Vienna

On Monday, I met up with two friends from church (Amanda and Alli) and DeAnn at the train station. They all teach together at the International Christian School of Budapest. The train left at 7:24 am and were in Vienna at ten. 

We did some walking around and saw:

St. Stephen's Church

Opera House

and many stores along the way.

We stopped for lunch for some traditional Austrian food. 

Vienna Sausages with sauerkraut and fried potatoes  

Salad with sauerkraut, potatoes and dressing on the bottom.

I have never been a fan of sauerkraut but it was quite tasty at this restaurant. (We ate it today at RH and I wasn't a huge fan.)

We went into Julius Meinal, a gocery store with items from all over. There was Campbell's Soup, every kind of cheese, chocolates from Africa to Switzerland and much much more. 

Amanda, Alli and DeAnn as we rode in the elevator

Walked around some more and saw the Schönbrunn Palace

Then we went to the summer house. You could literally spend three full days here. There's a zoo, museums, a labyrinth, gardens...

Map of it all

DeAnn has some friends through her mission agency that we met up with for dinner. On our way to dinner we saw the Austrian clock, 

Holocust memorial for the Austrians that died

It is a symbolizing a gas chamber with books turned outwardly as untold stories of the people who died. There are no door knobs or handles suggesting the possibility of coming and going but, they obviously don't open. 

Here is the place we ate and a picture of all of us. 

They served homemade pretzels

I told my waiter gluten free and he went to tell the cook and here came my delicious dinner 

Then it was time to catch the train back home. 

The day was absolutely wonderful and the company was even better. Hard to believe that I am capable of going to another country just for the day. 

Other events of my long weekend: 

Saturday

A walk through the park with Amanda. I can't remember the name of it but, I will be going back!! The views were beautiful that overlooked the city, there were many trails and cross country skiing in the winter. 

Suzcrazda- A coffee and sweets shop. Amanda ordered a cherry pie and I ordered a honey coffee. Mmm! We enjoyed it outside with blankets.

Sunday

Church at Danube International, lunch with friends by St. Stephen's Basilica and then off to the zoo! I wish I had my camera with me but I sadly didn't. 

Tuesday

Hungarian National Holiday = Free Museum Day! 

Visited the Art Gallery and Hungarian National History Museum. 

Stopped by my neighbors, the Gibsons, to help Debbie with a visual for her presentation. She left for a mission trip to India on Wednesday. 

Prayer

Before breakfast, lunch and snack we always say this prayer:

Lord, 

We thank you for the food before us, 

the friends beside us, 

the love between us and 

your presence among us. 

Amen. 

Their sweet voices are so precious when they say it with their little accents. 

We made Snickerdoodle cookies with the kids on Thursday and they really enjoyed being apart of the process. This was a new recipe to the Hungarians and they wanted to recipe. They thought the name of the cookie was quite funny. 

Things I have learned:

Crepes are called pancakes.

Children love to pick the flowers (from the ground) and bring them to their teachers. They are not allowed to pick from the trees or bushes. 

There is a Rosehip tree/bush in the garden. Rosehips is used for making jelly or used to be put in tea.

I thought this whole time one of the girl’s name in a different house was Bonny. Yesterday I learned it was Panni. 

Coming up....

Tuesday is a Hungarian holiday so we have Monday and Tuesday off! Most Hungarians have to work on Saturday but not us. Wahoo! Some friends I have made through church (they teach at the International Christian School of Budapest, ICSB) are going to Vienna on Monday. 

On Friday we are taking a Field Trip to ride horses and pet some animals. 

Then we have the entire week off for Fall Break. November 1st is All Saint’s Day, a Hungarian national holiday. 

Arts and Crafts

Every week we do two arts and crafts projects with the kids. The kids love anything to do with painting - finger painting, hand prints, water color... Here are a few projects we have done lately. 

"Things God Made" The kids went in the garden to find flower petals, leaves, etc and on the other pages they drew what He has made.

