Paris

Merry Christmas from Paris!

It has been so amazing being here. I love it so much. I love being with my family more!! Here is a link to my pics on my facebook till I get home!!

http://liberty.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125036&l=8b550&id=55702898

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Love,
Joanna

Christmas Party

Cookies!!

Me and the Girls

Norbert got a can of cat food and a tooth brush.. funny gift

All of my Students!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS
Just a quick blog!! I am about to go to Paris and I"m so excited.

I'm about to leave school and we just had a part with all the colleagues and it was a blast.I am so blessed with my colleagues and my school!! Here are some pics from the 12th grade Christmas Party. It was so much fun and I know that the students really had fun.

We exchanged presents, decorated cookies and I read the Christmas Story.

See you in January.. if I can I will blog from Paris!!

Merry Christmas!!

Esztergom Retreat

The Ladies at Lunch

The Basilica at night

Keri and Leah

This past weekend, I travelled a lot. On Saturday morning, a snowy morning, a few of ladies of CEO..Arden, Lea, Laura and I drove up in Arden's snazzy red car. We got a bit turned around trying to navigate the one way, no left turn roads to find our Panzio but once I got ahold of the map, listening to advice, praying for help, we found it :-) hehe it wasn't that dramatic.

Anyways, we arrived at our panzio and there were dead gold fish in the "pond". I meant to take a picture but alas I forgot. So, I was really sad. Arden and I walked over to them to pay our respects when they moved..hooorayyy!! The Gold Fish weren't dead, the water was just frozen on the top. ..random I know but it was almost traumatizing.

We went to a restaurant called Pig's Knuckle Restaurant (but in Hungarian) and we ate yummy food. Arden was constantly being hit on by a 60 year old waiter who just loved her name and Laura's. Something about that rolling R :-) We were full to the brim and so we walked to the hospital that Keri (our partner in Croatia but was in esztergom) was staying at. We stopped at two bakery's to get sweets and walked into the hospital and enjoyed a wonderful, few hour visit. I loved every minute of it and it was a huge blessing I'm sure for Keri. Someday, I'll have to write about Hungarian Hospitals.

We then went and bought some wine, cheese, crackers, szalami, Cheetos, oranges, peanuts, chocolate, cookies, water, cheerios for our dinner. We walked back to the panzio and laughed our heads off for a few more hours.

Sunday was much the same, we went to Keri's again and then to the same restaurant and then drove home.

I love the women of CEO and I am so thankful for their mentorship, friendship, love and care. I definitely missed Donna but I know she was there in spirit.

Vienna with School

I went to Vienna with my school. We had two buses, 6 teachers and I think 96 kids. It took us about 3 hours and we got there in time for the snow to start :-) The biggest difference in the field trip for me was that we just let the kids go do whatever they wanted in this huge city by themselves. Once we all got off the bus the students were told that they should come back at 3pm and we would all see the museum.

So, the teachers set off and I had a great time. Of course, at the First Starbucks I saw I bought a Gingerbread Latte ( a tall was 4.7 Euro which is like $6) but it was sooo good and very worth the money:-)

Here are some pics of my time in veinna. My favorite part had to be hanging out with my colleagues and getting to know them a bit better!


Gabi and I

Christmas Market

Tamas and Abel 2 of my 10th graders

noise

Last Wednesday night at Bible Study we watched a Nooma titled Noise. It was really good. I had read some of his points, Rob Bell, in his book Velvet Elvis talking about how in 2000 it took more than 20,000 hours of taping to get 1 hour of silence. I think this is correct.

Anyways, I got to thinking, I moved to Budapest a huge city. Im no longer in quiet Lynchburg or Charlottesville. There are constant sirens, buses, villamoses, dogs, yelling, and cars at all hours of the night. The last time I went to Vac I was amazed at how quiet it was. There wasn't a lot of noise.

I am always surrounded by noise. Whethere I have my IPOD in, reading a book, talking to someone, listening to Hungarian, listening to background noises. So my question is where is God in all of this?? Is he here in the noise? Is he available through the noise.

God spoke not in an earthquake, not through fire, but through a small quiet whisper. Would I be able to hear God's voice through the loudness of my life?

Christmas In Full Swing

The Christmas season is in full swing here in budapest and I'm very excited to be apart of it all.

Yesterday, I went to the Christmas Market in the downtown area and bought some Christmas ortaments and hopefully soon I will return to sample some hot wine.

I'm planning a Christmas party with one of my classes and I'm very excited about that.

The church that I'm going to has a Christmas childrens program next sunday where i'm sure I will die over the adorable children.

I have written all my Christmas Cards, printed a Christmas Letter and sending a few packages out to America. Next Friday, I'm going to Vienna with my school as a chaperone. I'm pretty excited about that. Its part of the Christmas holiday. Then I'm off to Paris.

Its raining. yuck. i wish it was snowing.

Christmas Decorations

Today we made christmas decorations!!

Here are some pics!