Week 3 of Training

morning worship time

Week three is the hardest so far. No one is up early in the showers…everyone keeps getting to breakfast later and later every day. We are tired, but there were some good things this week. We had two great skits from the alumni: one about reasons we don’t get along and one about cultural differences in the different countries. Both were super entertaining, and probably pretty accurate.

We are also no longer required to go to the ESL classes if we are not teaching that night. Half of us are on campus tonight while the others are teaching. Then we will switch places tomorrow. It has been very nice to have 3 hours with no responsibility. I should be doing my last bit of homework, but I’d rather catch up on my blogging before I forget everything that has happened in the last week and a half.

Worship team getting ready
Karissa, Sierra, Melissa, Eric, & Morgan

The other nice thing about week three is that the schedule has loosened up a little bit. We are getting longer breaks…especially in the afternoon. This has allowed us to do a little bit more planning for our lessons and is alleviating stress. I am doing a load of laundry tonight as well as emailing, lesson planning, and just enjoying some alone time.

I found a quote this week from Mary Oliver. It is my challenge to you this week to think about this quote. You need not get an answer, but just the thinking will probably change your perspective on a few things anyway.

What do you plan to do with your one wild & precious life? ~Mary Oliver

Paul's make-shift Drum Set. It actually sounds really good! (note the "box-top cymbal" in the chair)

Santa Monica Pier

Jess, Chelsea, and Laura try to figure out our route

I’m getting all kinds of practice with public transportation. On Sunday, August 1, several of us decided to go to Santa Monica Pier after our Sunday service. We wanted to buy day-passes for the bus and train so we had a friend shuttle us down to the nearest train stop. We each paid our $6 for a day-pass (definitely worth it!!) and went up to catch the train. Out here, the trains run between both sides of the interstate….cars were flying by us at a really fast pace. The train came pretty quickly and we were off on another adventure. We rode the gold line to Union Station and then caught the purple line to a place where we could get a bus that would go all the way to the pier. The trains seemed to go pretty quickly, but the bus was really a long ride. In all, it took us 2 hours to get from campus to the Pier.

The pier from Ocean Drive. It was pretty crowded.

looking back at Santa Monica beach from the pier

The pier was nice, and it was officially my first time to see the Pacific Ocean. I did not stick my feet or any part of my body in because people said it was really cold…maybe next time. My teammate Ashley and I walked up and down the pier and then found a little place to get some dinner. Then we decided we should start heading back since it took so long to get there. We left the pier with three other girls around 6pm and caught the same bus (from the other side of the street) to begin the trek home. This was definitely the worst part. There were a ton of people on the bus and it stopped all the time. Then we caught the trains in reverse order. We were trying to get back in time to catch the bus that goes right by campus, but we were too late for it. So we tried for another bus that would get us close. It never came and we got tired of waiting so we called a taxi. It was 9pm by the time we got back, so it took us 3 hours to get home. We didn’t get much else done, but we learned that we should carry things to do on the bus and train. Even if it is just a book to read, the time would not be wasted.

LA skyline from Union Station while the sun was setting

Me and Ashley, Jamie and Sarah at Union Station

Week 2 of Training

This week was pretty predictable. It was the same schedule as the first week and we still taught or observed ESL classes every day. My teammate came in on Thursday, so we got to spend a little bit of time together. Her name is Ashley and she is from Mississippi. You can definitely tell when she talks. I didn’t think I had much of an accent but people say I do a little bit. So we have two southern girls going to Slovakia this year. A third teammate also came to training on Thursday. Her name is Melissa and she is from Phoenix. Her husband Ryan is going as well, but will not be teaching. Melissa and Ryan will be staying through the end of training and I will be flying to Vienna with them on the 16th. Ashley will leave next week to spend some time with her family before she meets us in Slovakia. I still have yet to meet the other three girls teaching in Bratislava this year. This will be Jenni’s fifth year and Kate and Katie’s third year there. They were not required to come to training since they were not getting new roommates. I am sure I will meet them in my first few days in Bratislava. I am getting very excited about meeting them and making new friends. Only 2 more weeks!

