Day 12 and 13: Bus rides and Indian food

Tuesday, I was so thankful for a pleasant bus ride home. The twenty-two (ish) minute commute back into the edges of the city to my flat is never a rough one. Typically, I'm going the opposite direction of rush hour, so I can always find a seat and relax. My iPod is in constant use(thanks yet again to my family for contributing to that gift!!) with the latest sermon, day-old news, or--lately--Christmas music. The morning ride offers a distraction-free jaunt for Bible reading unless I happen to ride with a student who'd like to chat. Either way, my day starts and ends well.

Tuesday, I enjoyed the ride home with a fellow citydwelling teacher. In the scope of those twenty-two minutes, we dove into an honest, introspective, and lively conversation. We discussed relationships, the joys and tensions of living overseas from our passport countries, and plans for the coming day. Ahhh, and home I go.

Wednesday, I ran into the same friend at an Indian restuarant. That's right: indian cuisine in Hungary. We live in a small world. Anyway, I got to share dinner with five other teachers from ICSB as we celebrated one's birthday. Not only was the company and the atmosphere just charming, but so was my adventure getting there.

We met up in a section of town that I had never discovered before. It was so fun to arrive on my own after a bit of exploring in the dark. No worries, the streets are well lit; they have to be since it's dark at 4:00 these days! Christmas displays were in a lot of decor shop windows (another thing I've never seen before) and the street light poles are wrapped with unlit lights that promised a beautiful season to come. The Indian restaurant we went to was gorgeously decorated with silk-like pillows with beading, etc in Indian style on the benches around the walls. Our group got this little loft area to ourselves. Ordering was fairly comical, because the waiter didn't really speak a lot of Hungarian (most of our group has studied quite a bit of the language) or English. The menu was in HU and English with Indian names for the dishes. It worked out in the end with pointing. :) What a great evening.