Deja vu!

Not only are Hungarians learning English at an alarming rate (or should that be "alarmingly good" for those of us here who haven't mastered the extremely difficult Hungarian language???), but they are becoming more and more western in their consumerism! When we were on our stateside assignment recently from September through January, I was surprised at some of the things that were popular in the United States.

These Crazy Bands topped the list of crazy things. I didn't get it. I still don't. Why does it matter what shape your rubber band is when it is in the bag with all the other bands, and what difference does it make when it is on something because it takes on the shape of the object that it is going around? I just don't get it. Guess it takes the mind of a 7 year old to see the value of it. Let's just say I was surprised to see them here!

My sister, Karin, and my daughter, Kari, would be proud of me. (Did you notice the name similarity?? Kari got her first name from Karin and her middle name from my other sister, Elizabeth.) I am learning to like coffee. Karin got me hooked on "low fat, with "whip", White Chocolate Mocha" at Starbucks while we were in the States. Unfortunately, the 3 Starbucks downtown don't carry White Chocolate Mochas. (Starbucks arrived in Budapest in August!!!) Fortunately, I've discovered Cafe Latte's!

We visited with one of our couples here in Budapest on a cold, cold day last week. As I took off my shoes just inside the front door (customary here--great idea as it keeps the house much, much cleaner!), the husband noticed me shiver and asked if I'd like a cup of coffee or tea. I was so cold, I told him I'd take a cup of coffee (even if I didn't drink it, I could warm my hands around the cup!) Anyway, they served me a latte and it was delicious! It had tons of sugar which I love, and it hardly had any coffee which I don't care for, so it was perfect. And the best thing about it is that it is healthy for me because of all the milk in it!!! On our way home, we jumped off the tram and hopped into Auchan (kind of like Walmart-- I know, now you don't feel sorry for me anymore) to buy this neat little gadget that is a battery-operated whip that froths the warm milk.

I mentioned previously that we had really cold weather earlier this week so we've been having fires in our small fireplace most of the week. I sure miss our big, beautiful, stone-walled fireplace on Big Oaks Drive, but I'm grateful to have this small one here. No one else we know in town has a fireplace so folks think it is really special, which it is. Anyway, Glenn found a source across the street from our house for firewood and bought all they had. (Now, I didn't say he found a cheap source.) They delivered it in this pallet, and then Glenn had to find a place to store all the wood that will last us for two more winters. We've got some in the basement and some under the house (but not under the kitchen window, which is how the burglar got into the house in January of 2010).

By the way, Glenn found out when he bought the firewood that the young man, 30-ish, spoke a little English. For those of you who have been here, he and his family own the construction business that is across from our house. This is the same company that loaned us the use of their forklift when we first arrived to download our crates from the truck-for $10!

At church this morning we had a guest speaker. He is an American (I didn't catch his name) and works with a Christian ministry in the U.S. He is currently in Hungary to teach some classes at a Hungarian Bible College. He was speaking this morning on the Old Testament prophecies and correlated some of them with what is going on in Egypt today. He was interesting...but I admit I don't know enough about the prophecies between Daniel and Revelation to know if what he said is true/interpreted correctly. I just know that when the Rapture comes, I'm going! It was good to hear the message in English. The Hungarian lady that translated is a member of our church. She and her husband speak English (though I don't believe we've ever met) and are home missionaries to the Hungarians.

We are going to attend a conference on Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills this week but I'm not going to tell you where it will be. It's a surprise so you'll have to come back to this site next Monday to find out where we are. I hope to have some interesting pictures for you next week. :-)

Malta, continued...

Our week on the island of Malta went by quickly. Most of the week was spent doing member care appointments for each of the families...

and a few Skype calls to some families in between sessions...




But on Wednesday, all of us spent one afternoon in town doing ministry among the Maltese. We passed out tracts and packets of information about the local Baptist church and prayer-walked the old capital city of Mdina.

We had one free afternoon and so we went into a nearby town to do a little "sightseeing" and check out the local grocery stores. My thing! We found Pop-tarts, cake mixes, frosting tubs, brown sugar, yellow mustard, Swiss Miss Hot chocolate packets, and Dr. Pepper (including Dr. Pepper ZERO!)

This was a gorgeous church!

We stayed an extra day to enjoy the sights and to put some margins in our lives.

HUGE cactus plants everywhere!

The whole island is nothing but rock! I'm not sure how anything grows since the soil is so rocky, but there were lots and lots of these yellow flowers across the countryside!

Glenn poses for the first of many photos that day.

We climbed down near the water which was very choppy that afternoon.

We saw this awesome rock formation. There are boats that take folks into caves right here, but not at this time of year because of the waters being too rough. Since we missed out on that experience, we'll just have to come back another time!!

