First Week in Hungary

Oh, to be in Hungary…

First, I just want to thank all of you so much for your prayers and for your support. When I hugged my family goodbye and boarded the plane by myself, I did not feel alone. I have felt God’s presence and I know He is still giving me strength while I’m preparing for the first week of school. Never have I been more overwhelmed, but I have so much peace about it all.

Here is a little of what happened this week:

I landed here Friday at noon and a couple with UWM picked Megan and I up from the airport. We drove through Budapest and finally got to Diosd. They gave us a quick tour of the town square and dropped us off at our apartments after getting some delicious sweet bread. My apartment is unbelievably close to the school. The elementary entrance is right across the street from my front door. I know this is going to come in handy when the cold weather comes. That night a couple of teachers took us out to eat at a nearby mall. The next day was just a day of relaxation. Megan and I got a tour of the new school and went shopping at a nearby store kind of like a Walgreens called CBA. On Sunday Megan and I got a ride to Danube International Church with some teachers. After church, they took us into the city to show us around. The city is beautiful. We walked down the famous Vaci street and had lunch at a small café. I had a bowl of goulash--- and it was the real thing. We then took the tram to the huge church of St. Istevan’s, the Opera house, and Hero’s Square.

The next week was filled with days at the school. We had new staff meetings in the morning and then got to work in our classrooms in the afternoon. My room is on the second floor and it has windows on two sides. I love how large the windows are here. The school doesn’t have air conditioning so it’s important to have the windows opened especially at this time of year. It’s been pretty hot here lately, but not as bad as the heat I left in Texas. That is a blessing. We have 260 students enrolled this year. Everyone here cannot stop praising the high school students. At least one person everyday tells me how much I’m going to love them. I know I will.

Yesterday was St. Istevan’s day. For a native Hungarian, yesterday was one of the two biggest holidays celebrated in Hungary. St. Istevan was Hungary’s first king who came and established his kingdom in Budapest nearly a thousand years ago and he also brought Christianity, or rather, introduced the Catholic church to this area. All the roads into the main part of the city are blocked because a third of the population of Hungary gathers to watch the fireworks at nine. There is also an air show and a parade at St. Estevans. A lot of us teachers took the bus into town and watched the fireworks. It was really neat to be apart of what was going on around us.

Now I’m enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon getting ready for school. Hungary has been wonderful, but at the same time just a lot to take in. The language is incredibly different from English and I know so very little. It’s so weird to not be able to read or understand signs and food labels. Shopping has been a little tricky. The other day I went grocery shopping and tried to buy butter and ended up with a cream cheese spread instead. Oh well. It still tasted good. I have a feeling that I’ll be saying “Oh well” a lot after shopping trips.

Please keep praying for the first week of school. I still have so much to do and so much to plan for. Love you all!

Kathryn

The first three are pictures of my classroom and the last one is a view from one of the windows.

These last ones are of my room, my chair, my living room, my kitchen and I took of picture of the Freedom bridge in downtown Budapest.