I believe it's time.

Hmm, I have been neglecting this blog for the past few months, but I have legitimate reasons, I promise!

I think the last time I wrote was around the end of March. Since then, quite a number of things have happened. Casa Cares got new volunteers, got rid of some (hehehe), I came back to Hungary, my goddaughter was born, I took those final exams, went back to Italy, and came back to Hungary again.

In more details: At the end of March, Casa Cares got a new volunteer, Linn, from Sweden. It was interesting to have another person there, and now it wasn't the three of us, but four volunteers.

As I mentioned before, I had to leave CC sooner than the original plan. I left May 1st, which wasn't easy. I always felt happy to return to Hungary; I was barely able to bear the wait. This trip was much different. A part of me was happy to return home, to see my family, to see my sister-in-law's belly, to be there for the birth, etc. A different part of me was dreading to go back because of the exams. What if I don't pass (I did! Go me!)? What if I can't go to college? What will I do? What is going to happen to me?? These thoughts were coming non-stop and were stressing me out. And another part of me did not want to leave CC either, because that place became like a home to me. I had a family there. I had my Italian "Mamma," "Daddy," "Pappa," and a brother and a sister. It was so difficult leaving there. I put off packing up my room for days, did most of the packing the day before (well, that's not surprise. That's how I usually do it anyways...). I don't think I ever had such a heavy heart traveling home. I couldn't be completely happy when I arrived, even though both of my parents and Reka came to the airport to pick me up. That was a difficult day.

Ever since I was told that my brother and his wife are expecting a baby, I have been very excited. Their Christmas gift to me was asking me to be the godmother of the baby. So, this baby is very special to me. I was kind of upset at first that I wouldn't get to see the baby right away when she was born, but as my departure date from CC got moved up, I was so happy that I would be there when she is born! Magda, my niece, was a quite willful baby even in the stomach. She decided that she would wants to be born 10 days after the due date. I was lucky enough to see her on her birth day. Oh my goodness. It was so fascinating to realize that that little human being was inside her mother's womb a mere 12 hours ago. And I saw her in her mother's belly two days previous, and now she's there in her father's arms. It's such a wonderful moment. And realizing that my brother is a father is also such an interesting thought. My parents are grandparents! My grandparents are great-grandparents! Ahhh!
Two days after Magda was born, I left for two weeks to go back to Italy. During that time I only saw pictures of her, and was oohing and aahing about how beautiful she is. Yesterday I finally got to see her live! So precious and beautiful!

Yeah, those exams. I passed! I first took the written parts, which I felt pretty good about. Or so I thought. The English was ok, I could have done better in my opinion. But the Italian one was waaaaay worse. I thought, OK, I can still do better with the oral exams. The English oral exam was a piece of cake, got through it pretty well. The Italian oral was a bit more challenging. At the first section, I was barely able to speak, but the second one was so much better. I had to talk about Italian food! ;)
I left for Italy the day after the Italian oral exam, so I kind of put any thoughts of these exams in the back of my head. I got the results yesterday, and I passed both! The English was pretty good, though I was expecting more from myself (what's new), but this exam does qualify as a mid-level language exam. The Italian grade was much better than I was expecting, but I am happy that it's all over now! Now I just hope I get into university here....

As I have already mentioned a few times, I went back to Italy. It was so strange being back there again. There were now three new volunteers that I did not know and the entire dynamics of the Colonica have changed. Relationships were much different, and I suffered because of this for the first few days. Things did settle down at the end, and things felt like when I left.
I did not do a lot of interesting things. I went to Florence a couple of times, to Figline, for the weekly market, and to Livorno, to the sea side, where I got burnt. In the end, I came back with pretty good memories. It was nice to see Rike and Drew again and be with them again.

As for my life here in Hungary? I think it's only about to begin. During the five weeks I was back, most of my time was spent at home studying (or not) and going to dance practices. Yep, I joined the Debreceni Nepi Egyuttes (Folk dance ensemble), and I love it. I really missed dancing during the eight months I spent in Italy and going back was phenomenal. I really can't describe the feeling dancing gives me. I just know that that's what I need to be doing right now.
My plans for the summer are tentative. There are about two things that are for sure, and the rest will come as they come. I will be going to Csillagpont, big Christina youth conference, and an English camp here in Debrecen, as an interpreter. Let's see what summer 2011 will bring!

