.

We are now in the west side of Kobe, close to the beach. It is nicer than our old place since we have more space, fresher air and better view. I am posting some pictures I took this afternoon.


This is the Akashi bridge (from our living room's balcony), which connects Kobe to Awaji Island. Awaji Island was where Kobe's earthquake of 1995 (that killed over 6,000 people) hit the strongest.



This is the view we have of the sea. The land you see across the ocean is Awaji.


I will try to send more pictures of our home after we have it all organized. Believe me, I hope to do so before 2008 (*-*)

In order to let you know what we have been doing these days, I will post a few pictures of our activities in June in July!

On June 26th, we celebrated our Bulgarian friend's birthday at Kobe's Brazilian restaurant. Mariana tried to surprise her husband, Ivan, by inviting friends that night. It was fun! It is always nice to be with friends. Check out the pictures we took that night!


Ivan, Mariana and their baby girl - Alexandra



Kurosh, practicing to be a baseball player



Kurosh and the ladies!



Hamid, Ivan & Mansur



Ivan's friends!
the one on the left is Hungarian/German and the one on the right is Bulgarian



Isn't she the cutest!!!!!!???????



She loved my phone!



We even had a live concert! Classical music!



The family celebrating with a delicious chocolate cake!


In July, we had to say good-bye to our dear friend, Benjamin, who stayed with us for 2 years. He left Japan this afternoon! Last Saturday we celebrated his birthday and yesterday (Sunday) we had dinner after church and wished him well!