Dear Friends,
Thank you for a great 2020-2021 year with International Friends! We made it!
Here we are at the end of our school year. When we began Zooming in the fall, we were not sure what the future would bring! While we don't have pizzas to celebrate, we have so many Zoom memories. We are reaching the end of the pandemic here in the United States. I know this because so many of you are ready to put a pause on our regular meetings and get out, travel and enjoy the summer and live the life!
COVID -19
We are wrapping up the school year with great news from the United States Federal Government and the CDC: people who are fully vaccinated can meet indoors, outdoors and up close without masks. Will masks become a thing of the past? Probably not in all situations and that is likely for the better! We are ready to put this pandemic behind us!
Stories and More
We wrapped up the year with a meet up in the park.
Old McDonald Had a Farm is a family classic as well as road trip song. How fun to sing this with our friends and family. We laughed as we shared how dogs, cows, chickens and other animals talk in English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish! When you play this game at home take turns calling out animals and the sound. Usual animals are cows, horses, pigs, chickens, goats, cats, dogs. Old McDonald might have a tractor, kids, a mom. At our house Old McDonald had a T-Rex, spiders, bunnies (who are pretty quiet and wiggle their noses), fish.
Look for Meetups on Mondays.
International Bible Study
We wrapped this year of Bible study with two stories of faith. When we look to God for help, we can expect him to save us. But do we trust and look to him? Wisely: "This is a vertical problem. We keep our minds and eyes on the earth when we should be looking up to the heavens!"
Luke 8:22-25 Jesus is asleep in a boat. A storm kicks up and waves swamp the boat threatening the lives of the disciples. Jesus calls to the storm and the raging wind and waves subsides. Jesus asks the disciples, "Where is your faith?"
Numbers 21: 4-9 The Israelites are in the desert and complain of their circumstances. God sends poisonous snakes and many are bitten and die. The Israelites apologize and ask Moses their leader to talk to God. God has Moses fashion a brass stick on the top of a snake. Anyone bitten can look at the snake on the pole and live.
As we come out of the pandemic, will we stay indoors and in fear or will we trust and live?
Our Bible Study is breaking for the summer! Look for announcements in the fall.
International Friends
We talked about food and cheese: Shanklish is delicious and very popular in Brazil! The cheese has it's origins in Lebanon. This is very much like the fresh cheeses we made earlier this year. Try this recipe!
We are breaking for the summer...but we plan to meet face-to-face in a park every so often. See you soon!
Reading with Friends
We wrapped up our reading with chapters 14 and 15. In chapter 14 a shepherd is buried. We shared traditions and thoughts on cemeteries and the changing or not so changing ways that we honor and remember people who have passed. We observed the roles of the different characters as observers and as friends.
In chapter 15 a beautiful woman defends herself. We all expressed some surprise over this and wondered whether about women's rights and voice. We laughed that Don Quixote chose to continued to chase this woman.
The chapter ends with Don Quixote and Sancho Panzo getting in a brawl and ending up at an inn that Don Quixote thinks is a castle. Oh no! Here we go again!
We are breaking for the summer, but we will meet for a "glass of wine" on June 16. Watch for a specific time and a Zoom link.
Afternoon Conversation
We are looking forward to spending our afternoons in the sunshine! We touched on most of our topics: COVID, vaccinations, music (and performing), and wrapped up with food.
English Classes
We wrapped up the year with Bill's Tips Jam Packed and Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth. You may hear these. We expanded on the pronunciation of "t" or not. Now that masks can become the thing of the past we can see "t" being said when we don't get to hear it.
Our formal classes are breaking, but we are offering shortened American Accent and a Grammar Workshop. Look for announcements.
Kids' Conversation
We finished up with our identifying animals beginning with the letters V-Z.
We are taking a break for two weeks and meeting again on Zoom on June 3 at 4:00-4:30. Email to get the Zoom Link if you don't already have it!
When we meet again we will share the results of our sugar crystal growing experiment! Here is a great link to try growing sugar crystals.
End of the Week Conversation
We closed the week talking about summer plans. Everyone is ready to travel. Staying domestically is our best option, but there isn't anything wrong with that. One place to visit is Mackinac Island in Michigan. You have to take a ferry over. There are no cars, only bicycles and carriages. Mackinac is pronounced mac-in-naw.
We talked about wearing and not wearing masks, whether there is enough evidence that the vaccines are efficacious against all the COVID-19 variations (so far they are holding well). We talked about outcomes from the pandemic that we hoped we would continue as a culture into the future: pick up from stores, people giving other people a little more personal space, people wearing masks in doctors' offices (because you are sick when you go in!), Zooming with friends and family far and near. We are ready to appreciate getting together for summer concerts outdoors (since there is little to no transmission outdoors).
We are breaking for the year, but plan to meet in the park or on Zoom over the summer.
every so often: once in a while
look to: depend on someone or something
touched on: talked about briefly
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