Aaaand it begins! And others

The new season began! Woohoo! Not really.

Well, we've had a few people here at Casa Cares this year already, but our first major group was a Swiss Confirmation group of 12 people. They were ok, nothing serious really. The next group we have is Old Dominion University. They come here several times every year for a seminar and they are currently here for about a week.

Previous to the arrivals, we cleaned the entire house. Deep cleaned. Which means dusting everywhere, cleaning in between the radiator parts, mopping the floors several times, very deep cleaning of bathrooms (as in cleaning out all the mold and dirt from in between the tiles), etc. We were working on this for weeks. Of course, we painted almost the entire Villa, which took about 5 weeks. It's good to have the house in its normal conditions again!

I bought my ticket to go back to Hungary from here. The return date is earlier than the original plan, so I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's such a bittersweet feeling. I leave this place that I really have learned to like with it's quirks and of course the people here, Rike and Drew especially, but I am going home. I will be there for the birth of my goddaughter and enjoy spring in Hungary, for the first time since 2002!

(The previous paragraphs were written a few weeks ago.)

Since I first wrote the above paragraphs, several things have happened. My birthday, the Casa Cares Meeting, and new group came.

Let's start backwards. Currently we have an elderly group here from mostly the NYC area. It's a group of 29, out of which 25 are women. It's an interesting dynamic, because the average age of the group is 65 and above (there is a boy here with them who is about 15 years old). They travel to a different city every day, so our workload is not that great. The house is quiet during the day and comes alive in the evening. The ladies get to enjoy the fire in the fireplace that Drew keeps for them or play cards in the piano room. It is very romantic, actually. I wish I could do that too!

The Casa Cares Meeting. This was a two and a half day event. Which meant cleaning the entire house again. Elisa made us to deep cleanings of all the rooms, so we had to vacuum, mop (NOT FUN!), and dust everywhere. The day most of the people arrived was very stressful. We were cleaning all day and it seemed like the list never ended. We were exhausted by the time we got home. The following day we barely had anything to do. It can be so frustrating when one day your list of things never ends and the following day you have nothing to do!
Anyways, the point of this meeting was to decide what is going to happen to Casa Cares. I don't know much of the results, only that there were many ideas, but one of the plans, that is already a few years old, is so great! There is a great space that is currently not use. The architect planned to use that space as a dining room with huge french doors and an outdoor terrace that looks over the valley. The chapel would be converted into a meeting room and Beppe's "lab" would be like a little reception hall. The plan looks absolutely fantastic!

My Birthday!! For days I could not decide what I wanted to do for my birthday. There were several ideas what we could possibly do (going to Naples for three days (we had three days off right around my birthday), going back to Cinque Terre on the day of, etc..), but all were dismissed due to weather. So, we decided that we would go into Florence the night before and go clubbing. I had to go in anyways to meet with someone so we just merged those together. We met up with Kati, who had a package for me from my family, and went to dinner. We went to an aperitivo bar (pay for a drink and get as much food as you want from the buffet), after which we planned to go to a Beatles Tribute concert. We did go to the place, but it was so crowded, we decided to come back later. We didn't. Why not? We went to another bar, where we ended up staying for the rest of the night. We rang in my birthday with a toast of champagne and the piano player played "Happy Birthday" for me. We didn't end up going to the club we looked at, but it is all fine with me. I enjoyed just sitting around and talking with friends. Rike and I got very tired, so we went back to Kati's apartment and took a nap. After waking up, Drew, Rike and I walked back to the train station and took the first train home at 5:33 am. After arriving and getting a call from my mom and sister, we all fell asleep.
That morning, when I woke up, I was very happy and content. Drew and Rike were very mysterious the days preceding my birthday, and at one point I was confined to my room. Something similar happened on my birthday. I was on;y allowed to come down when they told me so. When I did go down, the table was set with a birthday cake in the middle and a nice pot of flowers with elephants on them!! The cake was this very chocolately brownie cake with whipped cream frosting and strawberry ladybugs! (Note: I gave up sweets for Lent, but I made an exception on my birthday. I can't refuse my own birthday cake and the Pilóta keksz and Boci csoki that my mom sent me! NO WAY!) After finishing the meal, we sat down and the second part of my birthday present began. Drew and Rike spent days creating three videos for me. They took lots of pictures and set them to songs that all have very special meaning to all of us. I love them!! Every time I watch them, I end up with tears in my eyes from all the laughter.
The rest of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing and I loved it! Thank you, again, Drew and Rike for giving me an unforgettable 19th birthday!!

