Hello from NJ

Not writing for over a week has been a little strange, but with all going on here there has not been time to take a deep breath or relaxing stroll. Moving from Illinois to New Jersey has been a real culture shock. The linguistics are different having conversed with the people I've met so far, the cultural diversity is outstanding with the many international students attending Princeton Theological Seminary; but beyond this, the area is extremely busy. Cars ceaselessly speed down roads where left turns are something of a foreign, far-off culture. Fortunately, there is a familiar Barnes and Noble bookstore just a few blocks from our apartment.

The people here are extremely generous and giving, and if they do not have children of any sort, then they have a dog or two. In fact many families have both furry children and bald.

So far I have counted around a dozen barbecues just outside our apartment building in the last two weeks that my wife and I have been settling in. The weather is nice, seminarians are living in their apartments again (many of them having come back from various states and countries where they have been doing field work), the golf course behind our apartment buildings is overcrowded, and school is getting back into swing around here.

My wife and I are still settling in and finding ourselves engulfed in a lethargic bubble of sleep almost every day. It is amazing how stressful a cross-country move can be, and how tiring that stress can be. Fortunately almost everything is taken care of and we still have enough money to survive. "Miraculously we escape unscathed."

I will write more later when I have more time, but I need to make a "to do" list for tomorrow since school is only a few days away from getting under-way for me...