Melissa and I had an amazing visit to Chicago and a wonderful time with Brad and Jamie. They were very hospitable, and Melissa and I couldn't have had a more exciting trip. Chinatown was very interesting, particularly the smells. On our first night Brad told us we would be helping tutor at the Pui Tek Center, which caused a fair amount of dread to rise inside of me, since I am not a learned man. Melissa also felt similar feelings of doubt. However, it turned out to be exceptionally motivating and quite fascinating. Our task was simple, we had to talk about anything normal people talk about to English learning Asians, but of course I eventually ran out of things to say. After attempting to explain the meaning of the word 'alien', I drew pictures to show the difference between a boogie board (which I spelled boogey) and a surf board. Nevertheless the kind Asian fellow across from me smiled and laughed and nodded to every thing the white devil had to say. We did get to do other things as well, like walk around Chicago, see 'The Bean', ride the bus and trains, walk through the observatorium (?), eat some genuine Chinese food, and Second City was out of sight. The show was hilarious. Top rate! And overall the trip was fantastic! Thanks Brad and Jamie, you two sure know how to show a good time.
Come to think of it, I don't really know how to put pictures in here... let me try this...
Hopefully that worked...
Anyway, good news everybody! Melissa was offered a temporary position as an H.R. administrator at "the Y" (which is the new name for the YMCA) where she has been interning for the last 8 months or so. She will basically be part of a 3-person team that is covering for the head H.R. lady, who is going on maternity leave. It's very exciting for Melissa, and she will start making $14 an hour, 40 hours a week, next Monday. Which is a huge blessing since I have yet to find a job yet... :( The lady who is going on maternity leave said that I should just go serve some where, but I was hoping to avoid that notion. Unfortunately, it looks like I am running out of options. I even applied for a movie theater job... :) Luckily, money has not been an issue for us yet, mostly because the garage door company gave me two weeks severance pay, which was pretty cool. Also I've already received two weeks worth of unemployment. It's not a whole lot of money, but it has really helped us pay all our bills and rent, which means we're completely covered till late next month.
In brighter news. I received a credit on my card for not cancelling it. You see, I got a new credit card, transfered the remaining balance from my old card and attempted to cancel it. The guy I spoke with was very convincing, something to the tune of $30. So I told him I'd keep the card till the next annual fee was due and cancel then. Melissa and I applied that credit towards a new cat condo! I know what you're thinking, "What a waste of money!" But so far the kitties like it, and it wasn't all that expensive. Hopefully these pictures are working, if so, here is a blurry image from my phone of the cats enjoying a good lounge in the penthouse of the condo.
O.K., enough about cats and jobs. I'm really deciding on what to do about my VBI classes. I still have not finished my final essay from the first class I took. Fortunately, it's a European grading scheme, so time is not a priority. But, I'm finding that writing papers is not one of my fortes. It can take me days to get through a couple paragraphs, perhaps I just edit too much or over think the whole process, but it's definitely hard for me to finish. The classes are close to $500 each or $200 with scholarship, but I told them that I was going to try to pay the full cost eventually, since the money goes towards keeping the classes alive. I just feel a bit inadequate, particularly with the papers. The class itself is awesome, I love reading the material and discussing it, I'm just not a profound writer... I have already missed the first day of the next class, and Bobby emailed me asking if we can hang out or if I know if God still wants me to go to VBI, so I need to make a decision. Maybe just pray that I can sort it out, and in a timely fashion.
Well, thanks Mom for reading all this (or whoever else was crazy enough to read this entire ramble) and hopefully Melissa and I will be seeing all of you very soon!
Love,
Daniel
