Crazy Week

One of our teammates went home (not even really sure why...) and now we are getting a new team mate.
Please pray about this... one of my close friends, Lauren, might be the one coming to at least temporarily fill the gap. I am so excited... I just really want this to be God's will as well as my wish. Please pray that this work out... if it does then this is a true miracle... it looks like Lauren might be here by next week if she comes... and that is beyond our imagination!

Other than that... I am getting settled in. We had a house warming party last night and I was able to meet some of Joanna's friends. It was fun, but very tiring. I am trying to get myself used to going to bed early...but it is hard.

Please pray a lot for me and my team this week as school starts. It will be very crazy and I feel very unprepared. I need to start lesson planning... and I have the book to guide me... but as of yet I have not figured out how to get beyond the procrastinator in me.

Pray pray pray pray pray!

Thanks!

Monday Monday

Today I went to my first ever teachers meeting! It was pretty boring and in Hungarian... I understood most...
Then a trip to the immigration office was in order. As usual these things are never as easy as they appear. Agi said all I needed was the form I filled out on Friday and my passport. After I stood in line for about half an hour I was told to take a number from this special machine. There were different buttons for different things: resident permit, visa application, etc. I got my number and was very quickly called in to take care of business. And that is when I discovered that I needed to bring a letter of invitation, lease or something similar to prove that I had a place to live. I will go back tomorrow, but this time I know which button to press.

Tracey and I went to lunch after that at Marcello's!Marcello's was on old haunt of ours when we lived in Budapest as a family. I was surprised that I remembered exactly where it was. I enjoyed a great pizza and afterwards we had cappuccinos. Then Tracey was so kind as to show me were the Christian Library is! For a small fee (around $10) you can get a library card for the year. It is a very small library run by a Christian couple: Andy and Phyllis (I think.) I knew them from before... to them I am "Dean's daughter." Small world. They were so excited to see me and it reminded me just how small the world is! I am looking forward to hanging out there.

Well... that's it for today!

Please keep my whole team in your prayers as we are still adjusting to the time and experiencing our individual forms of culture shock...

Some pictues and obeservations...

I live at what they call "A Bazis" which means "The Base."
This is what I see from my window:
The school specializes not only in bilingual education but also in car and air mechanics!This is my own personal bathroom. I wanted to show you because I think I might be able to sit on the toilet, wash my hands and put my feet in the shower simultaneously! (Slight exaggeration...but not by much!)
A very typical Hungarian breakfast or dinner (lunch is their main meal... you have not had lunch unless you had soup!) consisting of a slice of bread with butter, cheese, hard salami and a side of Paprika!
I saw this sign in a store window at Westend:
Zsuzsi and I in our Chaco's...
My favorite picture of the Parliament:The sign says "To walk across the tracks is forbidden!" So what do I do every day? Walk across the tracks of course! Not to mention crossing the road where there is not crosswalk! And all this to get to school or go to town! It does not matter where I am going... I have to do both.The Blue Danube and the Szabadsag Szobor (Statue of Liberty-Hungarian style) is on the hill!

What I wrote at home...

Today I got a little smarter about this blog post thing… I am writing at home and I will post later when I get to the Chili Bar where there is internet.

I left you at my first night here in Budapest. I was very tired that first night and really only unpacked a little bit, bought some food at the closest grocery store, Plus, then went to bed.

Friday morning I woke up at 2:30 am, unable to go back to sleep. I got up and had an early morning rendezvous with Deanna who also woke up. We had a snack then I watched TV until 4am. I attempted to go back to sleep, and then got up again at 5:30. Such is jet lag. When I got up the second time I unpacked the rest of my things and made a list of things to buy.

Deanna, Joanna, Tracey and I went to the school to meet Ági at 10. Ági gave us a short tour of the school, showed us our offices, the library, photo copy machine (which we can only use after noon, 12:30 or 1 depending on who you ask) and we met quite a few people. We were also given a forward on our first paycheck in cash and bought our transportation passes. We attempted to get our resident permits, but typical to Hungary the rules had changed and nobody knew. Ági thought that we could get our permits here on Csepel, but it turns out we have to go to the immigration office in Budapest. We made plans to go do that on Monday instead.

In the afternoon we went to visit the other teachers. None of us knew their phone numbers yet, so we decided to just go knock on their door instead. It was really nice to meet up with everyone. We got to see their flat, which made me very thankful for how much personal space we have in our own. After hanging out there for awhile we went to Westend, the largest mall in Budapest. We had dinner together and did some shopping. I was very tired by about eight. Deanna and I headed home and I went to bed.

Saturday morning I managed to sleep until 4:30am. I laid in bed for another half an hour then got up. I spent the morning planning our tour of Budapest for the day. We met at Deák Ferenc Tér, all of us managed to be late. We visited Hero’s Square, ate lunch at an authentic Hungarian restaurant, visit St. Stephens Basilica, and went to the Castle District. It was fun being tour guide for a day, but I wish I had been better prepared.

