I'm Still Alive

So I got back to NYC on June 16th after going to dinner and Karaoke with my friends in Beijing. At Karaoke I sang the New York song that says "I want to wake up in the city that doesn't sleep" and I actually got on a plane and woke up in NYC. It was cool.

I went back to my ward and it felt like coming home. Many of my friends were still here and it has been a lot of fun to see them all again. I went immediately back to my temple shift, Saturday mornings at 5:00 am and I was called as the Spanish trainer for the session. Within the first two weeks at church I was asked to come up and give an impromptu testimony, asked to speak and given a calling as Relief Society Teacher. Looks like I didn't miss a beat.

I started training on June 18 to be an ESL teacher. The schedule was grueling. I taught middle school ESL for 4 hours in the morning every day, then went to school for a four hour class for my Masters degree, then I went to a special training program. The summer school that I taught at offered me a job for the fall so I will be teaching Beginning level ESL students at MS 326 starting Sept. 3rd. It has been fascinating and I will definitely tell you more about what it is like to teach students who have such limited life experience in NYC's inner-city public schools.

So now for some pictures....

My friend Seth asked my friend Amy to make this shirt for him to surprise me. It was hilarious!

I went with a group of friends up to Niagara Falls again.


This time we went to the base of the falls and danced under the spray. We got soaked but it was AWESOME!!!

We went to palmyra and saw the temple and the Sacred Grove. I love those places.

Then we say the Hill Cumorah Pageant. This pageant is really rather amazing. Nothing like the Manti temple pageant. This one is a BIG deal and very well done. Check out the sets and how huge the cast is.


My training ended and in August all I had to do was find a new apartment. I scoured the city and saw some of the most frightening excuses for an apartment that I have ever seen being rented for thousands of dollars a month. Luckily we found this one just one block down on our same street. It is a NYC historic landmark called Astor Row and it is the only place in NYC with a porch and front and back gardens. We move in August 18th.

I am heading to DC to visit Nikki Madsen tomorrow and then I will be goint to girls camp with the stake next week.