Roadtrip

Hey people!

Sorry I haven't written in a while, I had a very busy weekend and then this week was hectic and I was trying to get my energy back.  I went to a wedding this weekend up in Laurel, Maryland and it was so beauitful and fun!  I will have to write about that later though!  I'm almost done updating ya'll about my summer! I think there will only be one or two more and then I'll be able to write more of what I'm doing nowadays! :D

So, after colorado we got in a rented car and drove all the way to Ulysses, Kansas to visit a very small church that has decided to support us recently.  Very cool!  So we were on our way there and we came across SO MANY cow feed farms! There were so many cows in one place I don't think I've ever seen that many cows at once in my entire life...haha. Plus, the smell...omgsh it was so horrible you CAN NOT even imagine....bleck. ew ew EW! poor cows!

So when we got there we had apparently arrived at the Pastor's house (where we were staying) one hour late! We had forgotten that when we came from Colorado to Kansas we passed over a time zone! whoops :)
The church and the pastor were very hospitable and even though it was all kinda boring for us kids cause we heard everything before and could tell the church ourselves about our life in Hungary it was still quite fun in a way.

After that long sunday (sunday school, morning service, lunch at church, some resting, evening service) we got to drive a few more hours east to Overland Park, Kansas to some friends' house.  We drove to the Goza's!!! The Goza's have been a family friend since I was very little (4-5 years old) when they moved to Virginia and started to attend our Home church there.  Me and their oldest daughter Faith have been bestfriends ever since! It was so nice to catch up and see her and just be able to be together again! :) She just recently sold her jeep but she has had it for a few years now.  I really love riding in it, letting my hair down and letting it go crazy in the wind and then blasting music and talking to her...very cool!  Her jeep's name was Myrtl..or mirtil magyarul! :P

After spending an awesome few days with Faith and her family we had to get on a plane to go back to Leesburg, Virginia.  Because of a big storm in virginia our flight got delayed like 3 times and we ended up having a 4-5 hour waiting period PLUS an extra hour because my dad said we had to be super early just in case....so that was crazy.  After finally getting there, my Aunt Karin (dad's sister) picked us up and drove us back to her house where we were staying and we slept forever! 

I can't remember really what happened clearly after that.  Basically, my parents drove to Staunton Virginia with me to help me get the last few things I needed for my new life and my grandparent's came and we went out for lunch or something...it was fun! 

But yea, after the week was over I had to say goodbye to my family and that was ok but then the next couple weeks it was weird cause they were 6 hours ahead of me and over an ocean.

So there's my update for now and I'll post more pictures of Kansas and all the other stuff later, be sure to check them out!

I'm sitting in a place called Coffee on the Corner and its literally only a few doors down from my school and I love this place alot!  They have great drinks and I'm just about to try one of their panini for brunch and they have free wireless which rocks! :)

Oh yes, School will start in exactly 12 days! September 14th here i come! I'm really looking forward to learning more about what I love but it WILL be wierd being in school again.

Thank you to those who are praying for me, I really do appreciate it and please don't stop!  I really do feel the prayers, GOD IS GOOD!

Love Always,
                        Rachael

Across the state

NEXT stop that I remember significantly was Colorado! We flew there for 2 weeks to attend a couple different things with our mission.  Our Mission is called World Venture, or WV :)  So, WV had a Spiritual Renewal type week for our parents and the kids went to "Camp World Venture."  I was able to become one of the honorary (not payed) Interns for those 2 weeks because I was older.  It was very stressful but a lot of fun!  The first week (camp) was where the parents stayed in a hotel and had their meetings there and the kids/teens stayed in the WV office and slept, ate, and had their programs all there.  It was a very cool time for them/us to bond because we were always together, but it was super stressful for the interns because we had to be in charge of them 24/7.  There were like 23 kids from age 10ish to 18, talk about variety. There were a quite a few kids who had their siblings there, so we had to try to divide them in activities :D  Another cool thing was, that even though everybody was different and came from different places around the world and different cultures, we were all the same in a way!  We were all TCKS (third culture kids) and best of all, all of us were MK's (Missionary kids)!!! Some people don't understand how we work, but we all understand each other and that was so awesome to have.  We had a big talent show at the end of the week where I MC'd and that was crazy and fun.  There was one special person there that I was so happy to see.  Kerri Klingsmith! Wow, we go way back!  While I was in highschool we met when our schools joined together for a joint choir session.  She was staying at my house with a couple other girls, and after talking we found out that we were on the same mission! THAT was just so cool!  We sang more joint choirs together, played against each other in volleyball and sang together in the ACSI Honor's Choir! So yea, we are good friends and it was SO NICE having her there! i love your kerri and thank you for keeping me sane! :D
Well, moving onto the next week, we didn't have the kids every day and every hour.  We only had them from 8:30-5ish.  It was again a great week but significantly less stressful! 
After those two weeks flew by, my family and I drove to a small town called Ulysses, Kansas and that is where you will have to read the next post... but of course I will include some pictures of those 2 crazy wonderful weeks in Colorado.  Again, forgive me for some of them being sideways :)
Love, Rachael

