Happy Sunday!

Ahhh, another lazy Sunday afternoon. Hah! Seems like there aren't many of those anymore! I am finally sitting down for the first time today. I have had one full day of studying, cleaning, weeding, and grocery shopping. After I update ya'll on this blog, I will make dinner and study some more!

Actually, language school is not as intense as I thought it would be. We go for a little over three hours every weekday, and homework takes a couple more hours after that. BUT... I really really really want to know this language. It's not just another "class" to complete for my degree. This is my life. Therefore, I am forcing myself to study as much as possible. I'm trying to learn fifty new words a day. If I see a word I don't know on a sign, I'll write it down. If I want to know how to say "washing machine," I'll look it up. I've heard that the Hungarian vocabulary is not as large as most languages, so that is definitely a plus. There are only so many words they have to use as a description, verb, or noun. In fact, many times when an English speaker is being translated into Hungarian, the Hungarian phrasing will be much longer than the English because it takes a lot more explanation due to their limited vocabulary. Pretty interesting!

After this week, Paul and I will have completed the first section of language school. They are split into three-week semesters. We are taking two more after this one. Hopefully all of our classmates will continue as well, but I am not so sure. I think a couple are getting pretty overwhelmed. Please pray for us, that we are good examples to them as we try to live Christ-like lives in a secular world. Sometimes it is easy to forget that the world is going to hell, when you spend most of your time on a Christian campus. Being in the city this summer has reminded me of the importance to reach our own

communities for Christ.

Hope you have a great week! Thanks for checking in!

Magyarul Tanulok! (I am learning Hungarian)

Phew! What a week! Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but it seems like I have had ZERO free time this whole week! Paul and I finally started language school this past Monday. What an experience! I cannot believe how much we have learned in just five days of school! Already I feel like my eyes and ears have been opened to the Hungarian language. I understand a lot more about what is going on around me. It is truly any encouragement. Praise the Lord!

During the week, Paul and I are staying in Budapest, about thirty minutes from our language school. Of course, it is only thirty minutes by car, but when you factor in morning traffic and the crazy Hungarian drivers, it is more like and hour and a half. So, we decided to take the public transportation route, which gets us there a little faster and is less expensive than paying for gas. After a couple days of experimentation, and a lot of walking, we discovered the best route is to 1) drive by car to a nearby grocery store 2) hop on the #3 bus, which takes us to the tram 3) walk from the bus stop to the tram and hop on 4) walk from the tram stop to another bus stop and hop on 5) walk from the last bus stop to our school. All in all, the trip is about an hour and ten minutes, but it allows for some quality study time!

Our teacher is young, cute, and perky. She has taught at the school for four years now. We have a total of six people in our class, three Germans and three Americans, including us. Everyone is very nice and eager to learn Hungarian. However, Paul and I are the only ones who are intending on staying in Hungary indefinitely. The rest are students in Budapest for the next 2-3 years or they are here temporarily on a job assignment. We definitely have major motivation! In fact, Paul is expected to teach in Hungarian by September of 2009! I'm glad I am only expected to do the grocery shopping and talk to the neighbors!

This past week in school, we learned different ways of describing ourselves and other people, familiar sayings we may need (like "I only speak a little Hungarian"), and how to say where we are from. Just yesterday we started learning vocabulary for different foods and occupations.

We are currently back in Toalmas for the weekend. It is so nice to be in our home and to sleep in our own bed. Being gone for a whole week has made me realize how much God has blessed us - not only with a beautiful home and village, but with friends and colleagues who are supportive and such an encouragement.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we learn, grow, and study like crazy these next nine weeks. Pray that Paul and I learn as much as possible this summer and that we grow even closer to each other through this experience. Hopefully, next week I will have some pictures to show you of our home in Budapest and our school. That is, of course, if we survive another week of Nyelv Iskola!

"No more pencils, no more books..."

