all's quiet in the flat for about 4 more hours...

probably one of my favorite parts of living in Budapest as a volunteer is that everyone comes here at some point. I love hosting people. Kristy and Katie Bergman just left after being here for a night. This is their 'home base' as they began a very German European tour (Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich) for the next two weeks. From making the beds to slicing bread for their journey, I love being the person that can welcome people in. In about four hours, Isabel and Immi get here. Then Emilie comes tomorrow. Soon after, people will start to be arriving back and life will return to normal.

It's been a few days filled with walking sightseeing, which has been really nice. We found another Hummus Bar and the Kiskirálylány (little princess) statue, as well as some other photo worthy moments. The last two days have been near perfect weather, which has also been good.

From time to time, I ask y'all a question, hoping for input (remember the last one about the donkey?). Anyway, are there any things that you've heard about in Budapest that I haven't mentioned yet? I know people have heard things or seen pictures of things that I haven't even heard of, so let's have them. Or, if you don't know anything about Budapest, do a quick google search. or, maybe there's a particular theme you'd like to know more about... anyway, this makes me do my research and also allows you to maybe experience things that YOU want to experience... all through my camera screen and narration.

Anyway, I will leave you with a few VERY random pictures. Enjoy!

*~*~*

This is a plaque that is on the wall at St. Columba's Church. It pretty much speaks for itself. This building has such a history behind it. I have a book that I'm bringing home that details it in full and if this interests any of you, let me know and I'll let you borrow it. The fact that I am involved in the ministry happening in a place with so much history astounds me. It's a very weird thing, and it brings about so much humility.


the first snowfall in one of our courtyards... so pretty!


You might recognize this man, or maybe you've heard of him... His name is George Washington. I learned about him in school. Does that sound familiar? I'm not really sure what history he had with Hungary, but he has a statue in the city park! complete with one of those birds that often gets associated with our country: a bald eagle!


...

the next two pictures are taken from Vörösmarty day at the school. The kids are just hanging out, with a disco (dance) in the gym and this is in the bufé (cafeteria).

A day in my life...

Christmas day - 25 december 2009

My day, as always, starts with coffee - today is hazelnut thanks to Mrs. Lampen :)


then I prepared my 'cookies' for the Christmas potluck lunch


Simon was staying with me, but he had to leave at 4:30a on Christmas morning, so I wrote him a note... he wrote back (in Hungarian) "thank you! Bye!"


I take a look at my tree and pull out my Christmas stocking from Mrs. Lampen...


MERRY CHRISTMAS!


enjoying the Christmas day potluck at church...



Rita, one of my teens, playing some music for us after lunch :)


this is what Christmas day looked like in Budapest - rainy and you can still even see leaves on the ground. so different to what y'all had back home!


finally, this was the low point of my day: the internet went out for about an hour and a half - the fourth button says 'on line' and that's supposed to be lit up... notice that it's NOT. finally after an hour of pure frustration, I saw the light come on and the clouds part. Ahhh... then i got to call my family back since the internet went out mid-call, and finish making all the rest of the calls :)

Boldog karácsonyt! (Merry Christmas!)

I heard the bells on Christmas day!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's here! The day we've been hoping for with the Advent season and the celebration of the birth of our Savior. When I reflect on this time of waiting, I realize that instead of the normal stresses of the holiday season, it was different this year. Yes, there was still some gift buying, some baking, some frustrating family moments, some amazing celebrations... but there was something new. Something that I've taken for granted so many Christmas seasons before is celebrating with family. Not just my relatives and immediate family, but also my dear friends and my family at Home Acres. Throughout the last 24 days of Advent, not one day has gone by when I haven't wished I could be home to celebrate with y'all (especially Christmas shopping with my sister or Jodi). However, not a day has gone by when I haven't thanked God for all of the blessings I have in my life.

Joy to the WORLD, the LORD has come!

It was for the WORLD that Jesus came. Here I am, still on this beautiful earth, fulfilling a calling in my life and it's so important to remember that this morning. For the WORLD, Jesus came and for the WORLD, we've been sent as disciples to carry out His works and will. No matter where we are, we can rest assured that God is with us.