adri and the boys

Kerri and I

liza and the scary gator slide

trying out the new bridges

Liza and I <3

Bowling

 

the nastiest candy i've ever seen

we went and helped out some church with their outreach to the kids and they painted turtles :)

we had a big BBQ at a lake

kaylene and I <3

My Chinese Airbrush that apparently says "Laughter"

My brother's airbrush

lunch time at the Amusement Park

Dragon Ride

The fabulous group I was in charge of that day

 that made me go on some pretty crazy rides :D

the craziest and funnest ride i went on that day!

swimming!

walking from the pool

World Venture Headquarters

The flight TO colorado. love these moving parts of the floor!

later on...

So, my next remembered stop was Marion, Virginia.  We stayed at my other grandparent's house and of course we had a good time.  These grandparents are on my mom's side of the family.  My grandpa is a carpenter, likes to hunt, has Peter Pan PB and coffee in his veins, is the peppermint/candy man at church and likes to garden. My grandma collects birds, has a cat name Zoe that hid every single minute of the days we were there (I never saw her, I only heard her little bell ringing in the night... creepy!), likes to put salt on her fruit/veggies and has a house like a fridge :D  Anyways, we stayed there a couple times and we also went there for July 4th (America's Independence Day for you magyars) to spend time with them and my mom's brother Mike and his family that live nearby.  That was alot of fun, sadly we didn't go to any fireworks because everybody was too tired.  I really wanted to go but no one would go with me! sad sad sad... but we watched some of the fireworks on TV that Washington D.C. put on, they were nice.  My grandpa took my dad, brother and I to the back yard and shot some. I've always enjoyed doing that, it's alot of fun!  I have pretty good aim I must say ... check out the pictures of 3 of my shots. the second one.. baby! :D um, so yes that is still a little .no. ALOT strange for me that people can have guns and even get licenses to carry in some states.  In europe, you don't have a gun unless your a bad guy or a police, haha.  Anyways, I have decided that if i live alone in america I will get my license to carry.  However, I have to go through classes and different things to get it, will be hard but worth it. :)  I have already taken a Hunting Safety Class when I was like 5 or 6 and I still have my card for that. hehe. Oh yes, and  I talked to my dearest friend Nikki too! She is my friend, and we are llama lovers! :) It was so nice to talk to someone from home and hear her voice and be crazy like usual! hehe.  I don't have very many pictures so i'm sorry, but here you go! :)

catching fireflies :)

Gpa and I <3 

July 4th food

Happy July 4th!

the fam

My grandpa's collection :)

reminding how to use the pistol

Don't mess with this ;)

shot 1 (rifle)

shot 2 (rifle)

shot 3 (rifle)

more summer

Next stop that I remember would be South Carolina.  My dad's brother Walter and his family live there.
They have 6 kid and they are all so sweet and fun!  We spent a couple days hanging out with them and stayed in a hotel nearby which was cool.  They have 8 of them and 5 of us and we were all in their house which is very small.  A little chaotic? YES! Lots of fun? YES! :)   Here are some fun pictures of them and us! Sorry some of them are sideways, I'm using a windows and it's being evil to me... my mac doesn't have internet right now.. so please deal with it ;)

me and 2 crazy little boys :)

3 of the boys

Pearl (the youngest)

Nehemiah... the crazy one <3

Esther (2nd oldest) and some more siblings

enjoying the chaos :D

Sorry

hello friends :)

I'm so sorry I haven't written in such a long time. I have been so busy this summer going everywhere and seeing everyone that I really didn't have time until almost a month ago, and since THEN I've been too lazy. I hope you all forgive me :)

So, I have no idea where to start because I have so much to say! I have decided that I will try to start from where I left off and write different posts telling different things. If I put it all in one post it would be like a zillion pages!

