What a month

Guten Tag Fruende!

The past month has been one of many adventures. Too many websites to mention have been scoured through to find the perfect place to call my next ‘home’ with no luck to this point. But that’s okay. I know that there is a place out there for me, and thanks to the generosity, grace, and caring hearts of the Philips family, I am not in urgent mode and do not have to “settle” for a place that is not the best.

On the 17th of November I began German language school at the local Volkshochschule (Adult Education Center). I surprised myself with how well I did the first day. The class is taught entirely in German and I understood quite a bit. It seemed as if I understood more in my first day of German classes than I did after 2 weeks of Hungarian lessons. I felt like I was on cloud 9.......until the second day.

The day after my first German class, I flew to Budapest, Hungary for a (Wed-Sun) retreat for all of the ChoG Global Missions Employees within our region (Middle East/Fmr Soviet Union/Europe). It was a joy to be able to spend some time with teammates and co-workers and get to know their stories even better. And to be back in the city that I called ‘home’ for 2 years was absolutely amazing! I feel like I’m home when I’m in Budapest. Navigating the city streets, public transportation, and stores almost seems like 2nd nature. The language on the other hand is much more difficult. But I actually surprised myself with how much I could recall. But then reality hit....I needed to go back to German class with my head full of Hungarian.

So, back to the second day of classes.....while it was only my second day, it was everyone else’s fourth. Exactly one week had passed since I was last there and I had missed 3 classes in a row due to the retreat. First thing in the morning my teacher asked me, in German of course, how my conference was in Hungary. I knew it was going to be a long day of classes when I answered, in Hungarian, not German, ‘It was very very good. I was there from Wednesday until Sunday and I enjoyed the city a lot. And the Christmas market....it was beautiful“. From that point on, I couldn’t switch the Hungarian off. I didn’t realize I knew so much until I was told to say stuff in German and the only thing that would come out was Hungarian.

Things settled down quite a bit after that and I’m back into the flow of things now. It’s back to class again tomorrow for me to start week 3.

I sit here now stalling to get back to work (oh how I hate you ”die, der, und das“). I hope and pray you had a blessed and restful Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving will be my next blog....hopefully before a month goes by again!