Just life

It had been a little while since my last post and there are sadly no pictures but what is happening in my life, nothing too eventful...just life. 

This past weekend, I went to the Piac (Piatz), a flea market with the Gibsons, Amanda and her roommate. I found some rather odd things but I liked them. I bought an old iron with a wooden handle (one you put coal in it) it is very heavy but it was 1500 forint, about $7. I think it will be so fun to decorate with. They are roughly 3,000 forint but I bargained with the guy, hehe. I also bought a spritzer, what you make sparkling water with from Budapest in 1933 or 1938. I can't remember but it is printed on the bottle top. I got a handmade linen thing to put on the table. It is a long oval with lace. I don't know what I am going to do with it but I will surely decorate with it in some way. I decorate with things from home here and when I am there I will decorate with my travels. haha. 

That afternoon I went to help out with babysitting for a missionary family, the Bakers, in the city. They have educational meetings about Turner's Syndrome, a disorder that one of their daughter's has. They have people ride the train into the city from all different cities in Hungary, it is a really neat outreach. I bring my Mary Poppin's bag and play games, read books and hand out with kids. Sounds like a perfect afternoon to me. I am thankful to be apart of this and I have had the opportunity to provide childcare for these meetings before The Baker's took me to dinner and we got some ice cream too!

Fruzsi came to church with me on Sunday, I am so thankful for her! After church, the Border's invited us (Jana and I, Fruzsi had a dinner with her family so she wasn't able to join us) over for lunch, games and a movie! We ate a delicious lunch with baked chicken, boiled potatoes, squash with onions and for dessert some fruit smoothies! We all played Sequence together and snacked on a few M&M's. Then, Glenn popped us some of his famous on-the-stove popcorn to go with our movie, Alex and Emma.

Today was a normal day. I am a little on the sick side. I had a sore throat on Tuesday and on Wednesday came the stuffy nose and congestion. I told Timea on Tuesday that my throat was sore and she told me to eat two cloves of garlic with honey and IT WORKED! Apparently, it is a common remedy for sore throats. I mentioned it at Bible Study and S from Finland says she eats garlic with chocolate and G from Ethiopia eats it with hot milk. Who knew?! I had a headache so it made me a little more impatient with the precious kiddos during the day. Its funny how they all want you at the same time and then at another minute they want to do everything all by themselves. haha. I am sure that I will be 100% in no time. 

The kids are very very smart. Agi really enjoys teaching them too. They listen to her much better than me because they have known her so much longer and she occasionally speaks in Hungarian. Speaking in Hungarian is like magic. They listen so well. Ha! 

The kids are starting to add and subtract with the answer being 10 or under. They are counting over 60 and they know their odd and even numbers. They know all their letters and are matching capital and lower case letters. They use the Peter and Jane series and are gaining new words weekly. They know all their days of the week, months and seasons (in order). 

One of our little girls, R, might not be coming back because it is expensive to attend the school. P, a little girl from the little house moved up to our house yesterday. I think she had a good day, she was sad to leave when her father came to pick her up. D and Z wanted to stay too. I had to pick up Z and take her to her father and D marched to his mom with a pouty face when she arrived. They are funny. 

The sun was shining and I was one happy camper. I went on a little walk before tutoring and an old lady walking looked at me like I was a loony. I was on cloud nine, I was so happy for the sun to be shining so brightly at 4:00pm. 

Tomorrow is Friday, the end of our Dinosaur week and we will watch Magic School Busasauras. It is quite funny to hear them try and pronounce the names of the dinos during circle time and when we are singing songs. 

Around Town

 My first Saturday back I went with the Gibsons to a couple flea markets in the city.

A little treasure I found to use as a flower vase.

Sadly no pictures of these fun things:
With the Kara family we had a fooseball competition, played card games and a had a movie night watching Bourne Legacy.
With the Stanteen Family we went ice skating near Hero Square, it was SO much fun! After church we went sledding in the backyard.
Helping cook with the Debbie for the friends they are hosting.
Friday night sleepover with Megan exchanging stories of her trip to Scotland and London and mine back to America.
Bible Study on Mark started yesterday and met a new friend that just moved to BP for a job with a human resource company.

Winter Wonderland

Snow, snow, snow and more expected to come this week. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful snow in my neighborhood.

View from the front door

Our art projects at school to represent the outdoors.
Project one: Tape and Watercolor. We also did crayon resist where I colored with white crayon on white paper and they painted water color to see the picture. 

