The Home Stretch...

The final week in Hungary was a whirlwind! 

On the weekend of the 23rd we returned to Budapest for the 20th anniversary of Shaun and Söndi's church, and also to do some shopping for the community advent wreath event we would hold the following Friday. It was mostly a shop-til-you-drop weekend. The malls in Budapest are impressive and very big. We also visited the covered market. Söndi had hoped we could find some Christmas stuff there, but it was mostly souvenirs. Unfortunately I missed the Budapest Christmas market by one week.

Tuesday I geared myself up to say goodbye to my teen students, but alas, for the first time I didn't even have one student.  I think I was slightly relieved. Maybe saying formal goodbyes would have been too hard at the time. I think most of them skipped club because there were music recitals at the music school. So after club I headed down to the music school with Söndi to watch David and a couple of my students perform their violin pieces.

Wednesday we were invited by Magdolna to come to a Tea at her school (same school as Peter) to share a bit about Canada and Ireland, and play some games. It was a good turnout. Probably more than 25 students and teachers came. We watched slideshows from Canada and Ireland, then had a bit of an open Q&A about our countries. Afterwards I played and sang a song with the guitar, followed by some refreshments and English games.

Shaun asked me to share my story Thursday evening after classes, so I shared about how I came to know The Lord and how He had made a difference in my life. I didn't think I was too nervous...until Matt and Paul pointed out how crumpled my notes were afterwards from me hanging onto them so tightly :)

Fortunately I didn't have to say formal goodbyes to everybody at club just yet, since I knew I would see people the following day at the advent wreath program. 

The first half of Friday was a little overwhelming, knowing it was my last day in Hungary but I had to snap out of it, because we had a lot of work to do. There were muffins to be baked, songs to be practiced, crafts to be set up etc. etc. 
What a great way to end my time though! The community advent wreath event was a fantastic turnout. I never got the final count, but there must have been well over a hundred people in that little Hegyesd hall. We started out the evening with a cello duet from Söndi and Simon (a boy from camp), and Söndi and I sang a Christmas song as well. Then Janos (from Budapest) shared a short message. After that - the craft explosion began. Wreaths of all colours and styles began to take form. I sat at the back of the stage with a good view of the chaos, while Annette and I helped some of the kids cover styrofoam cones with glue and glitter and gems and pipe cleaner tinsel to look like Christmas trees. It mostly just involved getting very sparkly hands. The table and floor began to look like a glittering sandbox by the end of it. 

Even though it wasn't technically a going away party, it felt a little like it, as I chatted and said goodbyes with friends (was showered with gifts), and also met some people I wish I could have become friends with. This, I'm afraid, is the downside of travel: the discovery that there are wonderful people you care about thousands of miles away from where you are. In the past, this has been one of the reasons I didn't want to travel, because I hate saying goodbye (to the people I leave at home and then to the people I leave when I come home). But it is a small price to pay compared to the things you learn and gain from meeting people from other places, cultures and walks of life. You can often see your own life and culture so much clearer when you step outside of it. And, thanks to modern communication technology, even great distances aren't so great anymore. 

Matt and I flew home Saturday afternoon. It was dark for the entire flight, and we had a stunning view of the Northern Lights over Greenland, right out the window! 

I thought that being in Hungary for 2 1/2 months might get it out of my system for a bit. On the contrary, I still wasn't quite ready to leave. But it is very nice to be back home with family and friends. Returning to life in Canada will be an adjustment and I appreciate your continued prayers. I also want to say once again thank you so much to those who supported me financially on this trip and made it much easier for me to actually go. I am very blessed by your gifts and I pray that God will bless you back ten times more then you have blessed me.

Thanks for keeping up with my blog. Until next time,

Sziasztok barátaim! (goodbye my friends)

(PS - stay tuned for more pictures. I have yet to receive some from other people)

The covered market from the outside

...and on the inside

Advent Wreath Event

I cannot believe that in only two weeks from today I will be sitting on a plane on my way back to Canada.  As you can imagine, this reality has caused some mixed emotions, especially knowing how fast the weeks go by around here. But I am also clinging to the fact that I still do have two weeks left to enjoy. And, there are many things I am looking forward to when I get home, especially seeing friends and family again.

