Merry Christmas

In Hungary we celebrate Christmas on December 24th, so I am visiting my relatives.  I would like to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas!

Picture Saturday: Student's Work displayed in the library

Libraries are often centers of cultural displays.  ICSB’s library is no different.  For the past few weeks this remarkable 3-D map of the Holy Lands created by a grade 9 student has been on display:

Picture Saturday: Christmas around ICSB

After American Thanksgiving ICSB starts to look rather Christmassy.  Here are some signs from the high school side of the building that Christmas is near:

 

In the cafeteria

On the way up to classrooms

Outside the library.  Every year the high school students take a trip to visit the orphanage.

High school front entrance

Why I love my job: grade 6 helpers. Part 2

Last week I shared with you home much I enjoy having my grade 6 helpers.  I showed the picture of the soon to be Christmas tree.  Although that tree did not work, they did make a tree out of construction paper. (Thank you mom for sending us green construction paper).   They made the tree all by themselves and had a little help with the snowflakes.  Without being asked they brought the candy for the elementary students.  There have been many questions this week in elementary library about what the candy is for.  I always tell the students "you will have to wait to find out" and I give them a choice of jelly or coconut when they leave.   

They also made this "Merry Christmas" sign!

Picture Saturday: In bloom

I have always admired my mom being able to get her Christmas cactus to bloom at just the right time.  This year I almost killed mine by not watering it, but now it is very much alive.  Isn't this how it is so often in our lives?  Needing to suffer and sometimes be close to death to experience much beauty and life? 

Picture Saturday: Me at work

Welcome everyone to my world at work:

At my desk - this was taken on Remembrance Day, hence the poppy

Shelving in the elementary section

Why I love my job: grade 6 helpers

700s - Art & Recreation  Bulletin Board

Shelf Markers for Elementry Students

This year I have some wonderful grade 6 students who are helping me in the library.  They are creative and full of new ideas.  Most often I have them work on a project that has some type of artistic aspect.  I am a believer in building leadership and independent thinking through allowing the students to come up with the majority of the ideas for their projects with minimal guidance. When I asked the students to do a bulletin board display all I told them was that they needed to use a book called Bob the Alien Learnsabout the Dewey Decimal System as a started point and choose one of the ten main classes of the Dewey Decimal System as the theme.  They were allowed to design it away way they wanted. 

Recycled Packing Material soon to be a Christmas Tree

Today when I asked them to break up some boxes and throw out some packing materials they asked if they could use it for their Christmas display instead. Of course I agreed and they made a wonderful Christmas tree.  Unfortunately, they were not able to finish it and when they were unable to return at lunch to complete it I had to pick it up off the floor and it feel apart.  I expect, though, next Tuesday we are going to have a wonderful Christmas tree in the library window just in time for the beginning of December.

Seeing the creativity and youth of these students is just one of the reasons why I love my job at ICSB!

Picture Saturday and CRWM Pages

The Christian Reformed World Missions is working in revamping their pages for missionaries - including one for me.  Feel free to check out this page.  It includes an overview of my ministry and a live count of  where I am with my support raising.

The CRWM also has a page about the background of the ministry in Hungary including a video.

Lastly, I will leave you with a picture of a beautiful window - I believe it is somewhere here in Hungary, but if not it is European for sure :)

Two weeks ago I was left in a train station by a group of about 20 people while the boarded the train to Vajta, Hungary.  I had passed out tickets to all of them and gave instructions on how to get to the retreat centre where were we going to have the first CRWM Europe retreat in 3 years.  I was left behind to wait for two people I had never met before and take the next train. It turned out that I had a connection to the husband of the couple that I was meeting – he taught at the elementary school where I use to attend many years before. This was the beginning of a great weekend of spiritual refreshment and connecting with other CRWM missionaries.  Between the times of spiritual discussion we also had a bit of fun together.  See the YouTube video below with the results of a photo scavenger hunt that we had.

http://youtu.be/KID6lg1BCPw

Serving in Kiskunmajsa

This past Friday and Saturday I had a wonderful time serving with our school's grade 8 students at a home for displaced families in Kiskunmajsa Hungary.  Some of highlights for our students were tearing down some old playground equipment, petting the horses, and helping the children paint picture frames.    During our debriefing many of our students talked about how they saw many of their fellow classmates step up and work hard without complaining.  I too am very proud of how all of them worked.

