CHRISTMAS CARDS

Kevin with his host sisters

Anna with host sibs/puppies

CHRISTMAS CHARITIES

We all got together at Christmas Charities Year Round, a local charity, to assemble Christmas dinner boxes for needy families in our area.  Everyone had a good time as we made a contribution to our community.

CIEE CHRISTMAS PARTY

Thanks Kelly and Rod for hosting our Christmas party in your lovely home once again!!  The students brought dishes from their countries and gifts to play Dirty Santa, and we all had a lot of fun!

Fitim and his host brother prepare Macedonian dish for party

HUNTSVILLE WEEKEND A BLAST



CIEE students, host families and local coordinators from a number of southeastern cities joined us in Huntsville last weekend to see some of what our area has to offer.  Saturday, we visited the US Space & Rocket Center where we enjoyed the IMAX movie, Journey Into Space, the simulators in Space Park and the museum exhibits.  Next we toured the beautiful Huntsville Botanical Garden featuring the largest butterfly house in the southeastern United States.  We ended the day at Parkway Place Mall where we had dinner, shopped and enjoyed one another's company.  Sunday morning we toured Cathedral Caverns, one of the most impressive caves in North America.



Students enjoy Space Shot, some multiple times

Group photo at Space Center

                                                              Monarch Butterfly in the Butterfly House

 



Two of our guests relax in the Butterfly House

 

Long from Vietnam, host brother JD, Boss from Thailand, Alvaro from Spain,

Trung from Vietnam and Fitim from Macedonia at the Botanical Garden 

 

Exchange students in front of mouth of Cathedral Caverns

 

Host families join them

 

Yuhang from China with his host brother and host mom after our tour of the caverns

 

Anna from China (left) made friends with two of our guests

 

 

 



IFEST A LOT OF FUN FOR EVERYONE

We set up a CIEE both at iFest, an annual international festival sponsored by UAH.  Victoria, Fitim, Boss, Alvaro, Xinran and Jachym all earned community service hours by working the booth.  We have some really good salesmen in our group!  We got contact info for 12 families who want us to send them more information about hosting!

KAYAKING ON THE ELK RIVER

We had a great turnout for the kayak trip - 18 participants, including exchange students, host families and LCs.  The weather was perfect and the river was beautiful!

Melanie and Yanzhi pose for a picture as we prepare to launch

We're off

The river is beautiful

Mary's first time kayaking

The Wilson clan

Relaxing after an afternoon on the river

The group

WELCOME PARTY A HUGE SUCCESS!!!!!

We had a great turn out for our welcome pool party, the first of many activities we have planned for our students and host families over the coming ten months.  Fourteen of our 16 students were able to make it to the party.  How awesome is that!