DAY 101 warrants 2 blog posts...

That's right, friends. I've been in Hungary for 101 days. Impressive. When I think back to all that's happened in the last three months, I can't help but stand in awe. Totally couldn't have done it without God... but also without your love and support, and the love and support of my new friends and family here. I mean, I know it's not Thanksgiving, but today I realized that I have a LOT to be thankful for.

So many of my blog posts can be negative or at least stem from something negative (boredom?), but I think back to all the positive things I've done. I have started a youth group. I've learned how to order coffee COMPLETELY (and understably) in Hungarian. I can navigate the city like a pro. I have found a bible study that is my own space where I feel I can meet God. I've read a lot of books. I have made new friends. I have experienced a whole new world... the one that God Himself created for us to love... and I have fallen in love with it repeatedly, which is something I can't say about life in the states.

Today was a day for celebrating, indeed. When I entered the Ferencvárosi Tanoda today, I heard "Trazy-neni ittvan! Szia Trazy!"... and then a bunch of things in Hungarian that I didn't understand, but ended in a high-five. Then, when I got to the ÖDÉ office for Bible study, I was excited to find two things: a card and my calendar. The card was a tricky one - it had my parents' return address, but it had my sister's handwriting... so before I even opened it, I was confused. Expecting a Thanksgiving card (which STILL hasn't come), I nearly fell down when I realized what it was. It was a Christmas card that read "Love ya, Sis." My sister sent me a card! *sigh* yeah, I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. I also got my 2010 calendar, complete with random pictures of friends. Pictures of everyone from family to best friends to people I haven't seen in a few years... I was very happy.

Then Matt reminded me that today was his 100-day (and my 101-day), so we went to the boys' apartment and made french toast... Hungarian style. White bread loaf, sliced, made into french toast by soaking in eggs and milk (sounds normal so far, right?)... then get this - add cheese and ketchup on top. Honestly, it's fínom (delicious). You should all make it for dinner tomorrow night. I'm going to suggest adding ham because it might add a great flavor, but I couldn't honestly tell you because i've not added ham myself, but I felt that was what it was lacking.

Anyway, now I'm home and about to throw on some Lost before passing out for a couple hours. 7a train tomorrow!

*~*~*

So, I've been talking about this magical Christmas market - and had yet to put any pictures up here. Well, here ya go.
These are performers doing some traditional Hungarian music and dance. They have different people performing all the time, so you never know what's going to be going on in the background of your shopping extravaganza.


the rest of these pictures are just random things - basically all you can see are these little wooden huts and a LOT of people. Oh, and a giant Christmas tree. I love going here - and it turns out that on Thursday next week, that's where we're celebrating Christmas with the ÖDÉ volunteers in Budapest. Forralt bor and kurtoskalács - yes.

travelling, Christmas plans, lack of snow... and a cave church!

This weekend, I'm doing a bit of travelling. I'll be headed down to Magyarmecske with Timothee to visit Emilie, Simon and Livia. Magyarmecske is a very small village outside of Pécs, in southern Hungary. It's about a 4 hour train ride, which I will take very early tomorrow morning and again on Sunday. It will be good to see friends again, but also to see where they are serving and experience their life for a couple days.
So, I need to figure out how to take coffee on a train. Hmmm...

Looks like I won't be alone on Christmas eve - Simon, my German friend, is coming into town because he flies on out Christmas morning. Get this - he's going to surprise his family - no one knows he's going to be coming home except for the friend picking him up at the airport. How cute is that?! Anyway, we'll be here in Budapest together, so that should be fun. Still not sure about Christmas day, but hey, this is a start.

Michigan has had an abundance of snow already. I'm not sure why that makes me homesick, but it does. I hate snow! However, we haven't had any here yet, which is weird. It hasn't been cold enough! It is currently 43*F, which is about what it's been the last month. Hopefully soon - I want a white Christmas!

So, I'll probably update again in Magyarmecske, but until then, I wish you good days.

