A Summary Of What Has Gone On Lately

Wow, it has been over a month since my last post! Wow. Time has gone by so quickly! And now it has been over 60 days since I moved here! Crazy!

Well, here I am, back from the real world =)
I've been so busy lately, I haven't had any time for writing on here, answering emails, hanging out with people...I feel so bad, but I couldn't help it!
After my last post, my family and I went down south to a region called the Algarve to visit some friends of my parents for a week. We had fun hanging out with people, speaking Portuguese (well, I mostly listened and was able to catch the general meaning of what was being said), playing Guitar Hero, and swimming in the pool or the ocean. It was really nice for me to finally meet Edna, my friend Barbara's sister, who has become really good friends with my mom, and to meet her twin boys, Joshua and Nelson (here's a picture my sister took of them. Nelson's on the left and Joshua's on the right. It's not the best picture since they're not smiling, but it'll have to do). They're two years old and would call my brother Isaac "Eeshakee", my sister Alana "nana", and I was "inny". They were really cute trouble makers =)
Spending time with Edna made me miss Baba, whom I've been wanting to visit ever since I've moved here, but haven't been able to since I have no money to travel.

The day after we got back, I started my new job! I am now helping out at a small International Christian school by teaching History and Geography to eight 6th and 7th graders and Bible to five high schoolers. It was a real challenge the first week, 'cause I hadn't had time to prepare lessons in advance, so I would wake up, eat, go to school, teach, eat, teach some more, go home, prepare my lessons for the next day, and go to bed! So, of course, I got sick. But I love my students and I really like teaching them and I've heard from the kids, other teachers, and moms, that my students really like me, too, so I'm really happy.
In case you are wondering, I am not getting paid, but the school is providing me with a bus pass, so now I don't depend on my parents driving me everywhere and can just take the bus....if it comes! (Portuguese bus drivers come and go when they please. They could be 5 minutes early, 10 minutes late, or even 30 minutes late and if you're not there when the bus arrives, well, good luck!)

The week after I started teaching, my good friend Annica, whom I've known my whole life, came to visit me from Italy. I was so happy to see her again after two years that I cried when I picked her up at the airport, but we've just been saying that I was having allergies =)
I wish I hadn't been so busy with teaching and that I hadn't been sick, but we had a lot of fun together anyway! (Here's a picture of the two of us being silly, which is what we do best)
We went to the beach, we went to a few of the nice cities in the area (including Lisbon), took a lot of fun pictures, laughed and talked together and cried while watching a movie we had watched together two or three years ago at her house =)
The last day Annica was here, she asked if she could come along to school with me and sit in on my classes. Afterwards, she told me that she was so impressed at how good I was at teaching and how I did it so naturally. That was really nice to hear! I just thought that I was doing as well as anyone else would have done...so it's nice to remind myself that this isn't something that comes naturally to everyone and that I'm actually good at teaching!

Once Annica left, I was able to get a week to relax and finally get over the bad cold I had.

And then this past week, I went to Holland with my mom to a 24/7 Prayer European gathering which I really enjoyed!! It always amazes me how small the Christian world is (it's so easy, at Christian events, to see someone that you've met before or heard of or with whom you have mutual friends!) and it's so nice how, even though you've just met a person, you connect so easily and act like family right away! That's so encouraging and so fun!
While there, I got to see a little bit of Holland (technically, it wasn't my first time in this country, but last time I was there was when I was 3 years old, so that doesn't really count), I got to make some new friends, and enjoy Christian community again, even though it was just for a few days. It made me miss JPUSA...