Life at Houghton

We sleep in a dorm that has two bedrooms and a central living room and kitchen.  Isaac and Kenny have one room and Grant and I have the other.  It is about a 15 minute walk to the main campus.  A nice, pretty walk along a trail and up a hill.  It is good to walk because other than that we sit in sessions a lot and then eat!  The food is cafeteria style but really good.  There is a salad bar at every lunch and dinner, a pizza bar, a burger bar, a sandwich bar and then a main line for a different entree.   Kenny usually has pizza and Isaac is in his glory, picking all sorts of different things.  There is a hot option for breakfast and then cereal and toast or yogurt, muffins and fruit.  The food is good and I don't have to cook.  There is an ice cream bar and other yummies for lunch and supper.  Enough about the food!  Maybe it is sort of like a cruise, it is all included and the kids can have whatever they want!  

They have programs all day just for the kids.  They are divided by age group and do all sorts of fun stuff.  They swim every afternoon at the college indoor pool, learn about the country they are going to and lots more!  

We have been looking at the third culture kid profile in our sessions as well as the whole transition process.  The kids have made some friends.  Isaac has become friends with a neat boy from Australia named Conrad.  They are becoming good mates!  He will be living in Taiwan, but in a different city.  Grant said today that it is now becoming real that we are really going overseas - it is a bit scary but exciting too.  People here are going to India, China, Africa, South America, Malasia, Morocco and Germany.  There are so many neat stories, some sad, all powerful.  We just had an interview with our advisor, looking at the results of some personality tests we took.  He is a kind, humble man - the superintedent of our schools.  I really like him.  

Tonight we watched a movie called "At the end of the Spear" and the kids watched "the gods must be crazey". Ours was really good but quite emotional.  Tomorrow we will have worship in the Wesley chapel and then head for Niagra falls.  The church bells ring every hour.  You can hear them all over campus - they are beautiful!

We have met some really nice people.  The family from Australia is wonderful.  They have 4 kids.  He is going to be doing language studies with OMF and Megan (his wife) will be the librarian at Taichung campus, which is a couple of hours away from us.  There are some young single girls coming to our campus - really nice.  There is also a family with 5 kids who will be living right next to us.  They have 3 boys, one who is just a year younger than Isaac, and 2 girls, one who is just a year younger than Makena.  One of their daughters is from Equador and one from Cambodia.  They are a very nice family too.

God is really speaking to us about the transition and His sovereign plan for us.  We are processing many things on many levels and being challenged in many ways - that's a lot of manys!  It is good but exhausting too!  I am really glad we have had this opportunity!