Magzarszagban vagyok

Facebook won't let me sign in, but wanted to let ya'll know that I am safe in Hungary. THe flight was good and I have somefun stories to tell. Cannot write long right now, but thank you all for your prayers and support. Hopefully I can post some pictures tomorrow.
God bless!
p.s. Magyarszag means Hungary, Magyarszagban = in hungary, vagyok means I am. There#s your hungarian language lesson for today.

Poetry, Hungarians, and Dark Chocolate.

My professor read this cool poem in class today. I thought

I would share, as it was kind of funny. Apparently it's written

contrasting a Western European/British family to an African

family during the 1800's, but a lot of it could possibly be

applied to cross-cultural experiences today.

We And They

Rudyard Kipling

Father and Mother, and Me,
  Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
  And every one else is They.
And They live over the sea,
  While We live over the way,
But-would you believe it?—They look upon We
  As only a sort of They!

We eat pork and beef
  With cow-horn-handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
  Are horrified out of Their lives;
While they who live up a tree,
  And feast on grubs and clay,
(Isn’t it scandalous? ) look upon We
  As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun.
  They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-.
  We dress up to Our ears.
They like Their friends for tea.
  We like Our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
  As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat kitcheny food.
  We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
  Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
  They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
  As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree,
  And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
  And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
  Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
  As only a sort of They!


Speaking of cross-cultural experiences, I went to the
Hungarian fellowship last night. It was pretty fun! I
met a guy who went to Seminary with my pastor in
Transylvania, and the pastor is the cousin of my
neighbor when I stay at the Orphanage. Small world
:-) A lot of them knew OF my host family, but didn't
know them personally. About half the group was older
couples who immigrated to America in 1957, and the
others were second-generation Hungarians. Although
there was one couple who didn't have an accent when
they spoke English but I heard speaking Hungarian
pretty well, so I don't know if they just spoke
English so well that theydidn't have an accent,
or if they were second-generation Hungarians, or what.
Oh, and the pastor and his wife were in their 30's
but had immigrated recently also.
Anyway, it was fun. The pastor asked me to speak,
which was funny I thought, asI am usually asked
to speak when I visit a church in Transylvania,
as I'm new anda missionary and that's the custom
there. But I wasn't expecting that to happen here.
 :-D They found out I had spent 8 to 9 months
collectively in Romania andwanted to know WHY on
earth I would go to Romania THREE TIMES and
learn Hungarian etc. So I explained to them about
the mission trips and my desire to be a missionary
and work with Gypsies. I got the usual reaction:
 "Wow... cool. Hunh. Yer wierd. Butwe love you anyway."
Then as it was Valentines a few of the older
Hungarian men sang old love songs from the 1950's
and earlier in Hungarian, and that was pretty
awesome. Man, that guy looked like he was from
the Old World too. He had that little
fuzz-shadow mustache...
OKay the only example I can think of was the kind
that Hitler had... sorry Mr. Hungarian singer,
but that's what it looked like. And anyway
the guy wore a three-piece suit and had a thick
accent. And he sang really really good. But definitely
OLD WORLD. Kewl though.
:-D
Okay must go study for my Ancient and Near Eastern
History test that is on Thursday.
Urgh... I have just NOT wanted to study the last
three days... I need to get out of
this no study mood!!!
Maybe I'll go eat some dark chocolate..
that always helps. A friend gave me some
Geridelli (sp?) dark chocolate. One bar is
 60% cocoa, the other is 76% cocoa,
and the third kind was like 82% cocoa.
SOOOOOOO good. And when the percentage
rate of cocoa is that high, it's actually
very healthy for you and rich in
antioxidants. Of course, it's also rich in
caffeine, so I had two squares last night
and my room-mate said,
*in a texan accent*
"Girl, you are bouncing all over the place,
and you aren't even leaving your chair!"
Florence Nightengale explained that I was
a homeschooler who had never been
'under the influence' of dark chocolate,
WHAT was my roommate thinking letting me
'overdose' and prescribed Jurassic Park 2
and a knitting party in Martha Stewart's
room.

Yeah. That's life here at college.  Woot woot.
Okay really going to go study now. And have a
piece of dark chocolate. But just one.
I learned my lesson last night. Just one. :-)

~Princess Ouch~