USA: Thanksgiving

Our English club is named USA (United Students of Angol), so it is only appropriate that we do as everyone in the States does at the end of November: Have Thanksgiving! Last week Jack had a light bulb ignite in his head when he was talking to me and he said, "Justin! I know what we are going to do for USA next week. We are going to make a Thanksgiving dinner for them!" Jack, Sarah, and I did exactly that. We worked around our teaching schedule and prepared turkey, mashed potatoes, corn and broccoli bake, and apple pie.

Part of Jack's idea was to have it be a surprise to the students. We didn't tell any of them. I went to school today to get them and they asked why we were going to Mr. Ippel's flat the whole way home. They entered the Ippel's living room and said, "Whoa!"

To start the meal off, I had them all sit down and write down 10 things that they were thankful for. This gave Jack and Sarah time to put the finishing touches on the meal; they had closed themselves up in the kitchen so that no one would see the food. When I gave them the task, Akos had a light ignite in his head, "Ah! Thanksgiving!"

 Throughout the meal we let the students stand up and say something that they were thankful for. It was really cool to see what some of them said: 

"I'm thankful for my talents and my flaws."

"I'm thankful for being alive today."

"I'm thankful for friends that let me be who I am and respect my choices in life."

"I'm thankful for the ability to talk to my parents and family weekly."...Ok ok that was one of mine. I admit it.

Here was the group that showed up to partake in our Thanksgiving.

My Current Distraction

I've started thinking about a question that has come in and out of my thoughts throughout the past years:

Why do you wake up in the morning?

What are the reasons that you get out of your bed? What drives you everyday?

That's my current distraction from my busyness.

Recap: Halloween Party

These past two weeks have been an intense roller coaster of events that had some serious highs and some serious lows. I'm thankful that it is the weekend. Instead of choosing to write a devotional or work on my games lesson plan for an upcoming retreat I have next weekend, I've chosen to update my blog: Good life choice.

Back in October our English club United Students of Angol had a Halloween party; I was in charge of the food. I took out all of the stops, prepared a long menu, and recruited some help:

From front to back:

Sarah - blood muffins and moldy muffins

Aemelia - the chocolate cake for the graveyard cake

Steven - ate the food

Rebekah - oatmeal cookies

We used my kitchen and the Ippel's kitchen to knock out everything that we had to do, but my kitchen was the prepping area.

To thank the helpers, I concocted a batch of white chicken chili. In my opinion, this was not enough to fully thank them for all of the hard work that they put in:

The blood muffins and the moldy muffins.

Dirt. - I made this.

 The decorated graveyard cake.

All of this food prep led up to a fun party with many guests:

 A pirate and a dark angel

 Mr. Incredible, Dracula, a Team Fortress character, and a Zombie

 A BKV tram driver and Mr. Incredible

The whole club.