Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday Nov. 22nd

This was a short week, only 3 days classes since it was holiday. Thanksgiving is a special family day and the American don't want you sitting alone at home so I found myself in a very, very hospitable and for me a completely unknown host-family somewhere in a nice neighborhood of San Diego. It was really a happening together with 24 people of at least 6 nationalities and the largest turkey I've ever seen! Immediately, the first guest I met, informed me of the entire history of Thanksgiving- in an East-coast accent which was a bit a challenge to understand;)  I learned about the Pilgrims and “the Indians” harmoniously sharing the “first Thanksgiving” meal in 1621, a sweet, nice story but accentually it did not end so well with the Indians... But nowadays it's the tradition saying thanks for the things you are grateful for, having family time, eat mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin en pecan pie and watch football. We played a nice game with the kids: "apples to apples", funny and a good English vocabulary practice! I am thankful they 've opened up their doors for me and I enjoyed their company so much.

Black Friday Nov. 23rd

This is also a day off and I couldn't believe it: outlet malls open at 12 am and people  go shopping massively! Well, to be honest, I was more interested in getting sleep than getting discounts at that moment;) The next morning I rented a car and drove to LA where Lotte was waiting for me and then together towards the Citadel outlet. It seemed that nobody could devise another plan than "hey let's go to Citadel!". It was crowded, packed and crazy so I get it: Black Friday means lining up for everything, like parking, even getting into a store, into a fitting room, paying, a restroom and most irritating: to grab a coffee.. But I am so glad I can tick this of my bucket list! Check!

550 miles

That's the distance I had traveled within 3 days when I returned the car. We have visited our dear relatives who are living in the high desert, circled all the way up to Lake Arrowhead, a beautiful spot described as the "Alps of Southern California" and  shopped at the Dutch store in LA, after which I dropped off Lotte and drove back home along the Pacific coast. Such an amazing variety in nature on this trip!

TOEFL class

My plan is to take the TOEFL exam at the end of my stay so I'll exchange my language class for the TOEFL class in January as a six-week-preparation. I joined this class for one day as a try out and wrote my first essay! Which was a summary of a reading and a contrasting lecture about putting kids in peer groups..... nice topic! I felt familiar to that, but I'm really not used to this academic approach. Happy to know that I'll have 6 weeks to practice;)

Progress

Yay, I got my first progress report, see the photo. Notice the last sentence, Philip tries to put something in the native language of each student by using a translate app:) How cool is that.