So I officially have 3 weeks and 4 days until I fly to California to begin my training and transition into a new period of my life. Days are flying by, and I am trying to make sure I get everything finished before I leave.
Last weekend I had a garage sale to raise money for the trip. We went to the warehouse and cleaned out anything and everything that had been setting up there for a while. I made a big decision to sell the majority of my dvd's, my surround sound system, and a lot of my electronics... I'm sure it isn't a big deal to most, but to a guy who loves watching movies, it is. especially the dvd collection. So Saturday we had our first customers at 7:10, we officially started at 8, and by 8:00, we had already sold over $200 worth of stuff. I felt very blessed. God kept the rain away, kept people coming, everyone was buying something, even if it was just a dollar or two. By the end of the day, we had raised over $900. Amazing!
That is 1/10th of what I need for my total support. Pretty awesome, just from old stuff.
So, now that the garage sale is done, I am going to be following up with friends and family that I mailed support raising letters to. I got them out late, my fault... well, my oral surgeons fault for making my recovery for my wisdom teeth surgery last almost 3 weeks... but I think I will be getting some responses soon.
I also just got my new macbook!!!! its pretty awesome. I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and get one while I could still get a college discount. not only did I get $200 knocked off the price, but I got a free Ipod touch. Its pretty cool. not nearly as much can go on it as my 80 gig (the new one is only 16 gig) but 16 will still hold a lot of music and I can just update it if I need to before trips.
I also just bought a "Learn to speak Czech" program. It has 15 hours of language training.. and I can put it on my ipod and listen to it as I am working or traveling. I really hope to at least have a small base of the language before i get there. It was the Pimsleur program, which cost a bit, but I felt I would rather spend the money and get one that was well known and had good reviews than a cheap one that didn't work. I should get that in in a few days. I will let you know how that goes.
On the financial side again, I have raised/made/donated myself altogether around $5250, pretty cool. but I still need around $4000 more for the year, $2000 of that before I leave in August. Please all be praying about that.
My last day of work is on the 3rd. My office is having a going away party for me and 2 other co-workers that are leaving.. but that will give me 2 weeks to hang out with friends and family before I go. If you want to hang out and see me before I go.. let me know!
Also, if you want to be on my newsletter list, send me your address: atrector@yahoo.com
Prayer requests:
Mental preparation for the transition
Finish all logistics of moving out and tying up all lose ends.
My team that I will be serving with in Czech.
Finances
Start praying for my health.. I know I will be stressed, and I get sick when I get stressed.. and I don't want that.
That I will find someone on my team who can be my travel partner!
That I have a blast!
Love you all!
Aaron
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Beginning
Hey everyone! Today is April 21, 2007. Today marks the beginning of my year long adventure across the globe, to the Czech Republic.
So this blog isn't going to be my newsletter but more of just more of a way for me to update everyone on things. I will be sending out newsletters to everyone's email's as well. But this is also more of a way for me to be able to look back on my whole experience.
For those who not know, I recently got a job with TeachOverseas, formerly Educational Services International (or ESI). They are a Christian organization who uses teaching as a tool for ministry. As of today I have 3 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days to go before I fly out to California for 4 weeks of training, then after that time, I fly to Prague to begin my year long adventure of teaching, travel and ... snow.
I know only a few things right now.
1. I will be staying in a city about 12 miles north of Prague called Kralupy. I have a roomate named Joseph who I will be sharing a small flat with.
2. I will be teaching English to high school kids.
3. There is a group of 20 teachers, 6 men & 14 women who are broken into many different teams, but all living in the Czech republic that I will be training with and will be in contact with while I am there.
That is really all I know right now. Not much. So here is what all I have to do before I leave.
*Finish this semester of school
* Take a Maymester
* Raise $8000 in support by the time I leave for training.
*Figure out if Cingular international plan is worth it
*get my wisdom teeth taken out
*buy a laptop
*sell my big video camera to buy a smaller one for video blogs
*smoke hookah with cody
*get traveler's insurance
*Pack
*move out of my place
*plus im sure a lot of stuff that comes up along the way... I am going to be busy the next few months
So I have been in communication with Zack, who is the guy I am taking over for. He has an awesome blog at http://zbarnes.blogspot.com
Blogging my journey was already something I wanted to do, so it was good to see one that I could model mine after. here are some pictures from his blog of the place I will be moving into. Obviously I havent seen anymore than these photos as well, so this is all I know of my future home.
Here is the floorplan for the flat. I am sharing a room with Joseph.. so back to freshman year of college!
The Kitchen
Living Room
Living Room
Entrance
Bedroom
Bedroom
clothes line room
So, as you can tell, I will be living in style! Thanks to everyone who is supporting me and following along the ride
So this blog isn't going to be my newsletter but more of just more of a way for me to update everyone on things. I will be sending out newsletters to everyone's email's as well. But this is also more of a way for me to be able to look back on my whole experience.
For those who not know, I recently got a job with TeachOverseas, formerly Educational Services International (or ESI). They are a Christian organization who uses teaching as a tool for ministry. As of today I have 3 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days to go before I fly out to California for 4 weeks of training, then after that time, I fly to Prague to begin my year long adventure of teaching, travel and ... snow.
I know only a few things right now.
1. I will be staying in a city about 12 miles north of Prague called Kralupy. I have a roomate named Joseph who I will be sharing a small flat with.
2. I will be teaching English to high school kids.
3. There is a group of 20 teachers, 6 men & 14 women who are broken into many different teams, but all living in the Czech republic that I will be training with and will be in contact with while I am there.
That is really all I know right now. Not much. So here is what all I have to do before I leave.
*Finish this semester of school
* Take a Maymester
* Raise $8000 in support by the time I leave for training.
*Figure out if Cingular international plan is worth it
*get my wisdom teeth taken out
*buy a laptop
*sell my big video camera to buy a smaller one for video blogs
*smoke hookah with cody
*get traveler's insurance
*Pack
*move out of my place
*plus im sure a lot of stuff that comes up along the way... I am going to be busy the next few months
So I have been in communication with Zack, who is the guy I am taking over for. He has an awesome blog at http://zbarnes.blogspot.com
Blogging my journey was already something I wanted to do, so it was good to see one that I could model mine after. here are some pictures from his blog of the place I will be moving into. Obviously I havent seen anymore than these photos as well, so this is all I know of my future home.
Here is the floorplan for the flat. I am sharing a room with Joseph.. so back to freshman year of college!
The Kitchen
Living Room
Living Room
Entrance
Bedroom
Bedroom
clothes line room
So, as you can tell, I will be living in style! Thanks to everyone who is supporting me and following along the ride
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