Ahhhh.  Here in Budapest you can feel Fall approaching.  Cool air, shorts and long-sleeve shirts, classes beginning again…I love this time of year! 

This morning we entered a new phase of life.  Seth, Jacob, and Nathan all went to kindergarten/preschool.  They are all in the same school, but three different classes.  So that means we’re juggling 9 teachers/helpers, 72 kids & their parents, and three sets of class meetings/activities/information.  Not sure if we could manage it without Tamás and Zita.  :)  I’m just glad they are all in the same building. 

First year university students have started their registration and orientation this week.  You can see the excitement and energy. 

We have a new Outing Club at the University this year, which grew out of the English Club, and it seems to be coming together really really well.  Website is ready, just need a good address.  Thanks Dori, Balázs, Kristof, Jozsef, and Attila for your help!!  Some great events planned for the first semester.  The two biggest will be a camping trip Sept 28-30, and an English Camp Nov. 16-18. 

I grew a beard.  I love not shaving.

In less than two weeks, Laura’s sister and mom will be arriving for a 12 day visit.  We are all really excited, and we have a lot planned for them!

From August to November of 1991 the 87 day siege of Vukovar took place leaving nothing but ruins, hardly any building fully intact, and 100% of the inhabitants scarred by the atrocities of this war.  There is still a heaviness being carried by Vukovarians.

But there is also life, a continued story.  One thing I clearly recognized while in Vukovar this time is the impossibility of outsiders to come and feel, empathize, and make any sort of real impact.  I see our friends Laci and Keri who moved to Vukovar almost three years ago, or our new friend Charles who moved there in 1995.  By doing so they entered the story.  By entering the story they have become fellow journeyers, able and willing to share burdens, meaning, and hope. 

I love this picture of the flowers growing out of a partly destroyed building.  Maybe it is an appropriate metaphor for many us as people, especially our friends in Vukovar.  Impact, meaning, and hope are the fruits of a shared story. 

Last week, we had a great English Trip to Vukovar Croatia.  Not only did the students practice their English from morning to night, but we caught a glimpse into post-war life and had many meaningful conversations.  I had a really great time, and I especially appreciated the insights and honesty of these students.  I’ll post some pictures soon.

July 2-5, we will travel to Pécs, Vukovar & Osijek (Croatia).  The trip will be filled with conversation, adventure, BBQ, and eye-opening experience.  Click here to read more.

   A couple weeks ago, a few of us hung out at the Bázis.  This place is sweet.  It is sort of a pub/café with retro communist 1970 furniture, a loft hand-built by my friends Domi and Balázs, and a old wine cellar transformed into a disco and table-ice-hockey game room.  Whoa.Two of our American friends, Dave and Donnie, were in town visiting, and it was really cool to have them there.  We also had an awesome conversation on the topic of community.  A lot of questions were asked which is usually a sign of a good conversation.  Among several great summarizing thoughts, Dave mentioned,

“Reciprocity is essential but there are no guarantees. Choosing how we will live in a competitive, partnered, and unstable world is risky but essential.  Treating everyone as a competitor undermines all partnership and eventually produces isolation.  Partnership produces community, and community produces much of what gives life meaning: identity, value, and purpose.” 

• What inner abilities do we need to cultivate in order to promote the value and importance of other people and not just to pursue our own interests?
• How do we stay meaningfully engaged with people in a society that emphasizes what we can get out of it, not what we can give it?
• In an increasingly globalised world that worships personal happiness and the making of money, what are the values we need to become fully human?

“This Friday, we’re going to see an interesting production (with AngolEst)at the Merlin International Theater in Budapest called “Looking for Hamlet.” Apparently it is a humorous modern day spin to the questions with which Hamlet himself wrestled. “To be or not to be.” “What does it really mean, and more importantly what does it really mean to us, is it really a choice between life and death or something more existential?” - angol nyelvű előadás

“Just who do you think you are? The savvy navigator of cool? Maybe the professional climber out to make big? Or maybe at times an insecure loner that can’t understand the rudeness of the world?” - Merlin International Theater

I’m looking forward to seeing the play, and even more so, I’m looking forward to the conversations that will follow. Here’s the text from Hamlet’s soliloquy in case you’re interested!:

“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.”

campushungary.hu has some great information for Hungarians and non-Hungarians interested in higher eduction in Hungary. There’s a list of all 68 institutions along with degrees, visa information, and suggestions on living in Hungary.

panoramas.hu has a great set of panoramic photos of Hungary and Budapest.

If you’re interested in seeing Budapest by the numbers, check out budapest.hu.