Happy New Year! It is that time of year again! RESOLUTION time. I know, for most people they don’t work, but for me it keeps me on track. I started writing this post from our home in Budapest, Hungary, having spent the holidays in our Elizabethtown 19th century apartment enjoying the festivities of the…
❝To have another language is to possess a second soul.❞ ‒Charlemagne Vasali Nagypapa, my grandfather on my mom’s side, was a soldier in the Second World War, knighted for bravery, and was a self-taught intellect. His formal education was about grade two, but that didn’t stop him from ravenously learning. He taught himself to read,…
Summertime and the livin’ is easy, work is abundant and our time is flying by. Alfonz and I are enjoying our new line of work, even though we literally fall into our beds at night. My favourite part of being a ‘Homestay’ family is trying to adapt the lessons for the children’s own personal issues…
Our Song & Play kids wrap up their first year. These kids amaze me. Most had a very limited understanding of English and over the course of the school year, through repeating nursery rhymes, singing songs, playing games and learning to cook and dance following simple instruction- these fabulous kids learn English. Many times, they…
Every year thousands of kids go on field trips with their elementary school to see the Parliament building in Budapest. The 100-year-old building was built on the Danube River, as a mark of…
Have you seen this kid riding his bike through the neighbourhood? Capestang has a new boy in town, one with a goal and a determination measured to none. Daniel received a second-hand bike from us when we first landed in Capestang. With the fabulous weather ahead, we had a line on good used bikes from…
There is something very special about swaying back and forth, side to side in a worn saddle, meandering through a cool forest on a hot summer’s day. We take our homestay students to visit a ranch and let them enjoy a one hour guided horseback ride through the hillside. Camille, the owner of Appaloosas,…
Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was. — Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care Hungary is the long way round for Alfonz, and in many ways he is returning to the start of his journey. Myself, well although…
The Pont du Diable on the Herault River is a beautiful bridge built by Benedict monks back in the first half of the 11th century. On our way to the Clamouse cave we passed by the astonishing Devil’s Bridge, saw the man-made pool created for swimmers and noticed the flocks of people enjoying the sun….
I have not been overly inspired to write. Maybe I just ran out of things to say after three years in the region. France is becoming as normal to live in as BC was to me growing up in. I am used to the endless pastel colours, the rolling vine covered hills, and the slow flow…