Summary of the rest of the year

March 2008: Trip to Transylvania

After our Civil Wedding and before our „Big wedding in Summer” it was time for Ryan to meet my extended family. At Easter my Dad, Ryan and myself drove to Transylvania (the region I was born in), and visited my grandparents and other relatives. It was quite awkward sometimes as Ryan only spoke a little Hungarian, and he could hardly communicate directly to my relatives, only with the help of a translator. That was usually me or my uncle Lackó. But at the end of the day all my relatives were very satisfied with my choice (how could they not be?), they were all sincerely interested in his country and culture, they all admired his patience with learning the language, and we said good-bye with very positive memories.

April 2008 – Trip to New Zealand

This time it was my turn to meet the family and friends of my darling, as well as to get to know his home country.

I enjoyed every minute of it. First of all, our flight from Hungary to New Zealand to took about 40 hours, and we flew through Dublin, London, Singapore, Sidney and our final destination was Auckland. Then the auntie of Ryan drove us to Hamilton, the town of the grandparents.

After meeting all sorts of relatives and family friends, we also visited Rainbow Springs and the mud pools of Rotorua, that are close to Hamilton.

Then we flew to Wellington, met the AIESEC friends, and had a lot of fun there. I was also introduced to the beauty of the city! I had hot chocolate in the Harbour, I saw the view of it from Mount Victoria, and I had fish and chips on the stairs of the Parliament – something you wouldn’t be able to do in Budapest.

After a few days we headed off to Queenstown – the world capital of extreme sports.

That was the place where I first tried extreme sports: bungy jumping and a jetboat trip. Awesome!

Of course we also visited the surroundings: Milford Sounds in Fiordland that is called „The eighth wonder of the world” - and the scenes of the Lord of the Rings movie! Truly breathtaking!

The next destination was Auckland, where we had dinner in the „Sky Tower”, a 328 meters tall building, the 12th tallest tower in the world.

Then we went back to Hamilton, attended a big party organised by the Auntie of Ryan at a real farm!

And to make sure we end the experience on a high note, Ryan took me to a rugby game where his team, the Waikato Chiefs beat the 1st ranked team of the country, the Canterbury Crusaders! That gave a really good ending to our visit!

For more pictures - click here!

May 2008 – Ildi at her cousin’s wedding, Ryan in Brazil

Well, these two occasions happened to be in the same week-end, and as Ryan was invited to chair the Brazilian AIESEC conference a lot earlier, he couldn’t cancel. So, this time we split – he went to Brazil and I went to the Wedding of my littly cousin, Julcsi. Here are some of the pictures of both events!

June 2008 – exam time

This June I finally managed to take my final exam in financial investments and risk management, and get graduated with a masters degree in one of the most prestigeous universities of Hungary, in one of the most difficult areas. It’s an awesome feeling to have made it!

July 2008 – Visiting Ildi’s cousin in Kissomlyó

Before our wedding we made a small trip to Kissomlyó as well, which is a small, friendly village in the countryside of Hungary. My cousin Bori and her boyfriend Hurka live there, and they run a cute little pub there. And in that week-end we attended a huge village gathering where a cooking competition was organised, and we could get to taste all sorts of traditional Hungarian meals and meet some friends of Bori’s.

August 2008 – The Big Wedding and Honeymoon

Some of the highlights of the happiest day of our lives:

• 160 guests from 5 continents, over 20 countries, with over 15 spoken languages
• Ceremony in one of the most beautiful churches in front of the Hungarian Parliament
• Young priest woman who played the guitarre and presented a bilangual Sermon in Hungarian and English.
• At the end of the ceremony: greeting the newly weds with „Ave Maria” played by my Uncle Előd (violincello), his girlfriend Csilla (violin) and my Aunt Márti (organ).
• Congratulations and Photoshoot with family
• Reception and party on the Gellert Hill in the Citadella Restaurant
• Official speeches – the most popular one being the speech of Ryan made in Hungarian, and translated into English by Ildi
• The first dance – Wiener Waltz learnt by Rildi in 1 week, music by Tchaikovsky: Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker
• “Kidnapping of the Bride” – a Hungarian tradition
• Gift giving and the Wedding Cake
• Traditional folk dance of the Bride and lots of fun of course

More pictures to be found here!

