Conjugating Verbs

"We mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do … forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in the fundamental verb, to Be."
- Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life



As someone who is working on learning a language, one of the first things I learned was conjugation. Okay, sorry - one of the first things I was taught. Conjugation still doesn't come simply. Even as I was learning Spanish, conjugations were often jumbled and incorrectly used when I was speaking.
Once we actually get the verb out, understanding comes and that's our primary concern, right?

I teach two English classes each week (which are the highlights of my week by far!) and the pre-intermediate group is working through past/present/future conjugations. It's tough stuff and I was never really taught it... it's just something we learned, right?

So, when I stumbled upon this quote, I quickly realized its relevance to my year.
To want: I want a lot of things. My little heart desires more than I ever care to admit, actually.
To have: I have a lot of things. I not only have material items, but I also have things that I take for granted - family, friends, USA citizenship, etc.
To do: It has been engraved in my mind to do more, do more, do more... not happy? do something. bored? do something. sad? do something. overjoyed? do something. why?

to be: stop. pause. breathe in. breathe out. be.

*~*~*

Buda Castle: from a different angle.

through a window looking at Gellert Hill, Citadella, the Statue of Liberty and the Danube...


"Attention! Danger of crumbling!" uh... okay. Can we go now?


Fisherman's Bastion: straight out of a fairytale


*~*~*

One of the joys I get on occasion is to go on an adventure with Emese (my country coordinator) and her husband, Gyuri. Gyuri drives a mini-bus, which he often refers to as "Gypsy car". It has seating like a limo, so that two seats face the back three seats. It makes for awkward riding, but it's perfect for group conversation.
This particular trip, as we head toward Ukraine, Matt and I decided to both face forward, which is way better for sight-seeing, and use the other seat as a footrest.


On our way home from Ukraine, we gained another person. Zoltán lives in a village near where we were in Ukraine, so he went home for the weekend knowing that he could catch a free ride back on Monday. This made our ride home more interesting with a backseat conversation in mixed Hungarian and English. In fact, our trip home basically consisted of a 2-3 hour English lesson.