Other news: I am taking the érettségi (the Hungarian final exam for seniors). I am not exactly happy about it, but if I want to go to university in Hungary..... I will be taking it in English and Italian. Not worried about the English, for obvious reasons, but I really hope I will do well on the Italian one. Pray for me!

Genova

The three of us, Drew, Rike and I, have been planning to go on a trip together, somewhere, just us. We couldn't really figure out when because we always had something to do. Finally we found a few days that we could go. Rike had a week of a seminar with her organization, so Drew and I were left here. We decided that if we work all week with only one day off and take the two days of our free days, put them together in a row and have three days off in a row! It was accepted by Paul and Elisa, so Drew and I worked for seven days straight. After those loong seven days, we left early Monday morning to GENOVA! Honestly, I did not know much about the city, but I was all up for a trip! We took the regional (slow) trains up there, which in total was about 4-5 hours. I think it was definitely worth it because we got a preview of the sea, which we would see on the way back.

We arrived in Genova around 3 pm and went to the hostel right away. Now, you have to know that Genova is a really interesting city. It stretches over 30 km and is basically on a hill. That means that the roads leading up to the top of the hill curve, and curve often. There are even elevators in the city!! So, we took the bus up to the hostel, about a 20 minute ride. We got settled in and went out to meet with Andreas, a friend of Rike. He showed us around the city and the major things (he was an Erasmus student there for the semester). Sitting in the port, looking up the hills, seeing the boats, listening to the ropes squeak against the metal, I felt like I was back in Amboy and I missed it, a whole lot. After walking around, we went to an aperitivo bar with friends of Andreas, most of whom were Erasmus students as well. But the best part of that bar? The Hungarian girl! And I got to speak Hungarian with her! After the bar we kind of ended up going to a party. I must say, strangest party I have ever been to. It was a few Erasmus students and people they met that night in a tiny apartment. It wasn't exactly amazing. Rike and I felt really uncomfortable, so the three of us ended up going back to the hostel.
The next morning we got up, went down to the city and started our tour. We saw a few of the major tourist attractions but just mainly walked around. Without our knowledge, we ended up walking through the most dangerous part of town, that not even the locals suggest going to. Boh! Maybe the fact that Drew could have passed as our bodyguard scared off the potential harm doers.
Genova is famous for some of its culinary contributions. Focaccia and pesto for example. Focaccia is this wonderful baked dough. We found this one bakery that sells them for a very good price. (We ended up going back there again the next day. We got them right as they came out of the oven! Imagine the temptation as you are holding hot, fresh focaccias in your hand.) Pesto, in case you don't know, is a paste of basil leaves, garlic, olive oil, and pine nuts served with pasta. Since we were in Genova, we just had to try both! For lunch we ended up going to vegetarian restaurant, which was good, but not exactly filling for Drew and I, so we got kebabs after. :)
In the afternoon we met up with Andreas again and went to Nervi, a coastal town, about 10 minutes by train from Genova. All of us were so excited to be near the sea! Of course, I climbed down the rocks to be right next to the water. We walked along the coast and sat on the rocks for quite some time. The experience of being there is something that I can't really explain with words. All I can say is that I was very happy and content.
After getting back to the city, the three of us went on a quest to find a place to eat dinner. We ended up finding a little restaurant in an alley that was perfect. It had wonderful wines and wonderful foods. We spent nearly three hours there. I had real authentic pesto genovese, that was, oh my goodness, so good. For a second course I ordered a cheese platter that I split with Rike. Oh, that night was so nice and relaxing! We finally didn't have to worry about rushing to finish dinner and run to do dishes! After dinner we decided to walk up the hostel, but we kind of got lost, so we took the bus back. Sleeping and finally being off your feet after walking 14 hours in the city felt so good!
On our last day in Genova, we slept in. After checking out, we went back to the city and got on a train towards Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre consists of five coastal towns "that dramatically cling to the cliffs." That is exactly what we got. Little towns clinging onto the cliffs. We ate lunch on top of a large rock in the sea and I spent a some time alone on top of elephant sized rocks. I can't believe how relaxed I was those days! We got on the next train that came by to the last of the five town (we got off at the first, Monterosso), to Riomaggiore. We had bit of difficult time finding the actual way to the scenic view, but after that, WOW. This town is incredible. The picture is just a portion of the reality. Unfortunately, we didn't spend a lot of time there since we had to catch a train to the place where we would transfer to Firenze. The three of us weer very happy and content as we got on the trains. Absolute serenity indeed.

