Simple gifts...

I mentioned back in August that I said goodbye to Yuko, a young Japanese woman I was serving as an ESL tutor for.  Well, it's happened again.  Having such a good experience the first time, I jumped back into being matched with someone new.  And today we said good-bye.  

In late September I was given a few choices of adults who wanted to practice speaking English, I readily picked a young Chinese woman (named Jie) - who was hoping to soon find employment as a hospital nurse.   Having one ESL experience under my belt, I now knew that the arrangement could be short lived, but I wasn't quite prepared for it to end so soon.

But my new young friend has found employment - actually was offered two positions, I think quicker than even she expected.  So, while I'm sorry to lose another ESL conversation partner, I'm so very happy for her.  Her family is also moving to a new home, soon - about an hour away, and while we may occasionally connect via text or e-mail, I know her life will soon be very busy and full of the excitement of new things.  I'm glad to have been even just a small part in this time of transition for her.

Before we ended our time today, I asked Jie if she would write something in Chinese down for me.  I told her to write anything.  And she wrote this:

I asked her to translate and she said it means "be grateful".  And said that is what she feels toward me and our time together speaking English.    

As further explanation of the characters, she wrote this:

I have only a tiny bit of understanding that Chinese characters not only represents words, but that the characters also represent ideas.  So, while I don't quite understand how these words form the idea of being grateful, they are all very nice words, I'm thinking.  Not wanting to parse out what was clearly a compliment, I decided to just receive it and could easily return the kind words.  I could honestly tell Jie I was grateful for her and the experience, too.

I have found both experiences of being an ESL conversation partner with two young Asian women to be a gift I am very grateful for.  I am impressed by their intelligence, yet at the same time their humbleness in putting themselves in the hands of a stranger to practice speaking a language that doesn't in any way resemble their native tongue.  I'm impressed by their bravery - to live in a foreign country and learn how to maneuver.  To drive, to travel and do exciting things, in Jie's case to get a job.   Getting to know these young women has been a gift I am very grateful for.    And while I can't imagine being matched up with anyone as pleasant as Yuko and Jie, these two women have also given me the courage to see if it can happen again.  

So, while I think I will wait until after the holidays to begin another match, I'm looking forward to the new year, and hopefully another pleasant ESL experience.

Thank you, Jie and Yuko!  😊 

More doilies...

Still on a doily kick, I had to make another one in an autumn color - this one for me to keep.  I made another Summer Splendor (or I suppose I could call this one Autumn Awesomeness):

It's a fairly simple pattern (which is why I've made two now), but it has a nice Wow! factor.  This one is made with Artiste Cotton thread in the color Papaya.

Being smitten by doilies this month (especially smallish doilies) I did something a bit uncharacteristic for me.  I bought myself this overpriced, out-of-print book from a seller on Amazon:

I was searching high and low for patterns for small doilies (anything under 10 inches), and finally, somehow stumbled upon this book.  And I just had to have it!  And just like that, I was putting it in my "cart" and purchasing it!  What's wrong with me?!?  Normally, I'd wring my hands, put it in time out and decide the next day I didn't need it.  But for some reason, I decided right then and there that I needed this book.  And I didn't even put up an argument.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed when it arrived.  While I'd prefer the book had more 8 - 10 inch doilies (and I knew there were few that large when I ordered it), there's not a bad one in the whole bunch.

It was hard to decide which one to start with, but I finally settled on this one with the very inauspicious name of #74:

I'm going to have to get me a slightly larger steel hook for making these since this one (that was supposed to be 6 inches across) measured only 4.5 inches when I was finished.  It will make a pretty coaster, or maybe votive holder, but I'm not sure I'm interested in making doilies this small.   So back to Hobby Lobby I must go to get a larger hook.  Wish me luck!  

~~~~~

Yuko loved the doilies I gave her.  Upon the good advice I received last week, I suggested that she give one to her mother when she returns to Japan, but the fact is her family lives about 12 hours away from where they will be living when they return, so I don't even know how often they see each other.  I'm also not sure that Yuko completely understood what I was saying.  Yuko and I have become pretty comfortable working through a conversation until we understand what the other is saying, but with our two boys (her two-year-old and my 64 year-old) making noise in the background, our conversation was more challenging than normal.

Regardless of what she does with them, she appeared to be very pleased with the gift.  And she wrote me a very sweet thank you the next day.

Meanwhile, I got to enjoy these beautiful flowers all week that Yuko brought with her when she and her family visited:

~~~~~

Overall, it was a busy, but relatively quiet week.   After so much rain recently, I finally had a good day to power-wash the area next to where we put so many rocks a few weeks ago.  Pictures don't do the job justice, but I promised pictures, so here you go...  

The vast majority of rocks aren't actually visible.  

Most of the rocks are 8 - 12 inches below ground level. 

I forget how deep the hole was.  

Just know that there are a lot of rocks under the top layer

~~~~~

Several days after posting this, I found some pictures of the hole dug, and a couple of the piles of rocks (before shoveling):

Here's the hole (that is shown filled in above):

And here are the first two piles of rock we had delivered (one pile was jumbo-sized river rock, and one pile was simply large river rock):

~~~~~

Seriously wishing I had saved back more of 

the larger (Jumbo sized) river rock to create a 

more attractive sloping area above.  

I need to work on this (and maybe go buy some more rock).  

And the above was a bit of an afterthought.  

We had more rock than we needed, so we decided to fill in 

this area outside our dining room.  

Every spring I plant it with annuals, 

and every summer it becomes a weed-infested mess.  

I think I need to look for some perennials to pretty up this space.  

But for right now, it's just nice to look out the dining room doors and not see a jumble of guilt-inducing weeds.

And then there's a section in the front of our house under a hose reel where we laid some rock and stepping stones.  It's an improvement for various reasons, but at the moment a dirty hose reel box is sitting atop it, so I'm not bothering to take a picture.    Next spring/summer this will all hopefully look nicer with grass filling in the edges, and maybe some plantings in the rocks.  I haven't figured those details out yet, but for now I'm just glad the hard physical labor is finished.  

And now it's on to other projects!

To see what other YOPpers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

2018 Yarn Stash-Down:  35.66/100 Skeins