A Burmese wedding and Jen's Spanish aquisition

Mañana es nuestra final clase de español, y estoy triste. Aprendí mucho pero la clase ha pasado demasiado rápido!

I have learned a lot over the last 3.5 weeks, considering I could barely say more than "Hola! dos cervezas por favor" on day one, I can now make my opinion known (albeit with a smattering of French thrown in) on topics such as: do you believe that there is life on other planets? do you think we will find a cure for cancer, and why? and: in your opinion, who was the best president of the United States (the fact that I'm not American didn't offer any respite from the latter question)? I can also count to a 999,999,999 (theoretically at least), name parts of the body, parts of the house, get through customs, and describe landmarks in Mexico city! Oh, and order some food to go with my two beers...

It was an eclectic class (two sixteen year olds, one whose fingers were glued to her cell phone texting the whole class; two women my age including another Canadian; and an older piano teacher who was so enthusiastic that she would often yell out other people's answers before they could), but I think it was well worth the money, and has hopefully launched me towards a future fluency (or at least proficiency) in Spanish.

Now if I could just get my French up to fluent...
In other news, last weekend we had the opportunity to attend a Burmese wedding. A coworker of ours was getting married to a fellow resettled refugee who he had started dating back in the camps in Thailand. While it may not have been punctual (which I am not one to criticise), or that organised, it was a wonderful celebration with a large portion of the IRC office, and the IRC Burmese community present. There was, of course, some excellent food there too!

I can't believe that it is almost August! Brent and I have been in San Diego for nearly 3 months. We are still waiting for the date of our immigration interview, which we are hoping may be scheduled for September. August will go quickly as Brent and I will both be working full-time at IRC until our trip to Vermont at the end of the month. Even though it is for only 4 days, we're really looking forward to the trip, and the chance to see Brent's extended family and celebrate his Grandpa's 90th birthday.

The day after our return to SD I'll be starting my job at the Peace Institute, and we just learned of another surprise - my sister Lindsay will also be arriving that day for a visit! Yay!

Well I think that's all for now. Hope you're all well, and we look forward to hearing whether any one else might have plans to head to So(uthern)Cal(ifornia) in the future.

Hasta luego!