The weather has been dreary this week, which really seems to affect all of us, plus we get a bit of cabin fever. I've tried to get out more and so I spent a few days at Shaun and Sondi's this week. Of course, I am not complaining about the weather, considering we had some of the best weather we could have asked for in October and early November.

I discovered recently that our friend Szilvi is a very talented artist, and I mentioned that I would love to learn from her. So she invited me over to teach me some painting techniques with oil painting. I was very happy about this because I have tried acrylic and watercolor, but had not yet tried oil paint. Of course I enjoyed painting (very relaxing), but the big deal for me was the sheer joy of being in the presence of an expert artist at work. I'm hoping to at least have one more chance to do that again before I leave. I am so excited about the opportunities I've had to learn a few new things of interest to me while I'm here, such as painting and violin.

Tonight we had a real treat. Miklos and Szilvi took us to Sumeg, a town about 1/2 hour from us, and we went to a medieval horse show and dinner in a cellar.  So incredibly fun. The horses were all Andalusian (for you horse people) and some of the show reminded me a little of the Lipizzaner show. But everyone was in medieval costume, and the show included jousting, archery, knife throwing, fencing, etc. 
And then dinner - wow. Dinner was held in a hall and the atmosphere was like a medieval banquet. We had roast goose leg,  baked potato, corn bread, and a sort of pickled cabbage salad. We even had to eat our main course without any cutlery, so, with our hands only. For those of you who know me well, etiquette isn't really my forte anyways...so this was perfect. I could eat in a barbaric fashion and still be considered socially acceptable. Maybe it's good I can't attend these events too often. Who knows what I might become :)
There was a live violin concert in the hall as well. We were originally supposed to hear the most famous violinist in all of Hungary, but he called in sick. So there was a replacement trio, which I still enjoyed very much. I can appreciate it even more now that I am trying to learn violin.

After dinner we walked up a hill to the Sumeg castle. It was so foggy you could see the mist almost right in front of you, and the castle looked really cool all lit up in the fog in the dark. 

And the other day I ate brains on pizza, just so you know. Originally I just wanted to try it so I could say that I did, and then ended up eating three pieces. In case your wondering, the taste was pretty good. The texture was a little too soft for my preference.

So that's about it for out of the ordinary this week. I wanted to write more, but I'm going to have to save some of the deeper stuff for later when It's not so late at night. It's a big day tomorrow as we will be having a church service at my flat, and then we will be going out to a family's house for dinner.

A portion of the crowd at adult English club

Feeding the multitude, as I like to call it.

We teach an English song after classes, and Shaun shares a short message

The Medieval horse show (I got better videos than pictures)

Dinner with Miklos and Szilvi in the cellar (Matt is there but he's taking the picture)

 A platter of goose legs, potatoes and cornbread.
Might look simple, but was oh so delicious!

Sumeg Castle in the fog. That illuminated figure on top of the castle in the middle
was one of two German Shepherds who apparently think  they own this castle at night. 

Random brain pizza. Food for thought...or maybe thought for food...I dunno.

It's been a relaxing and quiet week. It seems like there has been more quality time with people this week, which I'm thankful for, considering my time here is so quickly drawing to a close.

Around November third, the weather took a turn for the worst, and the rain began. I was thankful it had held off for so long, but was very sad to say goodbye to the beautiful sunshine and outdoor activities. Plus I wasn't sure how I felt about riding the bike to the grocery store in the cold rain. And yet, just as I was accepting that it was over, the sun returned yesterday, and I could once again walk downtown in a t-shirt! I can't believe it's November and still so warm.

Again this week I had only one student for teen club...probably due to the rainy weather. Most of the teens walk, and so I imagine they just wanted to go home. But my numbers for teen club tend to be a little inconsistent regardless. So if one student shows up, I usually just bring out an English game that suits their level. This week it was Apples to Apples, which is actually a great game for English students who are at a low-advanced level. I've been using the Junior version because it's a little clearer for English students, and actually still just as fun.