My First Bus Adventure

On Saturday, July 25th, we had a scavenger hunt in Old Town Pasadena. This is like their downtown area, but it’s really cute and artsy and really doesn’t look very old since they’ve fixed everything up, but they still call it Old Town.

Preview of European busses...everyone from ESI

In order to get there, we rode public transportation since we did not have enough cars for all of us…and to make us ride the bus. Getting there was pretty easy. We had an alum from last year on our team who helped us find the bus stop and get on. It’s $1.50 to get on the bus, but you can go anywhere that bus goes. We got off in Old Town and started the hunt. It was very fun to explore and the only hard part was calling in the answers to our clues. We had to borrow someone else’s phone to call in our answer and get the next clue. We ended up getting 4th place out of 10 teams. Then we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and Sarah and I chose to stay in Old Town and wander around a little bit.

me pointing to the bus stop sign

We each bought a little sweater since it had been cool in the mornings that week. (turned out to be a fabulous investment…I wear it nearly every day now) Then we walked about a mile down the road to Target to get some breakfast and school supplies. When we left Target it was just the two of us and neither of us had ever ridden the bus before that morning. We found a stop and waited and waited and waited. Finally this nice lady came to the stop so we asked her where this bus was going just to make sure we were at the right stop. And we were not. That bus was going to downtown LA. We wanted to come back to the campus. She said we were on the wrong side of the road! Did you know that busses run on both sides? We did not. We needed to be on the North-bound bus. While we were having this conversation with her, the North-bound bus came and left. So we had to walk across the street and wait some more. They only came every 45 minutes, so in total, we waited 1.5 hours for the bus to take us back to campus. But we made it! And now I know that to come home, you have to be on the other side of the street. :o)

Sarah and I on the bus

A Day at Training

Here is a typical day's schedule while I am at training:

Annie, me, Sharon, & Sarah all wore coordinating clothes.

6:00-6:30ish get up and get ready

6:30-7:00 make phone calls, have quiet time

7:00-7:45 breakfast

8:00-8:50 Discovery Group/Worship/Devotions

9:00-10:20 Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) class

10:30-12:00 Country or Region specific TEFL class

12:00-1:00 lunch

1:30-3:30 life overseas training - topic varies by day

3:45-5:30 Practicum Prep - see description below

5:30-6:15 dinner

6:15-7:00 drive to Practicum site

7:00-8:30 teaching ESL classes

8:30-9:15 drive back to campus

9:15-9:45 de-brief the day with same group from the morning

9:45-10:15 get ready for bed!

We do get short breaks after nearly every session, but it's only 10 or 15 minutes. However, the material is exceptional and I might even say it's better than my "regular" teacher workshops. They have a different way of saying things that is going to help me be an exceptional teacher (I hope) and I can't imagine how much better I will be when I get back to the states.

Practicum Prep

Erin & I wore matching clothes on accident!

We are actually teaching ESL classes this month. ESI has partnered with local churches to provide free English classes to the communities. And we are providing the teaching! Scary, but extremely beneficial. Most of the people here have never been teachers before, so they are getting their feet wet, and those of us that were are getting a chance to re-program our "teacher-brains" to what appears to be a better lesson planning strategy (at least for teaching people to speak English...I'll evaluate it more after I've taught for a few months.) Since I have experience, I got the wonderful privilege of going first on the first night. Unfortunately, the classes are very small, and no one came to mine. But we will do teach almost every other night, so Thursday I did actually have two students. It went pretty well overall, but of course I made a few bloopers. I'm excited about watching my progress over the next 3 weeks.

Prayer Requests for this week:

- for continued excitement

- for plenty of rest

- for my roommate - she should be here this week!

