Debrecen... and beyond!

I'm starting to get behind on posts and pictures again. This is a good thing :) I was beginning to wonder if my posts would become boring and filled with only words. It saddened me because I really enjoy sharing pictures and showing my activities to you. For those of you who are reading, I do want to express that you may use my pictures, but if you would please link my blog, that would be much appreciated.

I had a wonderful weekend with friends and new experiences. I have found a few websites which suggest festivals and things to do in Hungary, which will definitely vivify my experience here. I cannot wait to share those stories with you! This weekend, I went to Pécs (a beautiful city), Magyarmecske (to visit Emilie, Livia and Simon) and Mohács (Busójárás fesztivál). I traveled for many hours in buses, which was a very new experience. However, one of the most intriguing things was when I had finished my book this morning... and I just looked out the window, listening to music. We weren't really driving the autopályaudvar (highway), so we were often entering the small towns via the main road. I would watch as we would drive through a couple kilometers of fields without any signs of civilization, then if I closed my eyes for just a few seconds and we would all of a sudden be in another village/town. It was a pretty cool experience :) More stories to come when I post pictures, promise!

In other news - we don't have heat or hot water in our flat right now. It's currently about 31* Fahrenheit/-1* Celsius outside. It's pretty cold in our flat, too. Apparently Emese and Gyüri are coming to look at it tomorrow morning to see if they can fix the issue. In the meantime, we freeze.

In even more news - tomorrow I will *hopefully* find out about my new placement. I will keep you all posted :)

*~*~*

When Jay Harsevoort (the RCA Mission Volunteer Coordinator) was visiting Hungary, he came to our volunteer seminar/retreat. Afterwards, Dick Otterness drove Jay, Jeff and I to Nyirtelek, where Jeff is working. On the way, we stopped at the Reformed Church of Hungary's main city: Debrecen. This really seems to be the capital of Reformed churches world-wide.

Just to give you an idea of how far I am from home: (yeah, that says "New Brunswick, NJ - 8400km")


this is just a cool looking Reformed church...


This is the Nagy Templom (Big Church) - basically the main Reformed church. It was closed, so we couldn't go inside, but the outside was beautiful!


the boys exploring: Jay in front, Dick and Jeff


We had some time, so we stopped and enjoyed some coffee and sweets in a nearby bookstore café. We all got something different and they all looked sooo yummy!