This week my vacation gets busy with the joy of teaching English, having tea, chatting, organizing games, and eating hagel slag on bread and sharing drop with the students (I am cheating with some of the foods – so many people in the Netherlands speak English that I figure knowing English opens up more than just the obvious English countries).
It has been good to be back here visiting. The first couple of days were quieter this time, as I have brought homework with me and my friends have had to run errands. But I’ve still managed to have a bit of excitement and a bit of change. I’ve spent a couple of days in a college dormitory. I’ve eaten out again (Chinese and Turkish). And I’ve had the joy and challenge of trying to function in yet another language (I now know how to play Clue in Hungarian - and UNO (but it has different rules – at least, I think it does. The instruction sheet had half a dozen languages but still managed to have no English or French or Dutch – and I was too tired to properly skim the Hungarian).
And of course, there’s always at least one adventure. on Saturday I spent hours in a car with people I’d never met before as we travelled from Budapest to Karpatalja, Ukraine – and I have no idea if any of them spoke more than a couple of words of English – and I did okay though I misunderstand a question once and now they think I have relatives here (but not close enough for a grandma) – I’d have said that I had misunderstood the question and hadn’t meant to say that but the verb tenses were beyond me and I didn’t think it mattered that much.
And as I ponder whether I need to make different choices (so as to spend more time doing homework and to be less emotionally exhausted) when I return to Amsterdam, it is good to receive a different perspective on things here. My friends here are hospitable beyond measure – and they do their best to provide me with everything they might want if they were to visit. And everyone is interested in my life in Amsterdam – and where I live. And as I share about life there, i remember again and again why i am so thankful to be there. and it's a blessing that people here seem intuitively to understand the challenges and joys of life there in community. they both understand how amazing it is to watch people grow in faith and mature as individuals. And they understand how overwhelming it can be sharing close space with people as they flail around learning how to grow and become a part of community. Especially as we are not all coming from or going in the same directions.
but it shouldn't surprise me that much that my friends here understand. after all, life here has its challenges. living 8 people in one dorm room. receiving salaries late because of the government and somebody not doing the paperwork properly. wondering about immigration issues – and whether getting married earlier than planned is really the answer to receiving adequate health care. living in a 1 room apartment with dad and sister, each of whom gets up and goes to bed at different times – with the result that sometimes in the morning no one is all that refreshed - but it is no use thinking or complaining too much about it - because there's no opportunity to change it and family is to be loved, even if the situation isn’t exactly ideal.
And as a highlight, it snowed on Saturday. Being from Canada, I rather miss snow so I’m thrilled to see it :)
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