Sunny San Francisco

I just went to San Francisco for a conference. Here are some pics!

ELC Retreat - Actually Working

As part of the retreat we worked in groups. Here is my group. We worked very hard.

ELC Retreat at Aspen Grove

We just had our ELC Retreat. We went Cross Country skiing for a little bit. I sure do love that sport!
Here's our group.

This is me. I'm going real fast!

This is my friend, the moose. He just happened to be on the trail and going whereever I wanted to go. I wasn't chasing him . . . I promise, we just happened to be going in the same direction.

My Trip to Twin Falls

I went to Twin Falls Idaho for a conference. Here are a few pics. I'm still waiting to get some more from a friend.

Taka

Recently I have been remembering all the fun times I had while teaching at the ELC. I was thinking about students that became good friends. One of those that I was thinking about was Taka. He was funny and helpful and really one of the best students I have ever had. And he emailed us today! He is in California going to school and doing well. Happy New Year, Taka! (I couldn't find the picture of Taka with balloons tied to him--we were having a class party and he ended up with balloons...)

ELC Students

Here are some more pictures of my students. My favorite costume was Yuko's. She decided to come as Luigi. Her friend came as Mario, but I don't have a picture of her, or should I say him? hmmmm.

Halloween Party

We had an ELC Halloween Party. Here is a picture with some of my coworkers.

  

Ben's First Bee Sting

Last Friday received his first bee sting. He was on the ELC Fall Hike (with teachers and students from the ELC, of course) and a bee flew into his stomach. It stung him through the two shirts he was wearing. It was swollen and itchy for awhile, but he is fine now.

My new class

One of my students brought her "photo machine" to class to take a picture. Some say that kids say the darndest things. I would have to say that it's a close call between kids and people learning another language.

An Unusual Meeting

Today after work, my computer buddy Dave and I wanted to see what the maximum number of people we could use in a video chat with apple's ichat. There were only 2 of us, so we had to invite Soccerball and Cdplayer. They have been having problems in the workplace which made the conversation much more difficult. Soccerball keeps hitting Cdplayer and as you can see, Cdplayer just couldn't keep his mouth shut!

ELC closing social

Here are some pictures of me and my students at the end of the semester.

More pictures of students

I took my ELC class to the Bean Museum at BYU a few weeks ago. It is a museum of animals. The students oohed and aahed over everything. Here is one of them being silly. Another student made the picture into a magazine cover as a joke. Funny. Ha ha ha.

And, as you can see from the caption on the picture, they have learned superlative adjectives!

Here you can see in the background what the museum is like. Lots and lots of mounted and stuffed animals and animal heads.

And here is one student who is actually working and not goofing off. What a good student!

Eating Cookies

We had two birthday on June 10th, so I brought cookies to class. Some were fascinated that the Macadamia nuts were so good! Silly Students!

The Manti Pageant

We took some students to the Manti Pageant a few weeks ago. I forgot my camera, but some students sent me some pictures. It was fun to see the students be excited, but the pageant wasn't much to talk about.

What language should Ben Study?

As a BYU employee, I get to take classes for free. I'm trying to decide what language class I want to take. So put what you think, leave a comment, and let's see what everyone thinks.

It's official

I received word today that my position at the English Language Center was approved by the BYU Board of Trustees. So, I can officially say that I will be working at BYU for the next 3 years. If you wondered why we moved to Utah, now you know.

April Snow

Well, Alison and I arrived safe in Utah. Yesterday it snowed a whole bunch. Nothing accumulated here, but it did in the Mountains. I had the opportunity to go to an ELC Retreat in Aspen Grove near Sundance. I went cross-country skiing for about 1hour. There was about 12in of new powder. Underneath that, there was about 3-4 feet of packed snow. It was nice. The coolest thing about the event was that it was almost 50 degrees outside. I needed no winter clothes. The snow was melting, but it was slow enough to be enjoyable.

Job Interview

This last weekend, Ben flew to Provo to interview for a full time position at the English Language Center. He thinks the interview went well, but we won't know the outcome for a few weeks. I sure hope he get the job: We are kind of at a sink or swim moment. If he gets the job, he continues to progress in his career and the full time experience will open doors for him down the road. If he doesn't get the job, we wil have to look at other options . . . some of which don't seem very appealing. So everybody keep your fingers crossed that the hiring committee chooses Ben!