*~*~*

This is a cave church in the side of Gellert Hegy (the hill that Citadella is on). Everytime I've hiked to the top, the cave church has been closed. However, Sepp, Emilie and I found it open. Score! Pastor Darrell, what do you say? I really liked this setting - should we move Home Acres to a cave? ;)

The entrance:


it's a Catholic church, so I'm going to assume this is Mother Mary


I'm thinking this could be the youth group section...


this could be... the spot where the naughty kids go?


and this is the sanctuary... with Sepp thoughtfully gazing at the cross. It's very artistic, which I'm shocked about because my camera is broken... so I have no idea what I'm taking pictures of... :) and yet, this, I think, is beautiful.

waiting and re-writing... with more pictures from Citadella

so, I am sitting at my computer on a rainy Tuesday night, waiting for a friend to get back to his place so that we can watch a movie together via skype. I know this sounds silly, but it's another American living in Slovakia doing the same kind of work... we're both more than a little homesick and frustrated with our situations, and watching a movie with a friend sounds like a great idea to me. I hope I can talk him into a Christmas movie! :D

Anyway, I thought this would make the perfect time to update y'all. I've been thinking a lot about giving. Between Mikulás, Christmas, and everything else going on, it's been on my mind a lot - and not only the giving of gifts, but also the giving of time and love. I don't really want to get into time and love because it could be an extensive post and full of emotion for me, so I'll stick to gifts/money for now. maybe later?

When I think about Christmas presents, it's been a standard rule of mine to go with my age as a standard for pricing. That means all my gifts this year would not pass $26 total (it keeps me accountable for not going 'all out', but it also gives me something to work toward because a pair of socks for my dad seems ridiculous). That, in Multiband standards is about 3 hours of gross pay. Add that for 6 people and I have 18 hours or 1.5 days of work put into Christmas gifts. Not bad and not excessive, but still not cheap.
I am thinking about gifts this year. I got my sister something very small, it seems, and while I want to give more, I think about the fact that this isn't the same as last year. I bring in only $5 a day. Because I still need money left to actually survive. It sucks. I want to get more and give more, but when I put it in perspective of "this gift cost me an entire day's worth of stipend," I'm at a loss for words. Just my interesting thought for the day.

Also, I've been reading this great book sent to me by Kristine. It's called "A Million Miles In a Thousand Years" by Don Miller. It's quite possibly one of the most inspiring books I've read in a long time. When I'm on the metro, I hate when my stop comes and I have to stop reading and get off. Srsly! Anyway, it's a book about writing stories, becoming a good story and re-writing your life. I'm working out a plan to put these thoughts to use. First, I need some goals. Visiting Auschwitz is one goal... running with Wayne and David on 10.10.10 is another goal... leading worship on the mission trip in August is my third goal.
time to start writing these stories.

*~*~*

I never get sick of the climb up to Citadella. It's so beautiful and SUCH a great use of energy. I could probably go twice a day and not get sick of it. Add in music or a good friend, and it's even better.
However, I promise I'll stop taking pictures to share with you until we get snow. It's just so beautiful that I wish every one of you could experience it for yourselves!

Enjoy another round of Citadella pictures :)
We've got Szent István Király (Saint Steven the King). This photo has been edited to cut out Sepp and make the green Liberty bridge seem more lifelike.


this is the first time I'd seen the sun in a few days... and coincidentally, i think it's also the LAST time I saw the sun :P


Hungarian Lady Liberty


I love this city. Honestly.


and... Citadella itself.

Boldog Mikulás Napot!

yesterday was a good day. i can honestly say that because, looking back, there was really nothing bad about the day until after midnight. that makes a good day, right? great.

yesterday was a celebration in Hungary called Mikulás day. it's a day honoring St. Nicholas, whom Americans have come to refer to as Santa Claus. I wiki'ed it (www.wikipedia.org) and this is what I found - I decided to paste it for you because otherwise I would tell you the exact same thing and that would be called plagerism, so all credit goes to wiki, ok? :P
"Although the role of gift-giver on Christmas Day itself is assigned to the Christ Child, on Saint Nicholas' feast day of 6 December Hungarian children traditionally place a boot on their windowsill waiting for Mikulás to come by and fill it with treats. While "good" children receive various fruits, candies and toys, "bad" children can expect nothing more than a wooden spoon, coal or a willow-switch ("virgács") left by Mikulás' somewhat sinister elf-companion, Krampusz. (However, as no one is either all good or all bad, most children get both sweets and a switch.)"

so, that being said, this is how I celebrated.
Silvia, Andrea, Evelyn and I ordered Pizza from Pizza Hut on Saturday night. This was no easy task because we ordered it online and everything had to be translated of course... and we were dealing with limited budgets and 4 very different tastes for pizza. Then we submitted a coupon that was only good until 30 November (they still accepted it!)... then they called us because getting into our building is only simple if you have the code, otherwise you don't know which button to push for which apartment. We enjoyed our pizza and watched Mamma Mia (okay, we only watched 3/4 of it - we lost interest... :/ ...)

