We are CONNECTED!

See "UPDATE" at the bottom of this post later. Here is what's been going on the last several days!

What I Would Have Blogged…

While we are without internet at the house, I thought I would start a document of things I would have blogged. Hopefully I’ll be posting these soon!

Monday, June 30, 2008

So the sun is out here a little more than 16 hours out of the day. It comes up around 4:30am and sets about 9:00pm. Fortunately, each window of our flat has these cool automatic shutters that block out virtually all the light. Unfortunately, Caden is still waking up just before 7:00am every morning. I guess I should be grateful it is not 4:30am!

Today I put together Caden’s tricycle while we waited on Gabor to pick up Kyle’s dry cleaning. Yes, we now have a laundry service that has free pick up and drop off. It is definitely pricier than the US, but necessary. All the suits that Kyle shipped were quite wrinkled. I have been ironing some shirts and pants that were salvageable. Caden was so happy to have his tricycle again and promptly rode it all over the flat. I’m sure our downstairs neighbor loves us. Caden does not quite understand the concept of people living above & below us yet. We call the people above us “the chair people” because it constantly sounds like they are dragging chairs around the floor. Ahhh, the joys of apartment life. Caden has even taken to saying, "Mommy, it's the chair people" when we hear the sounds.

After Gabor came by, the kids and I packed up the stroller to walk to a nearby park. The park is about ½ mile away. Most of the walk is on pretty flat streets, with the exception of one hill that Caden calls “ring around the rosy” because it is very steep and twists and turns a couple of times. Today was my second walk up that hill, but my first pushing both kids in the stroller. Caden was trying to talk to me about the pretty houses we were passing, but I couldn’t answer him because I was panting! I know I’ll get better on the hills soon.

There were lots of kids and moms at the park today. Caden ran and played and tried to work the teeter-totter by himself. Towards the end of our time there, he did find a friend to do it with him. He also borrowed a “moto” from a little girl. Motos are these little motorcycle toys that kids ride all over the place here. Some parents let their kids ride them in lieu of pushing them in strollers. They are all over the place.

Caden on a "moto"

After a while, we started feeling some rain drops so we walked next door to the Tesco Express (mini grocery store). I went up and down the 4 small isles and bought more milk, bread, what I think is vegetable oil (turns out it is sunflower oil), bananas, eggs, and 2 bottles of beer for Kyle. Note about the beverages, you cannot really buy a six-pack or case of beer or water here. You are lucky if you find that. You basically have to buy singles, which makes it hard to carry.

Our loaded down stroller with kids and groceries made it back down the hill (which is actually harder than going up) and back to the house before the real rain started! I had to get back to get my drying laundry off the patio! :)

Caden & Erno

Our building has a total of six flats. Three are rented (including ours) and three are owned. There is a couple, Erno & Elizabeth that tend to the flats and the surrounding garden (which is beautiful). Erno & Elizabeth are probably in their early sixties and speak pretty much no English. Caden has really taken to them, especially Erno. On Sunday, Erno was in the front garden and Caden kept running out onto the patio to talk to him. He would say “Hey Erno, are you planting your plants?” and “Hey Erno, do you think it is going to rain?” Poor Erno can just smile and wave back at him. It is so cute and also sad that they can’t communicate. For now, smiles and waves will have to do.

Bye John & Kristina!

Our friends John & Kristina, the original pioneers and our trusted resource for life in Budapest have ended their two year tour. They left Monday for Fairfax, Virginia where they will make their new home. We are really going to miss them personally and professionally. They were both so integral in making us feel like Budapest can be a home for us. Good luck John & Kristina – thanks for everything!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 – Happy Canada Day!

So today is Canada Day. I would look up what that really means to Canadians, but alas, as you know, I cannot. However, we did celebrate the day with a few new Canadian friends this morning. We attended another playgroup today, this time at Kim’s home. She is Canadian but has come to Budapest via Houston. Her husband works for ExxonMobil and they have been here for one year. We had beautiful weather today and played in her garden in pools, on slides, and a trampoline. Caden made several new friends and is really warming up now. It takes him a little while to get going, but after a few hours he did not want to leave. We followed up our play date by accidentally going down a one-way street on the way home – ooopps! We ended our day by walking to meet Kyle at the bus stop. It is quite cute to see Caden run to him and see all these little Hungarian women smile. It is certainly a bright part of my day right now.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

This morning we went to a “Messy Art Class” with Laura, Sam & AJ. The class was held in a yoga studio and taught by one of their regular instructors. It will be a regular occurrence on Thursday mornings this summer. It is a bit pricy, so I’m not sure how often we will attend. This morning, Caden made a fish out of a paper plate, foam & crepe paper, a wave bottle (oil & water with glitter) and a sea shell cookie that is currently drying on our window sill. The theme was obviously ocean today. Caden has always enjoyed doing art projects, so this was fun for him. Miss Reese went along and rolled around on a yoga mat. She really is a good baby, not a peep out of her for the whole hour. She simply enjoyed watching and listening to the children.