I've really been enjoying adult English club. I feel like I am just really starting to figure out how to teach these classes, and now I sadly only have about three left. My greatest challenge has been that my students are intermediate and have a lot of vocabulary, so they are more interested in the rules of grammar, which is not really my strong point. I know how it should be said, but I don't always know why it should be said that way. There have been some questions that have stumped me entirely, and at times it ends up that my own students teach me the rules instead of me teaching them. Their biggest interest is in the English verb tenses. There are only three tenses in Hungarian, but there are twelve in English. So my last class ended up being more of a Q&A on English grammar, which was actually really good. The students seemed very eager, and it helped me understand what they want to know, and what areas they are finding difficult. I've also begun to find my own knowledge of the Hungarian language useful in teaching every once in awhile. But if I have learned anything it's that English is so confusing!! 

Today was our day off, and Szilvi and Miklos invited us to go to the hot springs lake in Heviz. It is the biggest hot springs lake in Europe, and a popular tourist location. The water was not too hot to swim, but more like the temperature of a heated indoor pool. There are pink and purple lily pad gardens everywhere. At first it kinda grossed me out because, as much as I like plants, I don't like swimming with them :) but I got over it. It was very refreshing. It felt a bit like we were going to the beach in November. 

After the lake, we walked a little bit around Heviz (it was dark) and had ice cream cones (the Gelato ice cream here is very delicious). Then we went back to Szilvi and Miklos's for dinner. 

Heviz Lake (I didn't take these pictures)

                                

                          

With six weeks in Hungary now come and gone, there is less time in front of me than there is behind me...a very bittersweet thought.

The last two weeks or so have been beautiful and more reflective of a cooler summer than fall, averaging sunny with a high of twenty-five degrees and hovering around fifteen degrees in the evening. The locals say we have had exceptional weather here this year and I am loving it!

These past couple weeks I have been finding more balance in my schedule, and perhaps just getting more and more adjusted to the routine, and it has been so nice just to feel like there is a little extra time here and there. I have found grace to see my priorities a little better, and I'm seeing where I need to spend more time and where I need to spend less time. So I would say I have been much more relaxed as of late and I don't feel so crazy busy. We have used the nice weather to climb several of the mountains in the area. There is a lot of great hiking and breathtaking views!

There have various school holidays over the past weeks, so we didn't have any kids club last Wednesday, and no kids clubs this week. This has given us a bit more time to visit with some of the Hungarians we know at their homes or farms.

The Carlaws and us visited Eva's farm last week (one of my adult students), and had a traditional Hungarian dish cooked in a cauldron over a fire outdoors. This is one of my very favorite Hungarian dishes. I don't know how to spell it, but it is sort of  pronounced per-cooht, and it's like a meat stew over homemade dumplings (if any of you are familiar with a german noodle called "spaetzle", it's the same thing). We topped the day off with a hike to some basalt pillars on the mountain that make the mountain face look like a pipe organ.

We had a little Birthday party for Sondi on the 20th, and so I finally got to host a dinner party at my house which I was quite delighted about. Of course the one meal that counted would be the one meal that turned out to be a blunder...so disappointing...but I'm over it now and I hope it's made me a better cook for the future :)
We had the five Carlaws and four extra guests, so there were twelve of us in my little kitchen. But somehow we all fit!  The Carlaws and two of our friends, Szivlia and Miklos stayed and played some games. It turned out to be a very fun evening.

Last Saturday, a young adults group from Budapest came and hosted a youth weekend at the hall in Hegyesd where we have summer camp. Most of them spoke English quite well so we had a chance to visit and get to know them a bit. We played some games and then they performed a few skits which were followed by discussion groups. Then we ate a whole lot of gulyash and went for a hike to a castle, followed by a time of singing. My friend Roxy from Budapest also came down for this weekend and stayed at my place so it was nice to have some extra company.

This past Tuesday, because we had the day off, Paul, Matt, and myself went to Szilvia and Miklos's farm to help out a bit. It turns out that much of their hay was too wet when they baled it, so we were helping cut open the bales so the hay could dry. After, they took us horseback riding for a bit in the riding arena. I ride occasionally at home, but these horses were trained differently, and they don't usually use bits, so you have to depend almost entirely on your muscles to direct the horses. I wasn't having much success, and I couldn't tell if it was the horse testing me or if it was my riding. I find it takes a lot more fast thinking and coordination to ride horses this way. But, all the same it was very nice to ride again, and I think Szilvia plans to train me a little more the next couple weeks. I was pretty sore for a few days :)

Last night we had a team from Chicago join us for adult English club. It was really great to have some new people in the mix. It added some variety to the classes, and the student really liked it.

