*Sigh* ... hello dear friends....

My dearest friends,

It's been a little while since I could update-- what with the tragic loss of Dell and my ever shrinking amount of free time. I love my job, but it is not conducive to hours of free time pouring my heart out into cyber-world. :)

Our students are doing well, yes "our" because I feel as though you've walked some of this journey with us. They are becoming quite proficient in American culture.

They are now posting pictures of their American houses on facebook. Taxidermied deer are quite popular themes for photo-ops it seems. Do they not taxidermy in Korea? Hahaha.... Apparently, when they wake up in the morning, the wide glass eyeballs of the great White Tailed Deer are a little.... overwhelming.

According to my very scientific poll, when I pass them in the hallways, they love ESL and math is good. They were sad at first not to be in my Spanish classes, but I think the 5 that did score high enough to join Spanish have told the woes of Miss Herman vs. Miss Elie Teacher. The ESL teacher at Grace is wonderful. She is creative, fun, and very kind. Her name is Joanna, if you'd like to pray for her. :)

There are several boys on the JV soccer team. They are scoring and putting up stats like nobody's business. It's so fun to watch them light up as they play. The American boys have taken quite a shine to being teammates with our sweeties. Daniel always waves to me from the field.... it's cute.

As for our staff, Daniel Teacher has arrived safe and sound, and has begun his job of commuting back and forth to the more rural schools in our partnership. His daughter is attending Broadfording, and told me that she likes it. Silvia and Enoch are back in their Hagerstown routines. All the Grace teachers were glad to have them back for another year. It seems to be going smoothly. Justin and Phillip are braving the adventures in Maryland. We've taken to swapping logic riddles.....

Here's one you can do yourself: Draw a 3X3 chart (so 9 boxes). Using only the numbers 1-9, fill in one number per box so that each row (diagonally, vertically, and horizonally) adds up to 15.

Thanks Justin for ruining my lunch break, because now I have to solve these things. :)

The students are performing tomorrow in Chapel, the Changing Me song that they learned with Christina at camp. Everyone is very excited to hear them sing. Quite a few kids have joined the band and choir! Even two boys!! I can't wait!
Tomorrow night, I am giving a presentation about our adventure in Korea. As you can probably guess, I'm struggling to pare down my grand time to just 5 powerpoint slides. I'll do my best. :)

Thanks to those of you continuing to pray for us. We have a long road to travel yet, and many memories to make. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures another day!

Missing my adventure-groupies....
-elie