Three weeks left...

Here is a more complete account of what I have been doing at ESI training:

Sunday, July 22, 2007
On our first real day of training we had worship in the morning with all of the Staff, Alumni and New Teachers at WCIU. Right after church each region had a pool party at a different house. It was really good to get to know everyone who will be teaching in Central Europe, spend time playing in the pool, getting a tan, eating good food, and fellowshipping with each other. I am so overwhelmed by how amazing these people are. Everyone had a great story to tell about being called to work in Hungary, Slovakia or the Czech Republic. After our pool party we had some introductory sessions about TeachOverseas (ESI) and things like that.

Monday, July 23, 2007
Our first day that was completely filled... Breakfast at 7am, Discovery Groups, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) session, regional split, lunch, Intro to WCIU, more on ESI, Practicum Prep, Dinner, Practicum, Debriefing at 9:30pm.
Every day follows this basic schedule. I keep waking up before my alarm goes off at 6:30am. The days are so long.

Tuesday....
the same as Monday...

Wednesday
This was my first night to teach at Practicum! This is our condensed version of student teaching. There are several churches in the area that offer English lessons dirt cheap to anyone who will come and that is where we teach. The actual building that we teach in is called Villa 500 and is a preschool or sorts during the day. There are probably 30-40 students who have enrolled at our site and we split them up into five groups. Each night we teach one lesson and observe one lesson (unless we get lucky and observe two...) The lessons are only 40 minutes long, but that is long enough get some real experience and prevents us from running super short on our lessons.
My topic for my first night of teaching was weddings. On Tuesday night that level of class had four students. On this night only one came! It was very interesting because I was able to give Virginia more personal attention, but it also made me have to shuffle a little bit because I had planned pair-work and there was no one for her to partner with. I was very excited thought that I was able to teach her some new vocabulary, and explain some American wedding traditions. I did have one embarrassing moment while covering vocabulary. Without thinking I asked "Do you know what 'honeymoon' means? What happens on the honeymoon?" As soon as it was out of my mouth I blushed, Virginia blushed, and I got looks from my observers in the back row. Thankfully Virginia answered "They go away." Which was quite satisfactory to me.
Overall it was a good first time teaching experience. I did not come near to 80/20 speaking ratio (the goal being for students to speak 80% of the time during class), but I did successfully incorporate Presentation, Practice and Production (the three P's of language teaching...)

Thursday
By this time in the week I was starting to become very tired. The time allotted to lesson planning in the schedule is 90 min, but they only actually gave up 60min. I had to run to the store to pick up visual aids, then I had to make some other visual aids, write up my lesson plan, I barely made it to dinner, then had to rush to Practicum. I had the same level of students, but all new faces. There were six total who ended up coming: Ernesto, Elizabeth, Sang..., HeeSoo, Moses and John. Four of them are actually Korean missionaries to Mexico. They are on furlough so that one of the women can give birth to their baby. Very loving, appreciative and good at English. They had actually just been moved up a level and were already better than the students who had tested into that level! This threw me off a little making it difficult to have the lesson challenge them. My topic for the night was Work/Career. For my warm up I showed the some samples of signs that a store might put in the window saying "HELP WANTED" or similar. We deciphered all the acronyms that people use in such adds: P/T, F/T, EOE, DOE, CDL, etc. and then looked in the classifieds for some good jobs. An unforeseen problem arose at this point: my students could not read the small print because they did not bring their glasses!!! Some of my students were a bit more elderly and this was something that had not occurred to me because I have no problems reading the classifieds. As our final project I gave them four interview questions to answer in writing first, then I did a mock interview with them. Unfortunately we had started class late and I ran short on time. I did get some funny answers to my questions though: Why do you want this job? I need the money. What previous experience do you have? I like to cook.
I may have approached a 50/50 point for speaking... but it is so hard to NOT speak. I am so grateful that the students here are so easy going and do not cause any problems.
I almost forgot to tell of the embarrassing/funny thing that happened in this lesson: As a warm up I had everyone go around and say a sentence like this "Hello. My name is Ms. Petty and I like peaches." Whatever their name starts with they say something that they like that starts with the same letter. For some reason Ernesto found this concept very difficult and it took me a while to figure out that he had not heard the word "peaches"... but had heard "b*tch^s." If you have spent much time around foreigners learning English you may have experienced something similar... p's and b's sound the same... as do i's and e's.

