I've got gas..

Satt

Dananna
Kiam

It's really great! The workers came in my flat this morning, connected the gas-connector-thing and my gas works. Viola! Here's a pic of the wonderful thing that supplies my flat with gas that heats my water, makes my oven and stove work, and heats my flat.

The workers' job made an incredible mess in our flat. Tuesday, the old main gas line was removed and replaced with a new one, the one you see here on the left. Fortunetly, the smaller gas lines did not need to be replaced . Our entire place was covered with white dust. It will be a long time before our flat will be clean again. We will need to wash most of our dishes, our curtains, our floors, our cabinets...

BUT PRAISE GOD, WE HAVE GAS!!

The other pictures are us having fun with my camera's coupling feature. We were gathered to celebrate Sarah Jane's b-day. Happy Birthday, Sarah Jane!

Forecast: Sunny and Touchy

Soomi and I went to the park to read today. It was beautiful and sunny. A man walked out of his way to approach us and spoke to us in Italian, continued in Hungarian, and offered his hand to Soomi. When she didn’t take his hand, he reached the back of his hand toward Soomi and gently stroked her forearm, and then he stroked mine, in English said “bye bye” and continued to his previous course. Weird.

On our way home while we were waiting for the tram, a man approached Soomi as if he were going to ask her a question. But instead, he raised his hand and cupped Soomi’s head like he was going to kiss her, he didn’t kiss her, but he turned and walked away. Again, weird. Our tram arrived, we got on, and we went home.

Le garçon et moi

Everyday brings new surprises. My teaching day wasn’t actually really long, but it felt like one of the longest days. After three of five lessons, I was ready for bed! One of those lessons was practically a perfect lesson with every student speaking English and having fun with it. One of those lessons was a “club” lesson and we played some games.

After school when I arrived at the subway, a man was playing the accordion. I have a particular fondness of accordion music because my dad always played it when we were on the road on vacation. It was lovely and nostalgic. His accordion’s brand name was Roland which is my pa’s middle name too. Ahh.

Also, there was another man preaching Christ with paint and a canvas. He told a story as he painted. I respect that. I really like seeing people passionate about sharing the love of Christ.

Chit-Chat

I really love teaching. I love communicating with my students in and out of the classroom. And I really enjoy the rare happenings when there is time to chat with my co-workers. Normally we’re coming or going from a class, and usually the language barrier is a hindrance to deep conversation. Today I was able to chat with one co-worker for 45 minutes, and then I chatted with another one for another 45 minutes. After that, a student stopped by my office to talk. It is really enjoyable to build relationships with people. It is who God created us to be. We are relational beings. There is no way around that.

My personal theme for the year is “This is the year” (quite appropriate). I’m learning what that exactly means myself.

Reason #1 This is the year I will see change in my school.
I don’t mean to be vague, but I believe it is true. And that is why I told you about having conversations with my colleagues. It’s gotta start somewhere, (though it started several years ago) and these are events that make the theme true.

"My favorite colour: sanguine"

A student's goal: "My dream is that. I would like more university than my best friend, so four."

Scrambled Eggs

I had truly fried scrambled eggs this morning. Soomi borrowed two hot-pad electric burners. They are sitting on top of our non-working stove. Oh, and tomorrow? I'll probably fry some more eggs. Happy me.

Posta Patience

I had a great day. Teaching, running errands, pretty much everything was good. I got home, did a few chores, and left again for a "quick" stop at the post office. The post office is just around the corner, and well, "quick" isn't the word many word use to describe the post office. The Hungarian post office is used for many things, and many of those I don't think I know about. You send letters, you send packages, you pay bills including gas, electric, insurance...you think of it, I think you pay it there. Like I said, I know there are more, I just don't remember or know what they are.
So back to going to the post office. I got there, there wasn't a long line. My hungarian is better than the last few years, but it still isn't good. I told her what I wanted and I almost successfully communicated what I wanted. After settling the confusion, she started getting stamps for my letters. Then once she got all the correct stamps, she asked me something, I nodded, and she closed her window and pulled the curtains. Apparently, I shouldn't have nodded. So, I waited, and waited a bit longer. The Hungarian behind me told me that I spoke pretty Hungarian and that I need to wait. So, wait some more I did. I heard change clinking. I think she was counting out her cash... After only 5 minutes (it wasn't too long, but my lack of understanding and wishing I hadn't nodded, made it seem longer than 5 minutes), she opened the curtain and the window, added my total for the stamps, and I paid. But then the bill I gave her was too large and she didn't have change for it... Fortunately, I had a smaller bill.
And now that I had patience to load the pic, I don't have the patience to figure how I can rotate it. Hmm.

not only is this the year

This is also the month. I need help and prayer and health. Our building had a gas leak, so the gas has been turned off for 9 days now. Fortunately, it was recognized, otherwise, we all could have been blown away. A meeting was held last night to tell the owners of these apartments that they need funding to repair it and it will take AT LEAST 3 weeks to get the job done. Additionally, there is a funky smell in the stairwells because of water in the basement (I think because, another problem, the roof leaks which also needs fixing) and that needs to be cleaned because typhoid could be an issue.
It's funny. It must be God (what I'm about to say). I'm still excited about this year. I'm still very happy to be here. I don't want to tuck my tail between my legs and run. I want to begin and finish this year with a flourish. I have the beginning part down:-) I have plenty of reasons to complain, but when I think about the victims of Katrina, and other parts of the world who have it much worse than me, I'm thankful. I'm alive and well...mostly. I'm still breathing, I'm still getting showers albeit them being cold, and I still am eating. How can I complain?

Jet laglaglaglag

I have never had jet lag this bad before. This is going on 2 weeks and a few days. I'm ready to feel normal again. Though, I haven't felt healthy, really healthy, maybe since May. This is ridiculous.

Clean Again

Ah! I was brought back to the late 90's when I was living in Romania for a couple of months tonight. I took a bath with cold water added to boiled water to make a small, but luke warm bath. It was so nice to have warmish water. Now I'm clean:-)

Memory lane...I think it was Oct. 1997 when I went to Romania to teach English and to help in an orphanage. I had a large apartment with few furnishings. Though, there was a faux fireplace in the entryway. It was fun sitting next to my light bulb fireplace with a hot cup of tea pretending to feel the warmth of the fire. Our water supply was limited and there was no water heater. The water usually would flow through the tap between 5 and 6 in the morning, and then for two more hours in the afternoon/evening. There were two medium size pots that I would fill with water and put on our only two electric stove top burners (there was no oven. I once tried making some oven type cooking device with two pots, forks and water upon the stovetop...another story). It took 30 minutes to boil the water. I faithfully continued this ritual every other day. I didn't shave as that took too much time, the water would cool too soon, and I didn't bring a razor with me and didn't want to buy one either. It was fun growing my leg and armpit hair for a few months. Hmmm. Recently, I haven't shaved my legs....well, enough about that.

I enjoyed my time in Romania. I miss the people I met there.