"Halo" by Beyonce is owning me... and other life updates

Pictures from my birthday bowling extravaganza....

My super intense bowling form, very intimidating!

Me, Marcus, Carol, EJ, and Mark in the background (looking confused)

Lindsey and Rachel

Me, Michaelynn, and Carol

EJ and Marcus

Me and EJ, precious!

      First and foremost, thank you to my lovely sister for introducing me to the magic that is Beyonce's new song, Halo....lifechanging! OK, that might be a bit of an overstatement but I think it has been on loop on my itunes for a week, seriously.

     On to less pressing matters, life in Lux is pretty good these days.  I am really enjoying teaching and getting to know my students better, which is great.  My gym membership expired a few weeks ago so I decided to take up the hobby of swimming and it is basically revolutionizing my life.  OK maybe another teensy overstatement but swimming is really doing good things for me, not only are my biceps definitely getting bigger but it just feels so calming being under the water, away from all screaming children.

     I cant believe I am coming up on my last month here, I have a feeling it is going to go by very quickly!  I am going away this weekend for a women's retreat with my church which should be just delightful.  We are going to Vianden which is supposed to be a really nice part of Lux with a really beautiful castle and we are staying and a very nice hotel so it should be a great time.  And there are a few other breaks coming up soon so planning is in the works for those :)

pics from spring break w/ liz

Me in the centre of brussels

Liz on a precious street in bruges

taking a boat tour through the canals of bruges

sitting at a cafe in bruges

liz demonstrating how much she loves me (i am pretty sure thats what she's doing)

out for a romantic sister dinner

funny bike in amsterdam

standing in the porta nigra at Trier

Liz being scary in the Roman Baths

handstands with my friend, marcus

much overdue

Wow, it has been quite some time since I was last here.

The past few weeks have been a little crazy and I will try to cover most of the highs and lows in this post.

My beautiful and wonderful sister came to visit me for a week and we had an AMAZING time traveling around.  Spent a day in Brussels, a day in Bruges, a day in Amsterdam, a day in Trier (Germany), and a day in Lux.  It was so much fun to travel around with her and it was great to show her my home, here in Lux!

A few days after Liz left I actually got some bad news that a good friend from home had very unexpectedly passed away.  It was pretty tough week after that and I thought a lot about coming home early but after lots of thinking and praying I have come to the conclusion that I need to finish off my time here right and so I am just trying not to think too much about home but rather focus on enjoying on the time I have left here and hopefully this next month and a half will fly by!

I have been teaching drama classes for three or four weeks and it is going really well.  I am finding that seventh grade is a very challenging age for drama because most of the boys are jumping off the walls, overflowing with energy while most of the girls are so self conscious they are basically mute and glued to each other.  And it is my job to bridge this gap while teaching them something about drama in the process.

In other news I am getting very excited for a certain birthday I have coming up on cinco de mayo! I am throwing myself a proper birthday party at a bowling alley here and inviting about 10 close friends so it should be a good time!! Hopefully I will have pictures and stories from the festivities in my next post. 

Spain, jason, and pizza soup

Pictures from my adventures in Spain...

me at the Jason mraz concert

Me eating a kabab, or as we call them in america, a gyro

I dont even know what was in that thing, but I ate it...huge accomplishment!

beautiful Alicante

My precious little room in Alicante

Troy and I out to dinner, enjoying some cervazas

so, I know i have been a little behind the curve with the blog lately...I guess i don't really have a good excuse, sorry.   Here are some exciting things in my life since my last post:

~Started teaching drama, loving it, but also feeling challenged by these crazy seventh graders already, so hopefully that is a good thing

~Had an amazing trip to Spain, where I was able to spend some time with friends and see some really beautiful spanish sights

~Attended two Jason Mraz concerts where I first, fell deeper in love with this amazing musician and then second, came to terms with the fact that we probably aren't going to end up falling madly in love any time in the near future (quite an emotional roller coaster)

~Tried sushi last night, for those of you who know my eating habits, this is quite a big deal

~Read an incredible book called, "Love Walked In", which i highly reccommend to anyone looking for a god read

~Cooked chicago style pizza for my friends, wanted it to be like Lou Malnatis and added extra tomatoes to the top which created some excess liquids and led to the renaming of my dish to "pizza soup", oh well atleast everyone was in agreement that it tasted delicious!