Christmas '10

Being home for the holidays was absolutely wonderful! I spent a bit over two weeks home doing barely anything!

I flew home from Forli via WizzAir (a very cheap airline). Going to Forli takes about three hours, and the flight took me one hour. So getting to Forli was an adventure, as usual. I got on the 8:25 bus to Pontassieve, from where I took the train to Florence. I had to buy my ticket in Pontassieve, because I couldn't get in the office in the Villa where we normally get our train tickets from. I used a machine to buy my ticket, which was in Italian. When it asked me where I was going from, I put in Florence for some reason. Where was I going? Florence. It seemed a little strange to me that I had to pay much less than I usually have to. So when I got my ticket and was on the train, I realized what I had done. The conductor was nice and didn't fine me or anything; he just asked me where I am coming from and marked my ticket. (In Italy you have to get your ticket stamped by a machine to activate it. I forgot to do that as well, since I caught an earlier train and ran to catch it.) I got off in Florence and put my bag in the baggage claim to not carry it around with me all day in the city. Off I went. I bought a few more things and just enjoyed the town. I went back to the station, bought my other ticket, which was a hassle because none of the machines I used wanted to give me the ticket I wanted! About the fourth machine finally gave me the option that I needed and I bought the ticket and got on the train. I slept through 95% of the first train ride (almost 2 hours) and changed trains in Faenza. As I was crossing in the station, I saw a familiar man. I did a double-take and realized that it was Danielle, Cecilia's husband! I greeted him and he was so shocked, he didn't recognize me at first. When he did, he was happy and asked me where I was going, etc.. He ended up putting me on a different train than I intended, but it's fine, because I got to where I wanted to go. From the station in Forli, I took a cab to the airport and sat there for hours! I went there so much earlier because basically I had no other option to go at a different time. Oh well. Finally it's time to board the plane. The plane came late from Budapest, so we left late as well. We made in to Hungary only about 20 minutes late. I got off, got my luggage and was out! I was so excited!! My dad picked me up and we went home. We had bread, with salt in it!, and sour cream for dinner. Felt so good!! (Italians are not familiar with the concept of sour cream. I am in pain from that!!)

The following day, I visited Dad at his work place, which happens to be right next to the Parliament, looking over the Danube and onto the Buda Castle. We ate lunch and visited the Parliament. I've been there before, but about 10 years ago, or even more. Wow! That place is incredible! Hungarians sure know how to decorate! We listened to the history behind the Sacred Crown, which was very interesting. After the tour, he went back to work and I met with Gorondi Reka. We caught up quickly and than parted, since she had many things to take care of. I went back to the apartment and waited for Dad to come back and for us to go to Debrecen! We went to the station, while meeting with my brother and his family and meeting my sister, Reka, at the station. We took a nice 2 and a half hour train ride to Debrecen and we were hoooooomeee!! I hugged my mom for a very long time. We packed all our bags in the car and she took the men home. Us three girls, Reka, my sister-in-law, Tunci, and I started to walk home. Aaah, Debrecen is sooo pretty in the winter. The street was nicely decorated and it really did feel like Christmas. When we got home Anna was waiting for us with turos csusza! Yay for more sour cream!! Aah, home.







