My New Home

A bit mentally exhausted...I taught three private English lessons today, two of which were an hour and a half long, as well as having my own private two hour Hungarian weekly tutoring. I was dashing here and there all over Debrecen on foot and by bus. But I'm by no means complaining--I love the chance to walk the streets of Debrecen and to have meetings with my students, who I now call my friends.

Friday was an exceptionally good day:

~I had a wonderful and successful day of teaching at the high school after having a very discouraging day of teaching there on Wednesday

~I was able to Skype with both Matt and my mom in the afternoon

~I enjoyed a rich, chocolatey "Choccolatino" at the Alexandra coffee shop

~I exchanged a pair of boots I had bought the day before; I was pleased that I was able to explain to the store clerk {in Hungarian} that the size of the boots wasn't good and that I wanted to exchange them for a different size--making me feel confident that I'm successfully learning Hungarian!

~I gave 2,000 Forint {about $10} to a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk

~I had a great "last night" at the Bridge, packing up my room as I sang and danced to good music

{sidenote: I am well aware that by giving the homeless man money, I potentially could have been aiding him in an unhealthy addiction that landed him there in the first place. But I believe it's God's job to judge him, not mine. So in my mind, I like to imagine this man going indoors out of the cold and warming himself with a hot bowl of soup and a hot sandwich, and that is what I choose to believe.}

On Saturday, I moved in with the Szász family! I'm so excited to be here and our first day together couldn't have been more perfect.

After unpacking and enjoying a delicious lunch, Fanni {12} and Nori {10} came and sat on my bed while I showed them pictures of me and Matt and our family. Then I painted their nails and they tried on all of my shoes, marching about, "modelling" them.

Then after a delicious dinner (Csilla is an amazing cook}, we watched the 4th Harry Potter movie sitting together on Fanni's bed and eating popcorn. It's like getting to have little sisters!

A few weeks ago, Robi {the father} and Csilla {the mom} announced that they're expecting their third child! The whole family is so excited and the baby will arrive in August, unfortunately after I'm gone. Poor Csilla isn't going to work right now because she is having morning-sickness all day long--she can't keep down anything she eats--bless her heart.

My room is small, but only because there is a big bed taking up most of the space:

The bed is so soft and comfy.

Yesterday, Fanni discovered my jewelry stash and I let her take her time looking at it while I talked with Csilla in the other room. When I walked back in, I burst out laughing because I saw that Fanni had done this:

Adorable, right?

Csilla and Fanni speak very basic English and Robi and Nori don't speak English at all. I'm thrilled! Seriously, I am very grateful for the opportunity to practice speaking Hungarian a lot more. I have learned well that immersion is the best method for improving one's language abilities. I only wish Hungarian wasn't the 3rd most difficult language in the world to learn...{after Chinese and Japanese}...