Silent night, Holy night...

All is calm here in Budapest. This morning I'm headed off to church with St. Columba's, where we will also have a potluck lunch. Following lunch, I will probably wander around the city, then rush home for a few phone calls home to my family, to my brother and sister-in-law and to a few friends. No, it's not going to be the same as if I were home, but I know that our great, ubiquitous God is here with me, while also being with the celebrations back home.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you find peace today as you celebrate, wherever God has taken you.

*~*~*

The kids at the tanoda are making Christmas cards!


Mikulás (St. Nicholas) Day! Mikulás came to visit the Ferencvárosi Tanoda!



and this is random, but some of you really didn't believe that this is lunch sometimes. Hungarian lunches usually begin with a soup, so that's the first course. Then this lunch was followed up with a main course of cake, covered in chocolate pudding sauce. This was served at SCHOOL! Imagine the uproar if this were the states - I'm picturing the PTA swarming the lunch room with tempers and picketing the school! That thought made me smile as I was eating this, wondering where my nutrition for the day would come from...

Middle of the night reflection...

This evening, I joined Jozsi, one of the ÖDÉ staff members at a pub for a beer for Christmas. Turns out we were both home alone tonight, so he decided we should be "alone together". It was a brilliant plan! After a fiasco of getting there finally ended in my safe arrival at the pub, we shared a couple beers and a lot of conversation. When I wandered out of there, not only did I leave knowing that I am, in fact, okay... but I also left knowing that our world is NOT okay, all while attempting to seem okay.
You see, i have three stories for you from the day.

Random story: I had an opportunity to meet a young Hungarian guy for some coffee. Not only did I meet someone who I actually LIKE that is about my age and speaks English and has nothing to do with my work here... I also met someone who complimented my Hungarian. I kid you not. He told me that I speak like a Hungarian and you can't tell that I'm not Hungarian. This is when I told him that I get a lot of practice ordering coffee, so hopefully i have that down :P But, it really made my day. Hopefully we hang out again soon, as I enjoyed our conversation today.

What's in a name? : Also, as I was leaving from meeting with Jozsi (keep in mind it's 1:30a), there were two guys outside and one was forming a beautiful snowball. I clutched my purse and prepared to be struck with it in just a few steps. Instead, he asked me something in Hungarian, to which I responded "Tessék?" which means (among MANY things) "come again?" and then he must have seen the confused look on my face and actually asked in English "do you want to join our snowball fight?" now, had it not been 1:30a, I probably would have - I've been itching for a good snowball fight. However, I must remind you that it's 1:30a and i NEED to get to the bus on time or I'll have to wait an hour... we begin a short conversation that involves them speaking in English and me answering in Hungarian (because I want to convey that I know SOMETHING), which results in another compliment of my Hungarian pronunciation (go me!). Then they ask what I'm doing here and I explain that I'm a volunteer with Roma Gadje Dialogue Through Service... Not Önkéntes Diakóniai Év, not the Reformed Church... RGDTS. more on that in a bit.

Can a shot forgive all wrong? : As I sat in the pub with Jozsi, it became clear that there was a man at the end of the bar that was going to cause trouble. When it finally commenced, there was some shouting and some hateful glares, all pointed toward Jozsi, who was obviously the only Roma in the establishment. Jozsi is well-known and loved in this pub, as it is near his flat, so he had everyone in the pub on his side, so no worries there and the man (having had a few too many) was quickly quieted by the bartender... then the man even bought Jozsi a shot, hoping that his outburst would be forgotten. Keep in mind that while my Hungarian pronunciation might be good, my understanding is not... when it was all explained to me, I realized: this is the first visible sign of discrimination/blame/hatred/prejudice that I'd seen again a Roma/Gypsy person. It was then that it struck my heart: this is real. It is happening. I see the effects of it everyday, but I don't actually see it happening. My heart broke all over again for the people here. I am supposed to be here.

