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