where has the time gone????

Wow it's been a fast 3 weeks since Thanksgiving! I can't believe it's only 7 days and 50 minutes until Christmas! I am so ready! My trip to Egypt is coming up as well - we leave at 10:00 AM Christmas Day. I'm totally excited - I mean it's EGYPT for goodness sake! I can't quite believe that in 8 days I'm going to be walking around by the pyramids and standing next to the Nile River. I'm sad too though because it means I won't be able to see my "second family" for 12 days. This past weekend, on the way to church, Miguel said that he didn't want Christmas to come this year because it meant that I'd be leaving. And then tonight Ivan asked me when I was leaving and I told him Christmas Day. He said, "Can I come? PLEASE??????" I was like, "Hermano, you have no idea how much I'd love for you to come and see Egypt!" It's going to be a great trip - an amazing experience!

Ivan's been having the week of exams and we've been studying for them for over 2 weeks now. It's hard for us to concentrate at home though with the tv, computers, little brother named Miguel who likes to do everything possible to distract us, etc. So tonight Ivan and I went to the Panera Bread restaurant to study. We set the cellphone alarm for one hour and we did nothing but study for one whole hour. That's been unheard of before today. Before that, we were lucky to get 10 minutes of uninterrupted time. I was so proud of Ivan for studying the entire time without being distracted or bored.

Okay I have to go to bed now...my head, eyes, and throat kind of hurt - NOT because I'm sick, but because I blew a bunch of dusty sandy stuff into the air at school by mistake. Okay so I did it on purpose, but while I was doing it I realized it was a bad idea. We're making these project display things and I was scraping away sand from the kids' Egypt display to make the Nile River. I was trying to clear the table, so I blew the loose sandy dust stuff and that was a TERRIBLE idea. I cannot express to you how terrible that idea was. I immediately felt it in my eyes and throat and it's been there ever since. I hope it's gone by tomorrow. Hasta manana!