Day 2 and 3: Getting over jetlag

Unfortunately, the internet has been down for the past couple of days, so I'll group Sunday and Monday into one post. Sundays are truly days set aside for worship here. Attila preaches at four churches every Sunday. And he preaches on something different at each one! I cannot imagine how he could do this every Sunday, but he is used to it. Next week is Pentecost and I'm very grateful that Attila is going to let me go to mass that day. I will probably miss one of the services with him and Katie and then go to the other three, but I'm just so happy to be able to attend mass while I'm here! Apparently, Pentecost is such a big celebration for them here that we will not teach school the Monday after Pentecost but instead we go to all the churches again!

We were asked to eat lunch with the Vass family Sunday. They are one of my two favorite families here in Romania. The Vass' are a very old couple who don't speak a word of English but they have the most beautiful hearts; it's easy to forget that we can't speak the same language when Mr. Vass will take my face into is hands and smile the most grateful smile at me, like I've just given him the most amazing gift in the world, and I think "I haven't done anything at all!! You're the one feeding me!" They are incredible. They told Katie and I that we are like their grandchildren and they love us. How amazing is that? I remember last year Mr. Vass told us that he and his wife have never had a fight in all of their marriage(they must be in their 70's). He said, "Do you know why this is? Because she is ALWAYS right." hahahaha. He is a wise man. :)

On Monday, we had our first day of school. I didn't actually teach a class because we had everyone in the same group, so Katie just gave a quick review of some things, and then Attila told us who would be in each group: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. We have five classes a day, Intermediate and Advanced in the morning and then Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced in the afternoon. I'm a little nervous today because I have to teach the Advanced class in the morning and apparently there are teachers in this class! Different people come to the morning and afternoon classes because of work and other conflicts, but Attila said we will have ambitious students who come to every class too.

Katie and I love Mondays because we have a Bible study at Zozo's house, and on this Monday, we pretty much spent the whole day with them. Zozo's family is our other favorite family here in Romania. I have never met people who are filled with as much joy as they are. It is beautiful. Zozo told me that it's because they are gypsies, that is why they're happy all the time. Hahaha. But I know that it is the love of Christ in their hearts that fills them with so much joy. One of the things that blew me away last year, and still continues to overwhelm me now, is how much these people just want to give all the time. Zozo's parents told us they have been waiting to see us and spend time with us since Attila told them we were coming, and that they were so honored we were in their home. So they had lunch and dinner with us, and then insisted that we come to lunch the next day too! Although the only one of them who can really speak English is Zozo (one of his brothers and his sister-in-law are in our Intermediate English class) but I don't think Katie and I have ever really felt the language barrier so much with them. I don't know why, but we just feel so at home with their family. It's hard to explain, but I think it must be why we love them so much.

One of Zozo's neighbors has the most precious daughter named Lisza; she and her mom came and sat with us at one point for awhile because her mother is in my Beginner English class, and when her mom left, Lisza apparently cried to come back and sit with me and Katie, so Isti(Zozo's brother) brought her back. She just crawled right into Katie's lap, and later mine, but she never said a word haha. She is a gorgeous child. I think she was about two, probably my nephew Aidan's age, but I will try to put a picture of her up soon, because I think she has the most beautiful eyes of any child I've seen here.

One thing that I have loved about the Bible studies here is the music. Everyone sings these Hungarian songs so loud and passionately, it's really powerful! I almost cried last night at one point, because Zozo started to play these really familiar chords on the guitar and everyone broke into "Shout to the Lord" in Hungarian. Katie and I sang in English and all of a sudden these two cultures came together as one, united by our Savior. It was like every barrier came down because we were both just worshiping the same God and it didn't matter what language it was in because we were saying the same thing. We had been singing all these Hungarian worship songs which are beautiful, but then all of a sudden it was one that we knew, and I could feel God's presence with me at that moment.

I'm going to wrap this up because I have to go prepare my lessons for today. Hopefully the internet will decide to work for the next few days at least!