 For myself it was a time of learning that the Lord can use my abilities of planning and organizing.  I was in charge of organizing the picture frame craft.  It was great to see the children paint and glue different things to them amidst the ciaos having babies and children everywhere.  Some of the pompoms for the craft became make sift soccer balls for a few little boys.  My favorite thing of the whole weekend was a cute one year old who nodded her head yes to her name even though our pronunciation was wrong.  She sat colouring for in a high chair never complaining.  She was happy that she could share her crayons and I was able to practice my colours.

I would like to thank the Lord for giving all of us such a wonderful time serving the families in Kiskunmajsa.

Picture Saturday: Welcome to my new flat!

This is the third place I have lived since I moved to Hungary. So far I would have to say it is my favorite as well.  Good location - close to work, shopping and transportation.  Since these pictures were taken I have had a few more things moved in, but pictures of how it looks with furniture will have to wait.

I finally have the purple room I always wanted! I just didn`t know would be my living room

Sunny Yellow Bed Room

Wake You Up in the Morning Lime Green Bathroom

This Week in the Library

• In prefirst we read The Very Hungary Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Where is the Green Sheep? (in big book formate) by Mem Fox
• In first grade we studied the author Dr. Seuss.  The student's learned that the author is the person who wrote the book and read the book Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
• In third grade we learned about the different sections of our library - ER Easy Reader, E Easy, J Junior, nonfiction

Out of all of these I have to say that Where is the Green Sheep? is my favourite.  The children love the rhythme and repeating all of the different types of sheep that are on each page.  The title page hints to where the green sheep is, but I have yet to have a child guess where the green sheep is until the end.  A mother came in with her preschool son; he pretended he didn't want to read the book, but when they left he was saying to himself "Where is the green sheep? Where is the green sheep?"  If you want know where the green sheep is you will have read this great book!

Picture Saturday: Clark Ádám tér

Clark Ádám tér (tér = square in English) is in the centre of Budapest.  It is named after the architect who designed these two magnificent structures:

Tunnel through Castle Hill - this picture was taken at Clark Ádám tér

Széchenyi lánchíd or chain bridge - this picture was taken from the cupola of the Hungarian National Gallery

Széchenyi lánchíd or chain bridge - this picture was taken half way down Castle Hill

WIP Wednesday: Almost finished!

I am now back in Budapest!  I flew in about 10 AM this morning and slight of the Danube river was beautiful from the air with all of the bridges crossing the river.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures to show you.




I do have pictures from when I went to Opusztaszer (a Hungarian national park with a pioneer village in it among other things) with a couple of friends last spring.  One thing we saw was this wind mill which was used to grind grain.  It amazing to see all of the wooden parts inside that made the wind mill work. 









Now you may be wondering how all of this relates back to WIP Wednesday?   It does because while I was their I decided to make my own souvenir embroidery.  Now this might look like it belongs on FO Friday, but it is not quite finished yet because it still needs to be washed and blocked (I am also so excited to show everyone that I can't wait until Friday):

If you would like to see other WIP's (works in progress) check you Tami's Amis:

Picture Saturday: Australian Seed

Who knew that  this?

A type of seed pod from Australia

Could be turned into this?

Beautiful hand turned container

I saw these while watching a turning demonstration at Lang Pioneer Village 

FO Friday: BP Kelenföld Painting and traveling to Vienna

If you want to go to Vienna from the 11th District of Budapest or neighbouring districts I would recommend that you leave from this train station.  The last time I checked, it was 31 Euro to travel round trip (including public transportation for 4 days) and it takes about 2.5 hours if you go from Kelenföld.  Since it is not the main train station it is a little less crowed, but the ticket sellers do not always speak English.  By choosing to traveling by the Austrian high speed Railjet you will be treated to a modern, comfortable European trains.  I have traveled once to Vienna this way and once to Salzburg by Railjet.  They by far have been the nice trains I have travel by in Europe and in Canada.

A few weeks ago I showed you the beginnings of a painting of the station.  Now here is the finished version.  It is my  first serious effort in acrylic painting and I think that it turned out well.

For more FO Fridays check out:

WIP Wednesday: Cross Stich Baby's Bib

While staying at my parent's house this week I started to get a little bit antsy, so I went rummaging through an old stash of yarn.  I didn't find any yarn that I wanted to knit or crochet, but I did find an old cross stitch baby's bib to finish. I am thinking of putting it on a teddy bear and giving it away.  Any other suggestions about what I could do with it?

I also went over to the yarn store and bought another ball of the Canadian coloured cotton, so I could make more face cloths.  This time I decided to make it a little bit different shape.   I decided on Tricksy Knitter's  Leafy Washcloth:

 For more WIP Wednesdays see:

Picture Saturday: The Classic East German Car

A  month or two ago I was walking to the bus stop in the Village (where my school is located) and saw this curious looking car:

What is it?  A convertible Trabant! 

