Back on the continent

I’ve now returned to the good ol’ U.S. of A., after my trip to Budapest, Bratislava and Prague. Last Wednesday I took a train north from Budapest and stopped in Bratislava to visit Laura. The next day, I continued on to Prague to spend time with Aaron and Phoebe and their son Nehemiah, the last of whom I had not met since he was inside Phoebe. He’s a great kid, and very energetic. He reminds me a great deal of my nephew, who is also two, blond, and loves Thomas the Tank Engine.

We played ball a lot. He would bounce a rubber ball to me, and then I would bounce a ball back at him, but he would not catch it. He didn’t even attempt to catch it. Often, he watched it bounce off of him. I suppose two-year-olds haven’t developed their reflexes enough to catch things.

He’s also a very fortunate kid, to have such great people as Aaron and Phoebe as his parents. He doesn’t know it yet, but I hope he does someday.

Saturday, we all went to a concert performed by a choir from Philadelphia Biblical University. It was very good, and one song even had hand motions to it, which Nehemiah thoroughly enjoyed. It was just like the Happy Hands Club, which I’m told is his favorite part of Napoleon Dynamite. After the concert, we talked to the choir and the Czechs who attended the concert while Nehemiah flirted with the girls. I even talked a little bit with a guy about dispensationalism, which is a particular kind of theology taught at PBU. It was an interesting and coincidental conversation, because Aaron and I had talked about it just the night before. I could write a blog about 10 pages long about the great conversations I had with Aaron on this trip, but I won’t. I’ll just say that I miss him a lot already.

When I got back to Budapest, I stopped by school on Monday to say goodbye to some students and colleagues. Then Brady wanted to go see the movie “Silent Hill,” and Sam and I went with him. I hadn’t seen a horror movie for a long time. And I was reminded why I don’t generally like them. I’m not against a little psychological thrilling, a little suspense, but gore is not my thing. If I wanted to see people’s fluids, I’d work at a blood bank. And if I wanted to see people’s skin burned off, I would be a sick, sick person.

• Europe