Friday
I was so excited that we would not have Practicum on Friday until the afternoon session started. The topics that we covered were culture shock, anger, depression and grief. I have never endured more talk about bad things that might happen to you in such a condensed amount of time. It was very hard, especially because they closed the session by having us pray with the people around us for our friends and family who we were worried about health wise. This was difficult for me because both of my grandmothers have passed away in the past 12 months. I am thankful that I was able to say goodbye to both of my grandfathers this summer and spend some time with them. One of the sacrifices that people make for moving overseas is not being able to come back at a moments notice if someone is sick or dies. It is a tough sacrifice at times, but knowing that God has called me to be in Hungary makes it worth it.
To lighten up Friday night they planned a movie night. The Hungary team watched "An American Rhapsody." As a result.... Friday night was just as heavy as the afternoon had been. This is an excellent film about a Hungarian family who escapes to America during the 1950's communism era. They have two daughters at the time of the escape, Maria and Zsuzsi (Susan.) Zsuzsi is just a baby and is left behind at the last minutes because of the grandmothers instinctive decision. The family can not turn back and Zsuzsi is sent to live with a peasant family. After five years the biological parents are able to arrange for Zsuzsi to come to the States. It is so heart wrenching watching this five year old girl go through culture shock, miss her home in Hungary, fight with her mother and struggle to know who she is. I cried throughout the entire movie. I think that part of the reason it was so touching to me is because I can identify with Zsuzsi's feelings about not knowing where home is: America or Hungary?
If you get a chance please watch it and have a box of tissues and chocolate handy to help you through...

Saturday
Scavenger Hunt!!! We went in out country groups, no cars, no cell phones, just a strong desire to win! We took the bus to downtown Pasadena, walked all over on Colorado, only made on mistake, called in the last clue (from a pay phone) first, but arrived at the final destination second... we were slightly disappointed. We had lunch at a place called "Thaitalian" where I had PadThaiPizza... which was fine but I would never get it again.
I spent the majority of the afternoon trying to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Last night Jen, my apartment mate from Pepperdine, came out to visit me and we went to see "Hairspray." It was cute. If you don't like musicals don't go see it. It was nice to see Jen because I have not seen her since graduation day when we did not really get to say goodbye. We got a chance to talk a little about grad school and Hungary.

Sunday
Today I got to sing on worship team for church at ESI. It was a really good experience and I hope that I can do that some more this month.
For lunch we went to CPK for Pizza. I spent most of the afternoon finishing HP. It is so nice to have alone time and relax for a few hours.

Well... tomorrow I will be back at it. I also get the pleasure of teaching Hungarian to my teammates this week as well as teaching English at Practicum. Looks like I will have plenty of practice before I get to Hungary.

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to go to Hungary!
More specifically pray for:
-us to stay healthy
-everyone to get enough funding
-our brains to be sponges that can absorb all of this info about teaching
-everyone to have patience
-the hearts of Students at Practicum
-the hearts of students at Kossuth and Trefort in Hungary where we will be teaching
-our future colleagues at those schools to see the joy of Christ in us, not just the American smile

Grace and peace be with you always!

One week down...

Lets just say that this week has been crazy, I have learned a lot, not slept enough, taught twice, cried for two and a half hours, made great friends, been extremely vulnerable, and had a lot of fun.

Today was the first day since last Sunday that we had more than 30 minutes of free time at once (other than to sleep). Even us extroverts need our peace and quite at some point... and just think about all those introverts who have been exhausted from day one...

More to come later.

Whew...

