We had the opportunity to get away with several friends to Badacsony last weekend.  It is definitely one of my favorite places in Hungary.  Just a small vineyard covered village stuck between a handful of extinct volcanoes and Lake Balaton.  We were so glad to have two friends from Sweden, Rinus and Joke, join us for the weekend.  Rinus stirred up many conversations as he shared about the life and writings of William Faulkner.  Specifically, we took a look at the themes of alienation and wounded families.  Thanks Rinus for your contributions!

While in Badacsony, Kristof saw a hedgehog in the grass, I said, “let’s get it!,” and Oliver immediately picked it up without hesitation.  Oliver, you are a natural.  Needless to say, our boys had an awesome weekend playing with the hedgehog named Prickles.  Seth now has changed his daily request for a pet turtle to a daily request for a pet hedgehog.  I’d love a copy of the group photo from any of you who took one on Sunday!

Here are some of Seth’s thoughts from his first two weeks in the first grade at Dr. Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola.

“Hi, this is Seth.  I am in first grade.  I have some letters and words that I am learning how to write and read in Hungarian.  For example, ‘kék’ means ‘blue,’ and ‘faházak’ means ‘tree houses.’  Some of the letters I am learning to write are V, Á, A, Z, í, K, F, É, E, H, and I.  Everyday I have házifeladat (homework).  I have a magic box with magic sticks and beans in it.  What I do with it is I use it to spell words (see the picture).  The magic box in Hungarian is called a ‘varázsdoboz.’

“In the morning, I go to the closet in the hallway, and I hang my hat up, and I get my inside shoes on, and I go sit at my desk in the classroom.  Then the teacher comes in, and all my friends arrive.  My teacher tells me what to do.  First I have Hungarian class and then math.  We also have torna (phys. ed.), an English class, and drawing.  We go to the play ground and come back to eat a snack.  Mom and Dad pick me up from school.

“My favorite parts of the day is when I have torna, drawing, swimming, and snack time.  I also like lunch, math  and Hungarian class.  When I go to Hungarian school, everybody speaks Hungarian.  I speak Hungarian to them too.  I have some friends who I talk to.  We talk in Hungarian about things like animals.  Some of my favorite animal names are kutya (dog), hal (fish), and technősbéka (turtle).  In class I understand everything, but some things I don’t.

“I have some friends in class.  There names are Kinga, Bendegusz, Jenő, Dani, Márk, Benedet, Patrik, and there are a couple others, but I can’t remember their names.”

-Seth Whitfield Newell

The boys started school this week!  Below are a couple pictures from Seth’s first day in first grade at Szent Györgyi Albert átalános iskola.  He has wonderful teachers, and he is doing great so far.  He’s especially excited about all of his classes and books.

Here’s a picture of my normal 5K run. I’ve been a bit lazy with running this summer, but building back up.  This northern Budapest run along the Csillaghegyi Duna part is great. Though I do miss the run around Margit Island (5.5 K) which we used to do (with my friend Péter), especially in the evenings when you can see the city lights.

With this run, I start from our house and run .75 K to the river. Then we go north on a running/bicycle path along the riverside for another 1.75 K before turning around. Seth and Jacob (on their bikes) are my usual companions, and they keep my pace steady. I run a lot slower without them! Today we made one of our fastest 5K times: 21:44.16. We’re aiming to break the 20 minute barrier. Just need to keep my legs healthy.  Anyone interested in the Budapest half marathon next weekend?

Seth, future Olympic decathlete. (3 minutes)

We get to spend time with some really great students through the English Club and the Outdoor Club at Corvinus University. One of our friends, Norbi, invited us to visit his home in Slovakia for a few days. So this past week, we spent a couple days in and around Kassa (Kosice) Slovakia with Norbi’s family. We had such a great time. Their family lives in a small village 40 minutes outside of the big city (250,000), and the kids loved being in the countryside for a while, eating home-grown vegetables, picking grapes, and chasing chickens. Standing in the backyard are grape vines, apple trees, a giant walnut tree, a vegetable garden, a chicken house, and an outhouse which hasn’t been used for a long time. The outhouse, for me, was the coolest. Seth was a bit bummed that we couldn’t use it. Me too. It was a cool imprint from an earlier time, and I’m glad they haven’t torn it down. The kids loved the chickens, and I’m thinking that we are going to have to get a few pet chickens soon. Thanks Norbi for hosting us!!

My brother Daniel returned to America on Tuesday.  Life hasn’t been the same in the Newell household.  One of Daniel’s great accomplishments during the last five weeks was to create three little aspiring decathletes.  Everyday the boys were testing their physical limits in some way.  They seem to be jumping over everything that stands in their path.  The long jump is the current challenge of choice these days.  Daniel, the video is coming soon.

We are two days into our kids camp this week, and it is going great!  It’s been raining the last two days, but Laura is a genius with organizing kid stuff, and we also have a secret weapon…..Uncle Daniel.   More pictures coming soon.

Our friend Balázs was acting as a knight in the medieval festival in Visegrád this weekend, so we went to see the happenings.  We found Balázs, and the boys got to become knights themselves and sword fight for a while!

Seth found a Stag Beetle in the yard yesterday:

In this post, I would like introduce you to one of Hungary’s finest foods…Fish Soup.  Here are the instructions.

1) Find some good Hungarian friends who know how to make it:

2) Chop red onions and get them started in the “bogrács.”

3) Add a handful of fish pieces, a liter of water, and several spoons of paprika:

4) Scoop the fish and liquid into a puree device and press the liquid through with some of the fish, and then remove the left over fish chunks and bones:

5) Stop for a moment to watch Seth yo-yo while jumping on a trampoline:

6) Put the soup base back over the fire:

7) Add new fish chunks, some “Fish Milk,” more paprika, spicy peppers, and let it cook:

8) The cooking process should take 2-3 hours.  After enjoying the awesome fish soup, eat some turos testa (dry cottage cheese pasta), and then have some ice-cream!

We had an awesome time in America with family and friends!  Some of the highlights were riding tractors on the farm, camping, canoeing, fishing, going to the beach, playing golf & putt-putt, going to a race-track, picnicing, swimming in the creek, and catching creatures (caterpillars, frogs, turtles, lizards, fish, spiders, and beetles).  Here are a few pictures.  Click here for more.