Hello everyone!
Time for another update letter. We can't believe it's almost December! We are very excited to come home for
Christmas break in a few weeks! More pictures are up (found under "November"), so check them out at
www.bjtphotography.com.
We hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving! We invited Larry (the other American on the team), and Jakob (from
Iceland) over to celebrate with us. Instead of a turkey (our oven is the size of a small microwave), we made scrambled egg
with melted cheese sandwiches, with cookies and ice cream for dessert. Very traditional, don't you think? ;) We had a
great time with them, but it wasn't like Thanksgiving at home.
Basketball
Eric is doing very well in basketball. His team is having some ups and downs but they are sticking together. They are
currently 4-4 right now, and in 6th place in league. They are doing as well as one would expect for being such a young
team. Eric sprained his ankle badly a few weeks ago and the recovery has been slow because of the amount of games
he's had to play in the past weeks; they don't have a good physical therapy program here, and they certainly don't believe
in letting injured players miss a game :). He will go to Budapest tomorrow to have it looked at more closely. We're
praying that everything is alright.
Teaching
I, Kellie, am teaching 3 times a week and am really enjoying it. It's been challenging, especially with the 5 year old I teach
named Adel. I also have been tutoring Adel's cousin, Bogi, who is 16 years old. That is going very well. Bogi is very
dedicated to learning English and has done a great job with her homework. I was also able to go to Budapest earlier this
month with Adel's mom, Katie. A brief description of my time there with lots of pictures from Budapest are on the
website.
Crabs and Cancer
As I've said before, Hungarian is a very difficult language. At times, trying to talk with other people has made for some
hilarious situations. Recently, my friend, Timi (she is 20), and I were shopping around for some treats before heading to
one of Eric's games. We both bought a drink and some candy. I noticed at the game that she was studying the label of
one of the pieces of candy she had. I asked her what she was reading and she proceeded to tell me that one of the
ingredients in the candy was very harmful to humans; she told me that it gave them a disease. I looked on the back of my
candy and sure enough, it had the same ingredient. I asked her what it was that made people so sick, and for the next half
hour she tried to explain what the ingredient did. Here is a short version of our conversation...
Kellie: What disease does this ingredient give people?
Timi: I don't know the English word, but it is an animal in the ocean.
Kellie: Does this animal swim?
Timi: No. It is before the ocean.
Kellie: Ohhh, so this animal lives on the beach?
Timi: YES! It's red, and it goes like this...(as she moved her fingers up and down.)
Kellie: A crab?
Timi: YES, YES!!! A crab. You will get crabs if you eat this ingredient.
At this point I had to make a decision. Should I tell Timi that you can't get "crabs" from eating candy? Should I explain
to her what the American meaning of "crabs" is? No on both. I continued to try and understand what she was trying to
communicate, and FINALLY figured it out!
Kellie: So it's an animal that people can get?
Timi: No, it's that sickness that people get. The same name as that animal.
Kellie: Sickness....You mean cancer?
Timi: Yes! Cancer! Crabs!
To make a long story short, Timi was talking about the ingredient aspartame, and how if you eat too much of it, it has
been proven to cause cancer. Crabs and cancer! She associated the two together because of the zodiac sign. :)
Speeding, Peanut Butter, and COLD
I am blessed to be able to get a ride to all of Eric's away games. Timi, or her family, drives me. Her father drove us a few
weeks ago (in a very little car) and I glanced at the speedometer as we were zipping along and noticed we were going 175
km per hour. Umm, yea, that means he was driving 109 mph.
Eric and I have found an American 'corner' in our local grocery store. Eric found it while I was in another aisle. When I
approached him with our basket, I asked, "What are you staring at?" He didn't reply....for a very long time. He was staring
(with a big smile on his face) at all the jars of peanut butter there! They have peanut butter here! This is very exciting
news for my peanut-butter-loving husband. It's expensive, but he has already gone through several jars.
It's been getting colder here. We had our first snow in the middle of November but it didn't stick because of how wet the
ground was. We've had hail a few days, as well. Most days it is sunny and very cold. I'm getting ready to break out my
cuddle dud long johns! :) (Thanks again, Anne!)
We'll write again in December before we leave and let you know how long we will be at home for. Thank you, again, for all
your prayers!
Love,
Eric and Kellie
www.BJTPhotography.com