Unusual Occurences

I had a funny dream last night. I dreamed that it snowed, and a lot of people (other teachers from Budapest, random people from Camp Allegheny) came walking into my flat in their pajamas and robes to listen to the radio for school closings. They all seemed to live in my building, and only our radio was in English for them to understand. Sadly, the radio wasn't working. I woke up from this dream to Sarah Jane running into our bedroom. "Joanna! It snowed!" "What? I just dreamed that!" I exclaim. "Maybe they'll close school!" True enough, I woke up to a shade of white this morning, our first snow. Sadly, school closings are more of a dream here, a figment of times long gone.
This weekend I did more unordinary things:
1) I went to a formal "ball" at Budapest college
2) I ate cavier
I'll just say number 1 as opposed to number 2 gave me endless flashbacks of parties and proms and the Macarena, while at the same time being nothing like any of those times or places. Number 2 was salty and tasted like fish. Should I just leave it at that? Due to time, I think I will.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May you eat turkey until you burst. I'm going to try Thanksgiving in Slovakia this year, but let there be pie! And it will be so.

Joanna needs...

Copying Danielle and Neal, it's pretty fun to type "joanna needs" into google and see what comes up. Go ahead, try it. This is apparantly what I need:
1. My Joanna needs tuning. (most popular response from a song)
2. Joanna needs a break. (Yes! Thanksgiving!)
3. Joanna needs to go to see her loan manager at her bank. (Yikes!)
4. Joanna needs money. (How do they know these things?)
5. Joanna needs to find herself. (Where did I go? I'm lost...)
6. Joanna needs more practice in argument. (Any takers? I'm game.)
7. Joanna needs YOUR help with outfits!!!!! (wow, am I that badly dressed?)
8. Joanna needs you to get in touch with her. (Yep, send me some love in email form)
9. Joanna needs a cool head and a steady trigger finger. (First I need a gun and some fringe...)
10. Joanna needs a hero. ("I can be your hero, baby!" I'll take R Kelly)
11. Which handhelds would best meet Joanna's needs? (I don't know. Christmas is coming up. That's a good question to think about.)

I woke up with the sun today!

In my efforts to find joy, I went to Budapest yesterday just to see Danielle. We had American tea, Vanilla Caramel, and sat in her little loft that she's decorated like a tea room. We talked and prayed for hours. Very refreshing. Today, in my efforts to find joy waking up before the sun, I got up at 6am like usual and washed my face and brushed my teeth. Then, instead of making coffee and breakfast, I skipped it and went back to bed until 6:55. That's right, I woke up with the sun!!! I got dressed in five minutes and was out the door, slightly hungrier, but happier. I've been shopping a lot this week, not something I enjoy usually, but Barb comes with me everyday, on a quest for shoes that are my size and not pointed. I've come to realize I'm a mutant in Europe. Nobody has feet as small as me. There are plenty of people as short as I am, but they all must have big feet. There is no size smaller than a 36, and I think I must be a 35 here, so I'm screwed. I have to buy little kids shoes I think. Not only that, but all the shoes are pointed like witches or elf shoes. I'm not comfortable with that. It's fine if everyone else wants to wear them, but not for me. I'm going to stick with the shoes I have. No more shopping for Jo. It seems I'll be wearing teacher shoes to a formal ball, it's the best I can do.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things...

My parents were here this weekend. It was amazing to see them. And now I am sad. But why should I be sad? And I covet your prayers. The Bible says not to covet, but what about prayers? That seems like a good thing to covet.
I am comforted by the fact not just that God loves me, has a plan for me, and all these trials are small compared to the glory in store for us, but maybe even more amazing is that if I don't give up on God, God never gives up on ME. That's nothing short of remarkable. Even though He is overflowing with wisdom and love and joy and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, I lose my focus, forget what the goal is I'm striving for, and get discouraged. Instead of being so thankful for parents that love me so much that they will travel across oceans and pay wild airline prices to see me for only 3 days, who are believers and support what I do and pray for my service for the Lord and His blessings for my life, I get angry that I can't be near them and talk to them every day and soak up their spiritual wisdom and maturity and love for me. These things that I never appreciated all that much when I was with them. My heart feels broken to receive so much from them in such a short time and then say goodbye, and keep going on and teaching like they were never here. How can I say Thank You to the Lord when I miss them so much already? But God heals broken hearts and gives us strength when we didn't know we had it, and those moments are more precious than all the time with my parents in the world, and how can I be so rude to God by not being thankful for the many blessings I have here, like friends and our church and the obvious ways God uses me at school when I don't think I'm doing anything at all? My heart is so torn between two places, for all the people who mean a lot to me, that only God can fill in all the gaps and give me what I need, and that's quite a treasure. Hard times equal even more glory and joy, the ever confusing paradox that is God. Suffering marries joy, God's death gives birth to eternal life and salvation. So I praise the Lord for loving me so much to give me a broken heart that only He can heal. And I praise Him for what I have but not close by, and for what is nearby now but maybe not forever, for showing me what is NOT so I know fully what IS, the I AM, the ALL IN ALL.
So those are my rambling thoughts if you wish to pray more specifically, and I wanted to thank my parents for everything once again, since they'll be reading this. I'll never grow tired of thanking you, since there seem to always be things to thank you for, and to thank God for you, and all that jazz. The End :)

Jo

Whirlwind Tour

I recently just got back from fall break, which was a whirlwind tour through Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia. It was so fast, I've drawn you a little picture of our route. My own pictures are not set up yet, so just observe the little maps for now.


This is part of Day 1. We travelled down Lake Balaton, took a ferry across the lake, and entered Slovenia.


Still in Day 1, we ended in Ljubljana, the capital that night at 2am, wandered looking for a hotel till 4am.
Day 2: wandered around city, went up to Bled. This is a beautiful small city with a little castle overlooking a gorgeous lake, and a little island with a church in the middle of the lake. Camped out around the lake. Day 3: explored castle, took gondolas out to island, drove to Treiste in Italy, ate Italian pizza

Day 4: explored Treiste, beautiful harbor town in Italy. Went to a castle on the coast, white castle with palm trees and elaborate gardens. Fell in love with Italy, then said goodbye.




Day 5: Entered Croatia. Decided to skip right to Reijke. Slept there.
Day 6: Looked at Reijke a little, then drove all the way to Split.
Day 7: Looked around Split for a few hours, then drove all the way to Dubrovnik. Arrived late at night, and explored the castle, ate some dinner, then drove through the night back to Split, and then up to a national park outside of Zagreb. Found camping at 4am.
Day 8: Woke up 4 hours later and hiked through national park. Saw beautiful waterfalls. Drove to Zagreb and went to sleep.
Day 9: Walked around Zagreb and relaxed a little, drove all the way back to Vác.

I drove more than I slept, but I saw 5 countries in 9 days, and who can say that? I fell in love with Italy, saw the gorgeous coast of Croatia, and now I'm back to teaching.
A newsletter for October is in the works. Have no fear.