Updates...

To all of you who are keeping J in your thoughts—continue to encourage her! She is really excited as the past few weeks she has been able to have several good, deep conversations with people she is meeting in the city and at the English Center. Now that she has been in her city for a few months, she has had the chance to grow relationships with these people and they are opening up and listening to what she has to say in a big way! J has continued to have several opportunities to share, and as she gets closer to people, she continues to have more opportunities.



On a less serious, less important note, J wanted to let you all know that she finally got her motorcycle license! She has had a bike for a while, but has not been able to ride it without a license. Now that she has the license, however, she hasn’t gone out riding on her motorcycle on the roads—she’s still a little nervous to venture out. I am sure that will change soon and she will
be whizzing around the city on her motorcycle!



J went to her first wedding in her new city, and she also went to her first traditional dancing show where locals perform traditional dances—J said it was really different and neat because they wear masks while dancing. She said she really enjoyed it and is planning to go again the next time. She also said she took a lot of pictures, so be sure to look at those when she posts them online!



J is going travelling around the country in a few weeks as well for vacation with the family next door and her new roommate while she is still there. They are planning on going snorkeling, scuba diving possibly, hiking, taking pictures, and sightseeing.



J’s pet Gus Gus died this past week; she thinks it was because there was a drastic weather change where it went from hot to cold quickly within the span of two days. She also suspects that he was might have been getting old—he was about a year old, which is old for those types of animals in domestic situations.




The Center has a lot of new people coming in, so J has been meeting a lot of new girls that she’s been able to get to know and start relationships with. They spend a lot of time with the people who come to the Center outside of class time, so there are plenty of opportunities for J to share with these new girls she is meeting!



That’s all for now—look for another update on what J has
been doing soon!

Late Christmas and the Broncos

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far! I had a chance to talk with J this week and catch up on what her past week has included. Since she just started back teaching at the English Center this week, she hasn’t been very busy, but she did want to share with you all what she has
been doing. First of all, she finally (finally!) received her Christmas packages and wanted to say thank you to the NBC girls and her family for the sweet things they sent! She especially enjoyed the Crystal Light packs and reading the Christmas cards that were sent.



J said so far this week of working at the Center has been a bit of a roller coaster; some good things have happened, and she’s also had a couple of not so good days. She really appreciates everyone keeping her in their thoughts! J’s roommate is still back home visiting family and friends, but J has a new roommate that will be there for a couple months. The new roommate
just arrived this week, but J really likes her so far and says it is nice to have someone else with her again. Her new roommate will also be teaching at the English Center.



J wanted me to make sure that I told you all she was able to watch the Broncos game with her family last week through Skype and was extremely thrilled that the Broncos (read: Tim Tebow) won. Extremely thrilled! She said it was really neat to be able to be watching the game with her family and to be able to talk to them at the same time like she would if she were back home. The wonders of Skype!



Again, be keeping her in your thoughts this next week, especially that she will continue to have opportunities to share with the people she meets at the Center and in her city. Also, she will be starting her language lessons up again with a new tutor, so she will be having more opportunities to learn the language.

New Year's Motivation

Hello all! This post will be pretty short, as J is still on a break before she starts teaching again at the English Center. J spent her New Year’s Eve with a group of people she’s been getting to know from her city. Since she doesn’t speak the language yet, she said that the night was pretty lonely.
Most of the people at the party were not speaking English and so it was hard for her to be able to talk to anyone. However, she was pretty positive about the night because it gave her a lot of motivation going into the new year to learn the new language faster so she can communicate with the people in their language. She also said that the night ended well in that she and another girl spent some time talking and getting to know one another—J even was able to share a little bit with the other girl. And, as a bonus, J said they talked on the porch and she got to see some fireworks that night!