On Valentine's Day, Glenn and I walked into town for our special dinner and as we were strolling through the square, we saw these posters of Superman taped on the side of phone booths and store windows. There is a Bible verse, Philippians 4:13, written in Maltese on the posters: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It was just kind of unusual.

Thursday was the most beautiful day of the week but Friday morning Glenn and I woke to howling winds and gray skies. Turns out the winds were blowing at 65 miles per hour off the waters. Gale force winds of 5 and 6, whatever that means. Signs were blown off, trees lost their limbs, even a roof from a house was "relocated" due to the high winds. Evidently, Malta experiences these strong winds occasionally, but it really surprised us! I was surprised we were able to fly out on Saturday because the winds were still blowing, though not quite as fiercely.

We flew from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany where we had a 1 1/2 hour lay-over. When I went passed this water fountain, I was shocked! I've only seen an American-style water fountain one other place in the past four years! It's weird that something like a water fountain would be such a surprise.

And this was another surprise! Earlier today on our walk home from church, we saw this ambulance parked on the street and, if you can't read the fine print, it says on the side panel: Fire Department Pesthidegut. FIRE DEPARTMENT! The Hungarians have their own word for fire department so I was kind of surprised to see it written in English! Honestly, give me 10 years here and there won't be a language barrier anymore 'cuz everything will be in English!

It's good to be home!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Glenn and I are not real big on celebrating holidays with presents and fancy meals in a restaurant. I think it comes from our early married days when he was doing youth ministry and so often we were not able to celebrate our anniversary, birthdays or Valentine's Day because of church conflicts. We just got lax about it....but this year we did remember to buy each other something and I even remembered to wish him a happy Valentine's Day with a kiss this morning!! He beat me on the present though with a really nice diamond and sapphires necklace to match the earrings and ring he got me while we were in the U.S. He spoils me. I've got to do a better job this year of taking good care of him and spoiling him, which will mean some changes in my work load. More on that later in another blog post!

While Glenn and I were on STAS (stateside assignment), I bought small gifts for my Hungarian friend and her family.

This is Nikki modeling her Georgia sweatshirt. When I gave it to her, I drew a map of the U.S. and circled the place where the state of Georgia is located and explained that is where we were while in the U.S.. I told her I wanted her to have a souvenir of where I was from and I told her that the sweatshirt is also from the University of Georgia, which made it an even better gift because wearing university sweatshirts here in Hungary is really popular right now! For her mom, Judit, I gave her a fleece blanket with Georgia emblazoned on it (also from the University of Georgia). When I gave her husband his multi-bladed knife, he kept looking for the word Georgia on it!!! I think they liked their gifts a lot. They asked me why I brought them something from America and I had to explain that that is something we do in America to let someone know that we missed them and that we were thinking about them while we were gone. It's kind of amazing to realize that some of our customs are truly OUR customs, not shared by others.

On Saturday morning really, really early, we flew to Malta for the cluster meeting of our personnel who work with the Romany people group, often called Gypsies. We flew from Budapest to Germany, then down to Malta. The view of the Alps was breath-taking. The suns' glare makes it hard to see all the snow on them!

We will do member care appointments for all the personnel here and Glenn will lead two sessions, one on grief and one on setting margins and boundaries.

As we were being driven from the airport out to the hotel where we are staying, we passed this castle and city on the hillside. The driver told us it used to be the capital city of Malta years ago. We hope to have a little time later on during the week to do a little sightseeing on our own.

Malta used to be a British colony so they drive on the left-hand side of the road and the steering wheels are on the right-hand side. Man, that sure messes me up!

Going through round-points was weird! You just don't expect cars on your left to be waiting to come into the circle!! Notice the sign that has the arrows going in the opposite direction from the signs in America???

It's a weird sensation to see cars coming at you from the "wrong" side!

This is the coastline that is just a block from our hotel. Our hotel is on the "beach" but our room doesn't face the water. We have a nice view of the balconies of the hotel next to ours.

The land in the background is supposedly where Paul was shipwrecked. We haven't been over there yet to see it, but will before we leave the island.

I love the sign on the ice cream shop: Italian Ice Cream, the American Way. We're not sure what they mean by the American Way, but it probably has to do with the SIZE of the scoops!

This is the view down the other direction of the coastline. The water is amazingly clear but it looks cold! The temperatures here are in the mid-60's this week. Warmer than Budapest, but not so warm that I go out without a coat or jacket!

This is the main square in town, 2 blocks from our hotel. I've been able to walk down to it twice during long breaks just to get some exercise. Sitting all day is so hard for me!

