life changes

It has been an eventful holiday season for me after moving back to the States from Kazakhstan in late November. Re-adjusting to life back here hasn’t been too hard or too overwhelming, partly because my life in Petropavlovsk wasn’t too extremely different than my life here, but also because I have been thoroughly enjoying the things here that I had missed while living abroad. In an abbreviated, annotated fashion, I give to you the last month and a half of my life:

• Celebrated Thanksgiving with my extended family in Murray – Montgomery family reunions are always entertaining.
• Ushered at my younger brother's wedding (welcoming Sarah Katherine into the Montgomery family) – Highlights: Stephen’s “I will always antagonize you” vows followed by a pinkie promise and a dip-kiss.
  

• Took my girlfriend to Paris... Tennessee – When she flew in to Nashville, she struck up a conversation with a man from Paris. Gulmira exclaimed, “Wow, you don’t even have a French accent!”
• Gained 10 pounds - Did you know they have coffee-flavored Frosties!?!
• Sifted through all my stuff I left at home when I left for the Peace Corps in 2007 – Why in the world did I hang on to all those old clothes?
• Drove to Atlanta to visit my grandparents and Atlanta friends
• Flew to Phoenix for a job interview at a private school – Carney Sandoe, a teaching placement organization, referred me to this position starting in January. The school paid for my flights, a rental car, and a night in a hotel.
• Got a job at that school – After a teaching observation and a couple interviews, they offered me a position teaching Spanish to 7^th, 8^th and 10^th graders for 60% time and salary.
• Rented a room in a house with two housemates, Chris and Francesca. Chris’s aunt owns the house, and he is a Math and French teacher at a public school in South Phoenix. Francesca is a full-time nursing student and waitress from Sardinia, Italy.
• Went back to Murray to get ready to move to Phoenix, packed what I could fit into a duffel bag. Luckily, that included 5 hangers, a Frisbee and a Ping Pong paddle.
• Drove to Atlanta to visit the grandparents
• Totaled my dad's van on I-85 in Atlanta – a Ford Explorer ahead of us blew out their back left tire and swerved into our lane and stopped. We stopped too, but not before ramming into the back of them. None of the eight people involved were hurt, which is a miracle considering what could have happened.
• Drove to Charlotte to visit Michael and Sarah – Eight people and three dogs for three days… Awesome.
• Drove to Cleveland to celebrate New Year's with my college friends – My friend from college and his wife who live in Raleigh were going up in their new Honda Fit, and took Gulmira and me with them. We danced and ate and rang in the new year with class and style. Lots of class and style.
• Flew to Phoenix to start work on the 4^th – Loaded my duffle bag and guitar on the plane and left the snow and the cold of Ohio. Got off the plane in 70 degree weather.
• Bought a mattress set and bedroom furniture – Does that mean I’m grown up?
• Bought a 2009 Toyota Corolla – Well, as I understand it, I’m borrowing it from the bank for six years at $300 a month…
• Taught Spanish I and II for two weeks at Tesseract School. Check it out.
• Drove to Flagstaff to welcome Mike, my Peace Corps site mate, back home – Just 2 hours north and 5,800 feet higher, three feet of snow lay unmelted from a storm over a week ago.

Right now I’m getting ready to fly to Atlanta for a memorial service to celebrate the life of my grandmother Margaret Montgomery, who passed away on Monday at the age of 88. She will be missed dearly.