Laba diena, happy Thanksgiving! :) I am reminded by a song I used to sing in church growing up, and I hear my mom's voice...
"Give thanks with a grateful heart,
Give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because He's given
Jesus Christ His Son."
Another year I am not in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving. Last year I spent Thanksgiving break at Eric's house with his family and had a wonderful time. This week has been a bit nostalgic thinking about all the Messiah kids heading back home for break and seeing their families. And I'm in a country where they don't even have Thanksgiving, and I don't get a few days off either.
However, there is much to be thankful for, whether that is my family, Eric, this study abroad experience, old friends, new friends, roommates, Messiah, etc etc etc.
Yesterday I had a linguistics presentation, and then went to Green Hill to teach my last 3 lessons to my ninth graders. I brought in some soda and snacks to celebrate and I took some pictures. :) The past 10 weeks have really flown by. It was a rewarding experience. I learned a ton through the challenges of the language barrier, hours spent making lesson plans, having a teaching partner with different teaching strategies, and even just the fact that I am studying to be an elementary school teacher, not high school. I got to talk with Galina Rusu (the actual teacher of these students) afterwards, and she gave some good advice. We had to give evaluations and she gave me all perfect marks, generally complimenting my teaching. As she was handing me back the paper, she asked if it was okay what she wrote. I was surprised because I wanted her to constructively criticize, giving me helpful tips, etc. I talked to a friend about it later and she said that's just how Eastern Europe is. So although on paper she didn't have much that was helpful to me to be a better teacher, just talking with Galina was great.
Below are my two classes, 9B and 9C. This week we only had 7 or 8 kids in each class because the swine flu has spread. Usually we have twice this size per class.
In the evening I went to Kyle and Trisa Usrey's for Thanksgiving. All the study abroads, LCC's chaplain Chris Hatton, Emas, Allison and Dalius came. It was so wonderful to eat Thanksgiving food and have good company and conversation. A real blessing. I even got to use their phone so I got to talk to my parents, Granny, and Eric. :)
I've really gotten closer with Trisa, as I've started going to Bible study at their house on Wednesday nights. We talk about who spoke in chapel and although I haven't been in chapel because of teaching, the discussions are still great. Last week Wednesday we talked about whether it is okay to die, and it brought a lot more questions to mind. This week Wednesday we talked about love and sex, as well as purity.
I have a lot of work to do within the next couple weeks with final projects. Just 6 more classes of my Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes, and 4 for Tuesday/Thursdays... crazy! I am glad for another semester done though. :)
My classes have gotten better... photography has turned around completely from the beginning of the semester. Recently my professor had a critique session on class excursions, and he had about 15 of my photos up there. Of course he tore them apart, but many of them were his favorite he said. So although it has been a tough semester, it's starting to pay off. :) My final portfolio is due in a few weeks.
Practicum is now over, which is a relief as I said earlier, so I have about 8 more free hours in my week which is much needed. I can start to go to chapel again!
Tomorrow I am going to a teacher's conference, helping out with registration and attending one of the seminars. Also going to work on my projects and watch Elf, since Christmas is soon to come! :)
I hope you all had a great week and Thanksgiving. Thanks to you all for reading this, for praying and being patient with my lack of updates. ;)
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