J still hasn’t received her packages from home yet, so she has decided to leave her Christmas tree up until they come so that she can celebrate with her gifts once they arrive. She was also able to spend some time in the city with a couple of girls and a friend from the English Center, and during their day in the city shopping and spending time together, J and her friend were able to share with the girls. The girls were really open to talking, and J and her friend were able to have a really good conversation with them. Keep J in your thoughts as she goes into the New Year and
starts back up with her language lessons and teaching at the English Center. Also, be keeping the people she comes into contact with in your thoughts as well—J is really excited about how
open a lot of the people have been so far!

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! It’s been a while, but J wanted to let everyone know how her Christmas went. Obviously, since this was her first Christmas away from home, this Christmas was a little different than any before. J invited a group of people come over to her house and eat dinner together to celebrate, and she said it was so much fun! She cooked chicken and rice with cream of chicken soup for everyone, and her new neighbors brought side dishes to go along with her food. She said everyone had a great time eating together, reading the Christmas story, and opening presents from each other. And, since J’s packages from home haven’t arrived yet, her neighbors brought some Christmas presents for her to open as well. Since they’ve been here, she has become really close to them and they knew just what she would want! She said her neighbors know how much she loves Disney and Disney princesses, so they got her some really cute little Disney-themed gifts. She was really excited about that and their thoughtfulness!




Even though it was her first Christmas away from her parents and family, J said that she was able to have a really good time making new traditions and getting to better know some of the people she’s met so far. She was also able to Skype with her parents and family on Christmas Eve for a while, so that helped as well.




Aside from celebrating Christmas and making new traditions, J had the chance to visit a nearby zoo recently. She said it was extremely different from zoos back home! For instance, instead of the animals being in cages and separated from people visiting the zoo, J said that the animals are able to walk right up to visitors’ cars—even the lions and tigers. Obviously, people keep their windows closed and are not allowed to feed the lions, but because there aren’t as many safety standards, there aren’t fences separating the animals. J got the chance to take a picture with an orangutan and hug a lion! She said that it was one of the best experiences she’s had, but she said the best part of the trip to the zoo was when she got the chance to take a ride on an elephant. She said it was an awesome experience and completely different from any zoo experience back at home!




That’s all for this blog entry, but please continue to keep J and the people she comes in contact with at the English Center in your thoughts as she continues to get more acclimated to her city. She said she is becoming really comfortable and at home there and can hardly believe that she’s been there for as long as she has. She hopes everyone had a good Christmas and has a happy New Year!

Thanksgiving and Birthdays

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I talked to J this week and she told me all about her Thanksgiving and her birthday. She was able to spend Thanksgiving with her supervisor and her supervisor’s family this year, and she said she had a really, really great time. She thought it was
going to be a tough holiday away from family, but J said she was surprised because she had a really good Thanksgiving this year. She’s really looking forward to Christmas a lot more now!

J said her birthday didn’t go as nicely as Thanksgiving did because she was sick again. Be keeping her in your thoughts the next few weeks as she continues to adjust to her new city since this was the fourth time she has been sick in the short time she has lived there. However, J did say that
once she was able to celebrate her birthday, she had fun going out to dinner and letting the rest of her team make her into a cake! She said that it’s a tradition to dump traditional cake ingredients (as in raw eggs and flower!) onto the person having the birthday. J said there will be pictures posted soon!

J’s English class end this week; the classes only run for about three weeks and this one is finishing up already! She’s really enjoyed teaching and getting to know some of the people who come to the English Center. She starts up a new class pretty soon. Also, her language classes are going well—she is a lot more encouraged about them than she was when they first started, and she said that she’s starting to learn how to converse in the new language she is learning. She said that it is much easier to learn when she gets to converse in it rather than simply learning vocabulary words.

Other than Thanksgiving and getting to go to a nearby movie theater and see the new Twilight
movie, J said that she had a pretty routine week. However, she did want to tell you all that she really, really enjoyed watching the Carolina/Clemson football game over Thanksgiving weekend and “Go Gamecocks!”

