The Happenings at LES - Week One and a Half

I moved into a flat above the school last Saturday! It's a double flat so I share a bathroom, kitchen, and living area with a girl from London. This is my room:



View from my room!

The view at night, but this picture doesn't do it justice!

The room looks different now with all my stuff unpacked but it's very nice and has a lot of wardrobe space on the left. Now that I've moved in AND done my first ever grocery shop, I feel more settled!
Saturday afternoon, we went to another Thanksgiving dinner which was super yummy and then played some Wii Sports and Just Dance to burn off some of those calories. :)
On Sunday, I went to church with the Dieters and my flatmate, Tolu. I managed to join a choir that will be performing carols at a Christmas concert next Sunday. Here are some pictures of the church and the views of the city from across the street:



I started working at the school on Monday.

I'm in the infant department and helping out with the music classes for the nursery (3 year olds) and Bible for the lower and upper kindergarten (4 and 5 year olds). It's fun but quite exhausting. Every day is different and some days are busier than others. The children are cute but, of course, there are always the few difficult ones. Most of them I only see once a week so it's hard to know all their names when there's 207 of them! But whenever I'm in the playground on duty, I see them again and can play with them which has helped get to know them better. Every morning there is a staff prayer held in the senior building chapel. That's a nice time to sing and hear a short message with all the teachers! Then, after school, I'm usually quite tired so I don't do much but I have managed to concoct several dinners! (I REALLY need to do laundry...)

In Lebanon, instead of Halloween, they have St. Barbara's Day which is worth researching, because she has a very interesting story. They now celebrate Halloween too but that's fairly recent. The kids wear masks and ask for candy. Each class made their own mask or headband and they're very creative!

These pictures are at chapel and after they went to Dr. Steve, the principal, to get candy. They also made Burbara for the staff which is mainly made of boiled barley, raisins, and walnuts. It's quite yummy!

On Wednesdays, the foreign staff get together for either a prayer meeting or dinner. This week was a prayer meeting and after a couple of us hung out in the senior building TV room and watched Pitch Perfect.

A couple of the American teachers invited me to go with them to Hamra, downtown Beirut, to a coffee shop and I helped them with grading. We took buses and I had my first man'ousheh which is dough with cheese and/or za'atar (which is like thyme mixed with a few other herbs) - I chose to have half and half! It was delicious! It was nice to get out and around and experience some of Lebanon.



That evening a group of us from the school went to a Christmas concert where a woman played the violin and piano and sang! She was very good and there were two other guys, one who played the piano and one who played the guitar. They were all great musicians and it was so nice to listen to them.

Tolu, Kay, and me outside the concert hall



Joy Kim

On Sunday after church, we had a choir practice and then went to the Dieter's for cookie decorating! Jonathan is very strict about his ancient family tradition so we had to follow his instructions and form an assembly line. We made wreaths, angels, snowmen, stars, Santas, and Christmas trees (hopefully that's in the right order!!). They turned out really well and were yummy too. I will give a prize to the first person who can spot the one cookie that's different from the rest.

 

working hard!

At the end, we were very kindly allowed one cookie to decorate however we wanted. :) I chose a Santa and "bejeweled" him.

Before

After

I had my first Arabic lesson on Monday which went quite well. In school, I was able to listen to people speak and pick out words that I recognized. Maybe I'll be fluent by the end... We'll see!

We had the day off school today because there was supposed to be a big storm. It rained this morning but that was all. It was nice and refreshing to have the day off though!

I would appreciate prayer for having strength throughout the whole day, for making greater connections with the children and staff, safety, and letting God work through me here. I have started to wake up earlier to do devotions but could definitely spend more time with Him. Thanks!