 I will start from visiting my new home and painting. I really don't remember where we went in order so please forgive me! :D

As I remember, we went to FLORIDA to visit my grandpa (my gma was in a different state at the time helping her father with some problems). We didn't fly there, we drove there.. it was so long it took a couple days! I know we stopped somewhere to sleep but I can't exactly remember if the hotel was on the way there or on the way back.  But one of the ways we slept in a hotel and continued the next day and the other way we stayed at some friends' house in Georgia to sleep and hang out with them.  So, we get to florida... and well it was so hot it was ridiculous. On average, it was around 104 F/ 40 C every day with probably a million percent of humidity.  Thank God my grandparents had AC (legkondi) in their home or I would have literally died, haha. We got to go to the beach 2x and both times were not for very long due to the high temperatures and scalding sun. Both time we went I got such bad freckles that my face hurt! I'm not even kidding! It was so painful, I thought that my face was so burned but it wasn't....just a million freckles were there. We wanted to go somewhere fun, like swim with the manatees but for some reason we didn't end up doing that. We visited a church while we were there that supports us, they were all old people but a couple young kids and families. We also went to church with my gpa, and again... more old people! :D They were all very sweet and hospitable to us. Here's a couple pictures :)

Thank you for reading about Florida.. tune in to hear about where I went next! :)

Love, Rachael

Recipe Egy

I have decided to post all of the new recipes I try or invent.  They will be numbered in hungarian if you don't recognize the words after "recipe,"  for lack of creativity.  Please enjoy and try them out for yourself if you'd like!  Let me know what you think or if you tried them! :) 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 Pepper Salmon Pasta 

sorry no picture this time, but I will try to post pictures of each recipe 

½ of a small Vidalia Onion                                     Salt

½ of a Red Bell Pepper                                           Oregano

1 ½ cup diced or packaged Salmon Filet                Italian Dressing

40 pieces of whole wheat linguini pasta                 Ground black pepper

½ of a lemon                                                            Frying pan

White Wine* (not necessary)                                  Small pot

Take the Salmon and put in a bowl.  Squeeze lemon half over the fish and make sure all fish is smothered in juice.  Sprinkle a small amount of black pepper on it and set aside.  Next, fill the pot half full with water and place on the burner on mid heat.  Then, dice onions and place in frying pan with a dash of olive oil on mid heat; let simmer until lightly brown.  Water in pot should be boiling at this point, place dry noodles into pot with a couple pinches of salt.  Once the onions are a light brown, add 5 tablespoons of Italian Dressing and let simmer for 5 minutes on low heat.  Now, add salmon and let simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.  While salmon is simmering, dice and add the red pepper. * Stir every 2 minutes to prevent burning.  The noodles should be cooked by now, take out a noodle and test it to see if done.  If done, turn heat off of pot and drain noodles and place back into the pot.  Now, also turn heat off on the Salmon mix.  Put 1 big tablespoon of Olive Oil and 1 small tablespoon of Oregano in noodles and stir so all noodles are covered lightly.  Place preferred amount of noodles on plate and then put salmon mix on top.  Bon appétit! serves 1 large or 2 small meals

TIPS:

-Serve with fresh Spinach salad with chopped carrots and Balsamic Vinaigrette for your serving of veggies.

-If preferred, add ½ cup of white wine at the *

-Clean up as you go, makes it easier at the end

‎"Bízz az Úrban"

"Bízz az Úrban" is Hungarian for "Trust in the Lord."  It comes from the famous verse of Proverbs 3:5-6 that says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

As many of you know, I got a tattoo that says just that in beautiful lettering.  I know some would disagree with me getting it, but I didn't get it to please others.  I got it because it is such an important thing to me that I have to remind myself all the time.  I pray that it will also lead to many more deep conversations and that it can be one of my witnessing tools.  It's in hungarian, because Hungary is my home and I have a strong bind to the country and its people.

This truth is exactly what I have been reminding myself day after day ever since June 5th of this year.  June 5th my family and I got on a plane from Budapest, Hungary (EU)  and headed for Dulles Airport in Virginia (USA).  It was a long, boring and dehydrating trip but I survived but would rather have not taken it. I really miss home, but I know God has many things in store for me this next year and a half.

