What do I say after a long hiatus? Hello. Yeah, I’m doing fine. Wish you were here. It’s hard to get communication going after so much time away. It feels funny, a bit forced. But here I am with an afternoon that seems less rushed, and I don’t want to waste it by only doing lesson plans in advance. I want to say something although I’m not sure what that is.

You always hear stories of people learning new languages who unknowingly use the wrong word, which just happens to be a really wrong word, an embarrassing word. Well, thankfully I haven’t yet had an experience like that…unless you count the times I’ve used dolor (to have pain) instead of dolar (dollar $). This faux pas usually gets a few laughs.

Sometimes you have stories that you want to tell just right or not at all. Unless you can paint the picture in the same hues you first saw it, then why try? I feel this way about Raquel. What happened on Sunday, though, can’t be allowed to leave my memory. She’s too important for that.

Well, here we are at another Sabbath, a day I always look forward to despite the long meetings in a language I can‘t understand. Something about getting up with the sun, showering and shaving, playing some music…the relaxed routine has always quieted me. I can’t say it was like that when I was a child.