When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Hello all,
So the past week was kind of crazy because of the series of unfortunate events. First, on my way back from teaching I realized that my bike had a flat tire. It was bad because it was a two mile walk home from the school on a cold and very windy day. Next, I accidentally washed my blackberry phone in the washing machine. My phone was completely destroyed. Lastly, my headphones to my mp3 player decided to stop working. All this could have destroyed my week but I decided not to let these unfortunate events get me down. I thought about everything I had to be grateful for such as my amazing students in both the Netherlands and at E. Rivers. Also, I was grateful to be in Europe and to have met such cool new friends. So, I took my bike to the shop and got the tire replaced and I also have a new phone being shipped to me from America. I thought that my headphones may break while I was here so I actually brought a second pair of headphones.
So instead of thinking about all the bad things that were happening to me I took a deep breath and thought about what I have to be grateful for. After doing that I wrote out a list of what I needed to do to fix my bike and replace my phone. This kept me from thinking too much about the bad and turning it into a good day. Even though my bike had a flat tire and my phone was destroyed I still had an amazing week with my friends and with my students. I even found a few cool new cafes around me. Life gave me lemons and I made lemonade.

Until next time,
- Jack aka Mr. Ellsworth

PS- The first picture was taken at a cafe that gives out free vegan dinners on Mondays. I went there with some of the other international students in my building

The Race

Hello all, This weekend was too cool. On Sunday I went to the City Center to cheer a friend on in a 10 mile foot race. There were over 30,000 people in the race. It was quite a site to see. The rest of the weekend was also a lot of fun. I have been spending the last few days getting applications filled out for jobs.

I think I am getting the hang of this.

Hey everyone, So my mom just helped me figure out how to add pictures and videos to my blog. If this works I will then be posting more and more pictures and videos.I am starting to create a rough draft of what I will be doing after I finish teaching in Nijmegen and where I will be going. This is more work than I thought because I forgot about where I am going to stay as well as making sure I can afford it. I feel confident that everything will work out well. Besides that I am still having an amazing time. Today was a half day teaching at school. School ends at noon on Wednesdays. I asked a teacher why they had these half days and she told me it was the mid week break. I learned that it is a way to give the students a break from school during the week. This way the students wont get an urge of "cabin fever". This mid week break is only for primary schools which means that middle schools and high school do not get this luxury.

Hello everyone

Hi guys,
Sorry it has taken me so long to get this blog started. I have many excuses that I cold give but it would still come back to me being lazy, sorry. Anyway here I am and may I say that I am having the best time. I really miss everyone back home such as my friends, family, and of course my students... hey Mrs. Pinson's class. Now that I have this blog up I will be adding posts often.

until my next post,
- Jack Ellsworth aka Mr. Ellsworth