Well, it was another beautiful and busy week here in Toalmas. Last week was officially the final week of Bible School, so naturally, Paul was busy as a bee, rushing to grade final papers, calculate GPA's, and teach the remainder of New Testament Survey. There were a couple of late nights for him as he read student papers on the topic of "Who is Melchizedek?"(I think he is a manifestation of Christ. What say you? P.S. My paper received an "A"). By the end of the week Paul was one pooped puppy, but he was still able to stand proud on stage at graduation as students received their diplomas. The Bible School now has a one-year program as well as a two-year program, so there were many more students graduating than in previous years. It was a wonderful ceremony, filled with much encouragement and praise for the Lord's blessing. Bellow are a few pictures taken from this past Saturday's Word of Life Hungary Bible School graduation 2008.

Around the House

I know in the last blog I said that I was through with cherry pickin', but the baking machine inside of me took over, and I decided that it would be fun to make a cherry pie from scratch. I have never really been a fan of canned cherry pie filling and I am not sure that I have ever had a real cherry pie before. So, on Monday I went out once again and picked more cherries to bake a pie, but I ended up picking another bucket full. This led me to the realization that we need a freezer. Our current refrigerator has a small freezer at the bottom that is the size of two crisper drawers. One entire drawer is now filled with bags of cherries and the other drawer has everything else. Unfortunately, freezers cost money, and all I have is cherries. So... if you are interested in buying some authentic Hungarian cherries, I think I can give you a deal :) All proceeds will go to the "Jill Weaver Needs a Bigger Freezer Fund." Seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do when all these veggies in the garden come up. Hopefully, by that time, canning supplies will be available in the stores so I can at least preserve the tomatoes!

I had my first harvest of peas this week. Sooooooo exciting! Normally I don't even like peas, but these were really sweet and tasty. This gardening thing is paying off!

Today Paul is working hard on writing our current newsletter and updating our website (http://www.weaverwebpage.org/). I have been working away on sewing drapes for our bedroom. Our home is fashioned in such a way that the shutters over the windows must be opened from the outside. So unless you are willing to open and shut every shutter every morning and evening, you have no privacy. Now that I have these drapes sewn, we can permanently leave the shutters open and just close the drapes at night. I will be sure to post a picture once I'm done.

Looking Ahead

Next Monday will be the very first day of language school! Part of me is so ready and the other part of me is terrified. It is supposed to be pretty intense and overwhelming. We will attend a school in Budapest for about four hours every morning, five days a week. Supposedly they give about four hours of homework as well. To save time and money, Paul and I are going to live in the city for the summer and come back home to Toalmas on the weekends. God has been so good. He supplied us with a home from a missionary couple who are going on furlow this summer. We will be house sitting for them, while experiencing city life! I think it will be a fun summer, but definitely a challenging one. Please pray for us as we experience this adventure together.

What a Week!

JILL'S LIFE

My sanity has officially been consumed by cherries! I am one obsessed chick, and I really do think I have a few issues. Somehow, I got it in my head that "this is free food = get as much of it as you can." So every morning since last Friday, I have been outside with my big mop bucket and step ladder, picking the ripest specimens of the day. I do have to say that the hour or so that I have spent in the mornings picking away, has been a very nice time to meditate and pray; just me, God, and my cherries.

Pitting those cherries is another story! My wall above the kitchen sink is completely stained with splattered cherry juice! Phew, I am sooo sick of pits. It is totally the pits! I have officially picked, washed, de-stemmed, pitted, and stored four buckets of cherries, which is equal to about 100 cups of cherries! With these I made 27 jars of cherry jam (Canning was a first time experience for me. Thank you so much to Karen James for all her help and advice. P.S. I'm blaming you for any cases of Botulism). I also filled two quart size ZipLock bags with dried cherries, for baking purposes. And I froze 16 bags of pitted cherries for later use. I may pick a few more to give to students, but after this, I am done! And I don't feel guilty!

