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.