Summer Has Begun

Summer is in full gear!

Our English Camp outreach is only 7 weeks away, and we already have over 90 kids signed up. Please join us in praying that God would do a great work through this camp. We are starting a prayer chain; if you would like to join it, please write us an email or a comment, and we'll include you.

We have a great balcony on our house. One of my favorite things in the summer is to sit out on the balcony during a thunderstorm and watch the lightning - God's fireworks.

Yesterday Rosemary went out and got a table for the balcony, so we can eat and drink coffee and read out there. We've only had it for 2 days, but we have already gotten a lot of use out of it.
Nate was excited about it, and told me he wanted to drink a coffee with me (his was chocolate milk) at the new table.




In other news, Felicia is cuter by the day:

Gyermeknap / Children's Day

When I was growing up I remember asking my parents why there is a Mothers Day and a Fathers Day, but no Children's Day. The answer: "because every day is children's day!"

Then when I moved to Hungary, and found out that they don't have a Fathers Day - the same explanation was given: "because every day is Fathers Day!"

But, although there is no Fathers Day in Hungary - they do have a Children's Day. And I must say that now that I have kids, this is one of my favorite holidays.

Here in Eger, they have a Children's Day festival every year in the Érsekkert - the city park.
We'd never gone before, until today, when we packed up the kids and went down to the park. We all had a great time.

Here is a video of our time at the park. Make sure to check out Balázs' very bling necklace that he picked up from a vendor...

Adora-calves

Adora-calf: n. A young version of an adora-bull.

Óvoda Évzáró

Yesterday Nate's óvoda (preschool) had their end of the year show for the parents, in which the kids performed songs and nursery rhymes.

Nate loves these programs, and we love going to them.

We were very proud of our little boy :)

The teachers said that he loves to perform, and sometimes stands in front of the other kids and sings songs in English for them.

Here's a video of yesterday's performance:

Perspective

There are quite a few Dutch people in Hungary, and the other day I was talking with one of my Dutch friends, and asked him what exactly it is about Hungary that attracts people from Holland to move here.

I found his answers very interesting, because what he told me about what Dutch people see in Hungary - although valid - for me, coming from the US, many of these things were just the opposite of my perspective on Hungary!

Here is what he said Dutch people see when they look at Hungary:

1. A Big Country.
   Hungary is 3 times the size of the Netherlands, so I can see why they would see Hungary as a large country.
   Coming from the States, obviously I saw Hungary as a very small country.
   
2. Low Population Density.
   There are less than 10 million people in Hungary - the Netherlands has a population of 16 million in a country one third the size of Hungary.
   For me, however, coming from Colorado - Hungary seemed absolutely packed with people.
3. Mountains!
   I've never been to Holland, but according to my friend, they don't have any mountains there. Here in Hungary, however, there are mountains!
   Obviously, for me, coming from Colorado, I would be hesitant to use the term mountains in regard to Hungary - although I must say that I do love the Mátra and the Bükk very much!
4. It's Not Sinking.
   Ok, I have to agree with this one. Hungary is not sinking - and that is good!

I guess it just goes to show that how you see things depends a lot on your perspective.

Laura

The other night at dinner I was telling Rosemary about this article I read on Time talking about the benefits of staying married.

Nate was at the table and asked what "married" meant, so we started talking about it.

We explained marriage to him, and what a wedding is like - and then asked him if he wanted to get married, to which he said "Yes!"

So, we asked him who he wanted to get married to, and started with his friends from church (we want him to marry a believer :)

"Do you want to marry Lídia?" "No, I don't want to marry Lídia."

"Do you want to marry Korni?" "No, I don't want to marry Korni."

"What about Adél?" "No, I don't want to marry kids!"

"Oh, so do you want to marry an older woman?" "Yes, I want to marry an old woman!"

"Someone from church? Judit? Kati? Réka? Ilona?" "No, no, no!"

"I want to marry Laura!"

Who is Laura? At Nate's óvoda (preschool), a little girl walks up to me and says - "Engem Laurának hívnak" (My name is Laura).