The next day, I met with my Anna and Zsofi over a cup of tea and hookah. After that, also with Peti. The same night, I went out with Anna to a folk pub, in hopes of a folkdance house. Yeah, it just ended up being folk dancers sitting around drinking and smoking. But it was fine, Anna and I caught up on many things and went on a walk in the lit town. The next day was Christmas Eve, which was spent at home. We decorated the tree, I played with my nephew, who clung to me like a monkey, literally. The entire family dressed up nicely and we all went to the Christmas Eve service. It was the first time for me in the freshly renovated Nagytemplom and it felt so right! The service was beautiful. My godfather, the head pastor, said the sermon and after that, the youth of the congregation put on a very nice Christmas show. It included all sorts of poems and songs. Since our usual place in the church is a little bit towards the back of the church, Marko sat in my lap to see the play. At first he was interested, but for a seven year old it ended up being a bit long, so he fell asleep in my lap. The kid was so adorable! After the service we all went back home and started the preparations for dinner. We set the table for 10 people and waited around for Aron and Ancsa to arrive. After they did, we all sat around the table. I was so very happy and content to have everyone sitting around the table once again. We stuffed cabbage (finally!) for the first course and as second we ate shark with mashed potatoes and a beet salad. Dessert all'Ancsa, a piskota cake with rasperry cream inside. Mmmmm! :)
In our family the tradition is that the kids do the dishes and cleaning up after dinner. During that time the Angles brings the presents under the tree. When we hear a bell ringing, that's when we know that the room is ready to be entered into. The presents are usually put underneath the tree and covered with a big, white cloth. When we all take our places, we read the Bible, sing Christmas songs, and pray. Marko sang a song all by himself, all four verses. We were so proud of him! Present time! The MC, aka Mom, folds up enough cloth to uncover one present at a time.The person gets the present and opens it up. After one is done, the next present comes and arrives in the hands of its rightful owner. Marko was so adorable. He named himself the present carrier. As soon as Mom took out one present he was eager to deliver it to the owner. She didn't even say the name, but he was off already. This Christmas was so special to me. Having the entire family together, plus the attachments, on Christmas Eve has not happened since 2000! Insane! It meant so much to me that we were all together finally.

The following days passed by quickly. Christmas Day we went to church and had communion. In the afternoon we went out to my aunt's house where we had Mom's side of the family gather together. Again, everyone was there! All 20 of us! We couldn't fit at one table, so the kids got the "Cica asztal" (kitten table), just like in the old days. It was so fun to have all my cousins around and just spend time with them even if it was just a few hours.
The 26th, my parents, Reka, and I drove up to see the other side of the family. We visited Dad's parents, where we had lunch (Mama's amazing chicken soup with csigateszta, stuffed cabbage, and rolled meat. Pure perfection for me!) and went to church after. After the service, we drove to my father's brother's house and spent some time there as well. Ah! I saw my entire family within the span of 24 hours!

The days in between Christmas and New Year's went by fast. I took care of some things in the city, had a sleepover with Zsofi and Anna, had dinner with my sister Anna's friends, and just enjoyed being home. New Year's Eve was spent with the dancers of the Debreceni Nepi Egyuttes dancing and laughing all night long. The first of January I went to a concert with my parents where we met with good friends of ours, who came over for dinner. Ah! So many people in such short amount of time!

I went up to Budapest a few days before my flight for several reasons. On my mother's side of the family there is a family reunion every summer, but not everyone goes, and it's usually the only time of the year we see each other. Therefore we decided to have a cousin reunion other than that! It wasn't big, just five of us, but so good to be together with them! Following day Reka and I went to the translating office, which was not a successful event. We met Miklos for lunch and got Marko from school that afternoon. Unfortunately, my stay in Hungary ended the next day. I got on my flight and flew back to Italia. I had to stay in a hotel, because my flight arrived late and there were no trains at that time. There is a nice hotel right next to the airport that I have already stayed at, so it was no biggie. I watched several episodes of Sex and the City on TV and slept pretty well. It was so warm in the room that I only slept with a sheet! So strange! (In CC, I usually sleep with a sweater and a scarf on and a sheet, two throws, and a feather blanket on me. It gets cold here!) I ate breakfast in the morning and went to the station. Got on a different train than I intended, but it's ok, I made it where I wanted to be! Got back to Casa Cares safely, with Rike waiting for me at the bus stop.

The Making of Dobos Torta

Sounds awesome right? It has to be one of the weirdest baking moments of my life.

For Christmas I bought Drew a Hungarian cookbook (he wants to be a chef). It has the most basic Hungarian foods in it, from gulyas leves, Jokai bableves, rakott krumpli, paprikas krumpli, turos csusza, szilvas gomboc, to Dobos torta. Of course there are many more things in there, but these are the ones that pop into my head right now. Now, Drew is not a person who likes sweets a whole lot, but Dobos torta immediately stood out for him. Perfectly understandable. For those who are not aware of what this is, it is a layered sponge cake with chocolate mousse type of filling in between the layers and on the outside. It is topped off with a layer of hard caramel. Incredibly delicious if it is done correctly.