California Breakfast

This is a "You-know-you-are-in-California-when" story.

Sunday morning we had a continental breakfast. I saw some cereal boxes on the table, but no milk, so I made a comment about it. Somebody answered, it's probably for the yogurt. aaaahhhhh....

The cereal boxes turned out to be 3 different varieties of Kashi granola. Who knew there were that many different kinds of granola! I thought all granola was the same kind of granola, but the one I actually ate had strawberries, some other berries, and kiwi! It was actually very good and tasty.  Maybe I'll eat more granola this way :)

Training Begins

Leavin’ on a jet plane...don’t know when I’ll be back again!

me and all my posessions for the next year

Michelle, me, Brance & Wren

Saturday morning I packed up all my things and went to the airport. My parents, my sister’s family, and my best friend’s family came to see me off. Everything had gone so smoothly until we boarded the plane. Everyone was in their seat, the flight attendants had done their thing, then the captain comes on and says that there is no air conditioning and the plane won’t start. So several people chose to deplane and wait inside, but I just stayed in my seat. I did not want to take all my carry-on items off again. It only took about 30 minutes for them to fix it, and another 30 minutes to reboard those who left. So we were off, but about an hour late.

I sat next to two little boys, about 9 and 4. They were travelling with their dad and sister (in the row behind us) to see their grandparents in California. Spencer was so talkative and told me all about California and what I should do while I am here. His brother (William, I think) drew me two pictures with stars and shooting stars. They were so cute and great travel companions.

me, Amy, Guinevere, Floyd

Once we landed, I had planned on getting lunch at the airport. I couldn’t see anything in the waiting area, so I figured there would be something outside by baggage claim…nope. The Burbank airport was very small…a little larger than San Angelo, but not much…and no Chinese restaurant. So I found a Hudson News and got a granola bar and a Butterfinger. I ate the granola bar while waiting for my luggage and was saving the Butterfinger for the trip on the van/shuttle. However, it was so hot (and humid) here that my Butterfinger melted before I could eat it.

I met two other girls going with TeachOverseas at the shuttle stop and we all rode together to William Carey International University. It is very green here and I’ll try to get some pictures posted later this week. We went through Registration and got our room keys and then some nice staff & volunteers helped us get our luggage up the stairs. That’s when we discovered that we did not have air conditioning in the dorm (which really looks more like a 2-story motel.) This is quite an adjustment for me. I’ve never not had A/C. Last night when we went to bed it was 93 degrees in our room. We have a fan and left the windows open and all the doors open and it has cooled off considerably this morning. It is now 77 degrees inside. And very nice outside. We are hoping that it will not be as hot today. I have 2 roommates and there are 4 rooms in our suite. So 12 girls altogether – we all share 2 showers and 2 stalls and 2 sinks. Each room has a small mirror. So far it’s working out ok, but we didn’t have to be anywhere until 8:30 today.

Dad, me, Mom

There are more than 50 people here for training and a few more will come and go at different times during the next 4 weeks. I did find out that I will be leaving the States on August 16th.

This is long now, and it is nearly time for breakfast so I’ll continue my stories about training in upcoming blogs.

Please pray for cooler weather!

Farewell Fiesta

This past weekend began the farewell phase of my preparations.

I said good-bye to my many friends in Ozona this weekend. My Sunday School class hosted a Farewell Fiesta for me at a ranch. All the rain recently has made everything green, the temperature was down (in the high 80s/low 90s) and it almost felt like spring again. It smelled so good out there - all the greenness, wet earth, and a few blooming plants made for a spectacular scent. We had fajitas, chips and dips - guacamole, salsa, 7-layer dip, and a fantastic dessert called sopapilla cheesecake - cheesecake in the middle, sopapilla on the outside. I had a gigantic piece and it was delicious.

