Less than a month!

T minus 27 days until I leave! I think I've gathered everything I need and it's all I can do not to pack my suitcase now! Time has dragged these past few weeks as things have slowed down a lot at work, and I'm sure it will only get worse. I'm trying to enjoy every day, but it's hard for me to be content sometimes!

My boss went to Oxford last year with a group of students and took a bunch of pictures for me so I could see where I was going to live. The top two pictures are of buildings near my dorm. The kitchen picture is the kitchen in my apartment. Notice the cute little washer and the very small fridge! I'll have my own bedroom and I'll have to share a bathroom with the boys I'm babysitting. That will be a new experience for me!! The college we are teaching at is called New College, which is a little misleading since it's been around for hundreds of years! Hugh Grant and Kate Beckinsale both graduated from New College! If you want to see an aerial shot of where I'm going to live, go to http://maps.google.com/ and type in "Venneit Close, Oxford," then select "satellite". My bedroom window looks out over the Thames!

I'm going to Europe this summer!

I am planning on going with my boss and his family to Europe this summer for two weeks. The main purpose of our trip will be to teach ESL and train missionaries how to teach ESL. Our first three weeks will be spent in Oxford. I'm so excited to spend time in such an historic city, but to be honest, I'm almost as excited about getting to eat in the dining room where Harry Potter is filmed as I am about anything else! We will be teaching ESL classes to Oxford international students. It may seem strange that Oxford would have Americans come over to teach English, but apparently an American dialect is more favorable for Asians....so....Oxford has to pay us to teach them! I will be babysitting my boss' kids while he and his wife teaches.

Our second two weeks will be spent in Madrid. My main job in Spain will be to babysit my boss' kids while he and his wife lead ESL training workshops for missionaries, but that's only for two days. The rest of the time will be more like a vacation. I wish I could sit in on the workshops, but I don't think I'll mind while I'm watching the boys poolside in the backyard of the huge house were are staying in!

We don't leave until June, but I'm so excited about going that I couldn't wait to get this blog up and going, even though I don't have a thing to say yet! I did want to have this up and running with an address before I left. I'll have wireless in Europe, so I'll be adding frequent notes and pictures. I suppose that is all for now!