So, Drew and I decided that we will try to make Dobos torta. We went and bought the eggs (we needed 11!) and began. Since we didn't have 6 23cm round pans to bake each layer, we decided to adapt and do it twice and cut each cake into three layers. (It seems like adapting to the situation is something we do very often here at Casa Cares.) When we poured half of the batter into the pan, it seemed like a very little amount, so we poured the entire thing and decided to cut that into layers, not necessarily 6. Well, when it baked, it had a huge bubble on the top, that did end up deflating, but it was still very thin! So we skipped the whole cutting into layers and decided to just quarter the cake and have a very small cake. Now comes the filling. The recipe said to melt the chocolate and cocoa powder together. That wasn't happening. It was this clumpy mess that would not melt into smooth chocolate. So we put it in to microwave. It still wouldn't melt. So we just put it with the butter and finally it was a smooth liquid. I think the only thing that we did do right was the egg white part. We had to whip it with sugar into stiff peaks and fold it into the chocolate and butter. Now we had the filling. But it was definitely TOO much for that little cake. So we put as much as possible on the inside and outside and we still had at least half of the icing left over. I am currently working on licking the bowl, but it is soo rich! It takes like chocolate marshmallow. I have a glass of milk next to me and the bowl, so we shall see what happens. (We have normal milk now! Elisa introduced us to actual milk and Drew and I also bought some more of that today. The milk we normally have is not so great.) I might not be having dinner tonight...

When the cake came out of the oven, it smelt a lot like eggs. It smelled fine to me, since it was supposed to be piskota, but Drew was concerned. Hmm. The "cake" was to thin to slice into several layers, so we just quartered it and stacked them on top of each other. We spread the icing on it and called it a cake. We stuck in the fridge to set and went to get Rike (she spent the day in Florence, so she didn't get to experience this mess!). After we ate dinner, we decided to try the cake. Oh goodness. Our reactions were simply priceless. Eating a "cake" that tastes like frittata (basically, an omlette) that has the texture of polenta (a corn meal dish) covered in chocolate? You be the judge of that. The picture of the Drew and Rike explains all: As we were attempting to eat this concoction, tears were rolling down from our eyes, because we were laughing so hard. We ended up throwing it out because we were afraid of eating more of this and getting sick. Plus, the original plan was to take a slice to Paul, who is in the hospital recovering from a hip surgery, and we simply can't take something like this to him (he LOVES pastries!)!

We had plenty of the cream left over, but that was fine. We all kept eating it, either alone or with some cookies as a cookie sandwich. I even put it in my coffee. It was like eating chocolate marshmallows. :)


Making of Dobos Torta-Attempt #2

We felt so awful for the previous disaster, so we just had to try again! We looked up another recipe online, which claims to be the original one, and decided to go with that. But, it's not that easy. For lunch Drew made deviled eggs. We needed 15 eggs for that recipe and he left 14 eggs by accident, using too many eggs at lunch. So we decided to use the "original" recipe for the dough and the cream will the same as last week, so we were fine the number of eggs. Everything turned out fairly ok this time. The dough was nice and fluffy, the way it should be. Now the only problem was how to bake them. We decided the simplest way to do them would be like making crepes. So we put the batter into the pan and cooked them. We couldn't spread them completely into the pan to get a perfect round shape so we came to the conclusion to make individual one. So we cut little rounds with a cup and spread the chocolate cream in between. To get the hard top, you have to melt sugar and spread it on one of the layers. Well, I melted the sugar and poured it on top of the individual tops. Since this is caramel, it hardens quick! And that is exactly what happened. I was able to get one of the rounds off the plate before the sugar hardened completely, but the others stuck! We tried to get them out by using a sharp knife, but that only broke the sugar and the layer along with it. So, we stuck it in the microwave to melt the sugar a bit so we could get it off, and that was perfect! Rike frosted the layers in between, Drew the outside, and Rike again with the tops. The results were wonderful. Here are some pictures of the entire process.

The end is near!

The end of the harvest is so close! More like two days tops! We are at the top of the hill, where the terraces are getting deeper and deeper. Yesterday we were on the second to last terrace, which has three rows of about 20 trees each. The last one is a lot deeper, more rows, but it's the last one! It is very exciting to be able to finish already. We started on the 15th of November, and just might finish the 15th, maybe 16th of December. Our previous record was somewhere around 4700 kg, and as of last night we were at 5800 kg! We are definitely hitting the 6000 mark! And this is especially good since for the past week we only had one day of rain! And we weren't even working that day. Every day has been so nice and sunny. I missed the sun. During pausa, our break time, I always try to be in the sun. Oh, how good it feels to have sun on your face!

