Pictures of our new apartment--back from November!

We are a little late in posting this. We were kind of busy with Prague and the Christmas events that we didn't have time for it. So here it is.

We moved into a new apartment right before Thanksgiving Break. Our old place was okay but we needed to get out of there. It was in a "sketchy" part of town and no where near where we worked so we asked for a change. Our contact found us this new place and we like it much better so far. I only walk 10 minutes to my school. Also we are right by the Tram so it is a quick and frequent ride back into the main square whenever we need it. 

Our "Living Room" 

Our living room. This group of couches
 was bound together when we arrived
 and we just left it. I call it our "sultans Layer".
 We chill on it when we watch TV on our laptop. 

My closet and our book shelf. 

The balcony that goes out from our living room. 

Our much nicer and larger drying rack! 

Our little washer and sink. I was standing
 in the tub when I took this picture

Our hallway. Our Colbert bag is ready
 for us to take to the grocery. We love
the looks we get when we are using it. :) 

Exiting to the central stairs in our building.  

The way out.

Another fun "shelf toilet."

Our much larger kitchen.

Another small fridge.

Our bedroom and Dana's closet.

One of the snowy views from our balcony.

Dana and I have also lost weight. We have eaten less and walked much more than we did back home. Also we don't eat Blue Bell Ice Cream all the time. :) I have been surprised every time I have put on my clothes and they feel looser. I tried on my shorts from the summer and Dana said she had to take a picture.

Being weird for the picture as not to look uncomfortable :)

Dana is too shy to take a picture showing her stuff. But she looks great! We are both excited to move back and not feel weird in a swim suit. I also don't feel like a wad of lard running around when I play tennis here.  - By Ben

Good Ol' Americana

People I meet in Hungary often ask me what I miss about home? The first things I mention are family and friends and our dog, but after that it all starts to blur together. Food is usually at the top of my list too. Not that the food in Hungary isn't good, and we can find many things in the grocery, but one thing is usually at the top of my list...Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Bread. You see I have been eating this bread for toast since I was a baby practically. For 25 years I have always had my toast in the morning, call me a creature of habit. Now you may say, but isn't there good bread to eat in Hungary? Can't you make toast? Sorry, but if you have never had Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Bread then you won't understand my dilemma. It's that good! They don't sell it in Hungary and trust me I did my research even before I came to the country. I knew what I was getting myself into, but it doesn't make it any easier. 

So you can imagine my sheer joy when I opened a package from Ben's parents with a loaf of Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Bread in it (there were other many wonderful treats in there as well). My mouth was watering as soon as I saw the cinnamon swirl delight. I probably could have composed a love poem to the bread right then...but instead I greedily took a slice and munched down. I did share a slice with Ben, so he shared in my happiness (and it was his parents who sent it after all!). 

Another item of food we missed was BBQ sauce, being from Texas, BBQ sauce is practically in a food group of its own. We have found BBQ type sauce here in Hungary, but lets face it folks it just isn't the same! We received BBQ sauce from our friend Teresa and from Ben's grandfather, Daddy E and cousin, Kelly. Thanks to all of them our chicken will be tasty once more. They also, all sent many more things in the mail. Teresa sent Beatles playing cards and candy canes. Daddy E and Kelly sent so many delicious items it probably should warrant its own separate blog post in the future. 

Lastly, we also received a package from my Mom and Step Dad. They sent many goodies for my school teaching like language CD's, stickers, Valentine's Day items, and peanut butter. Oh the sweet nectar of peanut butter---and not just any old peanut butter--Skippy Peanut Butter! Once again they sell peanut butter in Hungary (it can be found in the 'world' section at Tesco), but it just isn't the same as back home. Why peanut butter has not caught on in Hungary is besides me. These people love sandwiches so you would think it would be a perfect fit, but not so. If you have a peanut allergy come to Hungary because as far as I can tell peanuts are not a very big part of life here. Okay I take that back, they do eat peanuts/nuts and sell lots of them too! They just hardly sell any peanut butter. Maybe it's not that Hungarians don't like peanut butter, they just haven't had Skippy Peanut Butter yet! Well, watch out Hungary...I'm about to rock your world.

Me cradling my mini muffins, cinnamon bread and BBQ sauce! 

Ben holding pretzel M&M's and BBQ sauce!

Ben has found nirvana with all this delicious food!

Happy to have a piece of Americana in Hungary with me. 

P.S. if you work for Skippy or Pepperidge Farm and would like to send me more...please leave a comment below this post and I will be in contact with you shortly! Thanks! :)

Welcome to Debrecen, we will be your tour guides!

