Officially Settled In

This week was pretty routine with work being during the day and ESL (I have about 15 students), wing night, and homework happening during the evenings. Churchill played a show Friday night and I went to that. Yesterday I read all day and then went to a church dinner in in the evening. Today I'm finishing my homework and keeping a periodic eye on the football scores.

My classes have been a lot of work and a lot of fun. As a class we are comparing the Greek account of the origin of the gods and a trilogy about murder, conspiracy, family, and justice with the Pentateuch (Genesis - Deuteronomy) and Joshua. Two things I've learned is that I tend to read my own ideas into Bible stories and that it takes a long time to read through Genesis. Seriously, it's a really long book. We have three weeks left before taking a week off and beginning the next 8 week course.

For work on Thursday and Friday I attended a training seminar on teaching abstinence. My understanding is that I'll have some opportunities to teach this periodically in various schools in our school district. The class was very informative and helpful and I even made a few new friends in the class.

Oh, and the Iowa Hawkeyes are 4-0 and that makes me happy.

Church this morning was 2 1/2 hours long. No Sunday school. Just the main service. 2 1/2 hours. But it was great. Testimonies took about 45 minutes and the sermon was great. What I like about the church is that it's full of new believers with really messy pasts (some people's lives are still a mess) who have been radically changed by the gospel. The testimonies I've heard in the past two days include testimonies from multiple single moms, at least one homeless guy, a husband and wife who have left everything for the gospel and found out they are now losing their house, a former prostitute and stripper, a church elder, a guy who recently finished a 20 year prison sentence, and many others. The church is less now a year old and has about 175 attendees. I'm really looking forward to the mens' prayer breakfast this upcoming Saturday morning and since the church is four blocks away, I can just walk to it.

That's enough for now. I'll try and have some pictures for my next post. Without all my awesome students around, I don't have as many opportunities to take pictures.

The Coolest Thing I've Ever Seen

Cops, Robbers, and the DMV

Current Listening: "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (I am listening to the first song I've ever heard by them for the first time.)

I'm currently on a slight break from work...I have to go back at 4:30 and work till 10:00. Tonight is "chill night" which is basically a hang out time for the students since they don't have school tomorrow. There will be video games and board games and food and who knows what else.

So here's some random stuff from the week so far. Sunday afternoon I helped the Meese's move into their new place. Sunday night I watched the Packer's game with Tyler because we are both big Green Bay Packer fans.

Monday was work and then homework.

Tuesday was work and then wing night. **Story time: Last week none of the crew went to Wing Stop because we threw a surprise party for Tim's birthday. This might have worked out for our own safety though, because that night Wing Stop got robbed and the girl who works Tuesday nights got pistol-whipped in the head. I wonder if it looked suspicious that the one night we don't go, the place got robbed. It probably also looked bad that this week we ignorantly all dressed up like bank robbers for wing night. False...but the place really did get robbed and we weren't there to make any citizen arrests.

Random thought: is there an Air Bud movie where he is a cop and arrest criminals? If not, there should be.

** Second story time: This week at wing night a certain someone (not me) attempted to climb up the side of Aaron's minivan and in the process accidently smashed in his side window. Oops.

Yesterday some guys from work and I went out to lunch for all-you-can-eat wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. I ate 24. Then today for lunch the staff went out for employee lunch to, you guessed it, Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm glad I love wings and potato wedges.

I spent the first hour of my break today on the phone trying to sort out my car registration. I literally got transferred enough times to enough new places and people that I went full circle all the way back to the first place I had called. Somebody needs to do something about better educating the Denver Motor Vehicles people. Every person said something like, "I'm not sure, I think you need to talk to these people." After at least 7-8 transfers I ended up speaking to a police sergeant who was like, "How did you end up talking to me about this?"

Now it's time for me to go back to work to learn about the wonders of teaching ESL. Classes officially begin next week. I'm really looking forward to it.

Hasta luego.

Denver. One Month After Arrival.

This week was fun. Monday I went to Greg's house to grill out for Labor Day. Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of work and homework. Thursday was another full day of work and then a non-official Churchill show at night. My roommate, Mike, was at Lake Ann for the weekend leading music for a ladies' retreat so some friends got together and played a gig originally booked for Churchill.

[L to R: Nate Meese, Tiffany Meese, Tim Bruns, Joe Richmond, Tyler Rima]

Work has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed getting to know my co-workers and getting to work with the students in the after-school program has been great. So far we have done skits and played a game of Jeopardy to teach the rules, worked on homework with the students, spent time playing basketball and such for free time, and went to a skating rink on Friday. One of the students who I have helped a lot during homework time drew these pictures for me.

[The picture on the left was intended to be a "funny" picture and the one on the right started out as serious, and then she added pig tails and earrings.]

During my first month in Denver, I have made a lot of new friends, moved into a great apartment, gotten a great job, and found a new church (I'll post more on in when I get a chance) where I think I'm going to attend full-time. Sounds like a good month to me. God has really been good.

Now, if only the Packers would get their act together and stop losing to the Bears (It's currently CHI 12 - GB 10! As soon as the game is over I have to spend time reading for class.

Farewell.

The Inevitable

So here it is folks - the dreaded "I worked all week and did homework at night but found time to go buy some kitchen towels and set of pots and pans" post. Really, if my life this week was a TV show, I doubt that even Lifetime would have picked it up.

I don't even really have exciting news about work. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to have a job and have enjoyed it thus far, but I spent the week in lesson plan meetings, studying a driving manual for 4 hours in order to get my CDL, and watching 4 hours of "Love and Logic" (a dvd of a woman lecturing on a particular disciplinary philosophy). That, my friends, is nothing to write home about.

I spent my Friday night at home reading for class (but the book was really good so I didn't mind). I arose at the early hour of 8:45 this morning with the intention of going out to breakfast with Mike and Greg, but that fell through and turned into Mike and me tag teaming the cooking duties and making us some killer sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffins.

See, I told you the week was exciting. If your heart can handle the excitement, please read on to hear about Mike and I going to a bike shop, buying some supplies, and then coming home and replacing the flat tires that each of us had on our bikes.

So after breakfast, Mike and I went to a bike shop, bought some supplies, and then came home and replaced the flat tires that each of us had on our bikes.

**Warning: upcoming blood reference**

During the process, we had our bikes propped upside down on their seats and handlebars. Consequently, Mike's kick-stand was protruding from his bike and I bent over to pick something up and dinged my forehead on it - drawing blood and leaving a small gash on my forehead.

Moments like that make you really think about the important things of life, you know? Like "Do I have a up to date will?" "What's my stance on cosmetic surgery should this gash cause small children to cry and pretty women to run away?" "Could I sue Mike? It was his kickstand." Seriously, the important things of life.

Most recently, I went shopping for for pots and pans and some other dishes and some kitchen towels today. I had no clue what I was looking for, so I texted my friend Em and, upon her advice, I think I got some decent stuff. I also bought a small floor rug for the apartment, but I don't know if it matches. In fact, I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I'll check with Mike when he gets off work.

Cheers, folks. Greg just got here!