And one day later we left for Thailand, Phuket for our Honeymoon, which was the most beautiful vacation so far for both of us.

Here are some pictures to give you a taste of it! And if you would like to see
more, click here!

September 2008 – Ryan’s trip to New Zealand and the funerals

After the big wedding happiness was over, unfortunately we received bad news from New Zealand.

Ryan’s grandfather had taken a heart attack and was very sick in hospital, so he flew over to be with his family. Unfortunately on Sunday the 21^st he passed away. The funeral was on 23 September, and was the perfect farewell, nice, simple, no crying until after the service (something Ryan’s granddad would appreciate). It was an honour for Ryan to be asked to conduct the service, as his granddad was like a father to him.

October – November 2008: Sports events

As you may know, Ryan loves sports, especially rugby, and he has always been good at competing and achieving goals.

Therefore, one of his goals this year was to train for a Marathon run, and accomplish a half Marathon as a start. Originally he subscribed for the Budapest half Marathon, however, as he unexpectedly had to go to New Zealand around that time, he changed to a Hamilton Marathon run and he still made it! Awesome, isn’t it?

And the other event of the year was the business trip to UK, where Ryan and his assistant managing director (both crazy rugby fans) got to watch the All Blacks (The famous New Zealand national rugby team) play Wales and England. This trip was made to celebrate the huge growth in Ryan’s business, which expanded from a one man company in January to employing 21 people, and even more if you included part-timers, by October. Ryan got to finally see the All Blacks live in two of the biggest rugby stadiums in the world, and of course be happy that they beat both teams so he could gloat amongst all of the local fans. During the week in between matches Ryan was hosted by good friends Jarda, Ondro and Gabiza who made sure there was plenty of fun in between.

December 2008 – reflection of the past

This year December for us was filled with relaxation – besides the work rush at Ildi’s workplace and the Christmas preparations of course.

Christmas was held three times:

• At Christmas eve at Ildi’s Mum’s, according to Hungarian traditions. (In Hungary this is the time to give gifts to each other.)
• In the morning of Christmas day in our home – according to New Zealand traditions.
• And finally, in the afternoon of Christmas day we visited Ildi’s father and celebrated with him, too.

At New Year’s Eve we went to a house party and then to a big celebration, organised by a friend for around 500 people.

Inbetween we went to the cinema, spent a day in a Spa (at Margitsziget Danubius Hotel) as part of Ildi’s Christmas present, and reflected on the past and our future.

Now we can both say that an era of our lives ended. This was the era of being single, having a student life and a long, fruitful AIESEC experience.

It was also the era when we first went abroad, when we first got to know new cultures, new friends, and when we challenged and were being challenged the most.

Right now we live a different life. Our goals and motives are different, but they are equally exciting.

Watch this space, and you will get to know more about our lives in 2009!

Until then,

Take care,

Rildi

Marriage Course - Feb-March 2008

„Marriage is like two pieces of paper glued together: they fit, they got used to each other so perfectly, and if you need to separate them, it takes a lot of pain and trouble.”

As we mentioned earlier, we have attended the „Marriage Course” as a criterion for getting married in the Reformed Church that we chose (it's a branch of the Christian Protestant Church). It was kind of a preparation before the wedding, the aim of the course was to establish patterns that will keep marriages alive for a lifetime.

The first part of the course was a week-end in the countryside of Hungary (at lake Velence), at a romantic hostel where we could sleep in our own room, in a double bed (Ryan was shocked to see that the Reformed Church in Hungary allows that before the wedding). :)

The agenda of the week-end was about topics around the marriage, such as:
The art of communication in the relationship, dealing with conflicts, dealing with the in-laws, etc.... and......believe or not....sex was also discussed as a topic of the marriage. :)

The minister gave a presentation about each topic, and after each of them, there were questions that we had to discuss between ourselves (just the two of us).

The second part of the Marriage Course was about a series of Monday-night discussions, around a dinner table, mainly about religeous topics.

And now that we are finished, I can truly say that it was awesome! We really loved it, we learnt a lot, and we hope that this experience will help us build a strong foundation for our future married life.