If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would be giving a tour around a European city...I would have laughed in your face. And then I would have been like, "What no way!" Well, today me and Ben did just that--we gave a tour around Debrecen.

A few days ago we were contacted by a new couple, Kit and Chip that had just arrived in Debrecen. They are semi-retired, and have been traveling around teaching in different countries for the last 5 years. They have traveled all around the world--from China, Japan, Mexico to South America and now Hungary. Chip will be teaching at the University. They invited us to dinner at their apartment--which we gladly accepted. They had many questions about Hungary and Debrecen. It was neat to be able to share what we have learned so far from being here with them. We offered to take them around on a tour of Debrecen to help them learn their way around the city.

Today we took them on a tour of Debrecen. We hit all the highlights--the Mediterranean center, different shops for groceries, the Forum (mall), our favorite coffee and pastry shops, random buildings of interest, the main square and even Tesco. Chip and Kit are close to our parents age--so it was fun yet weird to be the ones in charge taking them around the city.

But what I really realized today was just how far me and Ben have come since we first arrived in Hungary--especially Debrecen. When we arrived in Debrecen we had little--to no idea of how to get around. We couldn't even find the biggest landmark in the city--the Big Calvin Church! Our first day in the city was so strange. We had no food, no car, no bus tickets, no map, and we knew even less hungarian than we do now (hard to believe right?). But we made it through and now almost 6 months later we are helping the newest arrivals to the city get acclimated. I'm not going to lie, I'm proud of what we have accomplished and more importantly what we have survived.

Hopefully we made their transition to living in Debrecen a little easier. We hope they enjoyed the tour...and who knows maybe we could become professional tour guides one day if this teaching thing ever falls through. Ha, ha. :)

Ben's Christmas Presentation

Setting up for the presentation.

Can you guess the topic?

Ben presenting 

Ben's students

Ben's students

I was asked by my school to give a presentation about Christmas. Apparently multilingual high schools from all over Debrecen were attending. I asked what they wanted me to do. They said that I was expected to give a presentation about Christmas in America for about 10-15 minutes. I said, “I would love to!” I had a week to think of what I wanted to present. I tried to figure out whether I should go historical or more recent. I decided to approach it as if the audience wanted to know what Christmas would be like if they visited the States. So I put together a slide show for the event.

A group of 15 of my students and a few teachers including my contact, Eniku, traveled with me to the event. Dana met us there. I felt bad because she had waited for about 1/2 hr for us so she was chilled to the bone. It has been between 10 and 33 degrees for the last 2 months! We got inside and I was assigned a name tag with the British flag (for English) and the words “number 1 teacher.” I laughed and thought “that’s about right”:) I discovered that I was the first presenter, hence the “#1 teacher.” Our friend Nancy was there but she lucked out. She was assigned British Christmas but got out of it. One of my brightest students was my translator when I was called up.

I opened with my name and Fort Worth Texas of course. The first slide was about music. I talked about the Carpenters and Elvis in honor of my parents. I also mentioned Sinatra, The Muppets, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby. I also talked about my childhood memories of driving to see family after Christmas and listening to “KLUV Oldies 98.7” play Christmas music all day. I then spoke about airline travel being crazy around the holidays. I then moved on to road trip travel to visit family for the holidays. The next topic was movies playing for the holidays. I included A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, The Grinch, The Santa Clause, It’s Wonderful Life, and Charlie Brown. I flowed into television specials by including The Simpsons, South Park, and Friends. I then explained some American traditions. Some traditions were the White House and Capital Tree, houses with lights, festivals, and “The Night Before Christmas”. I also explained how in the States children believe that Santa brings gifts on Christmas Eve by coming down the chimney. I also mentioned how children left milk and cookies for him. This was funny because I had learned that Hungarian children have a different view. They think that Santa comes on Dec. 6th. On Christmas Eve baby Jesus comes and puts presents under the tree with the help of angels.

After smashing the beliefs of a few children in the crowd that I hadn’t noticed until after my statement I moved on :(. I explained Black Friday and Christmas shopping madness. I showed some traditional treats like gingerbread, hot chocolate, sugar cookies, and candy canes. I also showed a typical Christmas meal with turkey and ham as well. I then closed with a picture of a candle light Christmas Eve service. I had intended to close with a You Tube video of a house with lights set to music but the internet was down.