So, why do I tell people I'm with Roma Gadje Dialogue Through Service? It's because I feel like that's who I work with most. It's not because I am ashamed to say that I'm with a Christian organization. It's not because I can pronounce it better than Önkéntes Diakóniai Év. It's because I want whomever is asking to know that there's a serious issue happening and that there's a reason I'm here and I'm determined to be a part of a solution. I want whomever is asking to think for a few minutes about what THEY're doing about the situation. I want whomever is asking to think about what they COULD do. ... And not because I have all the answers, because I haven't even seen the end of racism in the states, but I want to be someone who stands for equality, that envisions a world working together despite our differences, and who works in order to reach the solution - the end.



*~*~*

Christmas lights around the city:
Castle District


Andrássy Ut


Parliament


Happy Hanukkah!

Trazy is álmodtam hazamegy karácsonyra.

"Trazy is dreaming of going home for Christmas." (stolen from my facebook profile)

So, ladies and gentlemen, happy winter solstice! Today is supposed to be the shortest day of the year and I can attest to that. It's 4:30p and it's been dark for an hour already. That's probably one of the hardest things about winter anywhere: the short days. Add to the fact that I'm on the eastern-most side of the time zone and it gets a little weird. I am feeling like I should be making dinner and getting to bed soon, when in fact the number of hours that will still be awake outnumbers the amount of hours that I have already been awake. It's weird.

Today, Matt, my fellow American volunteer in Budapest, and I set out on a mission: find a music store that meets our needs. We were supposed to meet in Deak Tér, but today was Matt's day to oversleep, so I headed to Deak Tér without him. Good thing - it was just a CD store. See, music in Hungarian is "zene" and store is "bolt", so one would rightfully assume that when they find a zenebolt, they've found a music store. Wrong. Well, right, but not the music store we were looking for. Actually, the type of store that we were looking for is called a hangszerbolt, or "sound store". So, upon disappointment with the Kalaka Zenebolt, I headed to Oktogon, where I would meet Matt. We went to another zenebolt (we were starting to finally realize the above statement) and quickly realized it wasn't what we were looking for. That's when we saw a sign for another store and it had a violin on the sign, so we were hopeful. Turns out, it's a string instrument store. Matt plays violin, but I'm really not sure what his mission was, but apparently this store didn't appeal to him. This is when we got brave. Upon asking the gentleman behind the counter if he spoke English, I then asked where to find woodwind supplies because I need saxophone reeds. "Go over by Opera, you'll find something there." So, we wander over to the Opera House... we knew we wouldn't find anything IN the Opera house and going "by the Opera house" is kinda like saying (for you Grand Rapids people) "go over by Van Andel Arena"... okay, there are four sides to the Opera House and really, lots of side streets that could have music stores down them. As we made a loop around the block, we were running out of luck, when, on a whim, we decide to veer right. There, in front of our eyes is a hangszerbolt. We go in, look around and all we see are guitars, but there - behind the counter - is gold. Two types of saxophone reeds - VanDoren or Rico. Yes, I got some VanDoren reeds at 780huf (about $4.08) each. Yeah, a tad expensive, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Then, as we were wandering back to the metro to head to the office, i saw a piece of heaven (my glasses were foggy) - a woodwind store - saxophones, clarinets, flutes, oboes, bassoons... If I ever need anything fixed or anymore reeds, I now know exactly where to go. Success, my friends, absolute success.

After said adventure, lunch was eaten and then we went to the ÖDÉ office for a bit to help with their paperwork (read: Matt helped make photocopies, I helped myself to coffee and 'supervised' - in my defense, there's only one photocopier). Then, we headed out. On my way home, I was walking through the metro after having stopped at the grocery story. It's usually always the same story in this metro station: lots of people running through the area, a few homeless on the sides, people performing/playing music/preaching in the center... but today something made me stop in my tracks and wonder...
THERE WAS A DONKEY IN THE METRO STATION. It was a serious 'what the junk?' moment. With my limited Hungarian knowledge, I was able to come to some conclusions, but they're not for sure, so I left wondering... and wishing I'd brought my camera!

So, now it's your turn - why do YOU think a donkey was hanging out in the Metro? Leave a comment on my blog - tell me what your creative response would be to why there would be a donkey in the metro, and I'll tell you what I concluded in an email.