Nate is one of the youngest kids in his class, but I don't think Laura is too much older than him, but apparently in his mind, she is mature enough for him.

Yesterday Rosemary went to pick Nate up at óvoda and asked which little girl is Laura - she just happened to be walking by at that moment and Nate told Rosemary: "I like Laura!" "Oh, her hair!"

I don't know if Laura knows how Nate feels yet, but I just hope she's a believer :)

How to Use a Dacia

A while back I wrote a post called "Why I Love My Dacia".

Over the past few weeks my beloved car has been put to the test, and I am more satisfied with it than ever.

A few weeks ago I got a call in the middle of the night from a friend whose car had broken down in Füzesabony and needed me to tow him to Debrecen. His car had actually broken down while he was towing someone else. Dacia did great towing his car 100 km to Debrecen.

Last week we took a family trip - and put almost 3000 km on the car.
It ran great and fit all our stuff comfortably. It had no problem in the alps, even with 6 people and a bunch of stuff weighing it down.

Here's how the trip went:

Day 1: Eger - Millstatt, Austria. 775 km.



Day 2: Millstatt - Freilassing, Germany - Millstatt. 312 km.
Went to pick up my friend who came by train from Germany.



Day 3: Millstatt - Gmünd, Austria - Tarvisio, Italy - Millstatt. 191 km.
We went to a Porsche museum in Gmünd, and then went to Italy to eat lunch and visit a scenic lake in the mountains.



Day 4: Millstatt - Salzburg - Millstatt. 317 km.
Taking my friend back to the train station.

Day 5: Millstatt - Grado, Italy - Millstatt. 448 km.
Went to the beach in Italy. Had a great time, with great weather.



Day 6: Millstatt - Eger. 775 km.

Total: 2818 km (1751 mi.)

It was a good trip, but we're glad to be out of the car...

Felicia and Her Airplane

Laghi di Fusine, Italy

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GOOD Morning

Any morning that begins with this view is a good morning.

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An Interesting Day

Today I was at McDonald's with the kids, and when we were getting ready to leave, a parade started going by, with a marching band and all, filling up the whole street. We were in a bit of a hurry, and I could see that it was going to take a while for the parade to pass - and it was going in the same direction as where my car was parked - so the kids and I joined the parade!

People were taking pictures and video of us walking in the parade - and for the first couple of minutes I didn't even know what kind of parade we had joined; I was just hoping it wasn't a "love parade"!

Turns out the parade was for alternative energy vehicles, and once we got closer to where our car was parked, we ducked out and went on our way.

Other things that happened today:

• The screen on my computer died...which was really bad timing as I have an assignment due for school next week and all my notes are on this laptop. Thankfully I was able to get it fixed right away...but it wasn't cheap...
  I've had quite a few problems with this Toshiba laptop in the short 2 years I've had it.
  

• They recently introduced paying for parking by text message in Eger, so I tried it, and then when I came back to my car I had a big red parking ticket waiting for me. Hopefully I can get that worked out.

• At one point today I told Nate that I am going to take him to Austria and we will see a castle in the mountains. Later on I heard him talking about how excited he is to go to the castle in the mountains where there are ostriches :) Hopefully he won't be disappointed on our trip - or else, hopefully we will happen upon some ostriches!

Miskolc Zoo

We kept Nate home from óvoda today because we were planning to go out to a village (Feldebrő) where a friend of ours is from, and take the kids to see some farm animals - something they absolutely love doing.

But when we called that we were ready to go, our friend said it wasn't a good day for her. So, since we had already kept Nate home from "school", we were determined to take the kids to see some animals.

We had heard about a small zoo in Gyöngyös, and thought we might go there, since it's not too much further than Feldebrő - but then we realized that Miskolc is just as close as Gyöngyös, and they have a zoo that we'd never been to.

So we went. And it was good.
It wasn't the biggest or best zoo I've ever been to, but for little kids it was perfect, and it is in a great location in the forest.

Here are some pictures from the zoo: