Oh, my aching...everything!

The week started out with us still in Prague, and having been here quite a number of times, I asked myself, "What can I show my faithful followers something they haven't seen before? Well, what about the inside of one of our families' apartment?"

Yeah! So when we were visiting with one of our families, I asked if I could take pictures of their apartment and put it on my blog.



The groundlevel entryway

This particular apartment building has evidently been recently remodeled because everything is new and modern. It was really nice and does not have that "old" feel about it. I'll try to do a blog entry later of someone's apartment that hasn't been recently updated.

When you come off the street, you enter through the huge doors into an area that leads to a stairwell. This particular entryway is very clean and finished out because there is a business on the ground floor. Most entryways are fairly dark and in need of a good paint job and a thorough sweeping!

Gorgeous banisters

In most of our apartment buildings, elevators are only found in buildings in which there are more than 3 floors and they are often just large enough for 2-3 people. We have one family that when the husband is gone, the mother cannot leave the house because their elevator won't hold her and her 3 children at one time. We have another family that lives in a building without an elevator and they have a baby and 2 year old. Can you imagine lugging diaper bag/purse and grocery bags while holding a baby and the hands of your 2 year old as you climb several flights of stairs to your apartment? I think I'd stay home too! By the way, here in Europe you go up a flight of stairs to get to the first floor, so an apartment on the third floor is really on the fourth floor.



The foyer

In Hungary, you aren't supposed to wear shoes in the house so there is usually a pile of shoes outside the door or baskets or shelves just inside the door for storing your shoes until you are ready to leave. We have to remember to wear socks without holes in them or we'll be embarrassed when we have to take off our shoes.



The living room

Most often you will find a living room/dining room combination. This is the "penthouse" so it has sloped ceilings.



View #1 out the balcony

Folks with our organization are limited to 1600 square feet of heated living space. Depending on the country you live in, it can be very difficult to find an apartment that large or that small! In Ivory Coast, the houses built by the French were much larger so our missionaries often had to build their homes to have one small enough to meet the size requirements. In Moscow, Russia it is nearly impossible to find an apartment that is close to 1600 square feet that is in our price limit!



View #2 off the balcony

As you can see, there is not a lot of green space. Our families with children often look for apartments that are located within walking distance to small parks for their children to have a place to run and yell.



The kitchen

This kitchen is pretty big. It is 3 times the size of mine. (Not that hers is all that big-but mine is just really, really small. In the real estate business, my kitchen would be described as "cute". Right, Dad?)

Larger, newer kitchens will have dishwashers but since most of our folks are not in newer apartments, they usually wash dishes by hand. I've heard quite a few folks comment on my double sink so evidently it is pretty normal to just have one sink in the kitchen. (My dishwasher leaves for Greece tomorrow!) :(



The master bedroom

Most European bedrooms do not have built-in closets. I am sure Europe is where armoires were first designed and built! Our house in Budapest has built-in closets in the smallest bedroom, which Glenn uses as his office. We use it as the office because the room is so small that all it will hold is a double bed and a trash can!




The bath room

Bathrooms generally run pretty small but occasionally I will see one that is huge (relatively speaking). When I see a huge one, I can't stay long because I turn green with envy. We don't see vanity sinks like in America; they're pretty much all on pedestals. No closets in the bathrooms so we have to buy freestanding cabinets. Very, very often the washing machine is found in the bathroom because there is no where else to put it. A lot of our folks line dry their clothes because gas and electricity are so expensive.

The "W.C."

I have to give it to the European who thought of the idea of putting the toilet in a separate room. Great idea! I was told that W.C. stands for water closet, but I don't know that I got that from a reliable source. Kari, can you do a little research? Our W.C. has nothing but a toilet in it and about 12 inches to spare on each side but I like this one above that has a small sink for washing hands before exiting.

This concludes our tour of an apartment in Czech Republic. I failed to take pictures of the children's bedrooms, of which there were 2. They have 4 children so each child shares a room.

Upon leaving Czech Republic, with Tom as our guide (Tom is our GPS, remember?) we decided to take a short detour just into Austria to do a little grocery shopping to pick up some things that are not available in Hungary. We can find Pillsbury biscuits (pop-on-the-side-of-a-counter kind; nothing like it in Hungary, at all), Bugles chips, and Dr. Pepper. They carry a lot of other American products but we have something equivalent to them in Hungary except for these biscuits, Bugles and Dr. Pepper. We did NOT buy Bugles in the States, but they are nice to have for a change, and since we were going to get other things-why not?