New Pets, New Languages, and New Neighbors

Hello everyone! J has now been in her new city for about a month now and she really seems to be getting settled in her house and work. In fact, this week she felt like it was time to buy her first pet. It’s called a “kus kus” and J named it Gus Gus—as in the chubby little mouse in the Disney Cinderella movie. He is nocturnal, so he sleeps a lot during the day, but she seemed to be pretty excited about her new pet.

Aside from getting a new pet, J also said that a couple weekends ago, group of people from her team went out to dinner in the mountains. She said the weather was pretty bad and the team almost got to see a tornado start in the clouds. J said that before the tornado could completely form, the wind blew some of the clouds away, but J did say that they could see debris flying around before the wind picked up.

Other than getting a new pet and almost seeing a tornado, J said that she had a pretty normal week. She finished her second week of teaching her class. On top of teaching her class this past week, she also was teaching her roommate’s class because her roommate has been out of town. This week, she will be back to teaching just one class. J said that her class consists of about twelve students, and they meet for class two times a week. During the class, the students learn vocabulary words and then try to each come up with sentences in English using those vocabulary words and other words they’ve learned. Then, they usually will play a game that requires using the new words that they have learned. J said that she usually ends the class with discussion, where the students can talk to each other about different things in English to practice what they’ve learned.

During the days she isn’t teaching her class, J is taking her own language lessons with a tutor.
She meets once a week with the tutor for about two to three hours, and she says that it’s been really challenging so far. This past weekend, she also went to a performance at a nearby art school that was put on by the kids in the school. The performance consisted of different things such as puppet skits and traditional music and dancing, all performed by the kids. J said the performances happen on a regular basis, so she plans to try to go and watch each time they perform—especially because she forgot to bring her camera with her to the first one! J said that she and her roommate have new neighbors that moved in recently next door, and they have a couple of young kids that she has been asked to babysit a couple of times. She was pretty excited about this because they like watching Disney movies, and she’s found someone to watch them with her!

One more thing: This week is J’s birthday, so everyone should make sure to tell her happy birthday! She said that her team went out to dinner to celebrate and also made her into a cake. Yes, made HER into a cake. Apparently, it’s a tradition—but there will be pictures soon!

Firsts

Hello everyone! This week included several firsts for J and she really wanted to share them with you. This past weekend, like I mentioned in the last post, J went with a friend to a ceremony called “Idu Adha.” Basically, Idu Adha is a ceremony remembering Abraham, but with an emphasis on Ishmael instead of Isaac. One family brings a goat or a cow that will be the sacrifice, and the ritual includes bleeding out the animal as much as possible. They do this because they believe that the more blood that is spilled, the more sins that are forgiven. J said that it was not fun to watch because they let the goat or cow stay alive (so that it was kicking around) as long as possible so that more blood will spill out. After, the people hang up the animal and skin it. The family that brought the goat or cow gets some of the meat from the animal, and the rest of the meat is given to the poor after the family gets their share.

J said that the ceremony was really interesting and she was able to have some good conversations both with her friend and with some other people at the ceremony. The biggest thing that came out of her going to the ceremony was that she was able to share a little bit with another person that was also at the ceremony. J asked that everyone keep the friend that invited her to the ceremony in their thoughts.

Aside from getting to attend the Idu Adha this past weekend, another first for J was that she started teaching her first English class on Tuesday. Up to this point, she has been just getting to know the people who visit the center on a regular basis while she gets acclimated and so that the people will be comfortable with her. She was really looking forward to starting to teach her own group of students.

Aside from teaching at the center, J is getting used to being in her house by herself for the first time since she’s been in her city. Her roommate is gone for a little while, so J is on her own until her roommate comes home. She didn’t seem too upset about it, but she does currently have the company of some workers who are currently fixing the roof of the house close by hers. So, everything isn’t as quiet as she thought it would be while her roommate is gone!

Thank you all again for taking the time to see what J is up to in her city; she seems to be settling in really well and is glad she can share what she’s doing with her friends. Keep her in your thoughts this coming week!