Other news. Raymond left, Drew came (back). Raymond left us on the 10th, also Friederike's birthday. He spent two night in Rome alone, and flew home on the 12th. He made it home safely and is happy to be home. We spoke to him via Skype when he was home, so everything is all right with him. A few days before he left, Drew came back. Drew was a volunteer here before I came (actually he left the day after I arrived here). His plans were to go to Germany, but things didn't work out there, so he came back here. He's from the States and wants to be a chef, which is awesome because we can talk food! And he eats meat! So I am looking forward to exploring dishes with him and making Hungarian food that I can share with someone! Yay! He also makes amazing fires which make the heaters super warm. (The heating in the Colonica works by making a fire in the fireplace which heats up water that is sent to our heaters. Unfortunately even the heaters are really hot, our rooms aren't. I mean, it's not freezing in there, but it's not super warm either. The hallway is always much warmer. How cruel.).

I only have one week left before I go home!! You have no idea how excited I am! It's the longest time I have ever spent without my parents, nearly 5 months! I have most of my gifts ready, now the problem is, will my things fit in my bag? Goodness.... The fact that Christmas Eve will be like when we were little, is very, VERY exciting! In addition to the seven of us, there will be two wives and one and a half grandchildren! For the rest of the holidays I have no idea how things will be, but I'm not really worried about it; I'll just go with the flow.

On Sunday we went into Florence. Rike and I went to church, the first in this Advent Season, and saw (well, heard. A column was blocking our view) the baptism of an adorable little baby. After church we met up with Kelly, Drew, and Clara (Rike's friend who is from the same organization as she is) and went to Santa Croce where there is a Christmas Market. There are many stands from around the world, but mostly European, two from Hungary! One of them sells these pillows that have some herbals in them that you can heat up or freeze and put on sore muscles, stomach aches, etc... But the other one is the BEST! It sells kürtöskalács!! Iris told me about them, so I just had to find them! People were crowding around this stand, so I stood in line as well. When it was finally my turn to order, I ordered in Hungarian. The guy was in shock for a moment, then made me my cinnamon and nut ones. When I paid, he said that he wanted to give me one as a gift, so I got one for free! It pays to Hungarian! :) I shared my sweets with the rest of my friends and they all enjoyed them, especially the cinnamon ones, which of course are the best ones. (For those of you who do not know what kürtöskalács is. It is a Hungarian delicacy that is usually sold at markets and bazaars. A yeast dough is rolled into about a finger's width of a roll and wrapped around a thick wooden log. This is then put into an oven which turns these logs and bakes them to a golden brown log. When it is done, the log is rolled in a mixture of either cinnamon sugar, ground walnuts, powdered sugar, cocoa, etc... and than eaten. Simple deliciousness. This might be a better explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCrt%C5%91skal%C3%A1cs)
After exploring the rest of the market and seeing German meat stands, Austrian strudels, a pig roasting, French foods, Dutch cheeses, French soaps, and many other things, we headed back to the center of the city and found Drew's favorite gelateria and had ice cream in the middle of December. How awesome is that? Very! Florence is very nicely decorated for Christmas. By the Duomo there is a huge Christmas tree that has the Florentine lilly in red hanging from the branches and lights. Simply decorated, but still beautiful. On some of the streets the Florentine symbols are also hung in the middle. I definitely do not miss the immense amount of Christmas decorations in the States! Simplicity is the best for me.
We took a risk and followed the schedule Paul made for coming back from Florence. It worked! A first. The trains are usually right, but somehow, the bus schedules never seem to match. But it did this time! We were very happy.

Thanksgiving in Italy, goodbyes, rain, Advent season!

The past few days have been quite eventful. We had an international Thanksgiving, said goodbye to many people, had lots of rain, and the Advent season started! (Duh, the title basically explains it all!)