Then Sunday morning was worship at St. Columba's Church. After that, we enjoyed a great meal prepared by some Iraqi refugees (YUM!). In fact, it was the same family that had two children in attendance at the previous day's youth group meeting.

Then I promised Evelyn that if it wasn't raining (it's raining a lot here), we would go to the Christmas market. There are actually 5 Christmas markets that I know of: one BIG one and 4 little ones at major points of the city. We went to Jokái Tér and wandered through that Christmas market. Found some cards and we shared one of those kurtoskalacs (only 350ft! I can't believe i thought that 800ft was cheap! woah - score!)

Then we headed to THE Christmas market - got some gifts that I can't wait to send home, tried some mulled wine (yum!) and got a Budapesti Karácsony (Christmas in Budapest) mug.

Then we headed to Nyugati Palyaudvar because there were supposed to be more little shops there - there are, but they're not so cool... but they all go to charities, so I might go back and check it out later.

then we went home and grabbed some dinner.
Then Silvia and I decided to go on a hunt for more wine. Armed with mugs, we went BACK to the Christmas market. The shops were all closed now, but they were still serving wine, so we filled our mugs and then sat and listened to a guy play Christmas music on a saxophone, accompanied by a CD. It was pretty great. We chatted about life and what it's like here and how we're already thinking about going home and what that will be like. Then we got on the metro to come home and Silvia said "someday you need to show me the Palacsinta (crepe) shop by Moszkva Tér." I told her that we were already on our way there... so we got csokikrémes palacsinták (chocolate crepes) for dessert and then headed home.
such a great day!

So, how was YOUR December 6th?

*~*~*

St. Andrew is another saint that was celebrated recently. The church I attend here is a Scottish mission and St. Andrew is like, the patron saint of Scotland. So, in celebration of him, the church hosts a Ceilidh (Kali). This is Scottish dancing with a ton of fun mixed in. Lots of thanks to Zoltán for being my photographer!




the man I'm dancing with here is Aaron, pastor of St. Columba's church


this picture cracks me up because Matt and I are dancing (with someone else, can't remember who)... and we are actually supposed to be dancing with those other three people, but instead we all just look very confused!


Jeff and I thought we were being cool and trying our first mulled wine ever... then someone told us that they thought it was non-alcoholic. Not a problem, since we found it funny to be served alcohol at a church, but it put our first experience of REAL forralt bor (boiled wine) on hold. Still - RCA peeps represent!

Baking without, youth group and celebrating holidays...

Last night, for the first time, i feel like i was getting prepared for the missions field! I wanted to bake cookies for for youth group (update coming about that after this), so I headed to the boys' apartment because they have an oven and we don't. I took along all of the ingredients for the cookies, along with the recipe and a wisk, which i knew the boys don't have. I get to the boys' flat and ask for a measuring device. Nincs (none). Okay - normally you shouldn't just 'eyeball' things when baking, but we'll make it work. I ask for a teaspoon. Nincs. All they have are tablespoons - okay, we'll make that work too. I ask for a cookie sheet. Nincs. Okay - i'll use this shallow pan that reminds me of a roaster. I ask for some paper towel or a napkin. Nincs. Okay - I'll oil the pan with toilet paper... I look at the oven to see what settings there are... Nincs. Well, that's a lie - there are 2 settings - high and low and space in between where you can set the dial. Awesome. I'm actually surprise that the sugar cookies (which look more like pancakes) turned out as good as they did! The chocolate shortbread cookies turned out amazing!

Anyway, we just had our first youth group 'meeting' - the first two hang outs were just that: hanging out. So, this week, we decided to meet at the church and have coffee and cookies (hence the reason for the baking) and actually HAVE A MEETING! An update since the prayer request: Aaron did come and while there was a little translation, for the most part, it was in English. It was good :) We had two students, refugees from Iraq, that came and we had a blast. We played that game where you tie balloons to your feet and try to stomp out everyone else's. Then we filled out a short survey about maybe what we would like to see in Youth Group and about Bible knowledge. Then we talked about names. What does your name mean? I found out that that "Tracy" means "warlike" and is of Irish/Gaelic origin. great... We then moved on to talk about some different names for God - we went through a bunch of them (God, Adonai, El Shaddai, Jehovah-Rophe, Judge, Shepherd, etc) and looked up some corresponding verses - the verses were then read in English and Arabic (which was really neat). And we concluded with a 'homework assignment': think about what would be a great description or name for our group and come back with some ideas in 2 weeks. Ladies and gentlemen, it was great. Thank you for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for these kids - we have different kids every time we meet, so I can't wait until the day we get all of them in one place at one time! I also can't wait to actually get to know each of them and discover who they really are and what makes them 'tick'.

