Turkish Night

It's Saturday, and we're all really enjoying it. For the past ten days, Bobby and I have been learning to teach English for our language learning center, which will begin June 14. It has been intense, with homework, tests, and a teaching presentation. We have learned a lot from a super ESL teacher who has traveled all over the world. In fact, our country marked her 50th country to visit! She's an amazing person.

Also, this weekend was the Grand Opening celebration of the international school that Braden is attending. It is the Lale' Youth International School. The students have been preparing projects and presentations for the opening ceremony for several weeks. On Wednesday, we attended the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony and were addressed by the Vice-President of the country of Turkey and by the President of our country. It was pretty cool, but actually the most entertaining part of the weekend was Thursday, when the students celebrated Turkish Night. The school is attended by natives of the country where we live, except for Braden! But on Turkish Night, those students presented skits, songs, and dances that were in Turkish or native to Turkey. It was so cool to see them embracing another country's culture, and we were impressed at how well they were learning a new language. Braden is learning the languages of Turkish and Russian, so we got to hear his Russian class sing a song in Russian. He told us the song was about a Redwood tree and a girl! It was one of those cool Russian songs that gets faster and faster, and you can just picture a Russian man with a tall furry hat on, kicking his legs up with his arms crossed! We were really proud of him.