While the jury was out for many, many months the verdict has now come back. It was a difficult and even tormenting decision at times, whether to stay in Hungary or go back to my beloved America. I (unnecessarily) worried myself with this decision about my near future almost immediately upon setting foot in Budapest last August. I learned a lot along the way, and especially that if you’re always looking for the next opportunity, or escape, or whatever it is you might be distracting yourself with, you will be robbed of the fullness of here and now. Don’t do that – it’s you who will miss out! And besides, God absolutely wants to use your ‘here and now’ to lead you and direct you into that next place, whether it be a physical location or otherwise.

A little bit of my own journey: I left my great community of dearest ones and my very familiar life in Dallas to come to Hungary and be a teacher in August 2007. I was looking for a little more adventure, a little less mundane predictability. A little more challenge, a little less comfort. A place to dream and fly and a launching pad to eventually allow me to learn French fluently, go do the Paris thing, and somewhere along the way meet my prince. Then we would ride freely on wild Arabian horses through the plains of the African continent where we would have a farm house we lived in for half the year while we teach our barefoot multi-lingual children in nature’s classroom as zebras roam free in our backyard. Sound Bohemian enough…well, believe it or not, those are all still dreams of mine. I don’t know that they will happen exactly the way I have pictured them, but we will see. However, in the midst of my dreamy imagination, I also have this nagging inside me that craves deep and meaningful relationships. That craves stability and security. That craves making a difference and even more importantly, building lasting fruit. That craves to leave an imprint, and an indelible one. That craves to make the Lord known and famous and loved for he who truly is.

In order to fulfill those desires, it’s important to build roots, deep ones. Sometimes roots look differently. Not every plant or tree is the same. But they have these things in common: they must go into the ground. They must be planted. They must be watered and pruned. They should produce good fruit if they are good trees, as the bad fruit will be disposed of and the bad branches will be cut down. Perhaps the most notable part of the rooting and growing process is a four-letter word that is sometimes beautiful and sometimes torturous: T-I-M-E. It takes time to plant and root, it takes times to water, and it requires time to grow. We are all like trees and in order to build lasting and impacting relationships (effectively, fruit in our lives), we need to commit ourselves to the process. It’s not that we always know we will stay in one spot forever and ever; it’s often just a willingness to stay planted for ‘however long it takes.’ If that’s months, years, decades or a lifetime, then it’s being okay (or becoming okay ;) with that.

It’s with the deepening of that realization, revelation, epiphany (call it what you like), that I was able to come to the conclusion I did about this season’s ‘home.’ I decided that if I were to go back to Dallas or anywhere in the States, it would be because of the people I loved so dearly. In the meantime I’ve been pouring my heart into loving people here in Budapest and building a life here, and I knew that if I were to stay here, it would also be because of the people I am growing to love so dearly. So there was my dilemma. If I went home it would be for relationships, and if I stayed here it would be for relationships. The difference came when I realized that I already had a very strong foundation built with my family and friends in the U.S. (which I believe will not disappear) and had already gone through the pain of uprooting and replanting for a season, or ‘cutting the cord.’ However, such a foundation is still being built here in Hungary. A good friend here once told me, “You need stable people in your life, but those people also need a stable you in their lives.” That was when I decided that I am more willing to take the risk of overstaying my welcome than uprooting too soon. Since I’ve made that decision, fully trusting that God can and will provide for all my needs (and especially the man I’m going to marry, darn it ;), a flood of peace and confidence continues to wash over me. I can toast to that. Raise your glass, ladies and gents: Cheers to life in Budapest.

Well, we’ve (I’ve!) almoooooost made it to the end of the school year here in Hungary and with less than a month to go I thought I’d give a quick little recap of the funniest and most memorable moments in my classroom. Because I teach English to about 150 students ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old, we have run the gamut with great quotes and lost in translation experiences. Here are some that come to mind:

“Miss Anna, is my name Columbus in English?” (translated from Hungarian) - asked by KRISTOF, 7 years old

“I was half past six years old when I started school.” - Marton, 10 years old. I had to explain that time and age cannot be interchanged in English grammar.

“Oh shoot, I forgot to bring the worksheets to class.” - I mumbled under my breath, only to be mimicked by three 5th graders, “Oh shit shit shit.”
“No kids, don’t say that. It’s a bad word. I said ‘SHOOT!’ We say that word in English to avoid saying what you just said!”

One fine day Miss Anna was standing at the board in her skirt and leggings. Yes, this skirt was a little too big for me and when I turned around to face the little darlings again…yep, the skirt fell to the ground. I screamed and the kids and I laughed so hard as I raced to get dressed again. And then we laughed some more. Luckily, it was my very well-behaved class of 4th graders.

