Although I'm very grateful to have a second opportunity to be an English Language Fellow (ELF) in Uganda, the time between the two contracts was very limited which made the vacation I was able to spend at home much shorter than I would have liked. Because of this, I packed in as much as I could and saw as many family and friends as possible which made the break in Holland fun but certainly not relaxing.
During the first week, I enjoyed a lovely sail with Mindy and an evening with Emily as well as a visit to Coppercraft distillery with Susie, Al and Marcus. On Friday, I spent the day with Al and we had fun exploring the Tanger Outlets and going out for lunch before we met up with Susie, Marcus and the rest of their gang to hit up Food Truck Friday and then Movies in the Park in Grand Rapids. Susie and I had planned a sister's weekend and spent Saturday at the Farmer's Market, Art in the Park, lunch at Big Lake Brewing and the afternoon at the beach topped off by an obligatory visit to Captain Sundae.
The first week at home flew by and before I knew it I was boarding a plane for Washington D.C. for a week of English Language Fellowship training and professional development. As a "Renewing Fellow", I had a lot more responsibilities than last year including a presentation on using social media as an outreach tool for the big group and several smaller presentations about challenges and successes of my first year during the Africa ELF breakout sessions. The best part about being in DC was seeing all of my ELF friends that I had made during my first year but hadn't seen since the mid-year seminar. It was also nice to see the faces of the program administrators with whom I communicate via email constantly but have never met in person.
From D.C. I flew back to Grand Rapids where I met Sean who had just flown in from Oregon where he finished his summer as a Trip Leader for Adventure Treks. We drove to a hotel in Grand Rapids to celebrate our 7th anniversary and catch each other up on the adventures of the past three months. Staying downtown GR was a blast and we enjoyed walking to check out Brewery Vivant and Founders Brewing Company throughout the weekend.
After we returned to Holland, the focus was on family and we both had several events lined up. The first was Sean's dad's retirement dinner at Marigold Lodge which was made especially enjoyable by the fact that everyone was in town to celebrate, including Jen (teaches in Saudi Arabia), Kate (works in Hawaii) and Jess (studies in Florida). Other family highlights included a picnic with my birth family, a family breakfast and hang-out day with my cousins Craig and Dave and pizza at the beach with Mom, Dad, Susie, Marcus and Sean.
The other thing that kept me busy was preparing our newly purchased house for renters. Back in May, Sean, Jen (Sean's sister) and I pooled our funds and bought a small house on the south side of Holland. Since we all teach abroad, the plan was to live in it during the summers and rent it out during the year. The amount of paperwork that was required to purchase a house and then obtain all of the proper documentation to rent it legally was extremely time-consuming and a steep learning curve. I hope our new renters enjoy it as much as we have!
This week I've returned to Uganda and am working on getting settled in a new university and in a new apartment. Sean arrives this weekend and will stay until the end of September until he moves to Antarctica for a seasonal job, but more on that later. Thanks for reading and following along!
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