water with gas.

So, I'm a teacher. It still surprises me, really. I mean, come on, I studied trumpet performance in college...I realize now that was not my best choice ever. while I LOVE music and playing the trumpet, I do NOT love performing, and really, I'm not all that great at it. I now wish I had studied one of these things: journalism, creative writing, music therapy, child development, social work, sociology, or spanish. But, regardless of what I wish I had done, I studied music and am now an English teacher in Kazakhstan.

Today, I was having tea with 2 of my national co-workers. I've really enjoyed getting to know them and continue to ask the Father for open doors to share His love with them. But for now, we share tea, and that's good too. When I came here, I was not confident in my teaching ability and wondered how I would do in front of a class of real students. I LOVE TEACHING, but I was never sure if I was really getting through to my student--really helping them learn more and speak better. Here, teachers think for their students instead of letting them think for themselves, and my teaching is radically different than that. I do no thinking at all for my students, and instead force them into a new mindset and make sure they're thinking for themselves. They struggled at first, and are now excelling even faster than I'd hoped!

So, back to tea with my colleagues. They had observed my teaching several times and often participate in my classes to improve their English. One of them, out of the blue, told me that she thought I had a "natural gift" in teaching and a real ability to make the students interested and engage them in class. This was HUGE compliment, since there's really no such thing as encouragement in this culture. But it was exactly what I needed to hear. So that made for a good day.

Here's a picture of my 6pm class:

In other news: I like water with gas (fizzy water). Is that weird?