Tuesday, March 31, 2009

warning: long post

We have had some fun and busy days!

Like I mentioned before, Kevin was gone this weekend on the orphanage trip with the students. They had a good time, no surprise. They weren't there as long as they had been in years past, so I know they said they missed out on getting to spend even more time with the kids. But it looks and sounds like they had a good time. It's really neat to see students here who have such a passion to minister to others in various ways. This is a big one every year for them. And the weather cooperated by warming up a bit. Yeah!

So while Kevin was away, Seth and I headed into the city on Saturday to hang out with our beloved Audrey, lovingly referred to as "Uncle Audrey" for Seth. I am sure that will mess him up in the future as far as gender specific names are concerned, but Audrey is "uncle" because her last name means "uncle" in Dutch. So that's why. We really do know that she is a beautiful woman. :)

Our main goal was to visit Gloria Jean's one last time. We heard through the grapevine that the company was leaving Budapest, and we were so saddened to hear this. It is due to rent issues we believe. We don't have any Starbucks, so Gloria Jean's was the fave. Now I am no coffee drinker, but I do like a good mocha (preferrably iced) as well as raspberry or peppermint mochas (thanks to Kelly G for getting me started on those!). Anyway, we heard they were going to be gone by the end of March and decided we must make one last visit to our favorite one on Hősök tere. That Gloria Jean's holds many good memories, and I just loved sitting in there this summer, sipping a cold drink in the air conditioning and catching a break from the heat. Some of you may remember our adventure there as well when my parents were visiting this summer when we unexpectedly experienced our first riot, tear gas and all. Ah, such good memories.

Unfortunately, Gloria Jean's was already closed. We were just there for Audrey's birthday three weeks ago and had no clue it was closing. If so, I would have savored our last time there. :( Gloria Jean's...we will miss you. So Audrey introduced me to Coffee Heaven. It was good, had a good iced mocha, but it was lacking the ambience that our favorite Gloria Jean's had. But if I'm looking for a mocha, I know where I can get one.

The day was not a total loss though because we did get to spend time together and wander the city. We discovered the Easter market (similar to the Christmas markets) at Vörösmarty tér. They sell lots of handmade things from around here. I was able to get a couple gifts for some special people. It was honestly an answer to prayer because we have so many things to get for people, and this was perfect. We also got to eat pompos! I love it and have only found it at these markets they have throughout the year. Yum! Oh, and we went to Culinaris where they have "fine food and spices" (translate to some "expensive imported goods") where I got a box of Cheerios!!! Seth and I have eaten like half the box already. It was money well spent. :)

Oh, and I got a parking ticket this weekend! Parking is free on the weekends, and we walked out of Coffee Heaven with a ticket on the windshield. It was only $5 but I still was confused. So today when I went to pay it, I asked. It was as we had suspected...Saturday was a "working Saturday," so no free parking on those days. What is a working Saturday? Well, if they have a holiday off in the middle of the week, they have to make it up by working on a Saturday. So that's what they were doing this past Saturday.

Sunday evening we went to the movies with Zsolt and Gabi. They have wanted to go to the movies with us for awhile, but things were crazy between basketball and babysitting. So we finally decided this Sunday was the only day that was going to work on a weekend over the next few weeks. Now we don't follow movies, and even if we did, they get here months after they've opened in the US. They told us a bunch of movies, and we said we didn't know any of them anyway so they could pick. Some movies are subtitled in Hungarian and some are dubbed. Of course we chose the subtitled ones, and it was good for Zsolt and Gabi so that they could understand in their own language but also listen to the English. We also grabbed some food before hand, and Zsolt and Gabi insisted on paying for everything. I learned that here, if you do the inviting, you do the paying. It's nice but also difficult if you ask me. We need to do it again and do the inviting and paying next time.

There were several uncomfortable moments during the movie as the "bad guys" were illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe living in Paris. The group focused on in this movie were some Albanians. Now technically Hungary is Central Europe, but people usually split Europe into the previous Eastern Bloc vs. Western Europe. So obviously Hungary gets labeled as Eastern Europe. Anyway, they said some negative things about many countries here, but thankfully Hungary was not in the list. Now I know that I watch movies from the States where Americans are the bad guys in films too, but it's a whole different thing here. I know my heart is just sensitive and tender towards Eastern Europe (and mainly Hungary), but it's weird to be listening to this while sitting over here and actually knowing Albanians and how many people here minister in that country. Call me crazy, but I felt uncomfortable a few times. But all in all, it was a fun night with Zsolt and Gabi. I am amazed at how quickly our friendship with them has developed this year and really look forward to seeing God continue to work next year, too.

And tonight we had our usual dance class with them as well. The dance teacher likes to make fun of people when they do something incorrectly, but he had left Kevin and me alone, knowing we didn't speak Hungarian. He's over that now. He's been making fun of me a lot lately. I never claimed to be a good or graceful dancer! But my favorite part of tonight was how he kept saying "Oh yeah" when we finished a dance. It made me laugh. And I laughed because we were working on the Salsa again, and we have to do these "little kicks" here and there. Couldn't help but think of Elaine on Seinfeld. Ha ha ha ha ha!

Seth and I have spent lots of time outdoors now that it's been warmer the past few days. The sweet neighbor lady two doors down came to talk to me this afternoon. She told me to get up off of the cement step I was sitting on. I assured her I was fine, but she insisted. (This was in Hungarian but I understood enough.) You see, they think that if you sit on the cold cement that you will become infertile. She was also concerned because when I picked Seth up (to stop him from running into her house), part of his leg was exposed. It was about 60 degrees today, and most kids are still in their snow suits. Seth is not. Old Hungarian women are concerned when they see him like that. I just yanked his pants back down, smiled, and said, "jó."

Well, I'm pooped and headed to bed. Jó éjszakát!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can still feel the burn in my eyes and throat from the tear gas!!!! I also found the BBC story is still on the web. Played it for somoeone in the office last week. I guess we will have to pick a new spot for our next riot! Love, Dad