I still see that skirt in my closet sometimes, but for some reason I have an aversion to it and can’t bring myself to wear it. Wonder why..?

I had an interesting experience in Budapest the other day. You see, there are many things I do miss about my life in America, and my home in Dallas (well, one of my ‘homes’ anyway). But I can surely tell you that I don’t miss the fakeness, the superficiality, the fact that many places you go are all for show and it’s not difficult to find many walking plastic surgery ‘mannequins’ around town. No depth, just hiding behind image. An image that they hope will give them a certain status, importance, value.

My surprise came when I was at a kids’ dance competition one afternoon. I was there because my dear friend Rita had a minor operation yesterday and was still in the hospital, so I said I’d take her 9-year old daughter Ivett to the competition in town. We arrived early and played and talked, just waiting for the time to start getting ready. That time came so we started towards the dressing room for costumes and hairdos.

Many of the people around were familiar to me, as I had gone with Rita several times to take her little girl to dance practice. The girls were running around and full of energy and life, excited for their debut. As the girls were approaching their performance, I began to notice many parents show up fashionably late. Well, what do you know? The girls need to be on the stage in less than three minutes and the moms who are just walking in don’t seem so interested because they’re too busy worrying about holding their Gucci bags just so, making sure not a scuff appears on their shiny clown shoes, and puckering their lips in such a position so that it is impossible not to see the Botox injections.

Okay, so I began to ponder just whom this competition was for anyway. Taller shoes, shorter skirts, bigger rings… I think it was obvious. The MOMS! I will briefly put the following out there as a disclaimer: it’s not only about a desire to look nice or look your best. I also enjoy that. I’ll admit that I too, like almost every woman, won’t leave the house in a bad-looking state most of the time. I actually even like to look my best almost always. But there is a line of ridiculous-ity that gets crossed at some point. I do care much more about being a real person and being kind to others than I do about topping or being better than everyone else. I think others are far more important than presenting such a fake image that doesn’t even represent who you truly are. The saddest part is that as the girls become “like mother, like daughter,” this is what they aspire to be. This model that they are seeing, will in my opinion, rob them of deep, real and meaningful relationships. Guess this epidemic isn’t only in Dallas after all…

In my quest for health over the last year or so, I have discovered something that in my opinion trumps everything else in the health arena. GARLIC – that’s right. It’s name is fokhagyma in Hungarian and it has also been dubbed as Russian Penicillin because of the volume in which they use it to fight flu and colds. Perhaps you thought that this little food was only good for adding some flavor to your dishes, or for scaring away those who come too near to you. Well, I’m here to tell you after much research and personal experimentation, it’s really a miracle food.

It all started about year ago when I read that incorporating garlic cloves into your every day diet is very healthy. I began chopping up one or two cloves a day and taking it by teaspoon, using water to wash it down. The good thing about this method is that the garlic doesn’t sit in your mouth for too long, which reduces the chance of odor from the mouth anyway.

Besides just being good for basic health, I have personally used garlic as a remedy for:

Sore throats – you chew the garlic slowly and towards the back of your mouth before swallowing and it takes away the sore throat pain (yes, it burns a little, but just keep some water on hand and you’ll be fine).

Ear aches – cut the clove in half and then cut the outer part from the garlic so that the fresh part is exposed, wrap in a thin tissue and let it rest inside the outer part of your ear for a few hours. It takes the pain away (PLEASE take proper care not to cut the garlic too small so that it can fall into your ear deeply!!!).

Yeast and candida overgrowth – overgrowth of candida yeast is a huge problem with the diets of many today, and some studies have even shown links between this candida overgrowth and cancer. Garlic has the greatest anti-fungal properties to fight this yeast and other bacteria, and can get you on the road to health if you combine taking it daily with the proper diet.

Tooth pain – yes, garlic can even help with tooth pain when you cut around the clove so that the fresh parts are exposed and then insert the garlic into the area of your mouth where there is pain. (This is not for the faint of heart. IT WILL BURN at first, but after several minutes it feels therapeutic). I did this during a terrible bout with tooth pain and even days after I had an old root canal tooth extracted and found that it helped dramatically.

Insect repellant – want to venture out into the woods but don’t want to come back looking like Mr. Spot? Well, garlic is the secret for you. I went on a short camping trip last year when I discovered that the insects were staying far from me due to the garlic I had been taking.

There you have it. If it was good enough for ancient people groups and for the Russians today in the brutal climate in which they live, then it will continue to be my drug of choice. Besides, I believe it’s not only healthier than antibiotics but much cheaper too!