Because today is Valentine's Day, we have the afternoon and evening off to go into town. Glenn took advantage of the free afternoon to work on his two sessions he's leading and to get with our computer guru to put some things on his computer and I'm working on this blog entry. Tonight, we are going to go into town to eat out in celebration of Valentine's Day. We are staying in Malta an extra day so we will do our sightseeing then.

The whole island is celebrating Valentine's Day! Tons of red flowers for sale on the side of the roads coming into town.

Well, I will update next weekend with more pictures of Malta, but this is about all I have up to this point. Take care!

We're back!

We're so glad to be back in Budapest where we can rest! We had a great time in the U.S. visiting with family and friends but when January came, it was rush, rush, rush.

Where did the month of January go? Most of our time was spent getting Kari and Jonathan packed and ready to move to Senegal, and then once that was done, we concentrated on packing ourselves up for our return to Budapest.

Kari and Jonathan took a couple of suitcases and footlockers with them on the plane to tide them over until their crate could arrive in a month or so.

Originally, Kari and Jonathan were not planning to take a crate so soon, but when Kari found out she was expecting our second grandchild August 1st, they decided they better buy and pack some things for the baby, especially after my sister Elizabeth gave Kari a great baby shower!! (Chris and Kate are also expecting and their baby is due July 15.)

Once all the packing and crating was done, they spent their last few days with family-and eating all our favorites that would have to tide us over until we return to the U.S. My dad came to dinner with us one night and brought a fruit bowl. Jonathan LOVES fruit and that boy can flat put it away! He is always careful to make sure everyone has eaten all the fruit they want, and then he quietly pulls the fruit bowl or plate toward him and silently finishes it all off.

We went by to see one of our friends from Marietta First Baptist Church who we lovingly call "the bag lady" because for years she has made bags out of fabric for both Kari and me (and all members of MFBC!) and we love them! Evelyn had 20 bags waiting for us so Kari and I split them and we will share them with friends in Dakar and Budapest. Thank you, Evelyn!

Both Kari and I are pizza fanatics and we agreed that Marietta Pizza Company on the Marietta Square was our favorite place for pizza. Well, I probably prefer the 18"pizza you can get at Sam's Club for $8.97 but the atmosphere isn't as nice!

And then, of course, we had to get in one last walk before they left for Dakar on Jan. 21st!

Going to the airport to send them off was not fun for any of us. Kari doesn't like to fly so she was thrilled to see the headlines in the newspaper that said there were NO U.S. AIRLINE FATALITIES IN 2010. Always good to hear just before you board a plane!

After kissing and hugging them good-bye, Glenn and I stopped by Belk for him to spend the gift card my father gave him for Christmas. I found the cutest little baby outfits at 75% off and couldn't resist buying 5 outfits (4 for a girl and 1 for a boy. Kari and Kate don't know yet what gender they are having but surely between the two of them there will be a girl. If not, I will bring the outfits back with me to Budapest and give them as baby gifts.) I know it is kind of silly to buy baby outfits when I don't even know whether they will have boys or girls, but they were soooo cute...and Glenn knew that I was distraught over saying good-bye to Kari and Jonathan so he wasn't about to say, "No".

I think both Kate and Kari will find out the gender of their babies at their next OBGYN appointments. I'm so excited!!! (In fact, today Glenn and I were in a store and he found me in the baby department!)

Well, after Kari and Jonathan left, the house was quiet and so we began packing all our stuff up to ship to Budapest or to carry in our suitcases. In view of having grandchildren, we went through Chris and Kari's books when they were children to decide what to bring back with us (so that when our grandkids came to visit us here in Budapest, we'd have books to read to them!) Glenn found his favorite book from his childhood, "Brave Cowboy Bill", so we packed it to come to BP. I don't think either of our kids liked it as much as he did, but that's okay. Glenn will enjoy reading it to our grandchildren.

Our last week in the U.S. we tried to watch a movie every night because they were so cheap! The Red Boxes were a new concept since we were last in America, and so convenient because we were at Wal-mart almost every day that last week! You can't beat movies for $1, can you!?!

And, of course, we had to have one more trip to Krispy Kreme, the store with the neon sign that lights up, saying, "HOT DONUTS NOW!" Actually, now that I think of it, our trip to KK was the night we dropped off K & J at the airport! I covered my pain by eating. :-)

These are our footlockers and boxes to be crated and sent to Budapest. They measured 55 cubic feet but when Glenn and I went to the shipping company to "help" them pack it, our stuff went into a big box that was 62 cubic feet so we HAD TO GO TO WAL-MART to buy a few more things to fill it up. The crate has to be full or things will shift and possibly break, right? We picked up lots of styrofoam plates and Solo cups(for all the get-togethers at the Eden House), a couple of good pillows, a foam mattress pad, and a few more toiletries.