Also, tomorrow is Mikulás Day in Hungary - Santa Claus comes tomorrow! I'll tell you about that in my next blog. Promise.

*~*~*

Experience holidays with me in Budapest!

Halloween in Budapest :)



Dia de Los Muertos :)


Thanksgiving Feast in Budapest :)

stories?... and the Great Market Hall

I am running out of things to write about, to be honest. I feel like the bulk of my posts are the pictures, which is good because I like sharing them with you. However, there's not much else going on right now. I'm still struggling to find my place in this world. I am reading Don Miller's new book "A Million Miles In a Thousand Years" and he's talking about creating our stories. I guess I'm trying to find my story. I don't want to be the girl remembered for only doing what she wants. I want to be remembered as the girl that also did what she didn't want and saw great things come out of it.

That's my one thought today.

*~*~*

So, there are these great places around town called Csarnokok (markets) - there's at least one in every district of Budapest. However, there is a GIANT one south of me called The Great Market Hall. It's a great place to take visitors during these rainy days. You can find all kinds of things and I want to highlight my latest visit (with Emilie and Sepp) to you. Enjoy!

This is your typical meat stand - marhahús means beef.


here are a couple views from the top level where you can find all kinds of souvenir type items.



So, I'll be honest - I hope no one's offended by this picture. The pig is saying "Ahhh..." Upon further investigation, Sepp and I realized that it could have a few different meanings, but I'm going to go with my original thought: he's screaming because he's dead. yup. poor little guy!


Also available in the market halls are great Hungarian specialty foods. So, if looking at that pig made you hungry, you can go upstairs and grab some pork to eat. That's not exactly what I did, but hey... if that's what floats your boat, don't let me stop you!

a couple prayer requests and random pictures

I have a prayer request for a friend -
My friend, Mike, lost his dad yesterday. Please lift up his family in your prayers as they grieve.



I have a huge prayer request because I'm incredibly nervous.
Saturday, I will be meeting with the youth group.

Now, I can hear you all now: "why is that such a big deal?" and "isn't that what you like to do?" and i bet even a few of you are cheering...

It's a big deal because this is the first time I'll be meeting with them alone.
No Aaron for translating. None of these kids speak English as their first language. !!! What am I thinking?!

Now, granted, the parents really want this to be an English speaking group. Great, I speak English. However, I also know how hard it is to communicate feelings in a second language. This Saturday won't be too many feelings if things go as planned - just a few games, coffee, cola, and maybe a talk sheet. But, I don't even know what games to play. I'm thinking in regards to getting to know the kids better, we can do "All My Neighbors Who..."
but after that, I don't know.
Like, this is the first time I've ever thought about a youth group meeting and not felt like I can do this.
i wonder if I can find foam soap in Hungary...

*~*~*

One thing my flatmates keep asking is "What is American food?" To which I respond, "psh, i don't know - chinese, mexican, italian - it's all american!" Well, I have found something that no one else had heard of: skillets. I came home one night craving the awesome goodness that only potatoes, meat and cheese can provide. So, fried up some potatoes in some oil with paprika and pepper. Then I cut up some bologna and grated some cheese. When the potatoes were done frying (which took a ridiculous amount of time, really), i drained the leftover oil and then mixed the potatoes with the meat and cheese. Then topped it off with some ketchup and mayonnaise and we have got dinner :) And yes, that is a smiley face out of condiments.


This, my friends, is why I need to start a morning walking routine. This is a hungarian specialty known as Kurtoskalacs (with some dots and accents, but I'm not going to look it up) and hot cocoa. It was a wonderful treat after a cold day of shopping, but it is sooo baaad... ;)


This is the Budai Vari Siklo - it's like a ski lift thing that takes you up to the Buda Castle. We totally got to ride on it with the kids :) It was awesome.


A shot of the view on a dreary day. I never get sick of this view - I hope you don't either. It's just so... beautiful!


Richters are everywhere over here! Yay!