I am finding I am starting to pick up on some Hungarian. I've been taking an audio course, which helps a lot. But for the most part the extent of my use of the language is telling people that I don't speak the language. Shaun said tonight that Hungarian is rated one of the most difficult languages to learn, and I was like...oh shoot...what have I gotten myself into?

This is a shot of the main street that my house is on.
I still love walking down the street even if it's just for grocery shopping.

On sunny days I like to sit in this spot in the park for some peace and quiet.

Riding with Szilvi

Lunch with Szilvi and Miklos (that's Miklos on the left) 

Paul and I posing for the cover shot of the next issue of Farm and Ranch :)

Cooking over the fire at Eva's farm

On many of our hikes we stop occasionally to play in the leaves.

                          

Haven't taken a picture yet that does justice to the beautiful scenery.

One month today!

Today marks one month since I landed in Hungary! So much has happened in the last 10 day's since my last blog, I don't even know where to start or how I can keep it short :) 

David's birthday was great fun. I love being at the Carlaws because we often end up coming up with random ways to entertain ourselves when there is spare time.  The evening somehow ended with an experiment which involved putting children on top a bed of balloons and trying not to pop them (the balloons, not the children). I'm pretty sure I recall this was Sondi's idea. And of course, it also ended up that we team members also ended up on top of the balloons. 

Camp reunion last Saturday was a wonderful success! This was by God's grace because it didn't really feel like we got to prepare much in the end. We had to wing it a little and were a little concerned about how the day would go, and yet it was a fantastic day. We prayed for sunshine because it had been very dreary all week. I faithlessly wore jeans and a sweater anyway, and ended up being roasting hot all day because the weather was gorgeous! Hot and sunny. We had 34 kids show up. It felt a little weird to be back at camp again. It was like we never left! It was so fun to re-live the good times we had this summer. The kids were asking when the next camp reunion was, and if we could have one before we leave the country. Haha, I guess we'll have to see...

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Monday night. Two women who attend our weekly English Bible study joined us, and one other woman from another village who is a friend of Shaun and Sondi's. We had a very nice evening and got an opportunity to Skype our friends David and Virginia Fairbrother who served here last January. They are the ones who really encouraged me to come to Hungary in the first place, and I'm so glad they did!

This last week was packed. Wednesday we were invited to another school to teach an English lesson. This was the first English lesson I have taught in a school. We had a lot of fun with it. Our topic was words of direction or placement, so I had students come up to the board and draw a picture, following my directions, for example "draw a bear on the right side of the tree". The picture I had them draw was an illustration of the scout song "A Bear in Tennis Shoes". Then the three of us sang the song with them on the guitar. 
In the second half of the lesson, we played a game which involved Paul and I being blindfolded. Then Matt placed two cups at different locations in the room. The students had to race to direct Paul and I to their team's cup using English words of direction. The three of us all took turns being blindfolded. Paul usually won. The kids seemed to really enjoy this...and it got pretty loud!
We taught this class twice. The first class was in grade six and the second was in grade eight. The sixth graders still knew how to have fun...but it took a little bit to get the eighth graders to lighten up. They are getting to be too cool by that age. But I think they still enjoyed it.

Yesterday we returned to Peter's school and I had prepared a little science talk. But I kept running out of time because it's hard to factor in the translation when preparing, and 15 minutes quickly becomes only 7 1/2 minutes. It was a bit of a crazy day. The classes were very rowdy, (though they listened ok to me) but I can tell that Peter has his work cut out for him, that's all I can say. We did get a chance to chat with some of Magdolna's English classes so they could practice English, and that was fun. But overall I came home a little disheartened and much behind schedule in preparing for the evening's adult English club. However, all things considered, last night's lesson went very well and so the day ended on a good note. 

So that catches us up to today!

I remain content very happy to be here. We have a great team and we work well together. There is even joy to found in the smaller blessings of life, like the fact that our washing machine is working fabulously now that we know how to use it. No more hand washing! Another blessing is that I found out I can have unlimited calling to Canadian phones for very cheap through Skype and so I am able to keep in touch with family and friends back home. So there's my little ad for Skype. I should get free calls for advertising for them :)

I'm learning a lot while I am here, not only about living life, but about myself, about relationships, and about God's faithfulness. I always find I have so much less to be worried about then I think I do. But everyday brings new challenges so I have to be continuously reminded!

