Last week we hosted our very first English Immersion event!
After all our months of renovations, preparations and trepidations we finally had a concrete goal to work toward and specific programming to plan. In the excitement of actually having something booked, we may have been a little overzealous, and quickly decided to do a few last minute renovations. (Just in case everything else wasn't stressful enough!) But it all worked out in the end and we now only have one bathroom left to renovate.
But I digress.
Over the last few months, Karl has spent countless hours banging down doors to language schools and private schools in the area, letting them know about us and what we do. One of the private schools showed an immediate interest and after a couple of meetings, decided they wanted us to organize an event for the teachers of their English Immersion school. Of course we jumped at the opportunity. This is one of the most prestigious schools in the area with over 7000 students attending their schools and college.
About 15 teachers ended up attending the event, and it was so much fun! I was absolutely blown away at how perfect their English is (I even got corrected once!) We did a variety of workshops, mostly on culture as well as idioms and slang. We played games - Scattergories was a huge hit, had baking workshops, scavenger hunts, and watched a movie. I think the biggest hit was doing a wiener roast over a campfire. No one had ever done anything like that before. Of course we followed it up with s'mores, which was an even bigger hit! Speaking of food, seeing that Karl and I both love cooking, and food is such a huge part of culture, we went all out with North American-style food. We did tacos with spanish rice and refried beans, pancakes, ham and scrambled eggs, and BBQ chicken (with homemade BBQ sauce), cornbread, pasta salad, and coleslaw. Brownies, cookies and tres-leites cake were our deserts. We also introduced them to strawberry lemonade, home brewed iced tea and iced caramel macchiatoes. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but the food was AMAZING! I was so excited to eat so many of my comfort foods, especially after months of living simply, eating mostly beans and rice. One of the teachers actually put on their comment card that we had too much good food. That's a critique I like to hear!
In the end, I think we had just as much fun as the group did! We are really hoping to continue formalizing relationships with this school. They were such a pleasure to work with, plus, like I said they have over 7000 students and I have no idea how many teachers. We also hope that other schools will follow their lead and give us a try.
We also had our first facility rental over New Year's. It was a group of about 18 people. We were a little nervous, partly because it was our first, well, anything, here. Partly because we weren't really what to expect in terms of partying, their expectations of us.... But it went SO well. They were a great group, and we suspect they might be passing through our doors again.
So to sum things up, this year has started off really well for us. With all the challenges 2012 brought us, and all the unforeseen bumps along the way, we have been so encouraged by the last few weeks. Don't get me wrong - there is still a ton of work to do. But it's so much easier to envision a successful business when the phone is ringing, bookings are being made and events are being pulled off with success.
