www.thatshamori.com
Join along with the Hamori family as they travel 10 months around Europe, renovate their Budapest apartment, and buy a B&B in the South of France!
Should be quite the family adventure. 9 week until we leave!!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
One Year to Live
One year left to live, what would you do? Where would you go? What would be important to you, and how would you spend your precious time left on earth? With friends and family or travelling to the places you have always wished to visit? Would you buy the fastest car your savings could buy and drive on the AutoBahn or would you drink yourself into oblivion? All viable options but what if you weren't dying? Shouldn't we live each day as if it were our last? Why not live your best life now instead of waiting for that pivotal tragedy that awakens you from the day to day grind. Our auto pilot emotionless existence, way too similar to our parents, where comfort and security are the bottom line of our needs, yet we ask little more from our lives. Heaven forbid we slightly move out of our comfort zone into uncomfortable change. But the question is, "Is this your life?" I know it is, but is it really your dream life you couldn't wait to get too? Maybe you are stuck in a job you dislike, or a marriage that doesn't quite fit or debt you can't manage. But if you build it they will come. Match your life with your true passion and everything falls into place.
These questions prompted our family into the next Hamori family adventure!
Yes we have a beautiful life. Canada is a wonderful place to live, good health care. Money is not a problem. It steadily comes in, we pay our bills on time. The difference for us, is that when the money grew our bills never did. This allowed me to stay home with the kids for many years. Then life became about what mattered to me, the causes I fight for, the people I surround myself with, and personal growth. But this is not just my life to live on the back of my husband, who comes home stressed and exhausted. It's his life too. And why wouldn't he deserve the same luxury of self growth he allows for me. I am not saying that staying home is a piece of cake, and that I don't work my tail off cooking homemade meals each day, or growing a bio-intensive organic garden fro my family to eat from, or teach my kids to read and write, and all the things life as a parent entails. What I realized that being a parent was in fact my true self, being home with my babies was my life ambition, and I felt a huge reward having the time to figure that out. When I found my groove all the elements in my life started to jive. Among being a mom, I found a passion for Montessori Education, volunteered at the children's school, started a block watch in our community and began to blog. My circle of friends grew around me with people I love and respect, people I truly learn from. So I wasn't idle eating bonbons watching soaps, I was my husband's equal partner, and my true self. As such I worked 100% of the time to the best of my ability. You work much harder at something you love, but how can we do the same for Alfonz?
Solution: A year of travel through France, with the option to buy a Gite, live there and run it. The idea is to spend as much time together as we can, while the kids are young enough to assimilate to a new culture. A place where family and health are important to it's people, and a strong economic future. A land with warmer weather, 320 days of sunshine per year and a close journey to our home in Budapest. This would give our family the life we deserve. One that focuses on time currency and not just chasing the dollar.
We are preparing by learning French, Alfonz and I at Gabrielle-Roy Elementary night school program, and the kids have Fatiha a hired primary school teacher originally from Africa with a great understanding between the subtleties of Persian and Francophone French. So far so good! Angelina and Daniel absorb quickly and of course Alfonz is the master linguist and I sadly fall 4th, but if determination counts for anything I get an A+!
The vision looks like this. A large home in the Languedoc region in the South of France. Close to tourist attractions and on route to the sea. A garden with a large table over looking a spectacular view of the Pyrenees mountains or rolling countryside or something of that nature. Travellers around a table and me serving them a Sunday Coq Au Vin meal or the like with ingredients from my beautiful garden that happens to seed twice a year! I see a house with a kitchen that we would live in and I see an adjoining house with 3 separate rental suites/rooms or floors for guests to stay in. I see a swimming pool and a beautiful vineyard. The sun is setting, our glasses toast and our life would be restful, rewarding and happy.
The kids might enjoy long days in the Mediterranean Sea, learn the language and absorb the culture. I see Alfonz fixing up the house, and taking the kids to school, maybe finding a new business venture, or take a course in cooking or drawing. He happens to have the soul of a true artist. How he ever became a successful businessman I will never know! I can see him taking guests on day trips to Paris or Montpellier. A tour guide with 4 languages under his belt, he might find his dream life too.
It's a funny thing, actually. We started to tell people we are moving to France, the first response is one of great disbelief. I guess many have dreams that seem implausible. People often wish they could move across the world to a land they visited once in there twenties. And France being the most visited tourist destination in the world, I guess it's a common goal. The difference is I happened to have married a man that no matter what I have ever suggested, as crazy as it may seem, he never said as much. He always said, "If it's that important to you, we will make it happen." And in return I give the same courtesy.
Like some say, "great opportunities come along but once in a life time", well we believe great things come along often, especially with information being passed along so rapidly. Our family is constantly dreaming, and wishing and improving and when opportunity comes a knocking we have always jumped in head first and relished the change.
So if you think we are dreaming, yes of course we are. If you think we are crazy, maybe so. But if you need a rental Gite in the South of France, give us a call, because on the off chance this dream does come true, feel free to visit!
Let the Hamori family adventure begin!
That's Hamori!
Eva
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
My Nagypapa
As we get older, we get stronger, and while people we love leave us, we eventually understand death is part of life. Imagine the wisdom and realizations a man of 94 might have.
94 wow... almost a century. He was born at the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire and lived through two World Wars. Living in Hungary when they invented the first ball point pen, he was there when the world watched the first plane fly, and alive when they invented the assembly line. He saw the Industrial Age turn into the Information Age, was one of the first to see TeleVision. What an exciting time to live and be young!