My brother drove down from Chattanooga to say good-bye. It was really nice of him to do that, but I wonder if I could ever get him to come to Budapest to visit? I found out that one of his daughters (my niece) came to Europe (Germany, I think) last summer and didn't even come to see us when she was this close!!

Our last day in town, we went to Kohl's to buy a couple of gifts to bring back to some Hungarian friends here, and would you believe it...the couple in line in front of us were Hungarian! Their names are Maria and Imre and they have been living in the States for many, many years but still have a noticeable accent, which is what led me to ask them what nationality they are. That, and they look Hungarian! It was a shame that we didn't meet them earlier in our time in the U.S. rather than our last day! It would have been nice to have visited with them.

And for both my kids, I couldn't help laugh when I saw this tee shirt! When our kids were younger, we had a code number -143- so that our kids would know a message was truly from their mom or dad. For example, if someone showed up at their school claiming that Glenn and I were in a meeting and couldn't pick Kari and Chris up, and that we had sent this person to pick them up, if they didn't give K & C our code, Kari and Chris would know that the message was not true!

After our crate was packed, we cleaned the missionary home and moved in with my Dad for our last week in town. Right down the street from his house was a Little Ceasars Pizza place where they have hot cheese and pepperoni pizzas ready for pick-up at $5 a piece. Of course, I had pizza for my last lunch meal before heading to the airport. What could I do otherwise? This guy was out on the street, dancing and twirling his sign, just beckoning me to pull in! These dancing dudes out on the street twirling their signs was another new thing in our area.

Speaking of new things in our area, there were Goodwill and Thrift stores everywhere and for the most part, they were clean, organized and marketing to the middle class, hard hit by the economic crisis. It was my goal to hit as many of these stores as possible during our 5 months stateside to see if I could find any Polish pottery. Would you believe I found 2 bowls at the second one I went into? And during my last week in the U.S., I went into an "antique" and consignment bazaar and found more Polish pottery! (I didn't buy it though because the pattern wasn't very pretty; it was the same stuff they were selling at TJ Maxx.)

January 31 came all too quickly but we were ready. My sister Karin spoiled me and got me hooked on "no fat, with whip, white chocolate mocha with 4 pumps" at Starbucks so I got to have one last one at the airport. In fact, I drank one and then went and got another! Glenn couldn't believe it, but he was in a mood to cater to my every whim. He didn't worry about "enabling" my addiction because he knew that once I got to Budapest, I'd be going through withdrawal because the Starbucks are far, far, far away from our house. (In case you don't remember, Starbucks arrived in BP just 2-3 weeks before we left for the States, but they are about 45 minutes away by public transport! (Karin, I'm seriously hooked!)

On a slightly related note, I do have to make a trip into town to Starbucks sometime this week because I got a request from a friend in Turkey that I will be seeing next week at a meeting in Malta who has asked me to bring her a Budapest Starbucks mug. So, guess what I will be getting? That's right! A "no fat, with whip, white chocolate mocha with four pumps"! And probably pick up a Budapest Starbucks mug for my pastor's collection!

The day before we left Georgia, it was 65 degrees and sunny. What a disappointment to arrive to this in Budapest! When the Doyles picked us up at the airport, Mary said it had been snowing off and on for the past week. There were 2-3 inches on the ground in our neighborhood, but today the sun came out and melted almost all of it away. I am ready for spring! (However, first I have to lose a few pounds to be able to fit into all the summer clothes I bought in America!)

I'm seriously trying to lose it. This morning I walked with my walking partner, Janet, for an hour and 15 minutes, then Glenn and I walked down to the mall to pick up a few groceries (25 minutes each way), and then when I got home, I went jogging! The last time I jogged was in November with Karin, so I'm pretty proud of myself for jogging 5o minutes with only a 2-3 minute rest in the middle. I'm paying for it tonight!

While we were at the mall, Glenn wanted to check out the elliptical machines to see how much they cost. He really enjoyed using an elliptical machine at Health Place during our first half of our stateside assignment, burning calories off to the tune of 500 an hour! The price on the one he liked best is $500 so we're going to check out Craigslist and Erika's Attic to see if we can find a used one for him. Got to do something to burn off all those pizzas we ate!

Well, we are back, unpacked, and at work once again. To those we didn't get a chance to visit with, we're really sorry! Time just flew by. For those we were able to spend a few minutes with, we thank you for sharing your time and life with us. You are such a blessing to us. Please know we miss all of you and look forward to the next time our paths can cross!

And Pop, thanks for letting us stay with you that last week! It was a great grand finale to a wonderful 5 months in America! See you in August!