zűld fa July 8, 2009

"green grass"
hello loverheadsssss
you are such glorious creatures. i love that you are happy and well and taking care of our city while i am away. i must admit, i am beginning to feel the early pangs of homesickness, which is what i was expecting around the 2 week mark (and like clockwork, here it is..). its alright, i only feel it in the moments i am alone and in the quiet, not preparing a lesson plan or trying to learn a hungarian word or eating delicious fresh food, or oggling cute hungarian men. even then, all i need to do is look through some pictures of my kids or the other volunteers or dig through my pocket and find one of the many sweet notes my host sister leaves me, and the feeling subsides. yesterday i taught my intermediate class about the superbowl and american football and then we went outside and played it. funnnnnn. today i am going to teach them a song, and im still deciding between the beatles, beyonce or michael jackson. i think im going to go with mj as a tribute. this week, ive been going to dinner at my students' houses and talking with them one on one. i think thats the most valuable way to teach them, just by talking to them alone. in the class, everyone is on different levels and you can only learn so much. but one on one, they feel more free to ask me questions and to tell me about themselves. last night one of the teachers (the same one who crushed a lemon leaf into my hand) took me into zalaegerszeg, the city, and took me shopping. it was really nice. we got ice cream and she showed me around...and we communicated with my little hungarian and her little english. it was great. i cant believe the second week is almost over. it is hard to believe that i will be leaving this village, where i already feel like i have been forever. at the same time, one week feels like one month when the sun is already up when i rise at 7am and sets well after 9pm. i dont get much rest these days, but i feel awake all the time, even when i am so tired i cant sleep. i feel alive in a different way-- the energy i feel comes only from me, not from the momentum of my environment, because life is so simple and slow here. i think because of that simplicity, people are happier. everyone says hello to one another, stranger or not. if someone needs a ride, you open your car door. even kids have a different sense of obligation here. every morning, by the time ive woken up, my host brother and sister have already made and eaten breakfast and are helping out at the orchard or the vineyard. and at the dance camp, i noticed that the children were always taken care of by the teens. the teenage boys did all the dishes--piles and piles of them-- after every meal. it wasnt even asked of them, it was just something they knew they should do. when a child needed a place to sit, he could always crawl onto someones lap without hesitation. it is so nice to see people taking care of one another. that kind of love, the kind that is so effortless and natural that it goes unacknowledged, is pretty amazing to see and to feel.

speaking of which, i love you, effortlessly and naturally!
foram