The firefighter handprint was a little more complicated and I did it with each child one-on-one. The other children worked on a self portrait as Agi wrote down what they wanted to be when they grow up. Our theme for the week was "Community Helpers"

One of the parents brought in some new fish!! We had a measly two fish and now we have fifteen. Each of the kids picked one fish out and named it. They were quite creative, ha! Two of the kids named them after their own name and the twins named their fishes, Crying and Don’t Cry. Other names include Heart and Rainbow. Agi and I named our fish, Nemo and Pumpkin. Here are their colorings of their fish hanging from the lights:

Side story:

We had PTA this week where the parents come in and are able to ask questions from 1600-1700. The small house and middle house parents were together for the same meeting on Tuesday and the big house meeting was on Thursday. Elindi and Fruzsi watched our kids while we sat in on our meeting and we watched their kids during ours. Many of the parents know a little bit of English so I am able to communicate with them at the end of the day but the meeting was in all Hungarian. I was kinda surprised at how much I was able to pick up on during the meeting. I picked up on hand gestures, names and a maybe 3 or 4 words, ha!

Prayer Gathering

This past Wednesday, I went to the Gibson's home for prayer with Danube International Church. It was a sweet time of Bible Study devotion. praise and prayer for each other and those around the world. The pastor, two of my Bible Study leaders from Tuesday night, the junior high intern, Gibson's, an elderly missionary couple from Scotland and a missionary couple from Kahazakstan all gathered together in one room.
This video was shared and I wanted to pass it along.

Celebrations

Here are a few pictures of happenings at Rainbow Hills...

B's Birthday Cake

 Birthday sign we hang up for each child when it is their birthday.

Z's birthday cake. They also brought treats for breakfast, afternoon snack and marzipan (almond) candies to go with the cake.

 The kids decorating a sign for Grandparent's Day.

The kids performed the "National Grandparents Day Song" (thanks to google and youtube), " I love you, You love me" and "You are My Sunshine" for their Grandparents. Each child gave their grandparent a poem with their handprint on it. Afterwards, we split into two groups for potato stamping and making chocolate covered pretzels with ground walnut. Then it was time to go in the garden for outside play time. 

After cutting the potatoes in half,
 we used cookie cutters to make shapes. 

Special Moment

This past Friday, L, came up to me as I had repeatedly been calling on the twins to come join our circle for circle time. Circle time is our instructional time in all english where we teach the alphabet, numbers, poems, songs and a topic depending on our theme for the week. L said in her sweet accent, "Natalie, I love you." In a moment of slight frustration, how she warmed my heart. She can tell when I am tired of repeating myself with some children and she will gently come give me a hug and then go right back to her seat.

Sometimes I feel like they have no idea if they understand what I am saying and tend to stare at me blankly when I speak. Oh how their smiles can make my day.

I love to delight in the simple things here are just a few that have made my day...
Gluten Free treats from my boss, a new friend from Bible Study, and at Bible Study every week.
Hungarian necklace and book cover from Agi.
Receiving a flower at a Greek restaurant on the river before leaving.
A run turning into a walk because I want to pick up all the walnuts.
Having a bag full of cracked walnuts in the pantry. (Cracking walnuts is a new hobby of mine)
Baking GF banana walnut muffins with my new friend Laura.
Vonage phone call with my Uncle Ralph
Going to Aldi. In general, I love going to the grocery store even if I don't need to get anything. I just love to look at everything.

What I am learning...
 Routine, consistent expectations, hand motions and praise are key to kids
that I have difficulty communicating with
Hungarian words. This language is difficult to say the least.
I really like the bus and tram because I can look out the window.
Free wifi at the Auchan mall and Maragret Island.

Just a few walnuts. Timea gave me the entire black bag of
nuts from her tree at home.  She is so thoughtful!

Flower from Greek Restaurant on the Danube

Aldi!