back to the zoo

i went to the zoo with annamari, eszter, and dani today. the weather was nice today so it was the perfect time to go. we got to see a seal show (sorry no pics/video because the sun was in our eyes) and lots of cool animals. the zoo is set in the forest andyou can walk around in it for what seems like miles!

here i am waiting for them to collect me

lazy raccoons

eszter! (and some lazy raccoons)

aw, we let that little deer lick our fingers

seeeee?

you can get SO close to some of the animals!

selling nuts and seeds

balloons were so tempting to eszter...

gift shop!

hungry giraffe lickin' a tree

lookin' at her lookin' at them...

dani is a walkin' machine!

cutie

some animals are in the same enclosures with different animals

muah! love her

teeny tiny monkey... holding a banana with his feet

this is not on zoom

gotta love the signs: please don't feed the animals

hahaha

we walked around, ate some ice cream, took pictures, named everything, and got tired. a good day, don't ya think? (sorry no pics of annamari this time)

when they got home annamari sent me this pic of them:

back in nyiregyhaza

it was aniko's birthday last week so i went to her place to help her celebrate. (she doesn't like/allow having her picture taken...see?)
her aunt/godmother, her sister, her mom
this is what they were eating: dobos torte - ummm, delicious!
another day i met with my hungarian teacher, Edit (eh-deet) to have some ice cream and catch up. we met up in the city center and had a nice little chat.
hers was kiwi, pear, and cherry -on the left
mine was chocolate, stracciatella, and turo rudi (all very good, especially good together!)
i had my camera and the city center was charming me on the way to meet with Edit....
roman catholic church (whose bells ring for 5 full minutes at noon and 6pm)
one of a billion sidewalk cafes. love them!
evangelical church. every town/city/village in hungary seems to have a big yellow church. i now live behind the one in nyiregyhaza. here it is:
my street
the other day my friend janos came over. he has been to the US several times and when i asked him what he missed from america he said - this is not a joke - beef jerky. so i told a friend, leia, and when she sent me a package here she included a pack of jerky for this guy. he couldn't have been happier. seriously.
and then there's xander. sleeping in new and unpredictable places all the time. the flash woke him up. sorry, bubba!

camp

i was in budapest for an english/hungarian VBS camp type thing for a week. there was a team of americans from College Hill Presbyterian Church in ohio who came to love on some kids here. the theme was "american cowboy" and man, they really went all out. there were bandanas everywhere, line dancing, cowboy/country crafts, games, snacks, music, and phrases. our groups were the longhorns, broncos, buckaroos, colts, rangers, and mustangs.

here are the LONGHORNS!
szabi, zoli, zoya, betti, lilla, tami (bethany and i are in the back)

welcome! (god brought you)the ones who made it all happen
HERE are some more camp pictures

jam with kathy

i've never made jam before, but kathy - of "joe and kathy" aka my hosts for the 10 days i was in budapest - is a jam-aholic. so we went to work!
first up: raspberries!
we also did THIS:
to THESE: (apricots)
mmm mmm good! and now that i know how to make jam, and it's really easy, i think i'll do it myself some time. can't be homemade jam, now can ya?

hijacked!

in 2003 i came to hungary and taught english in a refugee camp. the program who sent me is still sending people to do the same thing. last week i had the chance to take this year's team to the camp and help get them acclimated to hungary and living in a refugee camp. it was surreal to be back at the place and i'm glad i could see it agian.

some guy drove us there (about 3 hours from budapest) who didn't speak any english, so i was seriously using my hungarian. he was a nice guy, jozsef. he decided to pass some car on a two lane road and the team and i were ok with that. then he decided to pass the car in front of that... but there was a semi coming on the other side. we were getting nervous and then scared and then terrified! i'm not exaggerating when i say we missed the semi - who didn't slow down at all either!- by about 10 feet. 10 FEET!!! none of us could breathe or think of anything else after that brush with death for about half an hour. i told him we were all scared and he assured me that he's a professional driver and everything was under control. o.m.g.

from what joe and kathy (the organizers of the refugee camp english teacher relationship) told me, i understood that he was going to take me and the team to the refugee camp, then drive me back to budapest. well, he had other plans (unbeknownst to me!). he was going to some other city to leave the van there and pick up his own car which he would then drive to budapest. he didn't tell me that until we were at the refugee camp! so we drove to the camp in southern hungary, then to the city where his car was in northeast hungary, then back to budapest in central hungary. it was about 5 hours! obviously we were best friends by the end.

somewhere in the country we saw this...