"MathS" and FHE

So apparently in America we have to be unique at everything. We write the date our own way (1/15/2013 instead of 15/1/2013), we use feet, yards, inches, gallons, pints, etc. Not to mention working in degrees Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. We like walking and driving on the right side (which actually is how it should be according to most of the world) and we have developed our own interpretation of the word for mathematics or maths as they call it here. We read an entire book called Elephant in the Classroom (which I totally recommend for anyone struggling in teaching mathematics) and they quoted americans as using a unique version of the word "maths."

 Haha well we started our mathS class today. Helen our teacher is quite the character and already I can tell this week is going to fly by. She isn't a member of the church but has quite a passion for helping teachers becoming better at teaching math in the classroom. At one point she was trying to teach us a concept and finally she said "I've got it! You'll never forget this!" and then proceeded to use an analogy comparing beer/wine mixing to help us understand haha.

For FHE we were invited to a family's house that only live a few houses down from us. Their daughter Shannon is our age and is another connection for us to the YSA. We had the best time! They had even recorded the Alabama vs Notre Dame game for me so I could watch the highlights :). We ate dinner and Sara and I taught the lesson. They still have a few younger kids at home so we made it pretty short but we focused on the plan of salvation. Boy did that bring flashbacks from the mission- especially being in someone else's house, eating dinner, and not being as familiar with the culture (plus the brown skin). We also played church bingo and 7-up (not the thumbs up game but a different one). The dad was the bingo caller and cheated by looking at other people's cards to make sure everyone got a bingo. Everyone got upset and Sara and I just laughed because it made us think about our families. We stayed at their house for quite some time playing games and then watching home videos of different Samoan dances that their family performed for the oldest son's wedding last year (he married a BYU girl from the year before as we were reminded MULTIPLE times....). We also got to see pictures of the youngest son (10) playing rugby. We had candy and more Samoan coconut rolls for dessert- so delicious