Project two: Painting Snowmen

Yesterday we had a lot of snow and there were only three children than came instead of our usual nine. Needless to say it was a little more quiet and we spent a little more time outside running, making snow angels, snowballs and a mountain.

I might not like the cold weather but I LOVE the snow. It is so beautiful to look at, take pictures of, and play in (especially with kids).

Culture is a little different...
While we were playing outside one child had to sit out because he was not listening to the teacher. He decided to start eating the snow and Agi (pretended) to call the doctor. He stood up and started wailing like there was no tomorrow.
1. To me, eating snow is no big deal and I don't find it necessary to call the doctor but here it is very unhealthy because it is so dirty with all the pollution.
2. Going to the doctor is a different experience for people here, it is free (payment is included in your taxes) but in order to get good service, you need to pay extra. Apparently, the doctor does not bring good memories for this child.

Christmas Recap...

From runny noses to family car trips, Mexican food to peanut butter and MUCH more in between my Christmas break couldn't have been more complete. 

My flight home started off with my first flight delayed which meant every flight after that was delayed too. Thankfully I had time in my layovers to run (literally) to catch the next flight. My stops included Frankfurt and Philadelphia. Small world: while I was waiting at the gate in Philadelphia, I heard my name being called. turns out it was an old friend from church and we were in the same family group for mission trip (to Europe ironically). Our parents are in the same Sunday School class at church. 

The first few days at home gave me time to catch from jet lag, slowly recover from a cold and run a few errands. Thank you to the genius bar at the apple store for retrieving all my files and pictures because my hard drive crashed mid December. Mom and I went to Costco and I was caught off guard by how they took everything out of the cart before the item is scanned and put it back in your buggy. (One time I just put my basket on the belt at the grocery store in BP and the lady just stared at me. She would not begin scanning the items until I took everything out of the basket.) When I was at Walmart, I was had forgotten about the varieties of one product. Example, I wanted to buy Goldfish for the kids to bring back and there were at least seven different kinds, I went with the original, ha. 

On Christmas Eve, Mom, Dad, Sarah and I spent the evening together and opened presents. they finally got to open their gifts I brought them back. 

Mom's handmade nativity scene from the Budapest Christmas market

GF flavored oatmeal and my favorite cereal :) 

Christmas Day we drove to Shreveport, Louisiana to my Uncle Ralph and Aunt LaVeta's home for delicious Christmas lunch and opening presents. We spent the night my wonderful Aunt Melba in Alexandria and then headed to Lake Charles and DeRidder, Louisiana to spend the day with more family. 

We drove back to Texas on Thursday and Sarah had a minor surgery on Friday. Her wound had not been healing correctly from appendix surgery in August. She is one tough cookie! 

Saturday included lunch with Jenn, Katie and Sarah. We have all been friends since Jenn and I were in the fourth grade and Sarah and Katie in the sixth grade. Our friendship means so much to me and it was such blessing to all be together for a sisters lunch. 

Dad and I drove to Arkadelphia Saturday night and had the pleasure of staying with the Teeds. Liz came over and we all got to catch up around the fire. We went to Fellowship Church and the Teed's hosted us and the Quick's for lunch. I am so blessed by their friendship and thankful ate lunch together with the Quick's. Sadly I didn't take any pictures. 

On my way back home passing through Texarkana, my dear friend Nikki and I caught up at Starbucks. She has a beautiful heart for teaching and will be getting married very soon! 

Monday was a day for packing and an open house. We had many wonderful neighbors and friends come by to visit and see me. I got to share a few pictures and share about some neat experiences. 

Tuesday I departed the great state of Texas and had the same route that I flew over on and arrived on the second. None of my flights were delayed and was stopped for them to check electronics in security and got a new stamp in my passport. The man checking my passport was very friendly (especially for being around 6 am) and wished me a Happy New Year.

Questions II

Weather

It is cold. I love the snow but not the wind. This week is a high of 30 and a low of 19. The wind makes it feel like it is around 15 degrees farenheit. I have yet to meet a Hungarian that enjoys the cold. It will only get colder and this little Texan has been drinking lots of warm drinks.

Culture Shock

I thought culture shock would come to me in a wave of tears and second guessing myself of why I am here. Instead, I had more feelings of helplessness and feelings of being inadequate. The language is the main reason for these feelings. When something needs to be communicated quickly or there is a change of plans at school, Hungarian is used. I have been learning more about watching people and using gestures. Many of the kids have made wonderful progress and speak more English (knowing the personalities of each of the kids helps A LOT).  English is very common and I have never been anywhere that I was unable to communicate with other people.