:) Let the creative juices run!

*~*~*

If you haven't noted, I've taken up the art of cooking and baking more since I've been here. I've always enjoyed doing these things, but have often not had the right company or the time to actually do them. Since being here, I've had the chance to make a lot of new, fun things... and I've taken pictures of them along the way.

The first thing I had the pleasure of creating was a potato salad. It's been one of the few things that I actually found all of the ingredients for without a problem (or huge expense) - so here it is: "Hungarian Tasted and Enjoyed" potato salad and home fries (i made too many potatoes!)


I asked Timothée what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he said that he wanted hamburgers, so we went out and found beef (the most expensive meat in Hungary) and made his wish come true.


These are Chocolate Shortbread cookies - they usually don't look like this (google image search doesn't have anything like this, promise!) but this is how mine turned out without measuring devices or a beater or oven temperature settings... and they were delicious. These were made for a youth group meeting and Karácsony Amerkiból (Christmas in America) at the Tanoda


One thing I'm learning to work with is a lack of oven in our apartment - this made Christmas baking a little difficult, but have no fear, there are always ways around everything. My solution? No Bakes! Muesli instead of oatmeal and walnut cream instead of peanut butter, but they were delicious!


This was my first attempt at making something "Hungarian" - palacsinta. It's like a crépe, only we filled ours with cheese, mushrooms and ham... sadly, since my camera is broken, I couldn't tell that this was a bad picture of the palacsinta, but they were also delicious, especially after Zoltán (the Hungarian-Ukrainian in green) fixed my recipe.

CRAZY SMALL WORLD! I couldn't make up a stranger story - srsly!

So, I was invited to go to dinner with some of the staff from Ecumenical Diaconal Year Network in Hungary tonight. Basically, Evelyn (a volunteer from Germany), Eszter and her husband and the hosts, Petra and her husband... yes, I was Evelyn's date :) It was fun!

Anyway, I am passing along as much information as I had prior to the evening - Petra studied in the United States for a year. Well, I mean, my head is full of information, but that's the only important information you'll need for the following story. Also, the only information that Petra knew about me is that I'm a volunteer from Michigan.

So, we are sitting down for dinner and I had just gotten done telling everyone that I would be here, in Budapest, for Christmas. So, we are sitting down and I realized that it's English Christmas music in the background and I make a mental note to thank them later for the little piece of home. Then the announcer comes on and announces that we are listening to 91.3 WCSG. I go into shock and ask "How did you find this station? I know this station. This is from my hometown - did you know that?"
Petra, the hostess, then asks, "Are you from Grand Rapids?"
"Yes," I replied.
"I went to school at South Christian High School," was her response.
"You've got to be (kidding) me!" was my response, and maybe not quite so elegantly stated. You see, for those of you already lost, Home Acres (my home congregation) is about 3 miles from this school and I know a LOT of people that went to this high school, including some of my students in CHAOS.
"Yeah, I graduated in 1999. Why?" At this point, I explain to her what I just explained to you. Then I try to think of some of the more well-known people that I know that attended that school at that time. Matt and Ben.
"Do you know Matt Hulst and Ben Brinks? They are really tall, and probably basketball stars, and good friends."
"Did Matt have blonde hair?"
"Yes! He's one of my volunteers back home! Oh my word!"

She then proceeded to pull out her yearbook. So, any of you who were at SCHS in 1998-1999 - I saw your HS yearbook photos - that means you Jessica, Ashley, Matt, Ben, Kim, and Brad... oh yeah :P Great photos!

I'm in too much shock right now. I came home tonight realizing once again that this is such a SMALL world. srsly.



*~*~*

The Ferencvárosi Tanoda makes cookies!

This was a four day process - not even kidding. This is the only day I documented: Cutting and pre-bake decoration
The previous day was "Dough Making" and the day after was "Baking Day" and today was "Nom nom nom (eating) Day"

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

So, ladies and gentlemen, it is officially the winter season that I hate. Now that we've had snow, we can quit and move into spring. At least, that's my feeling. Who else is with me?!

