meeting people

monday + tuesday were encouraging days!

do you remember i told you about striking out on conversations with hungarian moms at the park? i also said i need to try that again. well, monday afternoon reese and i went to the park, like normal, and i tried it again. i found a mom who speaks english. she has 2 year old twin girls who will be 3 in january. we chatted for a little while. i told her we just moved here 3 weeks ago and she sympathized with me knowing it was a challenging time. (she brought it up, not me.) we talked about finding different things around the city, different women's clubs, etc. and then we said good-bye. we said that maybe we would see each other again at the park and left. then reese and i were walking down the street behind her and she turned around and said, "ya know, i thought i would give you my phone number in case you need anything, have any questions or need some translation." yea!!! i was so excited!!!!! seriously, how nice is that?! i was told by a hungarian that if you open up, they will too. i see the truth in that! i totally need to call her next week and see if we can meet at the park again. or, i might ask her to go to the grocery store with me.

tuesday was another great day. reese and i braved the taxi by ourselves. i called the taxi and took a 25 minute ride to the buda side to the lady's house who i met at church on sunday. i had just the right amount of money to give to the driver so i didn't have to ask for change. yea! (everyone wants exact change around here. i mean, how do you ever break larger bills?!) anyway, once i got there we walked down to the nawa (north american women's association) playgroup. there were 8-9 moms there and probably 15 kids. reese loved it! she could roam freely and play with lots of new toys! i loved it too b/c i was able to talk to other women "in the same boat". there were a couple of new moms who have been here about 4 months, but the others have been here 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 years! they were a wealth of information and so nice! one even recognized me from church. (i forgot to mention that during the middle of church we had to stand up and say our names b/c we were new! i hate doing that, but now i'm glad we did!) i'm so glad we went. we will definitely make that part of our weekly routine. oh, and we even got to enjoy a few american treats that you can't get at the local stores here...oreos, rice krispie treats (marshmallows and rice krispies) and peanut butter! i don't think i've been here long enough to truly enjoy these things, but i sure did like the rice krispie treats! by the way, these things are available at specific stores, on the international isle none the less (ha!), just at a premium. it was neat to go to another part of the city and meet some new women. the place we went to was up on a hill overlooking the river and the city. gorgeous view...should be beautiful in a couple of weeks when the leaves change!

how's that for some encouragement?! one mom even invited us over for coffee on thursday! i think we'll go!

on another good note, we are moving into our new flat this weekend! yea! we should get the keys on friday evening. we are trying to arrange for our stuff to be moved in on saturday, but i'm not sure the movers work on saturday. it might not be until monday. the flat has enough furniture and kitchen supplies that we can make it a few days though. i'm looking forward to making our home! more on the flat later, hopefully with pics.