I am officially 32 years old, as of August 17. We spent the day driving from Eugene, Oregon to San Jose, California. We are in town visiting family and attending my brother’s annual Tiki Party.

Here is a picture of Laura and Hranush at the beach last Saturday. This was Harnush’s first time to the ocean.

For the last couple months we have been working with American Councils to have an exchange student come stay with us for a year. After many roadblocks with the local school district and private schools, we finally were able to receive a slot with Eugene 4J School District. Our exchange student is going to come from Armenia and her name is Hranush. She is going to be entering the 9th grade this year and will attend the high school across the street from us.

While serving in Armenia, we were part of the testing process that allowed students an opportunity to study in America. Though our students didn’t make the cut this year, we are excited that we were able to host an Armenian. The program is the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program. The program is funded through the Department of State and allows for students in the former Soviet bloc to study in America for 1 school year. The testing process is rigorous and involves a grammer test, two essay tests, and a former interview. Everything is in English. Of the hundreds or thousands who test in Armenia, only 50 make the cut.

Hranush will arrive next week and stay with us until June. We look forward to telling you more about her as time goes on. Take care everyone!

We have been busy, busy, busy in Eugene. Since our last post we have been Hawaii and moved to another state. Let’s do a little recap.

We went to Hawaii in mid-June with one of Laura’s sister and her husband. We were in Maui where the weather was perfect and food ok. It took us a while to find the great restaurants. I don’t think you go to Hawaii for the food. It’s the weather and wonderful beaches. We stayed busy snorkeling, seeing the island, lying on the beach, playing shuffle board, scuba diving, parasailing, visiting the national park, boating, and just hanging out. The downside to Maui is that everyone knows about Maui. Tons of tourist. While it was a great experience, we most likely won’t go back.

We returned for four days, packed our belongings, rented the Uhaul (which was a pain in the butt on 4th of July weekend) and headed north. My mom and brother Mark drove up with us and helped us move in to our new home. The help was needed.

Since we have arrived here on July 1, we have slowly unpacking the last boxed, shopping for household items, bike riding (Eugene has great bike trails in the city), visiting our neighbors, seeing movies, preparing for school, organizing our belongings after being packed in boxes for 2 years, selling stuff on Craig’s List, running, and taking our dogs to the nearby dog parks. We attended a local returned peace corps volunteer function. That was nice to meet other volunteers in the area. The weather has been great, though it was in the 100′s a couple weekends ago. That was horrible. After 3 weeks we got our internet service and I have spent lots of time returning emails, though I still have a lot to go. Sorry if I haven’t responded.

That’s our life in a nut shell. We have done so much more but I’m not going to bore you with the details. We’ll have Hawaii pics up soon. Thanks for reading!!!!