Miscellanous Pictures from the Past Four Weeks --Q.

On our last blog Ethan wrote about our trip--where we have been and what we took with us. I'm going to share in a much more random fashion (characteristically). Here are a few pictures from our collection from the past four weeks.

These smiling people have just had an amazing meal compliments of my Thai language consultant, Phii Am (Amy Hangtagool, second from the right). My SLACA (Second language and culture aquistion) class were invited for a farewell feast one day before we moved. Ethan and I now love to cook Thai food, even though it's looking like Malaysian food will probably be our default cuisine for the next few years.

I think saying goodbye to this family was about the hardest. While in Dallas I became friends with a dear woman from Jordan; Dorie and James loved to play with her four children. I miss sitting in her kitchen, drinking tea and practicing English, while the children played outside on the swing-set.

After two days in the car (broken up by a lovely stop at Uncle Paul and Aunt Julia's) we were ready to spend some time eating around a table instead of chowing in the van! Chris and Alicia made us feel so at home, and we even got to see Ethan's brother Jesse who goes to the same college.

We were at Ethan's homeplace for three weeks. While there we spent half a day in Buffalo with the Ramadan family. We became friends with this family while in a tutoring program at Houghton. We had such a blast with all six children--age 8 to 21. Here James is hanging out with their youngest.

Ethan's Oma lives in Cleveland and she had us over for the night. I love this picture of Oma and her great-grandchildren--I was impressed by how fast and how far we walked that evening!

The problem with just choosing a few snapshots of our recent visits with people are all the good times I failed to represent--bocci ball and games with my in-laws, warm hugs and wet cheeks when saying goodbye to Sara and also Katie, Indian food and games of Dominion with Steve, beef and ice cream with Heather Hill, and Easter with my family. Its been the best of times...and those good times are somehow still here.