Well... today was full of information and meeting new people! This is what I have learned:
-I will be living on Csepel island in the middle of the Danube.
-I will be teaching at Kossuth Szakkozepiskola, which specializes in technology and is mostly boys
-I will be living with five other teachers, we each get our own room and bathroom, but share a living room and kitchen
-Two of the other Hungary teachers are from Great Falls, MT
-I will teach around 20 hours per week
-My apartment is only a five minute walk from the school
-Downtown Pest is realatively convenient and close

More to come... I am so tired.
Please pray for me to have energy, be friendly, remember peoples names, and stay healthy!
Also pray for Hungary as we prepare to leave!

May the grace and peace of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you always.

Teach Overseas

It is official. I have arrived at Teach Overseas training in Pasadena. I met my room mate, Crystal, who will be teaching in the Czech Republic and another girl, Katie, who will be in Slovakia.
It was very nice of Tiffany to pick me up this morning and drive me down here. We went out to lunch with Crystal at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, went to H&M, and bought lots of bottled water. I am excited to get to meet everyone else. Luckily I have internet in my room, so I should be able to post regularly. Training is supposed to be really busy and intense so I might not be able to post as often as I would like. I will try though.

Grace and peace.

Please pray that no one die of heat stroke... it is HOT here.

Test Voice Post

Let me know if this works for you or not...

First voice post!

APU Round Two

Today I started Pedagogy I: Listening and Speaking. It is a BIG change from last weeks class. We lost three people who were from the 2006 cohort, so now we are down to ten people. Last week our professor was Dr. Mary Wong. She is a very energetic extrovert. This week we have Professor Lynn Santoro-Harvey, who is a lot quieter in nature, and it is her first time to teach this course. Today we had lectures for about four hours without much break time. She said we would do more activities the rest of the week. I sure hope so because today was very long and dry. We are fairly quiet as a collective, which makes it worse. Tomorrow should be better.
Things I am looking forward to this week: Harry Potter year seven will be released at midnight on Friday, Teach Overseas training starts on Saturday, my friend Brendan from Australia is going to be in LA starting on Saturday and I would love to see him (he did AFS in Hungary when I did), and it is exciting to get to meet the other cool people from the 2006 and 2005 cohorts.

Things to pray for:
-Patience
-Love
-Funding
-Hungary as a whole
-Budapest
-My school... which I still know nothing about
-Health
-Relationships...new and old alike

May the Grace and Shalom of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.

1st Class...Finished!

The weekend is here and I have now finished the class time for my first graduate class! I still have to do all of the course work, but that is turned in over the next 6 months. Each month I have to turn in two projects: one on Culture Learning and one on Language Learning. For the Culture Learning projects I have to interview two cultural informants in Hungary about a specific cultural phenomena or practice. Examples would be: finding out about health superstitions (if you go barefoot you will catch a cold) or inquiring about the relationships between Ciganyok (Gypsies) and Hungarians. The Language Learning Project I have to focus on specific goals within Hungarian. An example would be learning how to use the formal and informal properly, or working on correct grammar in writing. I think that both of these will greatly improve my experience in Hungary, and give me a chance to meet with people and get to know them better. I am really excited to do these projects!

This week has been very encouraging to me spiritually. Every morning we have worship for awhile before class starts. During class we talk a lot about how our faith impacts our teaching and our relationships with our students, co-workers and neighbors. I of course do not know anything yet, but I am excited to go and get some experience! Our group is very diverse. I am the youngest at 21 and the oldest member of our cohort is 53. There are singles and married people. We have Vietnam Vets, preachers, and people who went straight into teaching English after college. Most of the teachers will be in Asia next year, but there are a few in Slovakia (near me!), Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. I am really excited to meet the other cohorts next week! They are the people who have already been in the program for 1 or 2 years.

We are completely free for the weekend! I am going to go visit different friends around Los Angeles. It is really nice to get a chance to say goodbye before I leave.

Other news: I found out that my Hungarian High School 5 year Reunion is on September 8th! I do not know the exact date of my arrival in Hungary yet, but it should be before then. So hopefully I will be able to go and see all of my friends and let them know that I am living in Budapest. Hopefully we will not be arriving on the 8th... that would be very disappointing.

