Egeszsegere!

Have you ever stepped into a situation or made a decision in life and knew instantly that this was where you’re meant to be and what you’re meant to be doing? I feel that way about my new venture into NRT. From the moment a couple years ago when my wife went to the healer I found who also practices this and the wonderful improvements that took place in her health, I knew that I would be doing this as well. It’s so intuitive to think of the human body as an electrical conduit. The body was designed by God to work and heal itself in a very predictable manner and using this method is a practical way to see what’s going on. In less than an hour, testing only the reaction of a deltoid muscle, I can discern what organ systems are stressed and what may be causing those stresses. I say all this to tie back into my story. I stepped off the plane in Budapest with the other Americans and we were immediately met by the ambassadors from the American Field Service (AFS). They are a wonderful group to travel with and I can’t say enough about how organized they were and how safe we all felt in this strange new land. Growing up in the extremely rural part of Pennsylvania, cultural diversity was not a part of just daily life. It would have been easy for a boy of just 15 to be totally petrified and lost. I felt the exact opposite however. With AFS on my side and an open mind, I was like a fish who lived on land for 15 years and was then tossed into the ocean. The representatives took us to a camp outside of Budapest where we met everyone else who travelled from all over the world. The first people I met were two boys from China. They ran up to me and were amazed at my height and asked to take pictures with me. We were assigned cabins and I was staying with the two boys from China and one boy from Hong Kong who would become my best friend for the duration of my stay. During this week at the camp, we were introduced to the Hungarian language and the customs. There was plenty of food as well. Hungarian cuisine is some of the best I have ever eaten and still remember my first taste of goulash. I also met another person that week. A Belgian girl who would also be a major part of my time in Hungary. She was 18 and would become a big sister to me. We shared many times together and I will get into some of those in later posts. A few moments really stick out from that week. One of them being when I was hanging out in a cabin with a few Thai and Japanese girls. I don’t remember how the topic was brought up, but one is the Japanese girls asked me why we dropped nuclear bombs on Japan. I was taken aback to say the least but I didn’t feel personally attacked. I could see in her eyes that she was very much still affected by it as she was almost in tears as she was asking. I remember telling her what we were taught in school. I told her that in order to end the war and stop the killing, it was the only way our leaders could think of to stop the bloodshed. I don’t remember her response but we seemed to have some sort of closure on the topic. Another memory that stands out is meeting a couple German girls and a German boy. My best friend in Pennsylvania and I loved Rammstein. They are a German rock group and we wore out the cassette tape and could sing all the songs even though we had no idea what they were saying. The German boy and I hit it off with our mutual love of the German rock group. In Europe, smoking wasn’t the big taboo as it is here. I never smoked and turned down the few offers when they came up, but it was one night around a picnic table when one of the German girls in her deep sultry voice asked me if I’d like one. I’m not proud to say that I acquiesced and took my first cigarette that night. It turned into a habit during my stay but when I returned home I’m happy to say that I didn’t partake in that habit. The last memory that sticks out was our last night. They held a dance for us and during the night, we were encouraged to dress like our culture and do something that was special to our country. The Spanish people danced a salsa, there were Scandinavian people who dressed up in their beautiful garb and danced for us and I believe some of the other American girls did a line dance. I have two left feet but I remember getting into the spirit of the party and tried dancing a salsa with the girl from Finland. I’m sure we looked like a motley couple and she did the leading and it was a lot of fun! The next day our host families that we would be staying with came to pick us up and take us home. From there, we were really about to embark on our stay in Hungary. I’ll leave it for now but I hope you’re enjoying the story as much as I’m enjoying reliving it. Happy new year!!