Day 13,14&15 - From Keszthely back to Budapest

Lo sentimos,

It's been three days and we haven't blogged. I (Ben) take the blame because we've been getting in late the last two nights and I've been lazy. As it is, it doesn't feel like we have a lot to share but I'm sure that won't be true by the time I'm done typing :D

Wednesday we spent pretty much the whole day in sessions with the rest of the Speak Out staff until late afternoon when we went to start packing up. Supper was very different as we participated in what they called an "International Dinner". I'm not sure I want to divulge any details in the blog in case any of you ever get to go through one with Campus Crusade, but if you've ever been through the International Dinner with the Perspectives class, that's like quarter notes compared to a Buddy Rich solo. (youtube him)

Yesterday we got up a little early, finished packing and headed down to our last breakfast in Keszthely. We weren't totally sad to say farewell to the Hungarian school cafeteria food we had been eating the last 6 days, but there were several people to hug and shakes hands with. We're grateful for facebook as a tool to stay in touch. Our train left PRECISELY on time which was nice, but we experienced a strange phenomenon. Even though all the windows in our second class car were open, the only time we felt any kind of breeze was when the train was stopped. After an hour and a half of that, we upgraded ourselves to the InterCity car. InterCity = air conditioned and for only $7 more. Total. We felt it was worth it :D

After a restful afternoon of laundry and some internet surfing we headed out with John & Allison to supper and a concert. Some friends of theirs are in a band called Wednesday Night Special and were playing at a new venue, an anchored boat with a stage on the top deck. http://www.myspace.com/wnsmusic John describes them as "jazz fusion" and that's not a bad classification. I said they're sort of like Jamiroquai without any electronics and a good shot of rock. (is there such thing as a BAD shot of rock, though?) We really enjoyed their music and the show, though Megan felt it would have been more enjoyable at a quieter volume.

Today we slept in a little and had breakfast alone (Team Jordan had a language lesson). One of the ladies Megan taught with at Poteet last year used to teach at the International Christian School of Budapest and has been in the Czech Republic this summer. She came in to town to show us around a few places today and tomorrow so at noon we headed out to meet her train. Turned out she accidentally took the train FROM Budapest instead of TO Budapest, so her arrival was delayed an hour and a half. We still got our scheduled tour of the school and one of their principals told us about all the opportunities we had open to us there. Staff is hard to come by sometimes and our backgrounds made us quite appealing to her. Teaching is something we're not totally opposed to, but probably not our first year overseas while we're still getting our feet on the ground.

We made it back to John & Allison's apartment in time to cool down a bit (it's been really warm in a non-air conditioned city lately) before heading out to supper with their Area Director and his wife. It was a good opportunity for them to learn a little about us and for us to ask them a lot of direct questions about United World Mission. God has really blessed us with some great conversations with people who can really give us a snapshot of their ministry and what it would be like to serve with them overseas. We got to do the same with Doug & Patti Meyerdirk about Campus Crusade before we left Keszthely. A lot more processing and debriefing will need to be done as we continue on our trip, but it has been amazing to see God clarifying some things and presenting new things to consider at the same time. We know that we can trust Him to make sense of it all in His timing, so we are prayerfully patient while we experience and learn more each day.

After supper (which was at an amazing cafe on Castle Hill) we followed my shutterbug around while she took some incredible night shots of Budapest. I promise we won't wait three days again before our next blog!