Imagine a poor farming family, with 9 children, working their land, with little education, struggling to survive. What are the odds of the youngest of that family, leaving everything he knows, escaping during a revolution to find safe haven for his own family all the way in Canada from Bakonysarkony, Hungary? I'd say it depends on how determined that man was to finding a good life for the family he waited so long to have. Traveling across the world to start again is brave. But a man of 40 is truly an adventurous soul. With two small boys in tow, with little more than the clothes on their backs, he left everything behind to find a better life, to reap the land of the free, and travel to the Americas.
Nagypapa found a better living, and maybe an easier life, but he missed Hungarian and it's rich culture. He missed the music, the flavours, and his family. He a strong Hungarian patriot to the end.
He was a dignified man, and going from a well respected train conductor position in Hungary to a hospital janitor at the Jubilee Hospital in down town Victoria, BC, he still managed to hold his head up high, dress well and supported his family. He quickly bought a house and car, the best furniture he could afford and saved his money. This immigrant did better than most people who live their whole lives in one country with loads of family support and friends behind him. But her did if alone, with no support. In fact he supported his family in Hungary until the day he died. His conservative nature, 'saving for the best' mentality was something we can all learn from. Do not live past your means, he'd say, never use credit cards, and the key to longevity is under eating, He never actually said the last one, he showed us every time he left the last bite of two on his plate. That way you never go for another plate of food. I smiled, knowing Nagymama couldn't throw away good food and would throw his last piece into her mouth! His determination got him to 94. These are the things I learned from my grandfather.
What I loved the most about my Nagypapa, is he insisted on big family gatherings when I was young. We would gather with our cousins and camp or travel, have big Christmases with whole roasted pork with the apple in it's mouth. The happiest memories I will carry through my life are with him at the head of the table, with his sons lovingly at his side, and the grandchildren all around.
Nagypapa had a beautiful life. His life like a thread connects us all. He lives through his sons, and on to his grandchildren. I see him when I look in the mirror or into my son's face. I see it in my cousin and her children and my niece too. I feel him around me, his imprint on us. His life is ours to carry forward, and he lives on. We are the fabric of his life. And when I look around I see a beautiful family he was proud of. A life worth every breath.
People tend to be so distracted in their lives, isolated to their TV's and video games, that what Nagypapa represents is almost extinct. Family values, loving one another, time together, family dinners around a big table. Those are the things I pass forward to my family. Good home cooked meals, laughing with loved ones, travelling visiting family. I am so glad I had my Nagypapa to teach me so many amazing things about life.
I love you Nagypapa, Until we meet again.
Love
Eva
94 wow... almost a century. He was born at the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire and lived through two World Wars. Living in Hungary when they invented the first ball point pen, he was there when the world watched the first plane fly, and alive when they invented the assembly line. He saw the Industrial Age turn into the Information Age, was one of the first to see TeleVision. What an exciting time to live and be young!
Imagine a poor farming family, with 9 children, working their land, with little education, struggling to survive. What are the odds of the youngest of that family, leaving everything he knows, escaping during a revolution to find safe haven for his own family all the way in Canada from Bakonysarkony, Hungary? I'd say it depends on how determined that man was to finding a good life for the family he waited so long to have. Traveling across the world to start again is brave. But a man of 40 is truly an adventurous soul. With two small boys in tow, with little more than the clothes on their backs, he left everything behind to find a better life, to reap the land of the free, and travel to the Americas.
Nagypapa found a better living, and maybe an easier life, but he missed Hungarian and it's rich culture. He missed the music, the flavours, and his family. He a strong Hungarian patriot to the end.
He was a dignified man, and going from a well respected train conductor position in Hungary to a hospital janitor at the Jubilee Hospital in down town Victoria, BC, he still managed to hold his head up high, dress well and supported his family. He quickly bought a house and car, the best furniture he could afford and saved his money. This immigrant did better than most people who live their whole lives in one country with loads of family support and friends behind him. But her did if alone, with no support. In fact he supported his family in Hungary until the day he died. His conservative nature, 'saving for the best' mentality was something we can all learn from. Do not live past your means, he'd say, never use credit cards, and the key to longevity is under eating, He never actually said the last one, he showed us every time he left the last bite of two on his plate. That way you never go for another plate of food. I smiled, knowing Nagymama couldn't throw away good food and would throw his last piece into her mouth! His determination got him to 94. These are the things I learned from my grandfather.
What I loved the most about my Nagypapa, is he insisted on big family gatherings when I was young. We would gather with our cousins and camp or travel, have big Christmases with whole roasted pork with the apple in it's mouth. The happiest memories I will carry through my life are with him at the head of the table, with his sons lovingly at his side, and the grandchildren all around.
Nagypapa had a beautiful life. His life like a thread connects us all. He lives through his sons, and on to his grandchildren. I see him when I look in the mirror or into my son's face. I see it in my cousin and her children and my niece too. I feel him around me, his imprint on us. His life is ours to carry forward, and he lives on. We are the fabric of his life. And when I look around I see a beautiful family he was proud of. A life worth every breath.
People tend to be so distracted in their lives, isolated to their TV's and video games, that what Nagypapa represents is almost extinct. Family values, loving one another, time together, family dinners around a big table. Those are the things I pass forward to my family. Good home cooked meals, laughing with loved ones, travelling visiting family. I am so glad I had my Nagypapa to teach me so many amazing things about life.
I love you Nagypapa, Until we meet again.
Love
Eva
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