Happy Valentine's Day!

2/13/11 9:20 PM

            And another week has passed…. And I’m tired. Let’s hope for a good night’s rest tonight before another great week of classes.

            The first few days of the week weren’t super exciting. Just went to school, hung out on campus doing homework afterwards, went home, did more homework, talked with the family, went to bed. I was able to get some logistics worked out with my Doctrine of the Triune God lecturer so that I can get credit for it at Fox, so that’s good.

            I was finally able to get some time in a primary school classroom on Thursday! Praise Jesus for it finally working out! I’m doing a 30 hour observation time in a special needs class at a school called Denneguer Avenue. Ironically, the teacher’s name is Lavona (same as my host mom). It’ll definitely be an experience… there’s a lot to take in as far as differences in teaching techniques and everything goes. But it’ll be a great learning opportunity. I’ll also probably be able to sit in on some regular classrooms as well, so that’ll be cool.

            After class on Friday some of us went to a restaurant for pizza and just hung out. Krystle’s really good about forcing me to go out and meet people. She doesn’t have to do much convincing, but it’s nothing I would initiate on my own. I’m glad to have her around. Friday night was our host brother Aaron’s 7^th grade Valentine’s Dance, and we ended up going and helping out. It was pretty entertaining… he goes to a boys’ school, but the girl’s school is right next-door, and the dance was for both. Lavona is making the valentines for the boys to give to their “special girl.” Before the dance, Aaron needed her to make 2… afterwards he needed 5. And he looked pretty awesome in his skinny jeans, white t-shirt with a sports jacket, and his sports cap. He thought he looked pretty awesome too.

            We finally made it to the beach on Saturday! But first we went to breakfast with Lavona and Josh. Krystle and I each enjoyed a delicious vanilla latte (flavored coffee is hard to come by here) and I had some French toast. Then we met up with this guy Robin and went to Muizenberg beach. It had a really cool vibe with brightly colored cabins lining the beach, people kicking soccer balls, and others surfing and kite surfing. We even enjoyed a delicious chicken salad at a restaurant overlooking the beach. I got to talk to my parents that evening, which is always great.

            Today Lavona, Jason, Krystle, and I went on the City Sightseeing Red Bus tour. They have these things in all the big cities, you’ve probably heard of them before. It was pretty cool, we didn’t stop at all the stops, but went to another beach and got fish and chips, walked around the “rich people” part of town, and went to the waterfront and looked at some cool artwork and listened to some live music. A small US Navy band was warming up for a performance, so we heard them play a couple songs. They were pretty good, and made me want to go see some live music. We’ve been talking about it, but now it definitely needs to happen!

            We went straight from the bus tour to the Hillsong church. It was the best church we’ve been to since being here… I want to keep exploring, but I wouldn’t mind going there again. You know the worship group Hillsong United? This is that church… or one of the locations, they’re all over the world.

            I’ve been pretty homesick the last couple days. I woke up Saturday morning knowing that I had dreamt about being at home or something, and I just haven’t been able to get it off my mind since then. Honestly, I haven’t had to battle homesickness as bad as I thought I would. The hardest thing to think about is still how long it will be before I’m home. But I’m not ready to go home, there’s still too much to see and explore and learn. It’s a weird feeling really. I think part of the reason is that I’m just busy all the time that I don’t really give myself time to breathe, and I’m not used to that. I haven’t really given myself much “me” time, and it’s starting to bog me down. Things have started to irritate me that wouldn’t normally, and I think it’s just because I’m getting overly tired from constantly going. I just have to learn that it’s ok to say no to some things so I can breathe.

            But anyways, Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Special shout-out to my favorite guy Taran. J Love you all!!!