The Immigration Office

Yesterday we visited the immigration office to fill out the remaining paperwork so the kids and I could get our residence cards. They will be inside our passports and should make it easier for travel throughout the EU. We met Kelly & her family there. They are ex-pats from Columbus, Ohio and just moved here on June 11th. Her husband, Tim, works for PwC as well. Their kids, Andrew (10), Sydney (6), and Ian (2) were there as too and Caden enjoyed playing with Sydney. He and Ian share a birthday – another July 7th kid! Everything went smoothly at the immigration office, I guess because the HR director from Kyle’s office met us there to translate. We should all be official residents of Hungary very soon.

I call about the internet every day. Today they created a “technical assistance” work order for me. Apparently, the internet should be working. Now I’ve been told that it could take between 20 minutes and 72 hours. Hum, which one do you think it will be. I’m learning that life in Budapest usually means go with the later estimate.

Friday, July 04, 2008 – Happy Independence Day!

Exercise!

I have not had the time to plug in and explore the new Wii Fit system I got before leaving the US, but I did make time last night to got down to our pool for a swim after the kids went to sleep. We have an indoor pool in our building. It is probably 50 ft long or so and is an even 5 ft deep throughout. It takes me about 10 strokes to get from end to end, so it is not exactly the ideal lap pool, but it serves the purpose. I swam for about 25 minutes last night and really enjoyed it. The pool will be such an asset when the weather gets colder here!

We hosted our first play date this morning. Sam, AJ and Jack came over to play outside with water guns and all of Caden’s outdoor toys. You should see our garden; we now have a soccer goal, basketball goal, golf set, and baseball bat & ball. We are not without things to do outside! I think Caden’s birthday may bring even more outdoor toys…

We had a fun time and the boys ran around with their water guns squirting each other and the plants. The moms only got squirted a couple of times. I tried to institute our US rule of “no squirting people without water guns” and it worked a little bit.

It certainly does not feel like the 4th of July around here. I am sad not to be at the lake with family and friends watching fireworks, going for boat rides, and eating way too much chips & dip! We miss everyone but hope you have a wonderful 4th! As I'm posting this now, we are hearing fireworks in the distance (it is approximately 10:00pm here), so we are pretending, even if it is not the case, that they are for the American Independence Day holiday.

UPDATE!

When Kyle came home this evening, he brought with him my most exciting piece of contact with the US in a while – my People magazine! The box of our mail with a few extra items from my mom had arrived via PwC today. As if things could not get any better, when Kyle checked the mail at our apartment my next issue of People was there – arriving here in Budapest for the first time from the US. OK – you all know I love me some celebrity gossip, but an even better thing happened… After dinner Kyle decided to trouble-shoot the internet problem one more time and suggested we plug the modem into another outlet in the house and holy cow – it worked! Now unfortunately, the plug is in Reese’s room, and even though we have wires running all over the place, WE HAVE INTERNET! I’ll just try not to trip when I’m in her room late tonight feeding her. We will try to get a better set up tomorrow and we will have to have a service company out to the house to fix the jack we really want to use, but for the time being, this will do fine.

We should have Skype up and working tomorrow sometime. For all those who use the service or would like to talk to us for free, our Skype name is “linerfamily” and our direct phone number is (214) 306-6856 from your landlines or cell phones.

Sorry for the super long blog post! At least now I can stay current. We miss all of our family and friends a ton. Thanks so much for your comments and prayers. It is wonderful to hear from you all. We enjoy reading them so much. I can’t wait to stay in touch on a more daily basis from now on.

Here are a few pictures of the kids from the last several days and a funny video of Caden. I promise to post more soon!

Reese in her robe post bath

Rockin' out in the exersaucer, her new favorite place to be

Sweet sister & brother

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