One Month!

As of tomorrow, I will have spent a month in Hungary! The time has gone by so quickly. In honor of this special milestone, here are a few glimpses into my daily life.

Schedule: The Daily Life of an Au Pair

School Days

Friday is the children's last day of school, so my schedule is about to change. As of now, however, I get up between 6 and 6:20. The girls wake up at 6:40, and we all have breakfast. Someone else takes Hanga to kindergarten, and I walk the two older girls to school. They arrive a little before 8, and then I'm free for the morning. I use this time to explore the city, read, bike, surf the web, jog, etc. If I'm not at the house, I head home by 11:30 to have lunch with Eszter and Attila. Then, the three of us pick Hanga up from kindergarten. Depending on the day, Eszter or I pick up the older girls between 2 and 3:15.

Afternoons and evenings are usually pretty chill, but the schedule varies from day to day. Sometimes the children have music or German lessons, but most of those activities take place in the home. Sometimes we'll read stories or go to the park. After dinner, the girls take baths and prepare for bed. As a bedtime story, I'm reading Charlotte's Web to the older girls, but for the last week or so, we've been on a bit of a hiatus.

I have Wednesday nights off, so I've been attending a bilingual Bible study at Golgota Church. Being in Hungary has helped me to appreciate the significance of having Scripture and Bible studies in a language I understand. It's such an incredible blessing that I previously took for granted. I'm also realizing the importance of having worship music in one's own language. The worship music is only posted in Hungarian, which makes singing along very difficult! Some of the songs are translated from English, but when everyone is singing in another language, remembering the English lyrics is difficult.

After Bible study, I head to the English Club, which is held on Wednesday nights at a local restaurant. It's usually composed of one or two Americans, a Brit or two, a few Hungarians, maybe an Austrian, and a couple of people from other parts of Europe. The second week I was there,  I met two girls who study at the university here in Sopron. One is from Budapest, and the other grew up locally. Their English is good, and I got together with one of them last week to hang out. We visited her dorm room, biked around for bit, and had fun!

Weekends

Weekends here are a time for family excursions! Last weekend, we stayed in town because Attila was baptized. I wish I took pictures. It was a big event, almost like a wedding. Earlier in the week, family came to town. Then, on Saturday, the ceremony was held at the local reformed church. I couldn't understand what was being said, but Ju Ju and Saci sang, and it looked lovely.  After Attila's baptism, we went to a hotel and had a delicious lunch. Here in Hungary, baptizing babies is way of welcoming them the family. I'm glad that I was able to witness such an important cultural event.

This weekend was extra-long because of Pentecost, so Monday, we visited the baths (thermal pools) in a nearby town. The girls had a lot of fun swimming, and I discovered that Hanga is absolutely fearless.

Pictures and all that jazz . . .

I was going to write more, but this post is getting way too long. Maybe I'll write another post about our ESL activities. Here are some pictures from daily life.

Bath Painting: I discovered this idea on Pinterest, and Saci and Hanga love it.  Confession: I actually think that the paint looks really yummy. I have to keep reminding myself that it's shaving cream, not cool whip.

Saci takes Hungarian folk dancing lessons at school, and I was able to watch her "final exam." The little girls were so cute in their spinning skirts and white blouses.

I love to go on walks, even when it looks like it might rain. No, especially when it looks like it might rain.

We went to the store to get bananas, but first, we had to try every single seat on the merry-go-round. Four year-olds know about the important things in life.

This tower was used to hold gun-powder! It's absolutely massive, and it sits right next to Hanga's kindergarten and the track where I occasionally run. Okay, occasionally is liberal; In nearly a month, I've only run twice.

Much love!
Renee

P.S. Shout out to my little sister Arielle who turned 12 (12!!!!!!!!!!!!) on Sunday. Crazy girl, I can't believe you're so old!