Please pray for me to keep my focus these next few weeks as I learn more about being a teacher! God knows I need help... I have never taught anything before... Also please pray for peoples hearts in Hungary.

Grace and peace be with you always!

Back in California!

Thursday morning I left Bozeman with my mom and sister, Livia. We drove to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We got a tent camping spot, visited the pool, and had a good time hanging out. The next day we called our friend Janos Horvath, ortherwise known as Batka or Johnny (to distinguish from his father. . . Janos Horvath. . .) He is Hungarian and has been traveling around Canada for the past four months. It was really good to see him as it has been at least a year since I saw him last, and that was in Hungary.

Saturday morning I flew back to LA. My friend Dri picked me up from the airport, we ran some errands for her boss (in Beverly Hills, with crazy nice valet parking, and also visiting some very nice places to pick up expensive things for her boss. . .oh the California lifestyle. . .) We met up with our friend Garrett, after I took a long nap, and went out for dinner. Later our friend Jason joined us and we watched a movie. It was so nice to just relax for a day before coming down to APU.

Sunday after noon we got Garrett and Jason to come with us to Azusa. We found Campus Safety, got my key, found "mod L-5", looked up where the closest Trader Joe's was, went grocery shopping, and now I am all settled in! The mod is basically a duplex trailer house. We have four girls in our apartment: Kristi (my room mate), Kara, Jen and me. Kristi teaches English in China, Kara in Korea, and Jen in Kyrgystan. They are all really sweet and I am looking forward to getting to know them better.

This morning we had our introduction to APU (with free stuff! Breakfast and a T-Shirt!) and our first class session. I almost broke the bank with the checks I wrote for Tuition and Housing. . . and I still have to buy books this afternoon. This first class we get to take is TESL 503: Language and Culture Learning. Basically this class forces you to learn the language of the country that you will be living in through making goals and keeping a record of how you met those goals. It is different for everyone because we are all learning different languages: Hungarian, Slovak, Russian, Mandarin, Korean, Kyrgies, Tai, or a specific dialect within one of those language groups. . . very intense.

That is Grad school so far. I am the youngest and most inexperienced person here. . . that should be fun. Oh and I am now a Cougar. . . but will remain a Wave at heart forever.

Azusa Pacific Here I Come!!!

A lot has transpired in the past week. After being completely frustrated with APU and Pepperdine last weekend, I was glad to find out on Monday that they actually do care about me. Monday morning Doug Free, my OneStop hero, sent me an email saying that he would send a letter to APU saying my Posted Degree was enroute. After I arrived at camp I got a call from Mary Wong, who is in charge of the TESOL program that I had applied for. She said there had been a miscommunication about my application and that was why it had not been processed earlier. She told me I was accepted, pending my Posted Degree showing up. Then she dropped the bomb: the program starts July 9th! I have to be at Azusa on the 8th to move into the dorms! I told her I would be there and a whirlwind of things have had to happen since then.

This past week of camp was by far the worst week of camp I have ever experienced. (For those who doubt, and think of Walt's week as the worst camp ever... that was nothing!) All of my kids came from troubled backgrounds: two were adopted because their mom was a meth addict, one was a foster kid who got placed on the Reservation in Lame Deer, even though she is white. Her foster mom is divorced and sent her two daughters to camp also. There were five girls total in my cabin from the reservation. Then there were two spoiled girls, both a little bit overweight, and therefore teased extensively. Both of them reacted in the same way: they got sensitive and/or bullied other kids around. This was a horrid cabin combination. It was a long week, but I am done with camp now.

Today I sent out a massive amount of fund raising letters, changed my flight to go back to CA earlier, and tried to organize some of my stuff. I have way too much stuff. I am trying to figure out what I should take with me, because I will be in Hungary for two years for sure now. And if I stay longer then it would be nice to have more of my stuff. Then again the more stuff I take over the more I have to bring back eventually.

Now it is late and I am tired and can not remember what else I wanted to say.
Please continue to pray for Hungary! I will be back in CA next weekend!