It's Been a While

So, we have LOADS of updates for you guys! A lot of really great things have been happening here! :) This week has been a really crazy & busy week for us...thus the lack o' blog the past couple weeks. Rest assuredly though...we have nothing but good news to report! :)

First, I'll post a couple pics from the past English Club...

This first one is a pic of 2nd year student-Dorothy (who speaks with an American English Accent!), our ever faithful attendee - Peter, and Peter's friend-Damian. We've spent a lot of time with Damian the past couple weeks. He is a very sweet guy, a very faithful believer. Damian attends one of the Catholic churches here in the city that is actually very active in reaching students! Scott and I have even been to a mass in this church geared towards students and we were very impressed with the atmosphere. :) Anyway, Damian was very curious about our church so he attended the service with us last week and loved it. :) However, of course in no way would we expect him to leave his church and I'm pretty sure he's very happy where he's at. Anyway, that's not really why we're here is it? Obviously we're not here to pull faithful Catholic believers away from a church in which they're already perfectly suited. Praise the Lord for Catholic churches where great things are happening! ;)

This next photo is of the girls who attended that night also...a typical English Club night:

Some pretty sweet gals, I'd say! The one on the left is Marta. She and I have become quite keen on one another lately. She and I have a common love...the piano. She is studying two faculties (or majors): English at our university and she studies piano at the Musical Academy here in Wroclaw. (She also studies Kung Fu...and she's quite good at it!) She's a first year student there...but she's brilliant, I'm sure. I invited her to attend an American music concert one night a couple weeks ago. So we went and one of her friends and her professor ended up playing in the concert. :) She invited me to another piano concert the other night...unfortunately I didn't read her invite until it was too late. :( Anyway, she knows how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the piano. There are two material things that I just really really really want. My own dog and a piano. Aaahhh...if I only had one. I would sit and play it for hours I think. When I attended these American music concerts last month I specifically remember one night Scott and I went. One of the American composers we met, we had the opportunity to hear him play. This guy was my favorite. I can't remember his name at the moment...but I remember watching him play and enjoying every second. As ridiculous as it sounds it brought tears to my eyes watching him. I could just tell that he loved it. Not tears because he was so great at it.... but because I want to be able to do that SO badly. Really. It's my dream to be able to just sit down at a piano and play and sing whatever I want. Compose my own spin on songs. Play like Harry Connick (HA! Fat chance, but wouldn't it be great?). Really sometimes my heart just hurts whenver I watch someone play really well. Every week I have the opportunity to watch, Peter, our jazz pianist in our church, play the piano (brilliantly) during the service. Sometimes after the service I'll race to the piano just for a chance to get my fingers on the keys and figure out a little something. Oh well...someday maybe. :)

So, last Monday I had my Ladies' Gift Exchange Party. Loads of fun! Here are a couple pics from it...

The first pic is of students Tuba & Malvina. Again, sweet sweet gals. Tuba is not Polish...she is one of our exchange students from Turkey. Granted, she doesn't celebrate Christmas I think she still had a great time. :) Tuba is a good friend and is very precious to us!

In the second: (L-R) Maggie, Magda, Karolina, & her roommate Marta. Karolina & I became good friends last year through our love of cooking. She's is one heck of a cook! Last year she taught me how to make "Pierogi Ruskie" (Pierogi w/ Potatoes & Cheese). I'm actually planning on heading over to her place on Sunday for a cooking date. Cook some dinner, watch some girlie movies over there. :)

Did I ever mention our night at the "Pride & Predjudice Ball?" Probably not. Anyway, another one of our students & close friends: Konrad is a dancer and his dance group has 2-3 "Balls" a year where they teach different types of dances. They're always held at our church because it's a great venue for it. So here a couple pics from it:

This picture is of Elaine & me. Elaine is probably one of our best friends here. For you who may not know her, she is the reason we are in the University here. She is one of the English professors and she originally invited us in to her classes as "Native Speakers" to give her students some extra help. We absolutely adore Elaine. My parents had the pleasure of meeting her when they were here. It will be a sad sad day when we have to leave her in July. :( She's become a very big part of our lives. Anyway....this ball was also lots & lots of fun. :) We're always dog tired when we leave, however. We definitely get our exercise from it!

So, that's probably enough for now! It's past our bedtime here! BUT...maybe tomorrow another bit of blogging. :) There is still MUCH more to update you on. :)