end of the semester

It's the end of the semester and in this upcoming week I have two more classes with my students. I'm very excited.

I came down hard with a sickness, tonsillitis, where I lost my voice and I slept a lot. I'd say I'm almost fully recovered and today I'm hoping to get much accomplished.

My sister and my mom come in 1 week and I can hardly stand it! I'm so excited to see them, spend Christmas with them and have lots of fun! Woohoooo!

Can you believe its only two-weeks before Christmas?! Better get to shopping!!

Have a great week!

Joanna

Video Will Made

Here's a video Will has been working on for the past few weeks and it does an awesome job representing our partners here in Budapest!

30 before 30

So, I hear all about people doing these things before they turn a certain age.. well since next September is my 30th birthday (oh my gosh) let's see what I can come up with.

1. marry Will (pending)
2. Bake a Souffle
3. Knit a Baby Sweater for a friend's new baby
4. See a New European City (not including Brussels)
5. Start writing my Textbook (2 Chapters)
6. See Taylor Swift in Concert
7. Attend a Stitch & B**** in Budapest (knitting group)
8. Start Compost in my apartment
9. Write an article about TESOL in Hungary
10. Plant a Spring Herb Garden on my Balcony
11. Go to the Villany Wine Region
12. Make Felted Slippers
13. Go out in Budapest and do some night-time photography
14. Make Cinnamon Rolls from Scratch
15. Fit into my Skinny Jeans
16. Finish the Nanny Diaries
17. Read Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
18. Be able to run 3 miles again
19. Write a letter in Hungarian
20. Prayer Journal every day till 30
21. Go to a Nat's game
22. Make Creme Brulee
23. Go on a Danube River Cruise
24. Buy an antique-real deal
25. Write a handwritten letter every week
26. Make a Korean food dish
27. Memorize 10 Bible Verses
28. Learn how to say hello in a new language
29. Go to Robert Dinero's New Restaurant
30. Win Dutch Blitz against Sharon Bauer and Ashley Romig

Prague

For Will's fall break we went to Prague to visit some of my dear friends the Stewarts. It was a refreshing to hang out with dear friends and enjoy a beautiful city.

On Friday evening we were able to go to the main square and pray over the sex trade, prostitution and deliverance of the city! It was moving and motivated Will and I to begin praying more here. We will begin praying over certain parts of our district for deliverance and a great work to be done in our lives here. Pretty Exciting.

Click here for Will's pics on Facebook

a surprising conversation

Nowadays, the sun goes down early and when I'm going home its already dark. I don't mind so much because my commute includes the beautiful castle, churches and bridges lit up at night. Last night, as I was riding the old, rickety and loud tram I was reading my newest subscription of the Economist.. finding out what's going in the Elections. Anways, as we approached a stop there were tons of sirens and lights. It turned out to be a diplomat or ambassador of sorts I'm sure. The lady sitting across from me pointed it out to me and said a few things about who it might be. I smiled and said, yes I'm sure it was someone like that becasue of the police. (remember this was all in Hungarian)

We approached the Kossuth Lajos Ter stop where I ride the long escalator to the metro when we both got off, walked across the cross walk and started down the metro together. She asked me something and I said, I speak English but if you speak slow and loud I can usually understand. She repeated herself and we started on the typical conversation about.. Why am I here? What do I do? Do I like it? How are the students? We arrived at the bottom of the escalator and the metro was waiting there so we sped up and got on and continued our conversation (let's remember this NEVER happens). As we kept talking about life here in Bp for me I said, I'm getting off the next stop and she was so sad so she got off to talk some more.

So, we stood, amidst the hustle and bustle of rush hour traffic at Batthany Ter metro platform. We had a conversation. I had things to do, people to see, but knew that this woman at this moment was much more important. She was around 60 years old and about 5 feet tall. She had soft eyes. We kept talking and she asked me to guess her occupation. I said writer and she said exactly. We then talked about her books and she said a bunch of words I wasn't positive about but I know that she writes about Philosophy and the Spiritual realm. We talked about this not being just a "chance" meeting. She gave me her name card and asked me to keep in touch, that perhaps we could meet for coffee someday.

As she re-boarded the metro (after watching 3 go by) she said, Isten aldod! (God bless you) and I went up a second escalator to take the commuter train. Thinking, Praying for my new friend Katalin.

This is what its all about right? Talking to people, taking advantage of divine opportunities and for me... learning that I MUST work on my Hungarian.

the 28th..already

It is hard to believe that it is already the 28th of October..
... I get a daily e-mail that counts down the wedding.. courtsey of Project Wedding.. and it is crazy to think that it is in 269 days.. so few compared to the 400 something when we first got engaged.
... I went to Vienna last week for some much needed girl time with my friends and it was refreshing and lots of fun.
... Will, Johanna and I leave for Prague tomorrow at 430pm to hang out with the Stewarts for a long weekend as Monday is a holiday in Europe. I'm looking foward to time with them and hopefully some sweet Prague city Engagement Shots ;)
... I'm getting excited for the next two months as some neat opportunities have presented themselves and hopefully Will and I can take advantage of them!
... I need to read more, exercise more and pray more....

Will is thinking of doing a fast for a few weeks.. maybe I'll start contemplating that too..its always good to do without in this soceity and media focused world.

october update

I can't believe it's half way through October. Time is flying by here and it seems that every day is amazing and enjoyable. We've been up to a lot but some of it is just resting and nesting for me. I'm still trying to put pieces of the house together and decorate here and there. I got a pumpkin for Fall and a Mum and I brought out a few Haloween decorations and even bought some festive color candles.

School has been an incredible blessing. I love teaching my students and it is a lot of fun to meet with them twice a week. I only teach at the University twice per week but let me tell you, the prep and grading that goes into is a lot of work. My students require high level English and they ask great questions about the perfect tenses!

I have two private students whom I've really grown to love teaching. One is Korean and the other is Vietnamese. We are prepping for the TOEFL for both of them so that requires a lot of prep.

Will and I started going to a house church. We had our first meeting on Tuesday and it was incredible. Will and I are both very excited about this community. I'm meeting with Susan today for some lunch (we are both educators so that is always great). We are excited to be involved and hopefully a more permanent fixture in this meeting.

We got all of the residency papers submitted. It was nowhere near the process that I had endured before and I'm so grateful for that. I think it helps that I speak Hungarian and that I know where to get things. Next year will be a breeze.

Thursday Nights have been an English Club that we are heading up. That has been great too. I'm hoping for more students and luring them in with Brownies. This is a great time for college students to meet from all around the world and hang out. I'm planning a few excursions and hopefully some guest speakers!

I hope all is well with those out there. I'll try to blog more ;)

Here's what I've cooked in the past month..
apple pie, pumpkin bars, butternut squash soup, cheddar meat loaf, curry, brownies