MARRIED LIFE

It is the last week of school here at Word of Life Hungary Bible Institute. My poor husband has been running around, trying to wrap up teaching, grade quizzes and homework, record grades, and hand back papers. Not to mention, he has to deal with all the sorry students who are coming to him in dismay about their grades and questions on graduation. Please pray for Paul if you think about it. He's going to need some major energy in the next few days. Maybe some cherry pie will help!

Saturday will be graduation, so all the students are bustling around about getting packed to go home, tying up loose ends, and taking pictures of friends. It's a sad, but also happy time. Tomorrow night we will go to the Al and Pam Konya's home (director of WOL Hungary) to have a mini good-bye party with the second year students and staff. It should be fun!

Paul and I will officially be starting language school after graduation, June 9th to be exact. I am so ready! I think!

FAMILY LIFE

Big congratulations to my brother, Jeff Prebeck, for graduating from the Coast Guard Academy this past weekend. Jeff, I am sooooo proud of you! You have turned out to be one extraordinary young man and I am so excited to see the way God is going to direct your exciting future!

The graduation was held on campus in New London, Connecticut. Mom, Dad, my sister Jane, and her husband all went out to see the big event, plus my aunt, Carol. It was a total bummer that we couldn't be there with them to celebrate this huge accomplishment, but, fortunately, through the wonder of technology, we were able to watch the ceremony live online! Vice President Dick Chaney was the key note speaker, and the director of National Defense was present as well. Pretty cool!

From what I hear, the whole weekend was pretty amazing. There were a bunch of events leading up to the graduation, such as a ball/dance, dinner cruise, and various award ceremonies. Jeff won the "Coaches Award" for basketball (I think he's their favorite). He had an awesome year, beating the school record for rebounds and most points scored. Way to go bro!

Gardening Adventures

Oh my goodness! The cherries on our tree are almost ripe! I just realized this morning that there's only a few days until pickin' time! I'm feeling excited and overwhelmed by this at the same time, because 1) I'm going to have to get on a very large ladder to get all these cherries down 2) I need to learn how to can since our freezer is very small 3) There are going to be a lot of pits to remove! Of course, this all needs to happen within five days or so because ripe cherries only last so long. I want to preserve as many as I can because they are so delicious and, hey, this is free food!

My peas are coming in too! So exciting! This is my very first go-around at gardening, besides the one tomato plant we had on our balcony last summer. So far so good. I started tomato, pepper, and egg plant from seed indoors back in March. They were transplanted into the garden a couple weeks ago, and for the most part, they seem to be adjusting just fine. Of course, I did have some casualties along the way. Besides the seedlings, I also planted peas, onion, and green beans. God and His creation is so cool!

Becoming Hungarian

Hi Everybody!

Here is my very first post for my new blog site. Hope I am doing this right! I thought I would let you know what it is like to live as a Hungarian.

Living in Toalmas, Hungary is somewhat like taking a step back in time. Life is slower and more simple, but at the same time, it can be harder and more complicated!

Hungarian people live at a slower pace, especially in the village. A majority take time to have a garden, talk with neighbors, and cook a full meal for lunch. In a world where fast food, cell phones, and instant gratification seem to rule, village life is refreshing. However, adjusting to a new culture, language, and way of life has not been without its difficulties. I have learned to be the ultimate house wife, the old fashioned way. I now use the line for the wash, instead of a clothes dryer. Most of our meals are cooked from scratch, no cream of mushroom soup or instant pancake mix! Plus, the nearest Wal-Mart type store is thirty minutes away. We have no television, and our heater is run on a wood burner (although we have radiators too). Actually, even though some tasks can be difficult, I think old fashioned living is the way to go! I fully enjoy working with my hands, whether it be cleaning, cooking, or landscaping. It only gets frustrating when time constraints are an issue. Everyday living here just seems to take longer!

All things aside, I fully believe that God has given me a very blessed life. I know the Lord has brought Paul and I to Hungary with big plans in mind, and I am so excited to see them all unfold. At the end of the day, when I lay my head down on my pillow, and think of all the blessings God has given us, I can only be filled with thanksgiving for His provision and perfect will.