Hungary 1956

So today I went to a rememberence celebration in Toalmas. Basically I stood outside in a cold mist and listened to people speak Hungarian for about half an hour by myself, because no one else from school wanted to go. But thanks to the history lesson we received in Presidential Chapel last Tuesday I at least knew why we were remembering, and thanks to Reka's hard work in my Hungarian class, I could pick out obscure numbers and even the occasional word, but with no context it was not very helpful. But since I am going to be living her for another 7ish months, I wanted to be as involved in community life as I can, I mean how many of you can say you have been to a Hungarian rememberence celebration? Not many. Now I would like to take the time to tell you why this occurs each year on October 23rd.

Obviously Hungary is a European nation, and so was super involved in World War II. Unfortunately they were part of Nazi occupied territory for a long time. In 1945 the Soviet Union 'liberated' Hungary from the Nazis. But instead of being all like 'No problem glad to help, have a good time ruling your own country.' The Soviets were more like 'Hey it looks nice here, lets stay.' And long story short they communisted the country. Intimidation, false accusations, torture, and imprisonment were used to keep political challenges from arising. The capitalist economy was forced to transform into a socialist one, leaving the majority of Hungarians with a horrible standard of living. More then 7,000 people were 'relocated' to a camp in Eastern Hungary for disagreeing with the government. Schools taught Communist Principles, and Russian language became required. People were placed in concentration camps, tortured, and executed. What it boils down to is that Hungary was one of the most repressed countries in Europe in the 1950's. And considering what a mess Europe was after WWII, that's saying a lot.
So by October of 1956, there were a lot of unhappy people in Hungary, and they decided that enough was enough. A group of students began a protest on October 23rd, and soon over 20,000 people had joined it. A 30 foot statue of Stalin was torn down, and basically the protesters did a whole bunch of illegal stuff, but totally had reason to do so. The government reacted by killing a lot of them, by shooting from the windows of the government building they surrounded. Early the next morning, at like 2:00 AM, the Prime Minister of Hungary AKA Evil Communist Dictator Who Is Super Horrible or ECDWISH, called in tanks. Also this was the night ECDWISH traded places with some other horrible person, and so there was a new Prime Minister. But once again to shorten the story, there was a lot of fighting, and the army killed a lot of people. The Hungarian revolutionaries fought the tanks with Motolov Cocktails, and eventually the Soviets got the picture and left.
But on November 4th, the Soviets totally lied and said 'No don't worry, we don't want to live in your country anymore.' But really were thinking 'Actually we are like on your doorstep and going to come in even though you didn't invite us back.' They are like the guests at Christmas who come with out being invited, and then leave for the weekend and come back for New Years. The Hungarians and Soviets fought for 6 days, and once again a lot of people died. The Hungarians lost, and once again were under Soviet rule.
The consequences for the revolution were huge, 13,000 were imprisoned, hundreds were executed, and over 200,000 fled the country as refugees. The Hungarians lived under communist rule until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Then there were treaties and a whole bunch of political things I don't really understand.
But that is the story of the Revolution of 1956, and why the people here remember this day every year with a holiday. Even though I understood .01% of the things being said, and it was cold and misty, I am very honored to have been able to be a part of this celebration of the brave Hungarians that fought to make their country better.

Please note that the information I have provided it all from Al Konya, and Wikipedia. And I highly doubt the Soviets used the language I did, well obviously they didn't speak English, but I mean I doubt it was the same wording or anything, I paraphrased.
Tune in next time for my list of acceptable places to wake up 10 minutes before going to! :)
Also Josh Durham is by far my most dedicated reader because I have my own short cut on his internet page, the rest of ya'll should try to be more like him.

Wow! Two posts in one week!

That's right ya'll, be impressed, I am a blogging maniac this week. Actually I was studying (GASP) my Systematic Theology notebook, and realized there are a lot of great quotes in my frantic scribbling. So this is going to consist of those quotes, and who they are by. Some of them are from lecturers, and some are random quotes from my classmates. Some are super deep, and some are just stupid. Take them all as you will. I am also doing this because there are way to many to update them all as my status on Facebook, especially when I use that to keep you all up to date on my eating habits, currently kiwi for those of you who have not seen it, bird or fruit, I am giving no clues. So lets get started!

