My first day of School!

Growing up we had a tradition where we would take a picture on the first day of school. This tradition ended when we thought we were too cool. I thought I would revive the tradition, so here's to you mom and dad. My attire has changed a bit. Oh I wish I could go to school in tennis shoes, my feet would be much happier. Oh well...... c'est la vie!

Feeling Better

Many of you have e-mailed asking about my allegeries, so I thought I would update everyone. They are so much better. I have started taking Allegra-D and Flonaz they appear to be working, PLT! I thought I was doing much better, so I decided I didn't need to take it anymore and then I went outside and began sneezing like crazy. I guess allergy season is not entirely over. A big thank you to the people who helped me out getting this medicine. You have no idea how grateful I am.

When do Classes Start?

All of those who work or attend a university will appreciate this story.

After we met with the director of the school we teach at she informed us of the date we would begin to teach, Sept. 11th. So we have been patiently waiting to hear the answer to the big question, WHEN? After calling everyday this week, the person in charge of scheduling informed us that classes would not begin until the 18th because the schedule was not ready, so I guess we have another teaching free week.

I want to buy a Hamburger!

Okay if you haven’t seen the new Pink Panther movie, you have to see it in order to get a glimpse into what we look like learning a language. (If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, just find the scene where the Inspector works with an accent coach.) We laughed so hard, primarily because we knew that is exactly like we sound trying to learn this language. We showed it to our language teacher, and now everyday he comes to our lessons and says, “I want to buy a hamburger.” Uhmmm there must be some truth in that clip.

Keeping things out

We now have screens on all the downstairs windows! No more pigeons or cats in the house. I looks like we were just in time the cats caught another pigeon the other day; it’s a good thing we had the screens on.

A LONG ROAD TRIP

Do you know where this was taken? We don't either.

The trip was only supposed to take 6-7 hours, however we managed to make it a 10 hour trip. We turned 5 Kilometers too soon, which eventually lead us into the country and villages. Every time we would stop and ask someone where our destination city was their reply would be, go straight and when we asked the question, “How far away is it?” people would say, “it’s a long ways away”. We eventually made our way back to the main highway and 10 minutes from town we run out of gasoline. We called our friends and they brought us some gasoline to help us make it to town, and we get stopped at the checkpoint for crossing the line. They are very picky about that rule. Eventually we made it to town, and this will be a road trip we will never forget.

Delicious Cultural Food

Here is a picture of some of the foods our local friends made for cultural day at English Club.


Below is what I made. I tried to be creative in thinking of something American to bring.


A few comments I heard were, "These are what Homer Simpson eats" and "Police eat these don't they". You have to love the media's influence on stereotypes.

A Morning We Won’t Forget

After a long early morning battle with allergies that included little sleep, Marvin woke me up to get started on the day. I quickly surmised that it would be impossible to make it to language, as my eyes were already watering and itching, and quite swollen already. Shortly before Marvin left I looked outside to see the cats had cornered a pigeon and were waiting on their opportunity to pounce on it. I said goodbye to Marvin then went into the dinning room to get a little morning reading done, when I heard a shuffling in the living room. I had left the window open, and grew frustrated as I figured the cat jumped in again. I got up from my chair to remind it again that it belonged outside, when I met the crazy thing in the hallway, but I also heard a noise coming from behind our washing machine, (which recently was moved from our old apartment, and sitting in the hallway awaiting to be installed). This is when I freaked out, I screamed and ran to the living room, jumped on top of the couch and began to shake and cry. The noise persisted, and eventually I gathered enough courage to move around the room, I made my way around the room by climbing on various pieces of furniture to check and see what was going on. This is when I discovered a few feathers laying on the ground in the living room and some drops of blood. My eyes followed the trail until I noticed blood smeared on the wall by the washing machine. So I did what any normal girl would do, I freaked out again. This time it was worse, as I put all the clues together and formulated that the cat had brought its catch inside. There is no telephone in our living room so I knew I had to make my way to the bedroom to call Marvin. As I quickly made my way to the bedroom I noticed more blood smeared on the wall behind the couch in the dining room. I did a quick check of our bedroom and didn’t find any cats or pigeons so I quickly shut the door behind me, and reached for the phone. Trembling I called Marvin, at this point I was pretty hysterical, I explained to the best of my abilities that the cat had the pigeon inside and I needed him to come home. He calmly assured me he would be home soon.

Marvin met our language teacher at the office and told her he had to cancel language. She sympathized with me as she had a similar experience of “something terrible” in her yard this week, and told him to hurry home. He got home to find me curled up in bed, and not willing to move until everything was disposed of. So Marvin got to work, and spared me any of the details of what he found. I only know he found a dead pigeon and the cat sitting under our desk in the dining room. I am so thankful Marvin quickly came home, and for his willingness to clean up the mess.

