june boom part I

hey there! i am almost caught up...how exciting! we had our weekly pow-wow canceled tonight due to a surge of sickness running through our crew here, so i had some unexpected time to get another post up. thanks so much for you truckin' along with me. it means a lot. totally.

it is so fun to be able to celebrate birthdays! this is one of the guys that is here studying for the summer. it was his birthday like the first week they got here. yeah! happy birthday T!

of course you have to get a food shot in this post. so, NAfricans totally have some great ideas when it comes to food. their love for seafood totally resonates with me and my dream burger became a reality in the Gambas burger found at our McDonald's here. oh yes. a patty made from shrimp...does it get any better than this? i am not sure. i also appreciated how i got basically a side-salad on top of the patty:) definitely a winner in my book.

i got to help out with our Int'l ch's version of VBS for a couple of Sundays. it was really fun to meet some new kids and hang out with those that i see more often. the organizers did a fantastic job. above the kiddos are working hard at making some crafts. the youth did a great job of volunteering, too. bravo!

so, local elections took place around here during June. thankfully they don't campaign years in advance, but just go super-hard for the week leading up to the elections. they are also really big on flyers here. so much so you can see the very sad waste from them. this was definitely the most i saw in one place, but this particular street is a pretty popular one and the supporters walk up and down the streets handing out their flyers and singing their songs. most of us younger folks here decided to pick out a campaigning group based on their logo. there are many groups (at least 10 or more in some places) here to choose from. i chose the group with the symbol of a tree--i thought it was only appropriate:)

i was told all these flyers were cleaned up over the course of the next two days after this photo was taken.

so, this was totally fun. i got an email about two weeks before this group of students were passing through. they had an 11 hour layover in our main airport city, so i went to meet them hoping we could go take in a site or two during their time here. well, they had to actually claim their bags, which limited our options in trying to go anywhere outside the airport, but as you can see i was still able to bust them out! so, i went up to the airline's office in the airport to see if there was a place to hold their luggage and turns out that there isn't such a place, but instead the airline gave us a free shuttle to a hotel, gave them two hotel rooms and they fed us lunch at the hotel...all for free! it was really exciting. i got a lot of language practice in that day. we ventured across the street from their hotel (which was kind of out in the middle of not much) and grabbed some of the fabulous ice cream bars here and we also went up to the cafe' so they could grab a glass of hot mint tea (a staple). it was a lot of fun to meet these new friends and get to help them out, too. they made it to their final destination for the summer, so exciting!

know that if you ever have a layover here, i would love to meet up:)

vacay to France

greetings friends and family! i hope this July 4th weekend is treating you well. i am excited to report that little by little i will finally get caught up on my blog posting. you can always find more pictures of my adventures on facebook. but if you want to hear more stories and such, than i hope you don't mind me lagging a bit in keeping the blog updated. this edition gives you glimpse into my vacation to France. i went back in May, the last week actually. it was a great time to spend with some really incredible friends there. also, i loved getting to wear shorts! ha:) i hope that you are well and i look forward to hearing from you soon. so, my first day was full of sun! my friend had to take like her french final exam, so i went with her to where the school is and found out there was a fabulous park that was behind the school. it even included a rose garden--of course! :) so, i spent the morning walking around the park. i even took my sandals off to feel the grass under my feet. it was amazing. it offered great views of the Alps! it honestly just felt great to not have anyone staring at me. i did have a guy follow me around for a minute, but just walked back to where more people were. then later i enjoyed some good sunshine with an impromptu layout session. it was great.
later that night we totally grilled out and had hotdogs and sausages--totally yummy! i also got to do henna with the girls. it was just so great to be with this incredible family.the next day we went out to dinner to celebrate my friend and their friend finishing their french studies! we went to this totally american joint. it was hilarious. i had a rack of ribs and onion rings. oh yes. i am seeing it now on my hips, but it sure was good! :) the whole place had this saloon-type vibe to it. and instead of burger king crowns, we got fun paper headresses to wear!

the next day we took a trip to a city closeby. we picnicked there. we were sitting right off of this amazing lake that happens to be the longest lake in france--pretty cool, huh? it was a great day for sure...

later we drove to a chateau. it was first built in the 13th century and continued to be built upon over the centuries. Saint Bernard de Menthon (1008-1081), founder of the hospices which bear his name and widely known for his famous rescue dogs, who was born in the castle, is patron of the mountain dwellers, climbers, skiers, and Alpine Troops. it was totally cool as the tour is actually this little theater production. the tour guides act out a story to give the history. it was all in french, but i got this handy guide to help explain everything and of course my now-french-speaking friends filled me in:) my friends said that it was one of the best chateaus they have visited cause it was outfitted with relics from the family.

WOW!! it was so surreal. totally amazing and really beautiful!

welcome to my new pad! hahaha

later, we rented a boat to go out on the lake. wow, another amazingly, refreshing adventure. can you tell i was having a sorta good time?

cap'n megan and my firstmates:)


and then to top off the day in this amazing neighboring city...we found a SUBWAY! seriously folks, this was my most favorite visa run yet! wow!

i really like this shot. just really fun. i hope you enjoyed this update. next time you want to go to France, you let me know.