After that we went to Mamut, a large mall on the Buda side of the Danube. I bought a new Sim card, so now I have a phone that works. (If you want my number email me!) I also went to MomPark, another large mall in Buda. After that I found the TESCO that is nearest to the Bazis. TESCO is a British chain very similar to Wal-Mart. I bought most of the things on my list to improve my room. I feel a lot more at home now. After that I went to the Chili Bar with Joanna and Deanna. The Chili Bar is a classy place that has free Wi-Fi. We all ordered a drink then were able to check our email and update blogs. I was quite exhausted when we arrived home and went to bed.

Today, Sunday, I went to church. It was so good to see people who I know! Everyone was so happy to see me and I was very glad to be there. After church I went to the Nádler’s house for lunch. We spent the afternoon talking and catching up. I saw them last summer for an afternoon, but have not kept up with them since then. They were very kind and told me to call them if I need anything. I feel so blessed by having relationships already established in Budapest. The afternoon was very pleasant. We looked at pictures from their most recent vacation, ate lots of ice cream, and had a good time.

I took another trip to TESCO after that and then headed home. This may have been more detail than you wanted for the past few days… but I process as I write!

Tomorrow I have to go to the school again. I think we will get our real schedules and get to meet the other English teachers. I am really excited!

Life on the Sziget...

Wednesday morning I finished packing, cleaned my room at WCIU, wrote my final emails, and said goodbye to a few teachers who were still around. Then Deanna, Joanna, Carice and I went to the Hungarian consulate to get our Passports. Thank God our Visa's had arrived (or we would have been in a tight spot) and we were able to fly on Wednesday.

When I got on the plane I was supposed to have a center seat, but the other two people in my row were together and wanted to sit next to each other... so I graciously gave up my center seat for the window... how awful (sarcasm). After we took off I did a few Sudoku puzzles... then slept the rest of the way. I only woke up once to eat dinner and slept straight through breakfast. The next time I woke up we were just 20 minutes from Frankfurt! We transferred successfully, then arrived in Budapest on time. Thank God our bags also arrive very quickly on the baggage claim. (We prayed over our bags before we checked in... no ones bags were overweight and they all arrived. Thank God.)

The Igazgato of our school, Janos, and the head English teacher, Agi, met us at the airport. They came in the schools minibus, which was good because we had a LOT of luggage. They took us to the Bazis where we live.

I will tell more later... at the moment I am exhausted. We have no internet at the Bazis so it is hard to keep updated. I will try though!

Please pray for everyone on our team to stay healthy and get over jet-lag soon.

Jet Lagged but Safe

This is just to tell you all that I arrived safely in Hungary on Thursday. My bags also arrived safely and it has been good so far... but HOT.

More to come ASAP.

Last Post in the USA

A special voice post for my last day in the states!

Listen!

TEFL Graduation

It is official: I have now completed the ESI TEFL training and am certified to teach English as a Foreign Language.

Our last week of training was not as intense. I only had to teach one night, and only two students showed up that night. We played Jeopardy! as our review game. It was a lot of fun. The next night we had a party with all of our students at Lake Avenue Church. It was really great. All of the students brought food for us to eat: Mexican, Armenian, American, Korean and other nationalities were represented in the cuisine. Each student received a certificate and each class performed a song, Jazz Chant, speech or skit. A few students gave a speech telling us how grateful they were for having great English teachers (I think it is debatable how good we were...) and for the time we spent teaching them. It was very touching and I think I will my students a little bit. Alas, it is time to move on to different students.

On Thursday the Hungary team got a shock: our airline is on strike! Lucky for us it was a "planned strike" by the pilots for next Tuesday and Wednesday, so our travel agent was able to get our money back (minus a processing fee). We were supposed to fly on Tuesday, but now it looks like it will be Wednesday or maybe Thursday. In some ways this works out better for us. Our visas have not arrived yet, even though they should have by now. Now we get an extra day to wait for them which is good because Monday is a holiday in Hungary so the consulate is closed. Also, I have some shoes in the mail that are supposed to arrive on Tuesday. And I had to get a new Ipod because my old one broke. I took it in, they ordered a new one, the new one came, the new one did not work, I took it in, they ordered me another new one and it should be in on Monday or Tuesday. These things make it better to leave a day or two later.

On Thursday my Mom came out. It has been really nice having her here. It is good to spend time with her, have help packing, and have someone to drive me around. Yesterday we drove up to Malibu with Crystal to have dinner at Cholada with Dri. It was sooooo good. I had my usual Pad Thai. It was really nice to catch up with Dri, especially since she just spent two weeks in Spain. We also ran into our friend Sarah B. from Pepperdine. It was good to see her real quick. She was really confused about why I was still in the states. We took a little drive up to Pepperdine to show Crystal around then went back to Pasadena. It was really fun and relaxing, even if it made for a long dinner trip.

