Sister!

On Friday morning, Carisa (my sister) came to Brussels!!! Wow, what a feeling to see her when she got off the train. We were both gabbing away without ever finishing a story because we were both so excited to share over the past few weeks! So much to talk about :)

Carisa has been on the island of Greece becoming certified as a English as a Second Language Instructor. She has a done a brilliant job of sending pictures and providing updates of her experiences. I could not be prouder of her for taking on this adventure head first. My goodness if getting stung by a sea urchin isn't reason enough! I had the great pleasure of watching her pluck one out today, yuk! Check out a picture on google/wikipedia of one of them!

The school has been EXTREMELY supportive in helping all the new hires adjust to life in Belgium. For example, they had the HS Guidance Counselor speak to us about the highs and lows that come with a move of this sort. The first stage being the ""Honeymoon,"portion of it. Oh, has that ever been true!

Monday will mark my third week that I have been here. In this short amount of time, I have already met some great new friends both new colleagues and returning teachers. It seems that everyone has been exploring something new every night. The great part about it is when we all meet up in the morning, we get to share what our new "hot spots!"

This orientation at school this week was final preparation for the first day on Wednesday. As they put it, "They want us to hit the ground running." After talking to other new hires, we all came to a realization that the "honeymoon"was over as we realized the amount of work we had for our classrooms. It was wonderful timing of Carisa's visit and we have had some down time together already and it has helped get me grounded for students coming next week. One of our favorite things to do together is to go through pictures. Last night, I only was able to get through 1/10, if that, of Greece!!! It looks so beautiful and can not wait to see more tonight.

There is a summer concert series in Brussels this weekend we are going to check out. More importantly, I am going to tap into her creative and make an IKEA run to help decorate my classroom! The school has given all of us some money for the undertaking. Tomorrow will be my first visit and it is is suppose to quite the experience. It is a Swedish based furniture store that is suppose to be cutting edge with some of their designs!