Me, Paul and Matt on our hike on grape harvest day

David the birthday boy

David the timid experimentee

Camp reunion day. A great turnout!

Playing follow the leader

The team preforming the "Bean Soup" skit

Craft time! Glowing mobiles for the boys...

...and glowing fairy jars for the girls

Paul and I singing the Great Big Moose song.
How did it sound? Hmmm...why don't you ask Sondi over there.

Thanksgiving Dinner :)

I can't believe it is three weeks today that I arrived in Hungary. In some ways it feels like I have been here much longer, and in other ways, it feels like I am still just getting settled in. In fact, there are a few things I have only just done for the first time since I got here. This last Friday was the first day I rode the bus alone, and Monday was the first day I actually baked something in my own house! And then there are other things I thought I would be doing every week that I haven't even done yet, like having people over outside of club. 

Life continues to be busy! Most of the time it feels that I am usually only minutes ahead of my schedule, and often behind. I thought today I would give a rough sketch of what my set schedule is each week.

Monday:

• Violin Lessons
• Adult English Bible Study

Tuesday:

• Kids/teen club

Wednesday:

• Monostorapati kids club (I'm probably not going to be so involved with this one, and will be helping Sondi out or using the time for catch up)
• Team prayer meeting

Thursday:

• Adult English Club
• Probably will be teaching or sharing in high schools on Thursdays as well.

Friday: 

• Team prayer walk around town
• Generally a free day to plan and catch up...unless we travel

The between times in this schedule are usually spent baking, lesson planning, cooking meals for our little household, cleaning, occasionally babysitting the boys, (Shaun and Sondi's boys that is, not Matt and Paul, or "my boys" as they are often referred to, mostly by Sondi), and if there is time I practice violin and study Hungarian. 

For those of you who know me, I can tend to be a bit of an overachiever in some aspects and a bit of a perfectionist, and so I am still trying to figure out my priorities. I am beginning to realize that if I am not careful, I'm going to pour all my time and energy into things that don't matter, and miss the things that do matter while I'm here, like making time for people and the relationships I have here. 

And speaking of friends, all of us traveled two hours to Budapest this weekend and had the opportunity to see Roxi, Benji and Annette, three friends we met while at summer camp. Together we spent Saturday doing some sightseeing, and the rest of the weekend I was shopping with Sondi. Sunday we also visited Shaun and Sondi's church.

It was also during my time in Budapest that I became more aware of the state of the economy here in Hungary. Things seem quite expensive. Most things cost about the same as in Canada. Food, transit, and housing seem a little cheaper. Clothing is probably close to the same or more, and gas is more expensive at over $2 per litre. But the minimum wage here is only equivalent to $2 an hour, and Shaun and Sondi said that's what many people live off of. I have no idea how people do it, nor how businesses keep going. I guess there are perhaps enough people making exceptionally good money to support the businesses, and perhaps the tourism keeps things going as well. 

I also got a chance to sort of experience up close how many people live. While in Budapest, Shaun and Sondi's family and I stayed in a small vacant apartment owned by a friend. This apartment was one and a half rooms, and probably 400 sq feet, 500 at best.  I've stayed in camping trailers that were more roomy. Their friends had been living in there as a family of six. With me and the Carlaws, we were a family of six, so we often tried to imagine what it was like trying to do normal life in that tiny apartment. This is not an uncommon living situation in Hungary. When I got back, my suite felt like a mansion, and my little kitchen was just the perfect size.

Today we will celebrate David Carlaw's eighth birthday. Then, this upcoming weekend we are going to have a summer camp reunion where we will try to recreate one day of camp for any kids who would like to come reminisce about the fun we had this summer.  It'll be a lot of work to pull off, but I am really looking forward to it! Following that, we will have a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday or Monday.

Here are a few pictures from my weekend in Budapest.

Sondi and I waiting at the tram in Budapest

Matt, myself, Roxi and Benji standing on the Danube River.
Paul was taking the picture, and Annette was still up the hill.

A glimpse down the street of Budapest

Annette, Roxi, Benji and Matt at Hero Square,
(I am behind the camera) 

Hello friends and family!

