Here.

It's here.
Christmas break is here.
The first snow is here.
Days of rest are here.
And the best part is
The Baby in a Manger will soon be here too.

Remember When It Snowed

"For Christmas all I want is to come home and be back around the faces that I know."

USA: Thanksgiving

Our English club is named USA (United Students of Angol), so it is only appropriate that we do as everyone in the States does at the end of November: Have Thanksgiving! Last week Jack had a light bulb ignite in his head when he was talking to me and he said, "Justin! I know what we are going to do for USA next week. We are going to make a Thanksgiving dinner for them!" Jack, Sarah, and I did exactly that. We worked around our teaching schedule and prepared turkey, mashed potatoes, corn and broccoli bake, and apple pie.

Part of Jack's idea was to have it be a surprise to the students. We didn't tell any of them. I went to school today to get them and they asked why we were going to Mr. Ippel's flat the whole way home. They entered the Ippel's living room and said, "Whoa!"

To start the meal off, I had them all sit down and write down 10 things that they were thankful for. This gave Jack and Sarah time to put the finishing touches on the meal; they had closed themselves up in the kitchen so that no one would see the food. When I gave them the task, Akos had a light ignite in his head, "Ah! Thanksgiving!"

 Throughout the meal we let the students stand up and say something that they were thankful for. It was really cool to see what some of them said: 

"I'm thankful for my talents and my flaws."

"I'm thankful for being alive today."

"I'm thankful for friends that let me be who I am and respect my choices in life."

"I'm thankful for the ability to talk to my parents and family weekly."...Ok ok that was one of mine. I admit it.

Here was the group that showed up to partake in our Thanksgiving.

My Current Distraction

I've started thinking about a question that has come in and out of my thoughts throughout the past years:

Why do you wake up in the morning?

What are the reasons that you get out of your bed? What drives you everyday?

That's my current distraction from my busyness.

Recap: Halloween Party

These past two weeks have been an intense roller coaster of events that had some serious highs and some serious lows. I'm thankful that it is the weekend. Instead of choosing to write a devotional or work on my games lesson plan for an upcoming retreat I have next weekend, I've chosen to update my blog: Good life choice.

Back in October our English club United Students of Angol had a Halloween party; I was in charge of the food. I took out all of the stops, prepared a long menu, and recruited some help:

From front to back:

Sarah - blood muffins and moldy muffins

Aemelia - the chocolate cake for the graveyard cake

Steven - ate the food

Rebekah - oatmeal cookies

We used my kitchen and the Ippel's kitchen to knock out everything that we had to do, but my kitchen was the prepping area.

To thank the helpers, I concocted a batch of white chicken chili. In my opinion, this was not enough to fully thank them for all of the hard work that they put in:

The blood muffins and the moldy muffins.

Dirt. - I made this.

 The decorated graveyard cake.

All of this food prep led up to a fun party with many guests:

 A pirate and a dark angel

 Mr. Incredible, Dracula, a Team Fortress character, and a Zombie

 A BKV tram driver and Mr. Incredible

The whole club.

Tea Season

With the tea season comes tea houses.

New Mall.

Over the weekend my standard of living greatly increased; a new mall opened up right behind our school. Yup, I can see it from almost every window that faces it.

Random Facts:

-It's the second largest mall in Hungary.

-It has a park on the roof.

-It has a Tesco (comparative to a Walmart), which previously took almost an hour to get to.

-It has a Müller. They have oreos there.

-The metro stop it is located at looks really nice now.

 I don't know how I feel about it.

Janos Hegy: Then and Now

On January 9, 2010 when I visited Hungary for a month, I took a trip with Jenn Goodwin and the Ippels into the Buda hills to Janos Hegy. Janos Hegy is one of the tallest hills of Budapest and it has a tower that you can climb to see a great view of Budapest and its surrounding areas. These are the pictures from that trip:

Erzsebet Tower

The View

(with Jack, Cindy, and Jenn)

This past weekend on October 15, 2011, the DenIppel Ford Hostel had a teacher visit from Bratislava that wanted to go hiking; we chose to hike the Buda hills. So after a year and a half, I returned to Janos Hegy to see what the view was really like:

 Erzsebet Tower

The View

I think I'll return again.

U.S.A. - United Students of Angol

Jack and I have successfully kicked off our English club this year and each week it is gaining steam. 