So, things are a little crazy around ye olde "flat of the girls" (Timothée's poor English has become our slang!). Andrea leaves in 10 hours, Silvia leaves in 12 hours and Silke leaves in 17 hours. Kristy should be arriving any second. The heat went out for a few hours today. The kitchen is in complete disarray (and I'm gonna put money on it not being cleaned before everyone leaves and even though the only dirty dish *I* have in there is a plate, I will be doing dishes tomorrow... again... okay, done complaining, thanks for listening). And there are suitcases lining our hall where Christmas ornaments should be.

I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow - I'll be heading to the ÖDÉ office whenever I wake up to deliver cookies and do a mail check. Then to the Otterness' flat to deliver cookies as well... then grabbing some grub with Kristy, then onto the tanoda, where we're having a Christmas party for the kids :) CUTE!
Then Kristy and I are going hunting for Christmas décor: tree and decorations, wrapping paper and either eggnog ingredients or mulled wine ingredients... and the rest of the ingredients to make our own palacsinta (crépes) for dinner. It should be a great time and it will be fun to hang out with Kristy.

Then, her sister gets into town on Saturday and I'm not sure what the plan is from then on.

*pause* I just asked out loud "Kristy, hol vagy? (Kristy, where are you?)" and Silke responded, "somewhere... probably over a rainbow."
I love my flatmates. I really do.

Speaking of baking, I kept up a tradition my family has always had - baking a bunch of treats and giving them to neighbors/friends/family for the holidays. I 'baked' a HUGE batch of no bake cookies (recipe below) and gave them to all the volunteers as either travel snacks or just "Boldog Karácsonyt" (Happy Christmas) gifts. They're different due to some different ingredients, but all in all delicious.
And now, for the recipe!

1 cup cooking spread, melted (i'm just assuming it was butter, really)
4 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cup cocoa powder
bring these items to a boil, stirring constantly. allow to boil one minute

stir in:
1 cup walnut cream (dióskrém) because peanut butter is MIA
6 cups csoki muszli (oats, corn flakes, some sliced nuts, pieces of chocolate) because plain oatmeal is also MIA

drop out by spoonfuls onto ALL the clean plates you can find and proceed with a plate Monopoly so that until your cookies have hardened, there are NO empty plates in your flat... then when they harden, wrap up in pairs and give away to friends :)


*~*~*
These first three pictures are of Ho"sök Tér (Heroes Square), within which are statues of every hero of Hungary.




These are pictures of the time the Romano Glasow Band came to the Ferencvárosi Tanoda, where I work. We had a great time dancing and singing gypsy music, especially when some of the older women, who knew the songs well, got into it with their grandchildren - what an awesome sight to witness!

One year ago - December 15, 2008

I was talking to my buddy Sepp (ELCA YAGM in Slovakia) and asked him to think back to five months ago - to what thoughts he was having about coming here. I would have told him a year ago, but it seems the majority of YAGMs weren't planning this for a year...
then I wondered, what was *I* thinking a year ago. I knew I was going by then for sure... so I checked my journal.

Lo, and behold, I should have realized this earlier. One year ago today (December 15, 2008) was my formal interview with Jay. This was the day we had a snow storm and the city buses were way behind schedule, so much so that I called a cab in order to get there on time without waiting for the bus in my dressier clothes (hey, I had NO idea what to expect - srsly!) in the snow for hours. Then we sat in Boba Latte (oh, how I miss that place!) and chatted about my story and about Hungary. That day was the day that Jay affirmed my calling.
I look back at that journal entry and read about the excitement and it makes me excited again. I also look back in amazement - I sat trembling, worrying about raising $12,000-ish and how I was ever going to swing that in today's economy. Yet, while I have not yet raised all of it, God provided every step of the way. I look back with pride because I didn't think I would ever be able to walk away from my comfort zone and yet... here I am.
It's a sombering moment here and now. Praise God for the last year. Praise God for His calling, His guidance, His provisions, His love and His grace. I praise God for you, too. Without you, I wouldn't be here (I know - cliché). Without your support, I'd be cross country skiing into work back in Grand Rapids still (they got a lot of snow in the last week!) Thank you.