And even though in the beginning we thought that it might be difficult for Ryan to be amongst so many Hungarians, and not to understand much from the conversations, but guess what happened! There was another international couple, the girl being Hungarian, and the guy being exactly from New Zealand! In addition, they are having their wedding exactly in the same day as us: the 9th August!!!!! Such a coincidence! So cool!!!!! :)

Some of the pictures:

The two Hungaro-Kiwi couples :)

Dinner time

At the presentations

And if you wanna see more photos, click here!

New photos and videos uploaded

Hi all,

Just a quick note:
Since our last blog posting in English, we've uploaded new photos both on the Facebook group and for those who don't want to register there, on public sites, too.
Here are the links to the public sites:
Photos on Flickr - click here
1st video on YouTube -click here
2nd video on YouTube -click here
3rd video on YouTube -click here
4th video on YouTube -click here

Enjoy! :)

Rildi (Ryan és Ildikó) polgári esküvője - 2008. február 2.

Kedves családunk és barátaink!
Köszönjük szépen mindenkinek, aki már visszajelzett az e-mailes esküvői meghívással kapcsolatban, és aki elküldte nekünk a postai címét. Már nagyon várjuk az augusztusi esküvőt, ahol az egyházi szertartást és a nagy, nemzetközi lagzit tartjuk majd.
A múlt hétvégén viszont egy másik fontos esemény történt az életünkben: a polgári esküvőnk, ahol a Magyar Köztársaság családjogi törvénye értelmében házastársakká váltunk. :) A szertartás után egy kis vacsorára volt hivatalos a pöttöm násznép az édesanyám lakásán. Ott voltak a szüleim, testvérem, a hivatalos fordítónk, Bindes Bori, a két tanu Abhishek Singh Jadon Indiából és Kostyák Bori unokatestvérem, illetve természetesen Ryan és én.
Úgyhogy mostmár hivatalosan is Mr és Mrs Sheppard lettünk (Ryan Sheppard és Kostyák-Sheppard Ildikó). De azért a legjobban az augusztusi esküvőnket várjuk, ahol a családunk apraja-nagyja, és a barátaink mind ott lesznek, és velünk örülhetnek, amikor örök hűséget fogadunk egymásnak.
Szóval nemsokára érkeznek a meghívók, és még egyszer, ne felejtsétek el beírni a határidőnaplótokba az augusztus 9-ét, a budapesten tartandó esküvőnk időpontját! :)
A polgári szertartáson készített fotókat és videókat a Facebook nevű programban találjátok, illetve aki nem szeretne ide feliratkozni, annak ajánljuk figyelmébe a következő linkeket:
Fotok - kattints ide
1. video - kattints ide
2. video - kattints ide
3. video - kattints ide
4. video - kattints ide

Sok szeretettel,
a Sheppard család :)

Civil Ceremony for Rildi

Dear friends and family,

Thank you to everyone who has got back to us confirming their attendance at our wedding in August so far. We look forward to a big international gathering of all our friends and family later this year for our church wedding.

This weekend another major event occured, our civil wedding, and now officially as per Hungarian family law, we are now husband and wife :). We had a small gathering with Ildi's mother, father and brother, the best man for the church wedding in August as Ryan's witness (Abhishek Singh Jadon), the maid of honour in August as Ildi's witness (Bori Kostyak), and our official translator as required by Hungarian law (mutual friend, Bori Bindes).

So now officially we would like to introduce ourselves as Mr and Mrs Sheppard (Ryan Thomas Sheppard & Ildiko Kostyak-Sheppard). However we are even more excited to having a much larger ceremony in August where we can reaffirm our vows in church in front of our close friends and family. So please keep those addresses for the invites coming, and book August 9th for a Budapest wedding :).

Photos and videos of the civil ceremony have been uploaded onto the Facebook group, with more to be uploaded in the coming week.

Yours,

The Sheppards :)

A Tokaj getaway...

This weekend Ildi and I decided to something a little different, so we booked an InterCity train to head off to Tokaj. For those of you who do not what where or what Tokaj is, it is a small village/town to the North East of Budapest (close to the Slovakia and Ukraine borders), and also happens to be the center of probably the best wine region in Hungary.

As always the trip was logistically and financially well-planned thanks to the talents of Ildi. (And of course the trip went overbudget at the end of it because of the overspending talents of noneother than myself... hehe).