The first week the die hard core of English Clubbers from last year came (7 people); they brainstormed ideas for the name of this year's club. The next club day our group grew a little (12); we played a name-game and voted on this year's club name: United Students of Angol. Today our group grew even more (18); we made signs to advertise and played Never Have I Ever.

Both Jack and I like how the club is developing, and personally, I'm really excited about it. It's a great mix that ranges from 9th graders to 13th graders and beginners to advanced level students. Many connections with the students have already been made and we can see possibilities for great friendships forming.

Something I've loved seeing is that two beginner students have plunged head first into English club and they are loving it! It's makes my day to see a huge smile on either of their faces when they are enjoying a game and using English at the same time; both of these students were taught their English ABC's at the beginning of September. Another day maker is seeing some of these 'baby' ninth graders talking to and hanging out with some of the 'big-dawg-on-campus' 13th graders that they have met at U.S.A.

We are very fortunate this year/semester to have someone come to the club to help out. Digression: The focus of Calvin College's semester in Budapest this year is service learning so every student is given a volunteer position someplace in Budapest. One of the college students has been placed at our school, and she comes every week to help at school and at U.S.A. Back on track: She has been a huge help and has been able to connect really well with some of the students. It has also been good for the female students to have a female American presence.

In the next couple months there will be a lot of exciting English club events happening (Halloween club, Christmas club, Movie Night Club) and I hope to remember to bring my camera to them so I can give you more pictures than of one of the signs a student made - a sweet sign to say the least!

If anyone has any great, fun group games or activities that we could play at U.S.A. please let me know! Jack and I are always always always looking for ideas for the club.

Best Use of Graffiti

WALL-E!

I saw this on my trip to Bratislava, Slovakia a few weeks back. It stopped me dead in my tracks; I had to admire it.

For My Mom

It's tea season!

Okay For Now

" There aren't too many things around that are whole, you know. You look hard at most anything, and it's probably beat up somewhere or other. Beat up, or dinged up, or missing a piece, or tattooed. Or maybe something starts out whole and then it turns into junk...

When you find something that's whole, you do what you can to keep it that way.

And when you find something that isn't, then maybe it's not a bad idea to try to make it whole again. Maybe." Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt P175 - 176

Balagas

On April 29 all of the school leavers (the students graduating - some 12s and all of the 13s) came together to celebrate Balagas. Balagas is basically the Hungarian form of America's graduation.

Everyone -- students, parents and teachers -- gathers in the school courtyard between the A building and the B building. The middle of the football (soccer) "field" is blocked off for the graduating class while all of the parents and other students pack around the area, standing. No seats are set up for the families to sit at; they stand the whole ceremony.
The ceremony begins with each class walking through the school and saying farewell to the classroom. The classrooms that they walk through are decorated with balloons and flowers. When they reach the last classroom, several younger students hand each student a balloon to hold during the ceremony.

During the ceremony, I had two of my 12KA students hang out with me. Their class was signed up to do the clean-up after the ceremony, so they didn't go home, but stuck around school the whole day. We talked as we watched the ceremony; I had them translate some of what the students and teachers were saying during the presentation. The whole event is very casual. People are entering and leaving all the time. They are moving from one side to the other. They are talking to other parents. They are playing with their kids.

Even the graduating students are talking out loud with each other as the ceremony is going on. Very different from an American graduation.

This year there were 7 graduating classes because Trefort combined with two other schools last year. It was a large group for a graduating class. Like receiving the diploma holder, the students received a small satchel with a forint coin and a polgacsa; that is what I am told is in the bags. They wear it the whole presentation. The evening was filled with students singing songs and reciting poetry. From what I could see, I think the head master was the only person that actually gave a speech.
I thought it was funny to see that every balloon with writing was in English. There were no balloons with Hungarian writing on it.
When the cermony finished, the students let go of their balloons. Two classes fought to have their set of balloons go up last. One class (the picture below) decided to tie all of their balloons together and send it off.

It was quite the experience.

Discipline

Discipline in a classrom rests on a little blue book - the Ellenőrző (pronunciationish: ellen - nuh - r - zuh). If a student is misbehaved, you give them a verbal warning. If they continue to misbehave you ask for their Ellenőrző (LBB)

This little blue book is the parent - teacher - head teacher connection. A teacher takes the book and writes a note in it. If the sutdent doesn't have his/her LBB, well, tough luck:

A teacher cannot send a student out of the classroom.

