For those who don't know, Squam Lake is up in New Hampshire and is the site of a week-long annual reunion for Dylan's family. Since we weren't able to get there from Namibia, this is the first time we've attended since 2011! So exciting!

The weather was beautiful and a bunch of people were even brave enough to get in the lake on the first evening we were there (the water was pretty chilly)! One tradition at Squam is for a group of people to swim out to the raft and then jump to catch frisbees thrown by people back on the dock (see first photo). 

One special event this year was the celebration of Mimi and Granddad's 60th wedding anniversary! (These are Dylan's mom's parents.) We got all dressed up and went to a nice restaurant to celebrate.

Ann brought comfy pants for all the girls from Cambodia so we had a little fashion show while the guys played frisbee golf.

Of course, a trip to Squam wouldn't be complete without a climb up (and picture on top of) Mt. Rattlesnake which overlooks Squam Lake. This is a fairly short climb - half the family ran up instead of walking! 

Abby wasn't able to join us since her summer job is out in the wilds of Montana, and, sadly, Dylan and I were only able to stay for a couple days as Dylan had to get back to DC for classes. It was great to see everyone though, and so nice to be in such a beautiful area of the country!

After a 2-day cross-country road trip and a harrowing drive through DC city streets in our 16ft moving truck, we arrived safely at our new apartment! With my parents' help we finished unpacking in just a few days, leaving us free to explore our new city!

Some interesting findings so far:

- DC is a great place to run into people! So far we've met up with a family I knew in England, a girl from our church in Egypt, and another RPCV from Tsumeb.

- Christiy went on a tour of the capitol building and got to sit in on some Senate business and then ended up exiting the building right behind Senator John McCain.

- Dylan got to view a private collection of original Escher prints at the National Gallery during his Math for America orientation.

- Between the humidity and the hills, running is completely different here than in Indiana! Fortunately there are shaded sidewalks almost everywhere.

- Every time I've gone out I've heard at least a couple people speaking a foreign language and there's a huge variety of ethnic restaurants here. Within walking distance we have Italian, Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese. Definitely a diverse place!

- We live only one block away from a grocery store and three blocks from a weekly farmer's market! We knew about the grocery store but the farmer's market was a pleasant surprise.

- A small group from the church we went to on Sunday meets right across the street from us! We're planning to go there for a few weeks at least.

Dylan will be starting his classes this week! In fact he's already read one of the books assigned for the course - a rather depressing book about inequalities in the US public school system. Hopefully our two years teaching in Namibia have prepared him for at least some of the challenges he'll face here! Dylan will start student teaching this fall.

Christiy will be taking a summer class starting at the end of June and then working at a French immersion summer camp in July and August! I'll be an assistant teacher for a native French speaker who will be the main teacher. The camp is for preschoolers, a mix of native French speakers and first time learners. Camp will finish just in time for me to start my semester at AU at the end of August.

So, praise God for safe travel and meetings with friends from former places and a super accessible small group and a summer job for Christiy! What a good start to our time here!