~Made a trip to the farmers market on wednesday which is always a delight because it is in the beautiful city centre and it was even sunny so that made even more delightful

Tomorrow is the last day of school before our two week long spring break and I couldn't be more excited because my wonderful sister is coming to visit me!!! I am meeting her in Brussels where we will spend two nights and then we are traveling to brugges and amsterdam and then back to Lux, should be a great trip.  I am truly craving some sister time and I think this is going to be just the boost i need to get me through the last two months.  Hopefully my next post will be filled with beautiful pictures and wonderful sister stories.

Until then...

i could get lost in a phonebooth

I am currently sitting in the Luxembourg Airport waiting to board my plane to Madrid where I will be spending Friday and Saturday with two good friends and going to see the love of my life (Jason Mraz) in concert.  Then I will be heading to Alicante, which is on the coast, for three days to relax, see friends and enjoy the beach.  Should be a great trip!

Bonehead moment of the day: I had to take the bus to the airport this morning (because marc is out of town and eleanor is working) which i had never done before.  I successfully took the number 8 to the centre and then switched to the number 9 to the airport but was so paranoid about missing my stop the I got off one to early and had to walk like 20 minutes to the actual airport, silly me.  Should be interesting navigating the spanish train system where I have to switch like 4 times to get to my hostile.  It will be a miracle if I make it there with my directional challenges...as Grandma always says, "I could get lost in a phone booth"

On that note, say a little prayer for me and hopefully my next update will be from sunny spain!

Adios amigos

you might not recognize me these days as I am eating things like multigrain bread, duck, and peppers

This past weekend was crazy, starting on Friday when I had the kids all day because they had no school due to conferences.  I wont go in to too many details but there were quite a few meltdowns and explosions which on one hand made me feel like I might have a nervous breakdown at any second but on the other hand gave me an opportunity to try some new parenting techniques which brought me to the funny realization that I have been here for seven months and I am just now figuring out how these complex little children work and what the best ways are for me to get through to them, oh well- such is life... I guess more like such is parenting.

After a stressful day with the kids I went out with some friends to our regular british bar in the centre and called it a pretty early night.  

Saturday I was able to go to a yoga class at the gym and then had practice for worship team and then met up with some fri

ends at a charming little South American restaurant in the centre for dinner.  The evening was filled with delicious food (i even tried duck), ever flowing wine, and delightful friends.

Some cute ones of me and the girls (Rachel, Lindsey, and Mariella)

 Me, Rachel, Cristoph, and Lindsay before we are about to indulge in some delicious fajitas

I'm actually going to be using my college degree!

As today was probably the most productive day that I have had in weeks, I decided that the only proper way to end a super productive day would be with a super thorough blog post...

I feel a little bit like life is moving in fast forward these days.  There is so much going on and it is hard to remember how much I have shared with you, dear blog friends.  

The biggest news that I have to share is that the International School where i have been substitute teaching since december-ish offered me a job (to replace a teacher going on maternity leave) through the end of the school year.  And get this...it is teaching drama! For those of you who know me (which hopefully is all of you, because I am not sure I want someone who doesn't know me reading my innermost blog thoughts) you will know how exciting this is, to get to be a real drama teacher- I will actually be using my college degree (even if for only 3 months)!  I am not sure what age classes I will have exactly but I am sure it will be a blast no matter what.  So they wanted me to do the job through next Christmas but alas I have my heart set on returning to my homeland this summer so I will be extended my stay only through June 19th which means coming home for one week then hitting up MI for the first stop in wedding marathon (over the next few months) and then off to the Northwoods for another summer of endless youth working at Clearwater Camp for Girls.  

I know it's a crazy life I lead but I couldn't be happier that I am going to be able to have all these wonderful experiences, life is so good!

Upcoming travels: Spain- Madrid + Jason Mraz concert! (April 20-22) and Alicante (March 22-25)

Liz and Kat's European sister adventure: Brussels, Brugges, Amsterdam (April 5-12)