It's Spring and Change Is In the Works

There have been lots of April showers here in mid-Missouri lately...plus a tornado that tripped through part of the St. Louis area.  Makes me wonder how many times we'll hear the tornado siren go off this summer. 

Outside everything is green, lush, and muddy, but everyone seems glad to have the cold and snow of winter behind us.

These days we are all busy with end-of-semester activities.   Gahee recently took the online version of the TOEFL and passed it.  Big smile!!  She may take it again to get a higher score.  Her goal is to transfer to Mizzou in January 2012. She'll be preparing for final exams.   Ali will be finishing up another session of the Intensive English Program at Mizzou.  He's made a lot of progress over the past year and is hoping to obtain a passing score on either the TOEFL or IELTS test.  He has applied to two universities in Texas and may apply to a few others.

George and I are finishing up our classes at the Columbia campus of Moberly Area Community College.
We'll give final exams in about 3 weeks and then we'll get ready for our trip to COLORADO!!!  Gahee is coming with us, and we are all very excited about seeing mountains.  George has been there before, but I know I'll fall in love with it.   We'll be traveling with our small travel trailer, named "the C.O.W." (condo on wheels).

In the meantime, I've been corresponding with Vi and Anh, two young ladies who are currently living in Orange County, California.  They are from Vietnam and have been attending college in California.  They emailed me several weeks ago and asked about homestay with us and if they could share a room.  It was something we had not considered, but after several emails back and forth and research on their part, they have both been accepted to Mizzou and are planning to join our household later this summer.  They seem excited to experience life in a Midwestern college town because where they now live and go to school there is a large Vietnamese population, so it feels a lot like home.  They want to experience more of the typical American culture.  So after Ali leaves, I'll repaint the room, shampoo the carpet, and get things ready for the girls.

I think Gahee will enjoy having female housemates for a change.