And now, another couple reminders - I have not yet reached my $12,000 goal and am still about $2000 short. I know Christmas for many is going to be hard this year and I know that so many of you have already given much. However, I left trusting that God would provide these final numbers - So I ask, is God calling YOU to help the Roma people in Hungary? There are wonderful ministries happening over here and if God is calling you, I just simply ask that you give what He's moving you to give - no more, no less. To support my mission, you can donate online at www.rca.org/volunteers - click on ‘donate’ and select my name from the list.
Otherwise, you can send a check to the following address - just put my name in the memo section and it will get to me. Thank you, in advance, for helping to advance God’s kingdom. Together, God is using us to do His good and perfect will.
RCA Mission Volunteer Program (checks should be made payable to this program)
Reformed Church of America
PO Box 19381
Newark, NJ 07195-1938

Also, it's important to remember family this time of the year. I'm rushing to get cards and gifts out in time to travel back to the states and receiving gifts (THANK YOU!), but it doesn't make up for my absence. If you see my mom or my dad or my sister or my brothers or my friends... give them a hug for me, okay? I miss them and spending Christmas with them would be a dream come true, but just as David Blakeslee said in his letter that I got today, I'm "living God's dream." And following God is something that is waaay bigger than my dreams.

I was going to go into a spiel about Mary and giving birth to Jesus, but I think that's enough for tonight. Happy 15th day of Advent - we won't be waiting much longer!



*~*~*

I'm not going to leave you with any pictures, but instead I have some Youtube links.

These are videos from our Önkéntes Diakóniai Év orientation - we were introducing the United States to our fellow volunteers. Enjoy!
Singing the States
and
Simple Gifts Remix

This video is from our first week in Hungary - hanging out in Jozsi's house in Uzd, Hungary - jamming out some gypsy music :)

some updates and some pictures - that's what's up!

just a few brief notes:
* tonight I am working on my newsletter - i swears!
* Tesco and I aren't the greatest of friends, really. I am finding way better deals at Match.
* I am going to attempt to make no bake cookies tonight too - just gotta find peanut butter first.
* more snow tomorrow! hopefully some will stick and it will warrant a hike up to Citadella in the evening.
* I've added a few more blogs - if I'm not updating enough for you (haha!), there are other people to the right who are serving around the world - find a place that looks interesting and check it out.

Now I'm off to check out my coffee and croissant stash before I debate whether I'm well enough to go to the Tanoda.

*~*~*

and because NO post can go without pictures (because I have a million to share with you!), here are some pictures of my new church family. Don't worry, Home Acres, you haven't been replaced, but these guys are becoming family to me as well.

THIS is my favorite part of each worship service. "A Time For the Children" - Lukács and Zsuzsi - Luke and Susie and Pastor Aaron always share with the kids for a moment. IT's great!


Here are some of the kids showing off their artwork :)


Thanksgiving in Budapest and look who's all here! Okay - we kinda have rows here... We have (from the top) Carolyn Otterness (RCA Missionary in Budapest),
next row: Matt Bishop (ELCA YAGM in Budapest), Kristin French (English teacher in Újszász, Hungary), Dick Otterness (RCA Missionary in Budapest),
next row: Emily Ewing (ELCA YAGM in Rakovce, Slovakia), Sepp Helgeson (ELCA YAGM in Velky Slavkov, Slovakia), Emilie Swenson (ELCA YAGM in Magyarmecske, Hungary)
next row: Jeff Lampen (RCA Mission Volunteer in Nyirtelek, Hungary), Kristy Bergman (ELCA YAGM in Sarszentlörinc, Hungary), Lisa Cockerham (ELCA YAGM in Presov, Slovakia)... and then there's me.


youth group at St. Columba's - we're sitting there, reading about all the names of God, talking about what the names mean and what our name means and everything is going well... until the power goes off. So, here we are, reading the Bible by candlelight... it felt so... Dominican Republic! hah!

Gloooooooooooooooooria!