"Sometimes all we can say of God is what He is not."-Dr. Scott Horrell
"You don't grieve a cosmic force, you grieve someone who loves you."- Dr. Scott Horrell
"5+3=8 whether you are in 3rd Grade or at Harvard."- Dr. Carlos Pinto
"No matter how entrenched a culture has become in its sin, still deep down God has left His morals imprinted on our hearts."- Dr. Carlos Pinto
"If you only broke God's law once a day for the rest of your life, you know what people would call you? A saint, they would build a statue of you. You know what God would call you? A hell deserving sinner." -Dr. Carlos Pinto
"Earn your salvation? What makes you think you can offer God something more valuable then the life of His son?" -Dr. Carlos Pinto (Yeah this man has a lot of things to say.)
"Salvation is absolutely free. Discipleship may cost you everything." -Dr. Carlos Pinto
"Red is Red. Truth is Truth." - Paul Weaver
"Satan does not commit our sin, he commits his own, and we sin when we listen to him." -Rohme Dyck
"If we bear God's image, then it is Him we need to study to learn more about ourselves." - Rohme Dyck
" I reflect the image of God. My husband will reflect the image of God. Together we will reflect the image of God better." - Rohme Dyck adapted by me
"Because of Adam we are all going to die. Because of Jesus we can all be saved."- Rohme Dyck
"This is one big class of sinful." - Rohme Dyck
"You rarely see giraffes in the forest playing chess with each other." -Rohme Dyck
               "Ummmmm..... you rarely see giraffes in the forest at all." -Me
"We have been designed to sin, because of our sinful nature."- Rohme Dyck
"Our problem is not that we are sinful, but that we are not even trying to be saved." - Rohme Dyck
"God didn't tell us everything we want to know. He told us everything we need to know." -Al Konya
"Our respect and love for God is no greater then our respect and love for God's word." - Al Konya
"When you have your quiet time in the morning, the authority, the nature, the importance of those words is the same as if Jesus were standing in front of you saying those words with His own voice." - Al Konya
And to end the quote section of this post one from Kevin, " It's like a parrot! But a little one. A little parrot. Like a parakeet! Parakeet soup! No! parakeet tea! That's the name of our movie." This was him trying to translate the title of a movie he has on Youtube from Portuguese to English for me.
These are only quotes from three classes, so I'm sure in a few weeks I will do another post like this, because some of these are too good not to put online somewhere, and like I said, my Facebook status is already occupied.
I received very few ideas for things to do in class, probably because only like three people read this, but anyway I am still looking for more so let me know. Byes!

I'm really not dead, just busy.

Hey ya'll. So I promise I'm not dead. I just really forget that I have this thing, and that some people (namely my parents and apparently Geoff) read it. For those of you not in Hungary (AKA everyone except Geoff), Geoff is an intern here who loves to play Catan, Monopoly Deal, Carcassone, Bang, Kemps, and other games. Which obviously makes him someone that I hang out with on a regular basis, as I also love games of all kinds. Also falling into this category are Kevin and Jess. There is rarely a day that we do not play a game of some sort.
Since being here, actually just yesterday, I have found the best chocolate in the world. It is Milka. A type called "Season of Happiness" Basically it's pear flavored chocolate. I could probably eat it almost constantly. But if I do that, then I would be fat. And I drink enough Coke that this could be a legitimate problem.
Let me try to explain my schooling to those that don't go here. I have classes four days a week, Monday- Thursday. Form 8:00AM to 1:00 PM. There is one class we have for an extended period of time, currently it is "Bible Study Methods". I will have this class one or two hours a day, from now until the middle of November. The other class changes from week to week. So far I have had "Personal Evangelism", "Trinitarinism", "Dispensationalism", and am currently in "Angelology, Anthropology, and Hamertiology." I have had exams on the first three, and am completely done with them for the year. So instead of taking how ever many classes normal college students take, and having like two hours of class a day, I take one class for 12ish hours a week, and then move on to the next one. It works pretty well.
Those of you who know me well know that I am a multitasker. So I am going to leave you with two lists, showing what exactly I do in class.
Things I have done in Class(and will probably do again):
Drank tea
Read my Bible
Get names from the Bible that I might name my children (112 so far)
Write titles for every chapter of the Bible (I'm through Deuteronomy thus far)
Read my 'Basic Theology' text book
Written letters
Made this list
Made bracelets(four types as of now, I'm learning more)
Taken AWESOME notes (Seriously, my hand hurts from writing so much)
Learned a lot about the Bible and God I have never even thought of before.

Things I plan on doing in class:
Writing my Last Will and Testament
Knit mittens (For Jess)
Write a Psalm
Cross-Stitch some butterflies

If any of you have more ideas for me, please let me know. I'm not sure how many bracelets I can make and still have room to take them home!