Everyone seemed to like it and I asked them to clap for my student translator and then sat down. I then got to witness another American having to do British Christmas while nervous and trying to present far too much material. He was nice and meant well, but people seemed a little lost. We then watched France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. We had a few snacks and then came home to prepare for our holiday trip that you have been reading about. I really enjoyed doing the presentation and hopefully the audience wasn’t lost too much in translation.

Geneva: The journey toward home

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” ~Don Williams, Jr.

We spent a day and a half in Geneva, Switzerland before heading home to Hungary. We enjoyed many sites in Geneva, but many places were still closed because of the New Year holiday. Geneva is located in the French speaking part of Switzerland, which made it almost like going to another country. We almost went to France for the heck of it--we were only a couple miles away, but decided to be lazy. We love France, but there is only so much traveling you can put yourself through. What I mean is there is only so much you can see on a trip and then you hit a "wall." You can only appreciate so many new things and sites before it all starts to blur together. At least in my case this is true. I use to think I had to see the whole world--and do it fast, but now I'm not so sure. I am starting to feel content with how much I am seeing, but also that I don't need to rush it all at once either. I guess you could say I'm starting to learn to slow down--enjoy the simple things of travel. 

I think the best moments of this winter break trip were when we were in a leisurely mood. Like when we were strolling the streets of Vienna, smelling the fresh Salzburg air, or walking across historical bridges in Lucern and Bern. Those are the memories I will truly cherish. I think that is why I was so happy to end our travels and go back to Hungary. Living in Hungary has taught me to appreciate the little things in life more. The absence of family, friends and our pup also made me appreciate our native home even more.

It was a bitter sweet holiday this year, but we learned to get through it and hopefully came out better people for it in the long run. We will always look back at our winter break in Austria and Switzerland with fondness. We are happy we did it, but we also look forward to the future....where ever that journey may lead.

The fountain of Geneva. 

The streets of Geneva were decorated for Christmas, but with
a pac-man twist. Ben thinks this may be a good idea for
our future decorating...what do you think?

A strange art piece in the tree.

McDonald's is McExpensive in Switzerland.

Beautiful money.

Wrapping Up 10 Years of Experiences

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true” ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Paul Klee Museum of Art in Bern.

Folded snow--Paul Klee would approve.

Bern in the sun.

The Parliament building.

Overlooking the city on the last night of 2010. 

We spent our last day of 2010 in Bern, Switzerland. We started the day by going to Paul Klee Museum of art. Our ticket also got us into the main art museum as well in the old town.  Both places had some modern art work on the 7 deadly sins that were interesting to say the least. After that we decided to walk around old town again. The sun finally came out after what felt like months of overcast. The city was beautiful in the sunlight. We hiked down the hilly slope toward the river to get a closer look. We read that during the summer people can jump in and ride the current for quite a ways. The water was clear and the views looking up at the city were pretty. We strolled along the river and just enjoyed another nice day in Europe.

After that we explored a few shops that were not closed for New Year's Eve. It began to grow darker and we decided to look for a restaurant since they would be closing early. We found an italian place, again. They let us in but said we only had 1 hour to eat. I know that sounds like plenty to our American friends. However, meals usually take about 2 hours or more in Europe. People here like to enjoy their meals and prolong the experience. We ordered a pizza and some tiramisu to celebrate the occasion. 

Afterwards we headed out into the night to take in the last evening in 2010. We went to the main church of Berne, the Münster.  We looked at it and some other sights as well. We just walked around and talked about the last 10 years. I realized that 10 years ago I was taking World History in high school. There is no way I could have known that I would be in Switzerland 10 years later celebrating New Years. Not only that, but I would teach the subject for 3 years as well. We thought about all of the changes in the world and in our lives for those 10 yrs. We talked about the crazy politics and wars that took place. We listed all our experiences like weird exes and goofy college moments. We realized that we had visited 13 countries in that time. Of which 11 were in 2010. As we talked we walked up a bluff and looked out over the city. It was beautiful and made us continue to think. We listed our 10 favorite things of the last ten years. Of course, meeting each other was #1. I mentioned my niece and nephew being born, my parents retiring, and of course teaching. Dana mentioned her step father, college, and our dog. Our working in and exploring Europe made the list as well.  We truly felt that we have been very blessed with our experiences and were looking forward to the future. We then heard the bells ring around the city as the new year began. It made us excited for the future and proud of our personal triumphs of the past.

We later Skyped with our families since we were so far ahead in time. We joked that we were "calling from the future." It was nice to talk to them. They have been very supportive and it means the world to us. So with that 2011 began! --by Ben.