Day 3

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Today was pretty uneventful.  We started the day off with the girls getting a new haircut for the summer while  Melinda stayed at home in order to Skype with her family.  After lunch, we all went to piano practice and then back home so that Robert and I could get ready for workout.  Melinda told us that she loves to bake and would like to make us some muffins with the fresh blueberries we had just bought from Ham's Orchard.  Blueberry muffins are our absolute favorite, so naturally we were thrilled to hear that she likes to make them. She asked if she and the girls could stay at the house while we went to workout so they could bake.

The first obstacle to overcome was converting the Hungarian measurements to American measurements.  The funny part is that when I'm teaching my students that we (Americans) don't typically see or use deciliters and decagrams, that was the unit of measurement that the recipe was in.  After an impromptu math lesson, they were well on their way to making muffins.

  

Once we were home from workout, we sampled the muffins and oh, my goodness, were they good!  I could definitely get used to this!!!  (don't tell the trainer!!!)

Again, after the girls were in bed, we stayed up and talked about her home life.  Hungary is not a very big country in comparison to the United States.  It is slightly smaller than the state of Indiana. 

Texas is about 7 times larger than Hungary.

We were explaining to Melinda how even within the United States, there are great differences in how people talk and act.  In the south, people generally put great importance on respect of their elders and are very friendly.  In the north, some might say that this is not the norm.  (making a generalization people...I know that doesn't always go for everyone.)  We also talked about the usage of certain words which we concider 'bad' that she said Hungarians do not view as 'bad', just another word to use/say.


Tonight is when I decided to begin this blog.  I had all of these things going through my head and I didn't want to go any further into our summer without writing them down.  The most important things that I want to get down 'on paper' are the discussion we have in the evenings.  This is the part that I have come to look forward to the most. I love to learn about her life and experiences growing up in Hungary.  I truly hope that this will teach us how to be better people.  Seeing things through her eyes has made me appreciate the little things that I have become so complacent with over the years.  As her English improves, I hope that Ally and Abby are able to truly understand what Robert and I have already begun to notice.  The ease of living in the United States, with all of our luxuries and comforts, is truly a blessing that we are very fortunate to enjoy.  I experienced this first hand while on a trip to visit family in Mexico as a young child.  It's the day to day things that we take for granted and my hope is that having Melinda here this summer will help remind us of how truly blessed we are.