I woke up this morning probably well enough to go to church, but I'm still coughing and I don't want to risk infecting others this close to Christmas. So, I stayed home singing Christmas carols, hence the reasoning behind the title.

I have an invitation to join Evelyn at the Christmas market. I'll be honest, I am not sure I would look forward to that adventure. As much as I would love to walk around the market, I am actually thinking about going to the one at Jokái Tér instead. They have cute postcards there and I think I have an amazing idea! :) Then I think I might get some cards and go have a cup of forralt bor and write at the market after 8p.

My roommate came home from church to exclaim the same thing that made me smile immediately upon waking up this morning: "It's SNOWING!"
it was a magical morning, until I realized that it wasn't sticking at all. Grrr... but that's okay, snow wasn't in the forecast until Tuesday, so the fact that it came today proves two things: a) it's a teaser for Tuesday and... b) the weather here is just as unpredictable as home :P

Well, I'm off to enjoy a beautiful Sunday. Happy St. Lucia day and 13th day of Advent!

*~*~*

These are pictures of Matt's 100 day and my 101 day celebration.
I made Matt one of those paper headband things we sported in elementary school on our 100 days - and yes, that's a trashbag holding it on his head. The boys have nothing - no scissors, no tape, no plain white paper... i don't know how they survive!


These next three are the process of eating the food we prepared to celebrate. In case you missed the previous post, we had búndás - it's french toast covered with cheese and ketchup. It's seriously Hungarian and very delicious! However, it weirded us out, so I was reluctant to try it, but what better occasion to indulge than 100 day?!




Ez nagyon fínom! (It's very delicious!)

H1N1?! Oh no!

Since I am at home and not traveling this weekend due to illness, I thought I would publicly answer a question I received in an email: how's the swine flu looking over here?

Well, just to make my mother's nerves calm down - I do NOT have the swine flu, but probably just a small influenza virus that has already shown improvement, so I'm drowning it and sleeping a lot (between going to the bathroom due to so much fluid!).

Anyway, back to the swine flu - For a while it was really threatening to only the rest of the world and seemed to have forgotten Hungary. I was not complaining. Then the Ukraine closed schools for three weeks. Then we heard that there is a vaccine available, but no one's getting it. Then 200 vaccination locations opened up throughout the country... Apparently there have been 25 deaths associated with the H1N1, and hundreds more hospitalizations, yet I only know one person to get the vaccine. Personally, I'm torn between getting it or not.
* Mostly because it can prove to be quite a hassle for non-EU citizens to get it in the EU. It's possible, but not always easy.
* It costs money and if you hadn't noticed, I'm on a tight budget (but I would pay for it if the next were true, no worries)
* No one has actually told me I should get it. I am only getting half the news because I can only read the English news - no Hugarians have actually told me "you should get the vaccine," so i figure it can't be that bad.
* However, I do live in a big city and work with kids. I share everything in my apartment and we don't exactly disinfect the place. (hah!) I also seem to have already developed this flu and i've always gotten the flu shot in the past and this will be the first time in a few years that my body hasn't had the extra boost of immunity...

Anyway, if anything further develops, I'll keep you posted.



In other news - in T-minus one week, I will have the apartment to myself. Next Friday, Kristy and I are going Christmas tree shopping and then decorating the apartment... then I'll start to put presents under the tree :P hehe - like i'll wrap up some coffee or bread that I bought and put it under so that on Christmas morning, I've got this amazing display of Christmas gifts :) HAHA!

*~*~*

So, I understand that I rarely post pictures of myself in the city. It happens when you're taking pictures. Anyway, these are to prove that I am actually in the city and not just stealiing pictures from someone else :P

This is standing along the Danube River. The bridge in the background is the chain bridge and the buidling with the dome is the National Gallery.


Also standing alongside the Danube, you can see Parliament and Margit bridge and some of the Buda Hills :)


This is in Freedom Square, checking out the US Embassy and the monument. You can see Parliament in the background.


And this is me overlooking my city from Gellert Hegy/Citadella - it's gotten a lot colder since the first three pictures were taken!