Now while Marvin was cleaning up the mess he heard some of the neighbor boys yelling outside and noticed they had opened the gate. He discovered them carrying a scarecrow like object on a stick. They explained to him, that he needed to give them money or water, so it will rain. Marvin didn’t really understand what was going on, so after repeating “I don’t understand” a couple of times they left and went on the next neighbor, chanting the same thing.

Whew…what a morning.

Doesn't this make you want to buy this lamp?

Anniversery Get-A-Way

It's Cold Up HERE! Sights from Our First Chair Lift!

Here I am hiking in the morning, notice Marvin took this picture from a distance while waiting on me.

We had such a great time in the mountains. We found a mini bus that took us right to where we needed to go. It was a little bumpy but for the price we won't complain.

While there we relaxed and enjoyed several great hikes. As with Marvin's personality his pace of hiking is steady. Mine however changed on the time of day and my body temperature. For all those who know me know that I am not a morning person, so when we decided to start our hike out in the morning, let's just say Marvin didn't think we would ever reach our destination.

We also made our way up the tallest Mountain in our area over 5,000 meters. Many tourists come to summit it's peaks. We actually met some Americans there, and we heard some people speaking German and Italian. Unlike the other tourists we used the chair lifts to make our way up the mountain. This was our first chair lift experience, and a little intimidating based on our knowledge of how things are maintained in our part of the world. The final chair lift took us into the clouds, and as we assended it started to snow. We were thankful we purchased hats that day, it was quite cold at our highest elevation. We were thankful to warm up with a hot cup of tea when we reached the bottom.

Orphanage Project

A View after the equipment was installed
Marvin hard at work
We brought bubbles to entertain the children.

This little guy loved his new toy

Equipment is here

Marvin's trip to get the playground equipment is now over. The trip took a little longer than expected. The night he left the truck he took had overheating issues about and hour away from town. The driver insisted on trying to fix it, but after an hour it wasn't looking promising, so Marvin and his translator called a taxi and came back home arriving around 3 a.m. So the next day they found a more reliable truck and they were on their way. It was a bumpy ride, but went well. The next step is installation. We hope to get a picture of the finished product for you here in a couple of weeks.

Scenery from last week

Since you weren't able to come with us to the mountains we thought we would post a few pictures of the scenes we took in.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

We saw the most amazing rainbow during our time in the mountains. Unfortunately by the time we got our camera the colors weren't as vibrant.

Rafting

While we were in the mountains we were able to go rafting. This was our first experience and loved, even the "boring parts", as the kids who were with us called them. The water was freezing so we were thankful for a hot shower afterwards.

4th of July

Even though we are outside the US we had a great 4th of July BBQ complete with burgers, chips, potato salad, baked bean, watermelon, and yep you guessed it a flag cake. The only differences were the homemade buns and no fireworks.

We were feeling a little patriotic and decided to perpetuate the loud American stereotype so we belted out the national anthem facing the flag cake. I wonder what our neighbors thought?

We concluded the evening by a little competitive game of kickball. We even had a little crowd as the neighborhood boys climbed the fence and became our cheering section. Overall it was a great celebration.

Saturday....a Wedding

We had the opportunity to go to our first local wedding. It was quite an experience and one that we will never forget. Weddings for this particular people group are a three step event here. 1st the bride has a gathering at her house with all her friends and family. Every room of the house and the patio are filled with tables set carefully with an array of foods, which include salads, fruit, tomatoes, cucumbers, fried bread, bread, chicken, and of course caviar. The bride can be found walking around greeting all her guests, then midway through the party the groom arrives with an entourage of his family members. The women bring the bride's family presents, and then the men offer an exchange of food and drinks in a symbolic joining of the families. After these presentations the groom's family is treated to a meal. The bride's female relatives during this whole event are busy cooking, serving guests fresh food. Song and dance follow the food, and finally the bride emerges from the house and the groom sees her for the first time

2. The bride and groom travel to the marriage office where they make the marriage legal.

3. After this step the bride and groom rush away to the groom's house for another party. Only this time it is for the groom's family and friends. The bride only takes one of her relatives with her to attend to her needs. She must remain solemn and stay in a corner throughout the evening. We were only able to attend the first two steps, but enjoyed being a part of such a neat tradition.

Wednesday...a trip to a hot spring

Wednesday our language teacher invited us to go to a hot spring near his village. The drive was stunning as we encountered lush green foothills the entire drive.
The Hot Spring was hot! We were glad the weather wasn't extremly hot because it would have been a little toasty. Needless-to-say we had a good time, despite the abundance of speedos and binkinis on people of all shapes and sizes.

Our language teacher enjoyed it so much partially because the last 2 months he hasn't had water at his apartment.

Tuesday...a trip to a village

Marvin had the opportunity to go to one of his student's village. Some of the things he experienced were excellent food (the meat kabobs are a local favorite), more food, and a little more food. Combined with excellent hospitality people sure know how to treat guests here. The picture above is of a few of the gracious hosts.

The Fortress

Upon moving into this house we affectionately named it the "Fortress". You can see why from these pictures.