A teacher cannot send a student to the head master.

A teacher cannot repremand a student with no LBB.

Besides all that, a taken LBB means the student is already in trouble, so, why stop? Honestly, a student said that to me: "You already took my Ellenőrző so why should I stop?"

It is during moments that involve the LBB that I consider quitting.

Fortunately, those moments pass.

Kickin' It With the Hymns

I've been on a Hymn kick lately; all I have listened to for the past two weeks is hymns. It all started with the following song that I heard because of my friend Nathan Meyers:

Joy by Page CXVI

I have been able to find so much peace in listening to these re-envisioned hymns. "Joy" especially has just been an amazing song to listen to. The artist comes with so much weight, yet she still knows that God's joy is still down in the depths of our heart: The story behind the song. Even though this song might sound depressing, I find so much hope in it.

I encourage you to check out the following bands:

Page CXVI - Definitely them. Below is a stream of their entire latest Hymns album.

Ascend the Hill

Each of these bands have a bunch of free downloads. I know, right?

Pit Stop

Fixing the Flat

More to Come

Distractions

Distraction. Procrastination. Call it what you will, it plagues my life. I can set daily goals and only complete two. I can start something and never finish it -- I went a week before looking at this entry. I won't even mention how many unfinished entries I have. You could probably argue that I have ADD, but I'm not about to take any meds for it. The thing is, I can't decide if distractions are a good thing or not.

It has its downfalls, I understand that: I have started attending a Hungarian Reformed church, Talipont, that meets in a pub (check-out the Ippel's for more about that: hopeinhungary.blogspot.com); in most cases, the pub is closed on Sunday, but this Sunday, they had an event before church. The event lingered throughout the service -- flashing lights, people walking in and out, a drunk man wanting to ask questions, a couple making out in the corner of the bar. Yes, I was easily distracted. It was hard for me to concentrate on the preaching; I had to close my eyes to focus. It's moments like that where distraction is bad. Another good example -- getting my updates out; I have one started for every month.

So how can it be a good thing? Some people might think I'm crazy for thinking of it the way I do, but I'll try to make my thoughts clear.

I'll start with the fact that I've named my blog desperate distractions. I started using that phrase for a series of emails during exam week that were meant to be that needed distraction after hours of focus. Distractions are there to keep people sane, to keep me sane.

Next, I think God speaks through distractions. My day has been brightened numerous times. When a bird's chirp hits my ear and I stop to find a small swallow making such boisterous music. Or when I stop on the way to and from school and watch the imaginations of little kids being reenacted on the playground. I've ahd thought provoking discussion when I've let a topic distract us from the lesson. I've shed a foul mood when I stopped grading to talk with friends that I haven't talked to in quite a while.

As you can see, I live in a world of distraction, be it good or bad. However, the negative view of distraction consumes my time. I easily fall to the temptation of information overload. My weak immune system falls prey to the bacteria of Facebook, BBC news, or the latest pop culture news (Mat Kearney, Shawn McDonald, Switchfoot, Augustana, and Lupe Fiasco are all releasing new albums this coming year; I think that proves my point) So please, bear with me as I work at altering the metaphor that currently resides with the distractions -- a disease. I'd rather my distractions build me up instead of tear me down. I'd rather have communication be my distraction instead of the current disease, and I hope that by admitting i things will start to change.

---

Psalm 142

I cry aloud to the Lord;

I lift up my voice to the Lord for

mercy.

I pout out my complaint before him;

before him I tell my trouble.

When my spirit grows faint within me,

it is you who know my way.

In the path where I walk

men have hidden a snare for me.

Look to my right and see;

no one is concerned for me.

I have no refuge;

no one cares for my life.

I cry to you, O Lord;

I say, "You are my refuge,

my portion in the land of the living."

Listen to my cry,

for I am in desperate need;

rescue me from those who pursue me,

for they are too strong for me.

Set me free from my prison,

that I may praise your name.

Then the righteous will gather about me

because of your goodness to me.

---

Szent Matthias Cathedral and the Reformed Church

Szechenyi Hid and Szent Istvan's Bascilica

A Christmas Briefing

I have had a few people asking about my Christmas break, and I realized that I never posted anything on it. I had an amazing Christmas break. I went to Germany - Regensburg, Velburg, Nuremberg, Munich, and Neuschwanstein Castle - and Prague, Czech Republic. I went with two friends.

