hello! hello! we are alive in budapest! i hate leaving you guys hanging just as much as you hate checking a blog that hasn't been updated. :( i'm not sure how long it will be before we have internet at home, probably another couple of weeks. so, i'm sitting in an internet cafe about 5 blocks from our flat. it's a cute place, but a little smokey. have i told you that everyone here smokes? it hasn't been that bad any time we've gone out to eat, but it's terrible when you are walking down the street and unexpectedly get a big puff in your face! i just old my breath for a few seconds and then try breathing again. :) anyway, matt is home with reese while she naps. it's fun to be out on my own. i think this is my first time, if you can believe that! there just hasn't been a place for me to go by myself. i'd prefer to be with matt and reese anyway.
reese is enjoying playing in the plastic drawer. i need to teach her to put the tupperware BACK in the drawer! it gets under my feet when i'm trying to work in the kitchen.
our landlord left a few juice boxes in the refrigerator, so reese got a treat. she LOVED it! she has been broadening her horizons a lot too! she's been very open to trying new foods and we've spoiled her with bites of sweets a lot more.
here is a scenery shot for you. this isn't the tram we ride all the time, but this one runs close to our flat. here's a story for you that, of course, includes the extra step we have do do with everything....guess who didn't know about the time change last night??? and guess who showed up for church an hour early this morning??? if you guessed us, you are right! of course it ended up being fine but there's the extra step for ya. this church we are going to meets in a school just like ctk, so i found a computer to use with internet access. and, we got to listen to the musicians practice. it reminded me of my early sunday mornings at ctk. :)
i don't have the pictures of the inside of our flat on the computer yet, but i'll show you a sneak preview of this one i have of the outside. well, it's the courtyard view. we are on the fifth floor and those five windows (including the one on the left with the shutter closed) are our windows. you can see matt and reese are waving to me. we are pretty much settled in our place although we don't have pictures up on the wall yet. i'm a little nervous to do that b/c it's permanent. we are happy with our ikea purchases and only had to go back and get everything off the shelves again one time. yep, our credit card was flagged because of foreign purchases, so we had to call them and all that. before we left the states i said we should let the credit card company know we were moving, but it just didn't get done.
we also enjoyed a four day weekend last weekend to help us get settled. tuesday was the hungarian independence day. here's the scoop on holidays here....if a holiday falls during the week like on a tuesday, everyone works the saturday before to get the monday off so you can have three days off in a row...sunday, monday and tuesday. matt took a vacation day on saturday, so that gave us four days. he was supposed to work this past saturday because there is another holiday this week to give us another 4 day weekend. we are planning an over night trip with some new friends to see a da vinci exhibit in debrechen. should be fun! i'm in need of a trip out of the city!
we have been enjoying a lot of time outside. as i've said before, the park by our place is great! there are school groups that use the park during the week, so reese loves to watch the big kids run around and the little girls love to watch reese. they can get out enough english to ask me how old she is or what her name is. it's cute.she really liked the see-saw in the above picture! as you can see with matt and reese all bundled up, it's been cold. we don't really wear just one layer anymore. but, it's been really nice the past few days...probably a high of 60, but living close to the river it can get a little windy. that's when the scarves come in handy.
okay, that's a good update. of course we are learning more and more every day because the challenges keep coming, but we are doing pretty good over all. the challenges only get to us sometimes. take care my dear friends!! until next time.....
5 comments:
Thanks for the update!!! Good to hear from you...btw, have you tried to "borrow" an internet signal from a neighbor??? Can you check for a signal? The person above or below us had one so, we were able to use their signal until we got our Telefonica "Speedy" service!! HA,there was nothing "speedy" about getting service here--took us 3wks!!!
So glad to hear your family is doing well. Keep us updated. I love hearing about Budapest!
Welcome back! I'm glad you're so close to a great park. Harper was Reese's age when she really started enjoying the park. We go twice a day now!
Next spring you can plant some hanging pots on the rail in front of your apt. for that added personal touch and reese can be in charge of watching the plants grow!!The apt. building looks really nice: I can see why it was your no.1 choice. Hugs and kisses!!!!!!!
lis, we've tried that. unfortunately it hasn't worked. :( not to worry though, i love this little cafe. :) plus, it's better for me at home b/c i do more cleaning, reading and needlepointing. oh and, playing with reese. :)
grandma, yes it's a nice place and yes we need the personal touch of plants and flowers! we actually received a pretty flower plant from our first guests. bori and lee came over for dinner one night. matt met lee at work. we've done a couple of things with them now.
there are great parks all over this city!! it's awesome!
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