Fall has arrived! It was chilly this morning!

Today was perhaps the most interesting day in Hungary so far. I have to start with a little background details first.

One of the public schools here is funded by a Baptist Church, so they allow a Bible class once a week. The teacher, Peter, a theology teacher from Veszprem, asked us if we could come share our faith stories (testimonies) with his Bible classes. I didn’t find the idea too intimidating. We've always had quite a warm welcome from people we meet in Tapolca, since foreigners are a bit of a novelty around here. He said we’d be speaking to kids in their mid-teens, so 15 year olds. That didn’t sound so bad.

Peter asked if we could bring something with us that we brought from Canada that is significant to us. A friend of mine sent her guitar with me to Hungary, so Shaun suggested I bring it and share a song. I thought “sure why not? It’s just a bunch of kids.”

We had four classes to speak to this morning. The first class was at 8:00 and there were probably 25-30 students. It went pretty well, but the students were still a bit groggy. I wasn’t nervous, but I was wondering what possessed me to not only speak, but also to agree to actually bring my guitar and sing a solo in a high school. I think part of it is that you can get away with more when you are a Canadian in a foreign country :)

Second class…hmm…let me set the scene. We are standing in the class as the students pour in and the first thing I notice is they are all guys. The second thing I realized is that 15 year olds aren't actually as young as I remember, so I it wasn't just a "bunch of kids" like I had imagined in my head. The third thing was that I could probably be grateful in this case that I don't understand Hungarian. 

I leaned over to Matt and Paul and commented that it feels like we are about to pour our hearts out to 20 guys in plumbing school.

They picked me to go first, and I could hardly hear myself talk because they were all talking to each other and not listening…which I pretty much expected.  I tried to “man up” my speech a little, including my tone. I think I sounded more like I was yelling at them. If my heartfelt speech wasn’t girly enough, I still had to play a solo on my guitar. Wow. On the outside I probably looked a little exasperated, but I can honestly say on the inside I was laughing pretty hard. I couldn’t imagine what these guys thought of all this. They ran out pretty quickly when it was all over, and, I confess, so did we.

After the class, I asked Peter which trade that class was taking.

“Plumbing” he replied.

*Grin*

The third class we spoke to was in the culinary arts. This was a much bigger class, maybe 30 – 35 students, and this time it was a mix of guys and girls again.

What a contrast! You could tell right away that the three of us felt much more comfortable in this crowd. They were very attentive, and the ones that weren't attentive kept getting shushed by one student who was apparently very serious about her classes.

They were the first class to actually ask me to hurry up and pull out my guitar when I was done my talk. And, after we were all done speaking, they begged Matt and Paul and I to sing another song together. The guys weren't into singing, so the students asked if I would just sing another one by myself, so I did. They actually all stayed even though class was supposed to be out. Some of them took videos too. They were so funny.

When that was all done, they all crowded around us and asked through a translator what we were doing in Tapolca. We told them about English clubs and some of them said they really wanted to come! We could tell they all wanted to talk to us…and this time I regretted that I couldn’t speak Hungarian.

Some of the students were playfully trying to block the door so we couldn’t leave.

The culinary arts students paved the way for our next class by telling the other students, and by the time we arrived in class the kids already knew everything about us. Some of the students from the previous class were trying to come in so they could sit through our class again. They kept leaning in the door and waving.

The fourth class was a little more serious, but definitely still attentive and welcoming. I don’t know what trade they were taking. This class also had a shusher who kept telling the others to be quiet, and one guy in the corner really got it when she saw he was wearing headphones.

Essentially in every class we got asked the same questions by the students. How old are you, are you single, and what words can you say in Hungarian?

Definitely one of the most entertaining days I've had in a long time!

One of the students from the first class showed up at adult English club tonight with his sister.

Tomorrow, I will be heading to Budapest with Shaun and Sondi, and Matt and Paul will also be coming by bus. We plan to visit some friends from summer camp, and also visit Shaun and Sondi's church.

I am really beginning to feel settled into my little suite and getting a handle on the weekly routine. I've posted a few pictures below of my place, just to give a bit of an idea of what it looks like.

Living Room

Bedroom

Bedroom Wardrobe

Kitchen

Dining room

View from my front gate

...and looking the other direction