We were picked up from the train station by the hotel as part of the service, as Tokaj doesn't have taxis, and got taken to our hotel, which also serves as a Wellness Centre. The weekend was awesome, with huge meals; an interesting trek to find a winetasting place open on a winter Saturday night (which we found eventually); relaxing times in the pool; jacuzzi and sauna, aromatherapy and muscle relaxing massages; another trek to get to the top of a hill to see the panorama of the area only to end up slipping in mud in the graveyard and not making it to the top; and of course more wine :).

Had an uncanny experience as well during our Sunday lunch, as we were talking about our AIESEC International team, and then we get a phonecall from Amit and Petroula (our former teammates) in Switzerland.

And then it was time to come home, and do what we do every weekend. Watch an episode of Smallville. Go Clark Kent!

Welcome to the new Rildi blog!

Where shall we start?

Let us introduce ourselves: Rildi – Ryan and Ildi – a New Zealander guy and a Hungarian girl who met in the Netherlands, at an AIESEC conference (IPM 2006), lived and worked together in the AIESEC International team in the Netherlands, fell in love, got engaged in March 2007, and currently live happily in Budapest, Hungary.

How did we start out in our new home, in Budapest?

House:

On the 1^st August I moved to Budapest, moved everything into the new Rildi residence (our new, own flat at Keleti – in the city centre, next to one of the major train stations of the city), furnished it, while Ryan went to New Zealand to visit family, to sort out paperwork and to collect all his stuff to be able to move his entire life to Hungary. And he joined me on the 15^th August in Budapest, and our new life began.

Our first home in Budapest - slideshow!

Jobs:

At that stage I was still looking for a job, and luckily I found it very quickly – a Financial Analyst position at Morgan Stanley Hungary, where I get to use a combination of my knowledge learnt at the university in ‘Financial Investments and Risk Management’, of my AIESEC Vice President Finance positions and of my AI Non-Corporate Relations Manager role, as my new job is about account reconciliation for financial investments, and reporting to our global clients.

Relationships with old friends:

When I got back to Budapest, I called up almost all my friends and went out with almost all of them, to refresh what happened with each of us over the course of 1-2 years. Sometimes I met my friends alone, without Ryan (especially when meeting a bunch of girls together), and sometimes it was cool to have Ryan there, too, and him getting to know my friends and vice versa. Sometimes it was difficult, to be honest, because he – of course - doesn’t have that type of background with my friends that I have, but it’s definitely a great experience to rediscover Budapest, my relationships, everything, in a different way: this time together with Ryan.

Studying:

We both study nowadays. Ryan’s just finished his two courses for his postgraduate diploma and the level 1A of his Hungarian studies, and I’m completing my university studies that I couldn’t do due to being abroad for the last 2 years. Hopefully I’ll finally get my Masters degree in February 2008.

Holidays:

After an extremely tiring year, we thought we deserved a really good rest!

We had the opportunity to go on holidays in Istanbul, Turkey, have the best host of the world – Pinar, and attend the famous AI handover session at IC (International Congress in Turkey), which we both dreamt of throughout our AIESEC careers. Couldn’t wish for any better!!!!!

Our cultural shock in Hungary / reintegration shock in my case:

Hmmm…it’s difficult to share it….because most of the frustrations are coming from such a deep level that you can’t really explain – sometimes you, yourself don’t even know what’s going on… But after 3 months I think I can summarize it, and I can say that we both got over it. At least that’s what I feel right now.

In Ryan’s case there are several little things, e.g. his irritation about the Hungarian bureaucracy, the language difficulties, the lack of people that he could connect to…

But the number one source of the shock was definitely the language issue. The fact that people here don’t speak (or don’t want to speak) English. This meant that – especially in the beginning - Ryan was completely dependent on me when trying to buy something, find out any information or just getting from A to B. But now, since he’s learnt to speak a bit of Hungarian, and his progress is really really really impressive, he’s getting around better and better every day!

In my case, the main source of frustration was the closeness of my family. The fact that they want updates, they want to meet us, they want attention every day, and sometimes they consider me as a child, again, which is difficult to accept after having had a completely independent life abroad in the past 2 years. On the other hand, I also got over it, because I’ve found a way of keeping a good balance with my family, and if we consider all the support that Ryan and myself get from them, we can only be grateful for everything they’ve done.

But I remember, my cultural shock in South Africa only came after 4 months, which might also mean that my reintegration shock might have other aspects, too, in the near future.