Difficulties

Running errands is very time consuming (partly due to public transportation).

Larger superstores like Tesco, Auchan and Spar have most items but don’t always have everything on your list. Example, you see celery in the produce section for three weeks then when you need to buy it won’t be there. 

oh and the language 

Evenings during the week

By 4:30 this afternoon, it was dark, dark, dark. The sun starts to sets around 3:30 as we are waking the kids up from nap. In the evenings, I often loose track of time very quickly.  I am continuing to tutor on Tuesday and Thursday after work and I have been going to Bible Study with Danube on Tuesday evenings as well. The past couple of Mondays, my GF neighbor has hosted me for dinner in her home. After my kick of cracking walnuts, I have started to doing some arts and crafts inspired by Pinterest.

Small World

My friend Laura, invited me to the Winget's house for chili and Christmas decorating on a Friday evening. Cheryl Winget is the piano player at my church but I had not had the opportunity to meet her or her husband yet. As we were eating our chili, they mentioned that they were from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I mentioned that I have family from Chattanooga, my Aunt Madelyn and Uncle Carl. Little did I know that they knew each other and my Uncle Mike and Aunt Jeanine! Cheryl and Aunt Jeanine were in the same fifth grade class and Steve Winget was my Uncle Mike' soccer coach at Temple in college. 

Next Semester

I will be returning to Hungary on January second and continue working here at Rainbow Hills on the third. I am thoroughly enjoying this entire experience and what the Lord has been teaching me living cross culturally.

Favorite Things

People and friendships

All the new things to see and do

Learning more about myself

Time to be still – Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

We have our Christmas Show tomorrow at the Town Hall and Thursday morning is my flight home! Woo Hoo!
 

Christmas Time

St. Mickulas

On December 6, we had a special visitor at Rainbow Hills, St. Mikulas! St. Mikulas is more commonly known as Saint Nicholas or Santa Clause. Everyone's name is somewhere on the yearly calendar to celebrate as a "name day."  Nicholas' name is on December 6, therefore he is celebrated and remembered on this day. (Natalia was celebrated on Sunday) Santa Clause came to each house of children and talked to each child about how they were nice or naughty. He gave them each a treat bag filled with chocolate, peanuts, an orange and more chocolate.  

The tradition is for the children to put their boots on the window sill the night before and hope that they will receive chocolate from Santa in their boots, if they have been naughty they will receive coal, a wooden spoon or a willow switch (virgács). Apparently, Santa thought I have been very good because I found a chocolate snowman in my boots before we went outside to play in the garden. 

Market

Another tradition is to visit the Christmas market. It is held at Vorosmarty Square and in front of the Basilica. It is a series of outdoor booths with many handcrafted items, ornaments, toys, baskets, sweets and interesting foods (sausages, langos, rooster testicle stew, hot ginger, hot tea, and mulled wine). 

THANKSGIVING

Celebrating Thanksgiving at Rainbow Hills was more about teaching the kids about the holiday and being thankful. We made some turkeys out of lunch sacks and made pumpkin muffins together during the week. 

The Gibson’s hosted Thanksgiving in their home with friends from Danube International and the International Christian School. There were over 43 people that came to celebrate. The gathering started at 3 but I had to work and tutor so I arrived a bit late.  

Nancy and I, she is a leader of Bible study on Tuesday night.
Thankful for her GF cooking for me every week!

Thankful for the Karas family!

On Saturday morning, I went to the Ferencz home to start cooking for Thanksgiving lunch. I am tutoring their son twice weekly after work and they celebrated Thanksgiving when they were living in the UK a few years ago. I brought the recipes and stuffing (thank you Aunt Melba and Christa!!) and she had the ingredients for the green bean bundles, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pie and the lovely turkey. 

Saturday evening I went to the Stanteen’s for kid patrol at their Thanksgiving with most of his coworkers that are expats with Exxon.  ...Time for more turkey and sweet potatoes at the kids table! 

Chelsea and I had a sleepover on Saturday night together, she is my absolute favorite little first grader in Budapest! We love all the same things: word searches, reading, coloring, experiments, painting and Jesus - I think we can be buds for life. 

Sunday morning I went to International Baptist Church Budapest, that is in walking distance from their home. After church, I got to take part in helping decorate for Christmas! Which included some hot chocolate, Christmas music, a little dancing and maybe a science experiment too. I am so thankful for each of the Stanteen's, they are a sweet blessing to me. (Thank you to the wonderful Michelle Lanza for getting us connected.)

Needless to say, I am so thankful for my community and families that have adopted me as their own.