Thanksgiving

This morning, I took my bi-weekly trek to the goverment office to check the status of my application for health insurance. Last week, they said one or two weeks by post. This week, the official assigned to my task could not speak English. She said that it would be in the post, but that is what they said four weeks ago. She also said that she couldn't find me in the system; two weeks ago, I was in the system. While the official was trying to get an English word from her co-worker, I called the secretary and told her my plight. I handed the phone to the official and listened to a five-minute conversation in Hungarian without recognizing a single word. The secretary told me that there was a step that the school needed to take. The official asked me to sign for a paper on which she wrote the case number that the school would need  to complete that step. Thankfully, the application process is back on track.

My vocabulary quizzes in Hungarian have taken a backslide. The teacher started to mark them as correct, but decided that if she had to put the accent marks on, it was wrong. Technically, an a with an accent is a different sound as an a without an accent. Had my student written a word with an a where he or she should have used an e, I would have counted it wrong as well. Consequently, the scores on my last vocabulary quizzes has been in the 50 and 55. In two weeks, we have a final exam, which includes an oral part. The teacher has already listed the questions that we should know. I have tea with my English teacher friend this afternoon; maybe I can ask her to help me study. I am thankful for friends here in Szeged.

Yesterday, one of my students asked me if I would be celebrating Thanksgiving in Hungary. She says her family (one set of grandparents is American) usually celebrates on Friday. They have chicken and gravy. I, too have celebrated many Thanksgivings with a chicken substitute for turkey. I haven't found any cranberry sauce here, but candied cranberries is fairly easy to find, so I'll put them in a salad which I'll take to the Thanksgiving potluck that one of my American friends is hosting on Saturday evening. 

On Sunday, we have a Thanksgiving service at church.  It is not a commemoration of the feast the pilgrims and American Indians had after the bountiful harvest nearly 500 years ago, but a celebration of our 10th anniversary as a church. Because of Covid, there will be no feast or even a birthday cake. Who said Baptists couldn't party without food? We can still have sweet fellowship and give thanks to Jesus for His work among us. 


Disrobed Deciduous



Saturday, November 27

Thanksgiving with my colleagues was one of the most unique ways I've ever spent this holiday.  Along with his two American colleagues, the host had invited his children, their sweethearts, their mother, their friends, and the parents of their children's sweethearts to the party. Thus, there were eight Americans and twelve Hungarians.  The menu included turkey breast, beef stew (gravy), pickled carrots, apple-craisin salad (my contribution), red currant jam, pickled carrots, a spinach souffle, an apple dessert, carrot cake, and cream cheese cake, and chocolate cookies. After dinner, the son pulled out a game to play, but it was already 10:30 and I had church in the morning, so I caught a ride home with the daughter and her boyfriend, who were also leaving. 

Sunday, November 28

At church, our thanksgiving service was a  celebration of our 13th anniversary. We had several guests and lots of children.  We did not have any refreshment table to celebrate with food, but some of the members had prepared sacks with cookies, chocolate, and a strawberry-yoghurt tea which we could take home. At the front, there were four baskets full of vegetables, fruits, bread, deserts, and flowers arranged around the pulpit. One of the ladies asked me and the couple I was talking to if we could help her put the food around the pulpit into sacks. While we were doing so, I asked her where they would be taken. She said that it was our tradition on Thanksgiving Sunday to gather food to send home with the pastor. 


I could not resist taking this picture during our Thanksgiving service at church.




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