Thanksgiving
Here at CC there are quite a number of Americans, or at least, there were when it was Thanksgiving. Zack and I have talked about having a Thanksgiving meal for quite some time. When Tony came back from the States in the beginning of November, he brought back a whole bunch of typical Thanksgiving stuff, like pumpkin pie filling, cranberries, craisins, etc.. It made everything seem possible, since I have not seen those things around here. There is a tradition to have a big meal at the end of the harvest, but since 1. we don't know when that day will arrive 2. it was almost Thanksgiving 3. there were a lot of people around from all over the world, we decided to have Thanksgiving dinner! We had a day before, since the appointment to take the olives was on the actual night. It was such a fun night! The tables were decorated with nice napkins and fancy glasses that are usually reserved for the guests. The people who were making all the food were feverishly cooking and baking all day. Tony took charge of the main meals, with the help of Elisa and Zack. Since Tony is a vegetarian and is lactose intolerant, the foods were altered a bit, but everything still tasted delicious. I don't think I have eaten that much since I got here. I was barely able to finish my plate. We had turkey, tofurkey, cranberries, potatoes, a delicious soup with chestnut pieces in it (how brilliant!!), roasted vegetables, and dessert thanks to Rike, Kelly, our South African volunteer, and myself. Rike made a German Apple Crumble, Kelly a Malva pudding (similar to a sponge cake, but it has apricot jam in it and some sort of sauce with cream in it) and for the first time ever, I made aranygaluska (which happened to turn out to be one of the best ones I have ever eaten. I am so proud of myself!)!
After doing all those dishes (we had about 25 people eating here), and cleaning up, Antoinette presented us with a game. Two teams, each player with a number. A asked questions about CC related things and then called out a number. The people with those numbers had to run to the "yes" or "no" chairs, and whoever sat down first, their team got a point. It was 'The Best' vs. 'Pink Olives.' Unfortunately, I was on the loosing team, but I think it was because Zack had the same number, and I am afraid that Zack might hurt me (things got pretty intense while fighting for the chair!). Zack used to play football and is quite bigger than me. I would rather loose to him than loose an arm.
There is a game called "Sardines" that we have been wanting to play for months now. We never got around to it, so we decided that that night would be perfect! The object of the game is the one person hides and everyone else searches for him/her. If you found that person, you hide in the same place with them. It's best to play with a lot of people, so you really do end up like sardines in a can! Paul hid first, and of course he knows every crook in this house, he found a pretty good place (I am still not saying where...); I found him first, than Ethan and Raymond. The four of us were in that little place for some time, and than we tricked the others are came out. Zack hid next, finding possibly the dustiest place in the house. There is a loft in one of the rooms and he climbed up there. Ethan and Raymond did too, so I was like, what the heck, why not! It definitely wasn't easy getting up or down! But so much fun! The night finished around this time, and we probably ended up watching a few episodes of 24 afterward (we have Season 3-7 here in the Colonica, and we all got hooked on it. Watched it every chance we got.).


Rain
There really isn't an update on this, but the fact that it has been raining almost nonstop. Well, today it was a better day; it didn't rain for the most of the day!

Advent Season
As you all know, Advent began last Sunday. This is exciting, because that means Christmas is a bit over 4 weeks away! We have a wreath, but no candles in it, haven't gotten around to it yet... On the first of December, when I stepped out of the hallway from my room, I saw that a little Angel, called Rike, dropped a few presents for me. She left me an Advent calendar and some delicious German cookies. Rike and I also made Cecilia an Advent calendar, with 24 little packages in a shoebox. She was so happy, and so were we when we saw her reaction.

Goodbyes
This is the saddest part of the blog for me. During the harvest we had several people come and go. We had the Swiss family with two little boys who seemed to make everyone's days a little bit brighter, Steven, the Dutch man, who went crazy with the chain saw and made pretty amazing tortillas (I rolled, he flipped), and several others. We still have Michael from San Diego and Kelly from South Africa, who are staying almost until Christmas. But the worst goodbye was Zack and Ethan. Their time here at CC expired and they flew back to Kentucky. It was not easy to say bye because we became such a tight-knit group and they felt like brothers to us. We became very close, so seeing the first part of our group leave was quite upsetting. Raymond leaves in 8 days, Dennis in 16. I even had a dream that Rike is also leaving, which made me sad, since it's only going to be the two of us after Christmas (though, there might a British guy named Adam coming!).
The last night The Klemme Boys were here was fun. We played a round of our favorite game, Apples to Apples, with Iris-o and Kelly. Took some pictures, remembered all the good times we had and said our goodbyes. Our group is missing a piece now, but glad that they home happily with their family.

By the way, bought some awesome Twinnings Infusion teas. Amazing! Currently I am sipping on a Raspberry-Echinacea cup. And, 19 more days!

That is all for now!