Short, Sweet, and Picture-free

Hello all,

So I promise I started a blog yesterday, but this iPad simply has me outsmarted. I apparently need to have a picasa album to take them from but cannot find a free app for that. So I will have to transfer my pics to my laptop and the post from there. However, it is already getting late and I was told to bring my computer tomorrow, so I did not want to run down the charge. I will go more into detail on my lovely host family tomorrow, but we spent most of today together. Cracked out the UNO and then spent several hours working on vocab. At 7, the kids are the perfect age to work together to learn.

Tonight we went out to dinner ( although my language teacher told me this very rare and told us not expect it to ever happen - as they are responsible for feeding me meals 2x a day during the week and 3x on weekends out of a stipend the PC provides for them). It was decided around 5, to meet up with the couple of friends I had met Saturday night. However, we were soon behind time and 7:30 turned into 8. After a near brush with mortality (driving is interesting, and I am glad I buckled up - although it was not my host father who was the reckless one), we stopped by the friends car. By the ditch...which we then proceeded to tow. I had assumed that we were going to go to a mechanic shop to drop it off, however, it fortunately turned out that they had merely ran out of gas. Hard to say if this routine or not. We then drove into the next town over to the restaurant.

 I was introduced to a woman who I figured out ( as much as I could...?) that she is an English teacher at the local school and had taught the children last year. She asked that I work with them (after the parents wanted her to ask to make sure I did not find them a bother) and I told her we would practice together. I was also able to ask her to ask permission to put photos on the blog of the family and they said they were happy to allow me. That is what I thought, but you can never be too careful! Anyhow, a highlight of the meal was when what looked like a platter of cut up hot dogs was suddenly set aflame. And burned...and burned...and burned...they used their forks to stir the flames up and eventually out. I am happy to say that there certainly no  taste like any accelerant when I got some. Indeed, they were a much nicer sausage than any hotdog. It was a very nice evening, and I admit it was nice to talk to someone with a good grasp of English. My host father is pretty magical with the words he manages to remember from school, and my host mother tries incredibly hard, and uses her translator when we get stuck (as long as google cooperates).

Right now we are in the honeymoon, but I hope that their interest and mine stay strong on language learning. I feel incredibly lucky to have such a young family who appear to be great parents and funny, sweet and slightly mischievous children.

Hope all is well,

Steph