May days

well, hello there! i know i am still trying to catch up, but this update is jam-packed full of fun photos and great stories. a lot happened in May for sure. i honestly can't believe it has passed already. time sure is flying. so, here you can see my attempt to be creative for my students at the flight attendant school where i am teaching English. many of my students have never even been to an airport, let alone on an airplane, so i realized as were were going over some sentences that many of my students didn't even understand what a boarding looks like or what information is actually on them. so, i found a template online, got the right kind of paper just down the street and whipped up these babies. i even let their destination be what they wrote on our first day of class together as what their dream destination is. many of them were over-joyed. it was a fun day and i look forward to using them more in class.

May came with a set of friends coming in from AR. i was so happy to welcome mary and rachel to my part of the world these days. they made it here with all their luggage and totally brought us so many goodies! thanks to all those that helped provide for me and the other students here. it was like Christmas with all the yummy food, candy, and fun stuff. thanks guys!

the first weekend the girls were here, we traveled to one of the imperial cities. the King is actually living there at the moment, so all the fountains were running and the place was all spiffed up, too! the ladies were very happy to travel and see a new place. check out the size of the door-knocker to this palace!

here's a shot from a roof-top cafe' we stopped at to grab a drink. we really hit the timing right as it wasn't too hot at all. we got to look around much of the new city and the old city. this city just celebrated its 1200 year anniversary and also holds the oldest university on the African continent. lots of amazing history and stories for sure.

this is also the spiritual capitol of our country and offers many leather goods. mary got a great deal on a really sweet leather bag! she stuck to her price and the dealer slashed his initial price by close to 50%--wow!

here you can see my local friend teaching rachel and mary how to make mint tea. rachel was extra excited as she fell in love with the stuff while she was here!

i was so happy to have mary and rachel come to the school in which i teach to provide some practice time for my students to have speaking English. it went over really well and i think the girls learned a lot about the culture here. it was a win/win for sure! they got all their phones out to take photos with their new American friends:)

so, finally came the Alicia Keys concert! we stood in the free section, which really wasn't too far away. it was a great show, but we stood for like 3+ hours. it was fun. you can see Alicia there onstage in the white top.

so the girls' last weekend here was quite the finale' as we went to the concert, went surfing and had a great meal out with friends. i am a lot shorter in my words than i had planned as my blogger thing is being totally high maintenance. so, i am having to try and keep my patience in the midst of typing, uploading photos, and keeping a somewhat clean layout.

surfing northern Africa! i was so happy to even have this chance to go as i have been wanting to for a year now. i was even more excited that i even got up more than once! thankfully one of my friend's husband was on the beach taking photos. i had a blast and can't wait to go again this summer. i could get into it totally. so, come on over here and hang loose with me!

April snapshot III

more shots of just life here. this is the view from one of our peeps' house. this scaffolding was a bit shaky-seeming. they are totally old school here, which sometimes seems risky or unsafe to us, but they seem to know what they are doing and know what works for them.

so, we got an influx in mosquitos and over the course of a few nights i was being feasted upon by these blood-suckas!

i got a nice bite on my eyelid which caused my eyelid to swell nicely. it was so weird. and then i got bit on the cheek, why not? oh, and i got bit on my arms, too. they had no mercy on me.

thankfully someone here had benadryl i could take to help with the swelling as i that day was my first day to actually go and sit in on a class at my school. i think my roommate was concerned as she didn't want people to think that she socked me. ha!

speaking of my roommate: she invited me to go to the city across the river and check out some old sites there. i was happy to go as i had never been over to that part of the city there. it was really beautiful, yet haunting as it was a graveyard also. here is looking through one of the openings looking at the ocean--awh

i finally got to go meet up with a friend that i met when i flew here over a year ago! we spent Friday night and Saturday together. it was a really fun time. we went to go get tea and i just like this set up! the litte guy mit and it is just cool that you get your own teapot and everything. very fun.

yeah! her and i having lunch on Saturday. it was so great to be with her! very, very cool time her indeed. we had some fun conversations as i was trying to practice my Arabic and she wanted to practice her English, so i bet we looked pretty funny to people:)

April snapshot II

later in April, our Int'l ch decided to take a trip to a children's home here in country. i decided to ask Sally if she would like to join me and she decided to come along. it was a great day to volunteer and just be outside. we were on the weeding crew and were assigned to the playground area.

here is the sign to the village of hope! this is a really incredible group of folks. it isn't so much an orphannage, but a place where families take in children to raise them from whatever age until they are old enough to be out on their own...totally a commitment! it is a cool deal.

here is an action of me:)

another day the younger folks in our group here were taken out to the local American club for some yummy food. we totally chowed down on burgers and such. it was really good for sure.

this was a thank you lunch for our participationg in the youth weekend. what a great thank you! :)

so, here is a photo of the simulator on our campus. this allows the students to have some hands on practice, which is great as many of them have never been in an airplane before. i totally got excited when i saw this the first time! "Tommyboy" anyone?