Apple Orchard

We dragged our students to the Apple Orchard... a rainy Friday did not look promising but they were awesome and we had so much fun!

ELI Picnic

We had a welcome banquet for our students. It was a great way to begin the year. My students are already complaining about the monotony of the food in the dining hall.. so I think when they saw the goodness of the kebabs, veggies, shrimp, rice and fruit salad they were excited.

We played soccer with a beach volleyball..girls vs. boys...girls lost but it didn't matter ;) We played some cornhole.

It was a great way to get to know my students outside of class.

I am culture shocking a little bit.. only because Asian students are really diligent and it is such a contrast to my Hungarian teenagers ;)...but maybe that is just because they are teenagers.

better to give than recieve

I sent a package to my friends in Budapest.. this package was loaded..it does help that I used to live in Bp so I know what you can get and what you can't.

I got an email from my friend telling me how excited the kids were and how great all the snacks were. I just wish I could have been a fly on the wall when they were opening it!! She said that she heard "I love Joanna" come from her kids mouths a million times!

I love giving and I know its one of my love languages. I had the biggest smile on my face all afternoon after I received that awesome email that they had gotten their gifts!! ;)

I know many of you are overseas.. but if you aren't.. sending a card or a package really brightens the day of those serving!! Nothing like opening your mail box and seeing a letter inside!!

Challenge

On Saturday morning..bright and early (5:30am) I woke up and got ready to run the Charlottesville Women's 4-miler! Sami had driven down from PA to join me in this race. We signed up in June and have been training since. I wasn't so rigorous in my training and 2 weeks before the race I got sick and was out for a week. Nonetheless the race was still on and we donned in our pink Nike fit tanks drove onto Foxfield's property to join the other 3600 women to run or walk the 4-miler.

It was amazing to be apart of such a fun and powerful event. I was surrounded by women who were survivors of breast cancer, who knew loved ones who survived and many who died. We were all there for a cause and it was fun to be apart of it.

Sami and I lined up with the 11 minute miler folks and we all lined up.. then we were off. It was crazy to run with such a massive amount of people. It was hard especially because of the hills but we pressed on and finished faster than we'd (at least I) had hoped.

It was great to see so many people cheering me on, being my hometown, I'd hear my name shouted and it gave me motivation.

Thanks to all of you who sponsored me and who cheered me on from near and far!! ;)

The New Job

I love my new job. I love working with internationals and university students who have a passion for ESL. There is nothing like being surrounded by people who share the same passion as you do.. English as a Second Language and Linguistics.

I've met my three interns. They are awesome. I am going to be their guide (kinda scary) in ESL. I'm hoping to give them a practical approach of ESL and how to become a good teacher and administrator.

There are many parts to my job. One part is that I am in the intern coordinator, a second is that I'm the Study Abroad Coordinator for LU. A third is that I am the Community Projects coordinator for our outreach English Adult Program and a fourth.. I find host families for our students.. then to top it all off... I teach two language labs and one vocabulary class. Whew! ;)

We have met our students and I LOVE being in front of the classroom again. Currently we are just doing orientation and assessments but these students are fresh, new and unsure of what to expect. We are trying to motivate them to learn English and take the time to do it!

Yesterday, I was able to get to know some of the students then pray over them. I prayed over two Chinese students and one Japanese students. I prayed for them by name and asked for specific things to pray about. They told me and I prayed. One of the girls started to cry after I was finished praying .. I asked if she was okay and she said that she was.. just that she was in shock over how kind, nice and loving everyone at Liberty was. ;)

I know my ministry.. I know my job.. I just need to practice the presence of God.

Matt's Departure

Last Weekend, I said good-bye to a great friend, Matt. He has moved to Budapest to replace me ...I mean replace me.. he lives in the old apartment, maybe he'll hang with some of my friends, go to the church I went to.. teach at my old school.. and you never know.. he might even sit on the same Hev seat I sat in ;)

Please pray for him as he is adjusting to new everything. I'm super excited for him and know that he is going to do great! Those of you in Europe you should hang with my friend!!!

Here's a pic of us right before I drove him to the airport!

Tubing

As an office, we took the day to relax and go tubing down the James. We were out in the sun from 11-430. It was so fun getting to know one another at a personal level. Here are some pics of my colleagues!!