Sunday was a comissioning service at church. The ladies of the church all gathered around to pray for me as I take this step of faith and begin to serve the Lord in a new capacity. We also had a potluck lunch. I love potluck lunches! It might be one of my favorite things about small churches. Everyone pitches in a dish and voila! instant feast for 100 (or more). Some of the ladies even made Slovak recipes for the event. One in particular was very good - kind of like a ham & pea salad combination.

I will leave my parents' house tomorrow and make my way to my sister's house, stopping to see a few friends along the way. My flight leaves DFW for California on Saturday morning.

My goal going forward is to update the blog once a week. I will do my best to make it happen, but no promises! Please pray for safe travels this week as I galavant around the state.

Funds Raised!

My funding has been completely raised!

Thanks to everyone who contributed financially, with items for garage sales, or with prayers. It was a very humbling experience, but I have learned to be a gracious receiver. In our American culture, being receivers is much harder than being givers.

Why is this? I think it has to do with the American Dream - where you build everything you have all by yourself, from the ground up. It's easy to become prideful if you did it all. It's harder to be prideful if you have to say that someone helped you. It's impossible to be prideful if God did it for you. I say impossible, but I mean impossible for personal pride. I have pride in my great big God that he did this for me, because I surely didn't raise all these funds on my own. The Lord pricked hearts and put numbers in heads for this to be the success it was. I think this kind of pride is OK. Just like having pride in a friend or relative when they have accomplished or done something great is OK. So long as it doesn't come between you and your relationship with God.

Thank you Lord for teaching me to become a gracious receiver!

Garage Sales: West Texas Style!

"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

I've recently become a garage-sale Pro. I received this distinction after being a part of 3 garage sales in 2 weeks. Here's how that worked out.

1. I held a garage sale for my own personal belongings. I did not want to put things in storage, so I decided to get rid of almost everything. (I do have about 20 boxes in storage right now, about half of which are school-related.) I told a few friends they could come by for an "early-bird" preview. A friend told a friend, who told a niece that was about to get an apartment for the first time. She called me and came over. She ended up buying almost all the furniture! It was a wonderful start. The day of the sale, a great majority of the other stuff sold as well.

2. My Sunday School class decided to host a garage sale as a fundraiser for my trip. So what I did not sell at my personal garage sale, we took over to the host's house. I was incredibly impressed at the amount of donations people from the church had brought over to their home. It completely filled a bedroom and the front living room. We ended up using the entire front lawn and car-port on the first day. The second day, everything fit under the car-port. What a successful garage sale!

3. The same weekend as the Sunday School garage sale, my grandmother decided to host another garage sale at the church where I grew up. This too was an amazingly successful garage sale. We had several people bring donations to the church. The church is located on a prominent street, so there were lots of people that stopped by to browse and generally everyone purchased something.

It was this particular garage sale that reminded me I live in West Texas. First, I've never seen anyone arrive at a garage sale on a tractor. Yes, tractor...like the kind you use to pick up the big round hay bales. He bought some CO2 canisters for a pellet gun, but was planning to use them in some kind of wine-bottle-opening-contraption. So a wine-drinking tractor-driving man visited my garage sale! How fun!

Second, a couple arrived on a motorcycle. How can you properly garage-sale on a motorcycle? The man got all excited about some zinc canning lids that were on one of the tables. He was calling people and checking out the lids individually...even counting to see how many there were. Then, he only wanted to pay .50 for them! Bizarre, but hey - it's a garage sale. This couple did only buy about three small items and then stowed them in the saddle bags of the motorcycle and drove off.

Third, toward the end of the garage sale, a young man rode by on his horse. He did not dismount, nor did he buy anything, but it was interesting anyway. He rode right up to the edge of the tables and just kind of gave it the once-over. I think he was just curious about what kind of junk was left. But I'll bet this never happens in the city!

All in all, it was a crazy, hard-working two weeks to get these garage sales off the ground. I am so thankful for all the help and all those who came to buy. The money raised put me within $500 of my goal. PTL!