This blog post consists of many overdue updates that I have promised to quite a number of people!
It has been a whole month and 8 days since I have been here in the US and still no update, so I'm sorry! :)

PLANE RIDE:
Plane rides are always quite eventful. They can hold fun movies, lots of sleep, unfamiliar food, dehydration, crying babies, small bathrooms, weird neighbors; and everything from warm blankets to stiff joints and needing lots of clothes due to the refrigerator temperature of the cabin.
The first flight we took was to France, it was not so bad.  I was sitting by the window in a 3 seater row on the right.  My neighbors were a good looking, friendly young french college aged guy and a super old asian lady who liked to drink a lot of beer. :)
The second flight we took was to Dulles Airport in Washington. THAT was the worse flight. It was super long (8 hours or longer.. can't remember) and it was so cold that I was freezing the whole time and got really dehydrated and felt just horrible.  On a good note, each person had their own TV which had music, movies, tv shows and kid games.  I played just about every game and listened to a few songs on each music station, watched more than 3 tv shows, and at least 2 movies (maybe 3?..again can't remember).  I know for sure that I watched the movie Valentine's Day and it was really good!  I was assuming by the people in it and by the name of it that it would be pretty dirty (lots of unwanted sex scenes), however there weren't! I liked how there were so many different actors/actresses from many different movies all in one.
I also had a lot of time to pray and focus on God, as well as think about the life I had in Hungary. I spent 10 years in Hungary with my family and it seems like yesterday that we moved there... actually it seems like a completely different life!  I actually did cry a lot, but thankfully no one stared.  I sat separate from my family on both flights so that was actually kind of nice! :)


FIRST MONTH:
WOW. The first month I spent here in america was just that word.  It was really hard because I had to be escorted by my dad everywhere I went (due to no public transportation here) and being cooped up in the house so much.  I'm used to always being out of the house, leaving late morning and not coming home until almost midnight about every night. I also miss being able to go out by myself and go shop or spend some alone time downtown just walking around.  One of my favorite places to go to have alone time was by the Danube River, next to the Chain Bridge on the Pest side.  It was so beautiful in the evening and so calming because during the winter and groggier days there was no one there and I could just think.
I have decided that there is way too much food in the stores here and that air conditioning and aspartame is evil.  I drank alot of diet drinks since i've been here (because people think it's better for you) and have had numerous splitting headaches which I very very rarely ever get.  Aspartame is actually super bad for you! I'd rather not be putting some chemical in my body which can be harmful in the future. I'd rather put REAL sugar and fat in my body and know I can just work it off later. :)
READ THE FOLLOWING
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/americas-deadliest-sweete_b_630549.html

I have found that Air conditioning dehydrates me and makes my eyes itchy and red and dry.  Some people know how to use air condition, many don't!  Many people and stores have it so high it's like a refrigerator in their own home, why not just leave the food out?! it's just as cold outside your fridge as inside.. brrrr.  Also, I bet and KNOW stores and companies can save millions of dollars if they just turn the AC down 10 to 15 degrees. :)



PRAISES:
1)I got my VA Learners for driving
     +those of you don't know what that is: I took the theory test and passed (super easy compared to Hungary, it's almost a joke! :) and now I have my learners, which means I can drive with another person who has a driver's license and is over 18.  I have to practice a certain amount of hours before I can go to the DMV (department of motor vehicles) and take the driving/forgalmi exam.  When I pass that, I then will get my official drivers license.

2)I am all settled into my new room in Staunton, Virginia.  I will be living with my Mom's cousin Stacey and her husband, 2 kids and 2 dogs and fish :) A few weeks ago my dad, sister and I got to paint the room.  It used to have dark brown wooden trim, weird green walls with a trim of wallpaper by the ceiling of some leaves.  We painted it "Ultra White." I wanted a color to brighten the room and make it look like whole new one, it worked!  My theme for my room will be "flea market style/vintage." I'm really looking forward to decorating it!  The following are before and after.  More pictures to come! :)

3) I went to visit the Staunton School of Cosmetology who I had been in contact with because I was interested in going to their school.  I went with my mom and we asked to schedule an interview with someone in order to be considered for school and to possibly get a tour of the school.  The lady of admissions (basically she was the head of the school) remembered me and said that I need not to worry but she had already looked at my application and I am accepted!  Another big blessing was that this fall the price of the school was going up, however since I had been in contact with her for a long time I could pay the old school price.  The school will cost me 13,000$ for everything and I mean everything.  Tuition, books, smock and t-shirts and my supplies! I will start in september and I'm pretty excited!


4) God is really working in me and helping me be at peace with being here in America.  I honestly would rather still being in Hungary but I know that school-wise it's best that I'm here.  I'm hoping to go back to live in Hungary after school.  I would love to work with Campus Crusade there to reach out to the youth of that nation, and naturally work as a hairdresser there.
We will see what God brings me, but I'm really praying about that!


THANK YOU for praying for me and if your one of my close friends, thanks for being there for me through everything.  For understanding me, encouraging me, and just making me smile!

Love,
      Rachael