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!!

Tomorrow is the final day of the Olympics, and there are at least two things to keep your eye on.  At 15.40 on Sunday, Beijing time, Hungary will play the United States for the gold medal in waterpolo.  Hungary has won 8 gold medals in the sport since 1932.

The other thing to watch is the men’s marathon at 07.30 Beijing time (01:30 Budapest time / 19.30 Saturday Virginia time).  I’ve been waiting for this for the the last two weeks (though I’ll have to just catch the highlights on youtube).  Ryan Hall is the USA hope for gold.  Though Ryan has only competed in 3 official marathons, he holds the fastest olympic qualifying time for an American.  If I remember correctly, in London recently, he ran the marathon in 2:06:17.  Whoa.  That is not far off of the world record.  But there are three Kenyons who are running the same speed right now, so Ryan will be up against the fastest group in history.

But Ryan is running for more than a gold medal.  Ryan will be running in the memory of one of his best friends, Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died at the fifth mile of the olympic trials.  Ryan also talks a lot about letting go of all of the lofty goals of running a faster time or winning first place.  He talks a lot about the joy of simply running for God.  This is what he calls being “free to run.”  You can see his training video here.

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!

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!

On Monday I turned 35.
Hmmm….
That’s almost 40…
Half way to 70…
A quarter of the way to 140…
Seven times the age of my middlest son….
1/27th of Methuselah
But it feels good too.
This was a special year because my birthday came the day after Easter.
Easter Monday.
Thoughts about birth and resurrection…
In Hungary Easter Monday is the day when boys spray girls with perfume/water, and the girls reward the boys with a coin or an Easter egg.
Laura has a special role of being the only girl in our house  :)
She got sprayed.
It was a great day!

Here is Jacob’s class.  (Jake is in the top row, third from the right)

Here’s Seth’s class.  (Middle row, beside the teacher on the right.)

Last night, at midnight, border controls were lifted as nine countries entered into the Schengen aggreement and into Europe’s border-free passport-free zone.  The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined the zone.

In a way, this was a final step for many people in the lowering of the iron curtain and the barrier between Eastern and Western Europe.  A big day with big celebrations along so many border towns and cities. 

The town of Sátoraljaújhely (literally “Tent Button New Place”) is on the border of Hungary and Slovakia and was split into two when borders were redrawn by the Trianon treaty in 1920.  As of midnight, residents can simply walk across and visit their neighbors without going through border guards and passport controls.  

However, there is another town on the Slovak Ukrainian border called Velké Slemence which is still split.  For decades the two halves of this town had no access to each other.  But at the strong appeal of the American Association of Hungarians, the governments set up a border passport control station so that friends and family members could once again visit one another.  As a result of the expansion of the Schengen countries, this border will become much much tighter along with those on the Eastern and Southern edges of Hungary. 

This is what some people call Central Europe:

Recently I had the chance to meet with Vladislav Matej (Family Counselor with Socia) in Bratislava.  He outlined a set of recent sociological studies on European values and family trends.  Here are some of the highlights from Vladislav Matej.   

Prof. Jan Kerkhofs, University of Louwen, Belgium reported a longitudinal 20-year study of European values.  There were five primary shifts:

• Ethics have entered the autonomous sphere (individually determined)
• Ethical norms are influenced and created by parliaments and not by churches anymore (there are lots of examples of this)
• There is a high tolerance to the actions of individuals
• Individual ethics are limited by the freedom of other individuals

There has been a primary movement toward individualism, post-traditionalism, tolerance, and pessimism.

A report (D. Popeone, sociologist) shows correlating trends between the occurance of the sexual revolution, a rapid decrease of fertility, and a rapid increase of divorce.

A study by G.T. Stanton has found a rapid increase of cohabiting couples (not married) and several trends within these households: an increase in disturbing and painful relationships, an increase of interferance of the successful formation of follow-up partnerships (not sure what this means), an increase of conflict, an increase of domestic violence, and a strengthening of mistrust.

The following stats are taken from Eurostat.  The average age of men/women at first marriage in 1980 was 26/23.  In 2003 it was 30/28.  The percent of children born outside of marriage in 1980 was 8.8%.  In 2005 it was 33%.  In 1980 the number of divorces that occured in Europe was 672,917.  In 2005 it was 1,042,892.  Today, 2/3 of households in the EU live without children.  16% of families have one child, 13% have two children, and 4% have three children.  In the next fifty years, the population of the US is expected to increase by 150 million.  In Europe it is expected to decrease by 40 million.

As you know, December 6th is Mikulás (Nicholas) day, and we had a very special visit from Mikulás and the krampusz.  We didn’t realize that St. Nick actually lives in our neighborhood here in Budapest!!!  Thankfully, the boys received candy in their shoes this year instead of sticks or coals.  Here’s some pictures:  Our neighborhood Mikulás, the boys digging into their candy from Mikulás, Jacob decorating the Christmas tree, Thanksgiving dinner with Dori, Joanna, Krisztina, & Péter.

Lately, there have been a few really awesome things happening here in Budapest.  For the second time, we saw the Red Bull Air Race which is one of the coolest things ever.  Check out the the website and video.  Whoa. 

We took the boys to see it, and we happened to find a great spot from which to watch.  For a 3, 4, and 6 year old, you just can’t get much better than this….sitting on mom or dad’s shoulder’s, hearing the roar of planes zooming and turning right in front of your face.