Catching Up

Guess what? It's been too long between entries. Boo. This time, it's not all my fault. We didn't have internet last week on Monday or Tuesday, so those days weren't even an option for writing. Wednesday we had internet again, but I was quite busy since I teach three classes on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday our internet was out again. It's been fixed since Saturday, so now I can continue my great adventures. :)

The problem with that is that last week, there really weren't any. It was just a busy work week. Seriously. The week was spent planning lessons, correcting assignements, teaching lessions, returning homework, and assigning new homework. :) My students loved it. lol Actually, they are usually ok with homework. Some of them even like it. I was never that kind of student. I never liked homework. Not even in first grade when I'd purposely save something to do at home just because I thought it made me cool to have homework. lol The only reason I thought it was cool to have homework was because my baby-sitters always did and I loved all of my baby-sitters.

Anyway, most of my students like homework. Hence the reason they learn so quickly--they simply want to know it. I was a good student, but I didn't always want to know what I was learning. Haha! But from the way my students talk, they have subjects they don't like to study for either. I guess something aren't so different after all. ;)

We started a new group this past weekend. We created the Cappucino Club for adults. Once a month we'll meet for coffee and a game or cards. For the first time, we stayed at church and ordered drinks from the little bar kafe next door. Besides Emily, Vitori, and myself, we only had one other person. Despite this fact, we weren't disappointed because it was the one person we really really really wanted to come. It was one of the moms who comes to one of Emily's classes with her youngest daughter. I have her two other daughters in my classes. Her girls always come to everything and Fatmira doesn't miss classes and usually comes to Activity Nights with her girls, too. So we were super happy that she came by herself to something. :)

We spent about an hour chatting and playing Uno. Cards and coffee go well together. Fatmira had fun learning a new game and Vitori seemed to have a good time having another adult there. Not that she doesn't like us. lol Don't get that idea! haha :) But when we get other people at church, it's kids. So we played and chatted and drank coffee and laughed a lot. Everyone liked the idea of doing this once a month so we said, "Great! See you in March!"

I spent the rest of my weekend planning for this week and for next week. Next week my classes are only meeting once for the week because Emily and I have something super exciting coming up: a trip to Athens! :) See, one of Emily's friends from MLC is coming to visit. Andrea is flying in on Sunday. I'm excited too because I also know her. Because we lived in the same town for awhile. It will be nice to have a friend and familiar face from home here for awhile. Plus, it will be awesome to visit Greece! We're leaving Tuesday night and taking a bus through the night. It's much cheaper than flying, is perfectly safe, and was a decent price for a round-trip. We'll have three full days to spend there and then Friday night we'll board the bus and get back here early Saturday morning so that we make it back in time for church. I'm sure that on Saturday afternoon we'll be doing plenty of napping. Hee hee! ;)

I did get pictures of the MMM group's Valentine's outing posted. I really think the girls had a great time that day. Most of our students don't get treats like that very often, much less by themselves with friends. So it was really fun to be able to take them there. :)

On another note, one of my classes has been doing something fun and interesting. We've started exchanging videos with my dad's class. The first video was one that we sent them because they were learning about Eastern Europe and the Balkans, so obviously, Albania fit right in. My all-girls class introduced themselves, gave their age, and then they each told a different fact about Albania. One girl talked about Tirana being the capitol, another girl talked about the mountains, another about the dialects, another about the beaches and the seas, and so on. Then my students asked my dad's class to tell us something about their city, state, and country. It was around 2 minutes long, so it wasn't huge or anything. But they had an absolute blast making it. They were so careful to correct mistakes while we were practicing. But what makes is so great is that there are still a few little things on the video that aren't perfect. I love it because it shows how much they're trying, but that they still have things to learn and they want to learn. :) My dad said his kids loved it and now they've made a video response for us as well. I'm eager to get it because my class will be jumping out of their skin with excitement. lol :)

Other than that, it's been work, work, work, work for me and learn, learn, learn for my students. I'm extra organized right now (stop laughing--it is possible) since we have a vacation coming up in the middle of a session. That's one of the perks to making your own schedule. ;) It won't hurt anything for my students because the day off will come right after a test. Perfect timing. :) So I'm off to make a review games for each class to play later this week. Don't forget to keep us in your prayers and pray that the Holy Spirit is doing lots of work that we can't see in the hearts of our students.