Ryan Troglin,

fellow ESI teacher and good friend

Leah Nieboer,

dear friend from Calvin. Currently teaching in Lithuania

We went to Nuremberg (Nurnberg) and Regensburg to see what the hype was about their Christmas markets. Supposedly, they are the best; Budapest has them beat.

We stayed in Velburg at a friends house; unfortunately, the friends were gone. So we had the house to ourselves. On Christmas day, we tromped through the snow to a castle ruins on top of a hill.

After the tromping, we strolled through the small town and peeked inside the church. Our Christmas ended with a fantastic home cooked feast. After our stay in Velburg, we headed to Munich. Unfortunately, my picture count of Munich is lacking because I injured my camera and had not fixed it yet.

We took a day trip from Munich to Neuschwanstein Castle and we basked in the beauty of that area. I could have looked at the mountain side for weeks.

It all ended in Prague where we enjoyed fireworks over the Charles Bridge to bring in the New Year. Thought I would just wet your taste buds on Christmas instead of make your eyes heavy from a lot of reading.

Szalagavato

On Friday February 4 I had the pleasure of experiencing my first Szalagavoto. The closest comparison that I could come up with for this event would be a combination of a senior ball and a graduation. Szalagavoto is meant to be a time of celebration and acknowledgement of graduation for the school leavers -- the graduating 12th and 13th graders. Students, parents, and teachers all attend.

The event begins with the school leavers entering and standing in rows by class. As they stand, the principal comes up and gives a speech to them. After that speech, the class teachers pin a ribbon on each of their students. These ribbons are worn by the students until they graduate; in fact, I'm beginning to see a lot of people walking around or sitting on the metro wearing these ribbons.

The principal giving his speech. To the left of him, you can see some students (11th and 12th grade) holding a pillow with all of the ribbons for the class.

Once the ribbons have been pinned, a series of class dances are performed. Every class performs a dance, most of them fun and with popular American songs (Michael Jackson or Cotton Eye Joe for example). The picture above was the first dance. It was a traditional Hungarian dance that every Szalagavato of old did. The picture below was a fun dance that some of my students were a part of. Their class teacher is one of the English teachers; she is the middle person in the black tank top. Yup, the class teachers join their classes.

However, the mood of the dances change when they come to the last dance. The last dance they perform is a Vienna Waltz. All of the girls come out in elegant prom dresses (almost like wedding dresses) and the men in nice suits and they perform the dance. They perform it twice rotating 180 degrees, so that each side of the stadium was able to see the different groups.

These two pictures are of the Vienna Waltz. One of my student and one of the group.

Unfortunately, I cannot upload the videos that I have of the dances because they are too large, but I'll keep working on it; it's worth it to see them.

Long Lost Brother

I wanna do better

I wanna try harder

I wanna believe

Down to the letter

- "Long Lost Brother" by Over The Rhine

----

This past weekend the Hungary team came together for our spiritual retreat -- a wonderful time to revitalize ourselves.

We went to my friends, the Gibsons, for a small talk and a great meal. Mr. Gibson talked about Daniel and his first step of faith, his conviction for what he believes.

Daniel was being trained to be a great man in the king's court, and the king provided the best food for the people being trained; however, Daniel showed great conviction for the Lord by choosing not to eat the king's food, but eat only fruits and vegetables. He did this because the king's food tended to be unclean, food that used to be sacrificed. This could have greatly offended the king, but Danie thought it was more important to follow the Lord. He trusted that the Lord would make him stronger because of it.

Daniel was not only training for the king's court, he was training his faith in the Lord for when he went to the lion's den. Will Daniel live his life with conviction for the Lord even for the small things -- what he eats? By starting to live with conviction in our daily lives, we will be training to live with conviction in the bigger life decisions. We will bea ble to step out on a cracking limb, knowing that the Lord will keep us safe, for it is on the limbs that we truly see God's work.

A Budapest Tragedy

Hello friends,

I'm sure by now you are expecting a huge long update, and I could give you one, but I want to report some tragic news for now.

Saturday night three young teenagers died at a club here in Budapest. There have been mixed reports as to how and why. No names have been released. But I'll keep you updated. Here are two reports:


http://lemarietta.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/what-if-the-hungarian-guard-came/#comments

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12201916