Working 9 to 5

Hey Friends!

This has been a very, very busy week with not much sleep but it has been a good week!

Food| So there is a famous Texan chain of restaurants called Babe's Chicken and they specialise in Fried Chicken. We went out to eat for my host mum's birthday and this is the amount of chicken they gave us for four people!! There were about 20 pieces!! It was just too much to look at! And they serve it with creamed corn, biscuits (not at all the same as English biscuits!), salad, mashed potato, cream gravy (white not brown) and green beans. And of course all the sides are endless - just ask for more and it appears! 

In other food news I've become an expert at grilled sandwiches and my favourite is salami and Monterey Jack cheese. 

Okay so donuts are a popular breakfast option out here and we decided to get some this week. The donuts are very good and soft but unfortunately WAY too sweet for me so I just stick to the plain glazed ones :-)

New School| We went into a new school this week called Polytechnic High School. The school is ranked one of the worst in the Dallas Fort Worth area so we were not sure what to expect going in there. As we walked up to the building we started to like it more and more. It was an old but very well kept school building. It was beautiful. We went in  and helped out with the English classes for a couple of hours and will definitely be going regularly. 

Youth Group| 'See you at the Pole' is an annual gathering of students at a local flagpole for a time of prayer, bible reading and worship. Lots of the kids at church took part in their schools and so in keeping with the theme we held a prayer event on wednesday night. We set 5 different stations with different prayer stations. 
At my station they had a chance to prayer for at least one male and one female in their lives. 

The annual youth conference at our church was this weekend. The focus of the conference was equipping the youth in sharing their faith with family, friends and others in the community. The conference was over the weekend and so we all spent Friday at the church. 

On the Friday night we set up a camp fire in the little woods area outside the church and had Frito pie. What's on earth is Frito pie I hear you say? Well at least that's what I said! It's chilli served on a bed of Frito crisps topped with cheese and sour cream (sour cream is optional). It was really nice and if you leave it for a couple of minutes - I even had seconds! After that we played a couple of games out there and then went in for some down time and well earned sleep!

Prayer| If you pray please pray for good health for my whole team - the long days and AC affect (HOT outside and COLD inside) can make us feel under the weather. 

Right that's it for this week folks! Have a great week!

Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999!

Hey y'all! 

I know I said it would be a fortnight before my next blog but this week has been a pretty good one and deserves the spotlight.

#Funtimes| Okay those of you that grew up in the 90's and early 00's will surely appreciate this! I'm so excited just thinking about this again!! I played Mario Karts on a Nintendo 64!!!!!!!

It was so fun - I played as my favourite character DK and enjoyed memories of winning :-D It also made me miss my bro and sis that little bit more this week. We used to play it for hours! Love you guys.

#Food| I went to British Restaurant this week guys! It's called Across the Pond and it's run by an English family that moved to Texas eight years ago. I had chips with sausages, gravy and onions and it was good to have a little taste of home. I also had apple crumble and custard for desert HOWEVER to my surprise the custard was cold - eeeek - let's not dwell on that!!! But to make up for that they all support Arsenal and have pictures and memorabilia on the walls. They even invited me to join their little community that watch all the Arsenal matches together. 

I also had some homemade cookies with a nice cold glass of milk and tasted some new Pringles flavours this week :)

#School| We had more lessons at Eastern Hills High School this week which was fun and we are really getting to know the students more. It's so cool talking to them and finding out more about what it's like being a student in an American High School and noting all the differences. 

#Global Prayer| We had a global prayer and fasting this week. We all fasted for 24 hours and then met as a big group to pray over all the nations Pais is in. It was powerful! 

#Happy Moment| On Sunday my team mate prayed for us to get into more schools and as soon as he finished writing down the prayer at the end of the service this guys walks up to us and asks what we do. Turns out he is a teacher and wants us to come into his classes to help him out and possibly his colleague too. God is good!

#Prayers|Please pray for us to get into even more schools in the Fort Worth area over the next couple of months. We need to reach more students this year. 

Thanks for reading folks - God Bless :-)

These are a few of my favourite things

Hey y'all!!

Weather|We've had thunder storms this week! Oh my how I've missed the rain and when it rains in Texas it rains hard!! 

Thursday morning on the way to work!

The same way London is built to handle heavy snow, Texas isn't built to handle rain so large puddles form fast and car accidents are fairly common. 

School|We had our first full teaching day at Eastern Hills High School. We taught 6 lessons from 8.35am to 3.35pm and it was a really long and tiring but also fun day. We work with AVID classes which stands for Advancement Via Independent Determination. All the students in AVID have to apply to be part of the class and pass the interview. It's really cool working with them and one thing that is safe to say is that a 16 year old is the same whether in England or Texas!

There is one main difference though! They think my accent is really cool and ask me to repeat things just so they can here it again. Most conversations start like this:

Me: Hey, how you doing?
Student:(moment of silence) Wow! I love you accent. Where are you from?
Me: Oh thank you, I'm from London.
Student: Like London London - that's so awesome!


Food|I finally gave in guys - after 6 weeks I had my first Mcd's experience. I had chicken nuggets - They are tastier here - sorry guys. Oh and I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but there is no such thing as buying the same soft drink twice during one meal here! #refills #bringrefillstolondon

Favourite things|My favourite things so far in Texas are........drumroll........

3rd Place: Coffee Creamer - okay so everyone knows I DO NOT like coffee! Well my life and taste buds have been changed forever thanks to coffee creamers. They are a non-dairy cream that you add to coffee instead of milk (or half and half) and they come in a wide variety (obviously) of flavours. I've only used the Caramel (pronounced Carmel here) one so far and I love it. Good Morning America!

2nd Place: Lemonade - This is my favourite drink so far - with lots of ice. It's the most refreshing beverage (minus water) and it's perfect for this weather. 

1st Place: Cornbread - Unfortunately there is just no way a verbal explanation would do this justice - you'll just have to book a flight and come taste it for yourself. 

Moments|Happy moment: Teaching our first AVID class and getting to know the students.
Sad moment: Missing Moriah's first day at school - She looks so cute in her little uniform!! They grow up fast eh! I get what my dad means now when he says that he still remembers me as the baby storing milk in her cheeks!

I'm waking up at 6.45am this Saturday to watch the Arsenal vs Man City match - we better win!! 

Prayers|If you like to pray please pray for my team to stay unified and healthy!

Thanks y'all!

I'll be updating you every fortnight so be safe til then :)

God bless!