Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

I've made it through my first week!! Praise God!!

It's HOT!! Like really HOT. Like 40 degrees HOT!! 

But it's has been an amazing week so far and I've seen many cool things. 

There is soooo much to tell you about - It's been a packed week but I will try my very best to give you all the best bits.  

Just to start with, when people say everything is BIGGER in Texas - They weren't lying. Even down to the paper towels (kitchen towel)!!

I didn't know what to expect of Texas but from what I've seen so far it's a really cool place. 


FOOD

Quick note - There is no way I can really describe how good some of the food is - just book your ticket and come on down. 

The first thing I had was a biscuit......my oh my as it good. I know what you're thinking but it isn't what us Brits call a biscuit instead it's a light, fluffy, flaky buttermilk bread type circle of loveliness....mmmmmm. I had a breakfast biscuit with sausage and cheese form Whataburger (see the pic below - it was so nice that I forgot to take a pic of my actual one - sorry!) but you can have biscuits with lunch and dinner too. 

We went for dinner at a team members house and their host parents cooked us steak, corn, chicken and lots of veg on the grill. It was delicious. Oh and courgettes are called squash here. But the best part was desert. Now I'm not really a desert person but this may just be the best desert I've ever had (apart from my sisters ;-)) It was grilled peach with a plain yogurt ice-cream. Healthy and delicious. 

I had breakfast at a place called Tom's. There is a lot of Mexican influence in Texas and so I had a TexMex (you get it?) style breakfast - mexican omelette with little, soft, corn-flour tacos and hash browns (again different from the English has brown - it's really small chip shape potato pieces moulded together and fried) served with salsa. :-)

I know I've probably made you hungry now so I'll stop talking about food but I'll put a few more food pics at the end :-)

WORK

We've spent most of the week at training. We have two weeks of training before we start work so and it's been pretty intense. We get to church (where training takes place) at 8am - have bible study with our team at 8.30am and then start the day worshipping through singing some songs. We have about 5 session a day and usually finish around 5pm. The sessions have been really good and challenging so I'm enjoying it. 

We also went to UTA (University of Texas) Arlington Campus this week and met  some of the new students there and had a chance to talk and pray with the people we met as we walked around the campus. I'm usually the shy one but I was going up to people and talking/praying for them. Good times :-)

PLACES


We went to a beautiful place called the Water Garden. It was so nice and peaceful down there. The water creates a nice calming atmosphere. 

On that theme we also had a pool party at a lovely home belonging to a member of our church. :-D

I felt like I was in a film set when we got to go into a high school this week. It was just like the shows and movies - wide hallways, lockers, teachers names outside each class, cafeteria and gym. 

PEOPLE

I've met many lovely people since I've been here which has been lovely. My host mom's (yes I meant mom) name is Sonya and she is very welcoming, kind, warm and knows lots about American politics - she's teaching me!

And a few pics of my team, a few others who have joined Pais too and some people I've met along the way...

Just to round up...

Happy moment - Going to the UTA campus
Sad moment - Missing Debbie's Birthday and Sim's Wedding

My first week here has been wonderful and I'm really settling in well :-)


Thank you so much to everyone for all your supporting in making this year possible for me. It's going to be such a great year and I'm really looking forward to getting even more stuck in once the school year starts. 

Love you lots,
Tess

PS. I'm looking for someone to be my official Premier League updater form next week. Let yourselves be known :-) (Must not hate Arsenal - slight dislike is okay)



And just incase you're missing my face....

And as promised......more food pics....and random ones too (oh I do spoil you)