letusgive!

May 28, 2015...somewhere over the Atlantic My heart is full...and yet there are really so many dear people that I did not see and get to hug or talk wi ith or even share a laugh with over the past 10 days. Don't get me wrong...the 10 days were packed and I did get to see A LOT of people--I truly did love each moment!!!!    Doctor appointments, book club, church,  baseball game,  lunches, dinners, funny...no breakfast requests....hmmmm...people must know me!   Two graduation parties, one graduation, little bit of shopping (again...if you know me--I don't care to shop but my dear, sweet Mom kind of does when it is for her kids so I obliged:). I did lay down a two store rule...and no mall!   I also spent a chunk of time in a Sprint store...holy moly...cell phones can be kind of time consuming!! It was all wonderful and now I'm heading 'home' again...Budapest home. I recall a blog from last year about my heart being torn...where is home?   Really s...

One week and I head back to the U.S. for my nephew’s graduation in Boise, Idaho!   I’m quite excited since I think I will be able to see quite a few friends and family – yaaaaay!   First a few days in Sacramento and then onto Boise and head back to Budapest with my Mom and Dad so they can be here for another nephew that is graduating.   What a great time of celebration – love it all! The past couple of weeks have been interesting – I spent a couple days in Poznan, Poland; which is where I was for about 4 months last year volunteering at a coffee shop.   Very fun to see some coffee shop employees (and ex-employees too) while I was there and catch up with the volunteers who recently returned themselves to Poznan – great to see everybody!   Then a group of Baltic country leaders met in Świnoujście, Poland for some networking – great to meet some new people and learn how we can work together better!   Oh – and we took a hike to a lighthouse there – too fu...

Yet another full couple of weeks since I last blogged!   Last week was full of work, musical preparation, dog sitting and oh yeah – a car accident.   All is well – I’m ok and we shall see how the car is; Bob's mechanic is working some magic (I hope).    Yet another experience in a foreign country where I don’t know the language but it worked out ok; even with a dead phone through the whole experience:). I just arrived home this morning (Friday, April 24, 2015) from Bucharest, Romania.   I attended a conference…yes, a conference.   I could not help comparing it to conferences I have attended in the past.   Similar in the fact that very ‘expert’ people were involved and it was organized well…but the topic and approach were quite different. It was the European Freedom Network – anti-human trafficking.    I was honored to be included in a group of people that got to stay at a shelter for trafficked women during the conference.   To be ...

This world is fairly small.   I know it takes 14-16 hours to travel to Budapest from California and about 24 hours to go to Ethiopia from California but when you think about it; the world is fairly small.   I was in Romania all last week…we had Korean, Hungarian, American, and Romanian folks around all week long and I loved the diversity!   The Romanian language made me feel a bit more ‘at home’ since it is considered one of the Romantic languages…so some words were very Spanish like!   The Roman Empire ruled that area early on so thus the whole Italian/Roman (as in Romanian) influence J .   We visited villages…they were very poor villages.   The kids found refuge at the church with a lady that cared for them.   She has green houses and an aqua-ponics system so she can grow enough food to feed all these kids each week.   For some of the kids; that is their only meal of the week.   They come on Fridays and eat several bowls of soup and b...