The regular version of these cars were everywhere in Hungary during communism and just after the fall of the Iron Curtain.  My dad's uncle had one that we would ride around in when I visited Hungary in 1993.  He would take it up to the top of a hill and then just coast down in neutral. Today he just has the tires left.  Here is a picture of a regular Trabant:  (It was originally posted when I wrote about my trip to Germany.)

FO Friday: Face Cloth and Laurel Letter Opener

It has been a slightly productive week for me.  I completed the Canadian Coloured face cloth/dish cloth.  I decided that I will try it as a face cloth and if I don't like it then I will use it as a dish cloth. I have already used it to cool my neck in the sweltering heat.

Project Info

Name: Face cloth/dish cloth

Yarn: Kertzer Coolspun Cotton

Colour: Peppermint (9191)

Needle size: 4.5

My mom's wood turning progressed well.  The results was this letter made out of laurel wood which is grown in Appalachian Mountains. 

Bark side up

Bark side down

For more FO Fridays See:

 

WIP Wednesdays: Dish Cloth and Wood Turning

 Wednesday already?  How time flies!  Sometimes I don't know where it goes. 
I was away from Thursday until Monday visiting friends and a church in beautiful Welland. I had a chance to visit my favorite place in Welland - Merritt Island:

It was peaceful sitting at a picnic table looking out onto the river

This was also peaceful until so people decided to turn on their rap music

I also had a chance to sit out by the old canal watching some women's quads rowing.  It reminded me of the time when a lady who lived in my building in Welland was trying to recruit me for a coxen.  Unfortunately, I was moving to Hungary, so I couldn't join the fun.




 
 Now to WIP Wednesday. Do to all the fun I was having I didn't have a lot of time to work on anything, but last evening (Tuesday) at Soper Creek Yarn's Knit Nite I decided to start something small:

I was going to make it into a dish cloth, but now I am thinking of using it as a face cloth.  It is our national colours, so in Hungary it can remind me of Canada.

My mom has also been working on her own WIP this week.  This piece of wood is being turned into a letter opener.

For more WIP Wednesdays see:

Eastern Europe Missions Trip

Do you have a heart for prayer?
Would you like to pray for the CRWM missionaries working in Eastern Europe?
Why don't you consider joining the CRWM prayer mission trip to Eastern Europe this September?
For more information see Mission Link or contact me for more details.

You better act fast - registration deadline August 1st!

Raspberry Dessert Recipe

Last week on FO Friday as promised I would give the recipe to the Raspberry Dessert:

Ingredients

1 1/2 pint      raspberries
1/4 cup         sugar  (can adjust to taste)
1/2 pounds  marshmallows
1/2 cup        milk
1/2 pint       heavy cream (whipped)

1. Wash berries and drain.  Mix with sugar. Chill for 2 hours.
2. Put marshmallows and milk in top of double boiler, heat until marshmallows dissolve, stirring occasionally.
3. Cool until mixture begins to thicken.  Fold in whipping cream.
4. Arrange alternate layers of raspberries and marshmallows beginning and ending with berries.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Picture Saturday: Shopping in Budapest

Like most large cities Budapest has a number of places to go shopping.  Here are two of the malls regularly shopping.  By clicking on the links you can see the malls' websites. (There is more information in Hungarian than English.  This is something that makings living in Hungary difficult since I am still learning Hungarian.)

This is my favorite: Allee Bevasarlokozpont.

 

Savoya Park: In here is a gigantic Auchan Hypermarket (aka a department store with the emphasis on food)

Here is a link to a YouTube video featuring Allee.

FO Friday : Raspberry Parfiat

The answer to WIP Wednesday is:

Raspberry Partiats

The recipe was originally from my grandmother:

To see more FO Fridays see Tami's Amis.

P.S.  I will post the full recipe next week when I have a little more time.

WIP Wednesday 2: BP Kelenföld

Last week on Wednesday I posted "Hope of Painting Something." Well in the past week I stated acrylic painting.  I painted a few flowers that were disappointments:

I chose to paint the flowers because they were based on the first project from a beginning acrylic book.  I didn't really like doing them, so I decided to paint something I actually wanted to paint: the train station near my flat named Kelenföldi Palyaudvar.  (I have gone to Vienna from here.).

The painting is based on this picture.  I like to think that there is some resemblance between the picture and the painting. 

To see more WIP Wednesday see Tami Amis' blog.