Second week of our trip - Rodeo

Austin, TX is a great city to hang out in very hip bars and restaurants. There are tons of those.
So we had our share of that. One thing I didn't expect in such a modern city was a Rodeo. I could have know of course, being in Texas 'n' all.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay until the real rodeo began, but we saw a lot of other things like a pig race, a shoot out between bandits and the sherrif and dirt bikers doing stunts. We had a corn dog and Guillaume got hooked on fried snickers.

Second week of our trip - meeting Ella

First week of our trip

We arrived in Baltimore, MD last Saturday evening. Our friend Marlies came to pick us up from the airport. It's so nice to spend time with her and her family and catch up on things! We've done a lot of cool things; we went to her church, we went shopping, we had lunch at Fuddruckers, we went to Washington DC and to an Amish Farmers Market. So there's lots of pictures, too much to post them all on the blog but here's some to give you an impression.


This is Kate. She's way too cute!

Carnaval

Traditionally the period of fasting leading up to Easter (I believe it's called "Lent") is begun by a week of Carnaval. It starts with a parade with floats and marching bands. Everyone gets in costumes and after the parade they go to bars to have a big party that lasts about 4-5 days.

Bowling

Here's a short impression of Guillaume's bowling skills.

Sunday morning

Just came across this pic I shot with my phone during youth service. This is a very typical pose for our teens on Sunday morning :)

Crisis

This week I received news from my boss that the crisis is also affecting our company. They have to cut some costs. So now all employees with any kind of temporary contract are obligated to work less hours and thus get a cut in pay. Also they will not be giving any "normal" company contracts to the employees with temporary contracts anymore. They don't want to get rid of the good employees if they can help it. So that's why every temporary contract employee now has to work less hours and only gets a renewal of their temporary contract.

For me this also means I'll work less hours. Financially we can still cope and this is peanuts compared to people who have lost their jobs. But it does make me a bit worried about what will be next. Maybe I'm being naive but I really hope this is all that's needed to keep everyone at their jobs.
This is the first time I really like a job and it also has good career potential and I don't want to loose it. Now I'm supposed to have a little faith. And at times I do have faith... a little anyway. I just hope and pray that my job doesn't get taken away from me. So if you could remember us in your prayers that would be greatly appreciated.