This morning we had our "Graduation" for TEFL. Basically they handed us a certificate that says we took ESI's TEFL course. After that we had a really good time of worship, shared communion together and commissioned all of the teams. Tonight I am going to Calabasas for my last going away shindig. It should be fun. I am looking forward to seeing people one last time.

Ok... time to run...

Please pray for:
-Visas to come in ASAP!!!
-An Ipod that works
-Rest
-Packing to go well
-A cheap flight to Hungary
-Safe travel
-Hungary, Budapest, students
-Open hearts
-Peace

Funny Trash

I was just looking at the Budapest Daily Photo blog and found today's picture immensely amusing. Enjoy!


The words mean "Spiritual/Soul Trash Can." I could use one of those sometime.
(Photo property of Budapest Daily Photo.)

9 days

Three weeks of training down... one to go. I am extremely tired at this point and very ready to leave for Hungary.

This past week the focus was on team building. It was really good to have specific times set aside for this. I got to know Deanna and Joanna a lot better. It was also nice because with just the three of us it was easier for everyone to open up. Also very good this week was that they added in a lot more worship time. This was very welcome. Some days it was as a big group, one day just personal time, and one day with out team. We have all become a bit spiritually depleted as well as physically and mentally exhausted so these times were like water to my soul. It has been a blessing to serve others by singing on the worship team a few times.

The more I get to know the other people going to Central Europe and especially Hungary, the more thankful I am to God for every one of them. Each person brings a unique perspective on life, a different type of wisdom, great sense of humor, encouraging attitude and wealth of knowledge. I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone on a deeper level as we go through the trials of teaching and living overseas. I am also glad that others have shown their appreciation of me and what I bring to the group (mostly just that I speak Hungarian...)

I must admit that I am ready to be done with teaching practicum. I enjoy teaching our students, but it is difficult to not be able to plan a weeks worth of lessons because we have different groups some nights and never know what the other teacher is going to teach. Coordination is difficult and the lessons have been so scattered across the board it is hard to know what will be useful and helpful to our students. I only have one night of teaching left and we will probably just play review games. That should be fun.
A funny thing that one of my students did this last week: We were learning about proper letter format. I had everyone write a letter to a friend/family member. Enrico (not his real name) wrote a letter to his girlfriend/wife Fernanda (not sure if they are married, not her real name either.) The letter went something like this:
Dear Fernanda,
How are you? You are beautiful. I love you. I need your lips.
Love, your boyfriend,
Enrico
I thought this was so sweet and very amusing... (and he spelled lips=leps at first...)

Things to pray for:
-Give thanks to God that my finances have been sufficiently covered (but pray for the same to happen with other teachers...)
-Health and energy
-That I do well on the TEFL test on Thursday
-For my mom to arrive safely in CA on Thursday
-For relationships to continue to grow
-Hearts in Hungary/Budapest/at Kossuth Lajos to be open to God
-Spiritual health
-Positive attitude

May the Grace and Shalom of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you now and always!
<><

Half way there...

Two weeks from tomorrow I will be leaving the country. It feels very good to be done with half of training.
Major highlights of last week included:
-seeing my friend Jimmy on Sunday night,
-teaching Hungarian to the other teachers going to Budapest,
-playing ultimate Frisbee for two hours at night,
-eating dessert at Claim Jumper with the Central Europe teachers,
-going to the beach on Saturday, playing in the waves and having a bonfire
-teaching the very beginning level English students at practicum
-eating sushi and Roscoe's Chicken 'n Waffles instead of cafeteria food

It has been really good to get to know the other teachers even better this past week. More Alums have been coming and they have so much to share with us about being overseas, it is very helpful. Teaching Hungarian has been another challenge that I was only somewhat prepared for. Thankfully former teachers have outlined what is most helpful to know and Lidia made a accurate curriculum a few years ago (she is Hungarian... so that helps.) Some of the material is difficult to wade through because there are a lot of mistakes in spelling and accent marks (not in Lidia's stuff.) I end up having to create a new overhead for every class, but they have been giving me the night off of practicum on the days I teach Hungarian so that is nice.

This week is focused on team building and I am really excited to get to know Deanna and Joanna better. (Maybe I should change my name to Anna-shea to fit in with my team's 'Anna' theme...jk) Training is flying by and I am so excited to get to Hungary!

My mom is going to fly out here right before I leave. I am really glad about that. For those in SoCal I will probably have a going away party a few days before I leave...

Things to pray about:
-team unity with Deanna, Joanna and the newly renamed 'Anna-shea'
-health and sleep
-brain like a sponge to absorb everything we learn about teaching
-grace in relationships
-humility (for me...)
-Budapest as a whole
-my future students

May the Grace and Shalom of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.