Jumbo bags of peanut M & M's

I saw these in the grocery store in Austria. I was amazed at these huge bags of M & M's! Historically, food items usually come in small quantities but recently we began to see JUMBO packaging and it is soooooo weird! These are 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) bags of M & M's that cost 7,99 euros, which is about $12. That equals out to about $6 a pound. We don't buy M & M's here.

Where's the nearest beach?

We got back to BP on Wednesday night and Thursday morning we saw this lovely sight off our balcony. We must be getting new neighbors across the street because a whole bunch of people were house cleaning and doing yard work. Can you tell that one of the ladies is wearing a bikini OUTSIDE the privacy of her yard? It wasn't all that hot so she must have not wanted to get her clothes dirty.

Biking in Budapest

On Saturday, a beautiful, crisp fall morning, Glenn, Istvan, Linda (a friend from Slovakia) and I hopped on our bikes and headed to Szentendre, a small tourist village that is 41.5 kilometers away. Do the math, 41.5 kilometers there and back...that makes 83 kilometers!!!

No, I'm not exercising! I'm dying!

I must admit, the last mile out there was a killer! I knew I would make it to Szentendre, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to get back on that bike seat to come home! It was a little over 3 hours out there with a short 10 minute snack break in the middle. (see above) Once we got there, we ate lunch, walked around a little, refilled our water bottles and headed home.

Actually, once I got back on the bike and rode about a mile, I was so numb that the ride home was almost pleasurable. Almost.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!

We stopped for ice cream on the way back and that really helped! It didn't make my seat any softer but it gave me a sugar boost!

Is that Parliment that I see in the background?

We came back a slightly different route that took us right in front of the Parliment building and had a pleasant surprise!

What's missing?

Can you tell what's missing? I've shown you a hundred or more photos of this beautiful building but this is the FIRST time you've seen it without any scaffolding! This was my first time too! I was sooo excited to finally have a perfect picture of it. I know you are too, in hopes that I won't feel the need to post any more pictures of it for years to come.

Glenn leaves for Greece and Macedonia for a week but I am staying at home. Home, sweet home! I hope to spend most of my time in front of the computer getting caught up on emails.

Czeching on folks!

Well, this past week has been pretty busy but a very good week over all because I've been able to do several things I really enjoy doing, such as visiting with guests who have been at the Eden House, having them at our house for a meal, going out to eat at everyone's favorite place-Arriba's!-and going to a movie. "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life."




This week we had four meals with folks at our house, went to eat at Arriba's! with an Eden House guest, and I saw Accidental Husband at the movie theatre with someone in for medical care. Each week when I update my blog, I sometimes feel like my life sounds so mundane to those who follow our life. It seems like all I have to share with you is the number of meals we had at our house and the movies I saw, but each one of those events is at the heart of what we do here. Really, I love my life and what Glenn and I are doing. We have the coolest "jobs". We have the privilege of getting to know folks at the heart level and that blesses me to the max! I just wish I could figure out a way to translate that into more than meals and movies!

By the way, if you're curious, you can go to the above web site and see what is playing at our neighborhood theatre. I'd be interested to know if the same movies are currently showing where you are!




Changing the subject a little, I got an early Christmas present from Glenn (but I'm hoping he'll forget that he already gave me my present and get me another one!) Ever since the ladies road trip that I took with Wendi and Ginger a couple of weeks ago to the polish pottery town during our camping trip, thanks to a GPS, I've wanted one for Glenn and me! The "freedom" it gave us ladies...to go, have fun, and not be afraid of getting lost on the way there or back! It was great!




Thursday evening I found Glenn in Electro World looking at GPS's and with a word of encouragement from me to go ahead and buy it, we became high tech M's. One of the difficult things of living overseas in a country where you don't speak the language is how to read and understand written directions. Glenn had to go to the internet and download the manual in English for us to use the next day on our trip to Czech Republic.




This is our first time to drive our car out of Budapest and the GPS made it so easy. (The reason we haven't driven before is that the car we were assigned was not reliable enough to go out of town where the tow companies were few and far between! We were recently assigned a newer vehicle when one of our folks moved to London.)

So, here we are in Prague (called Praha in the Czech language) for a meeting, having arrived without problems thanks to our Tomtom One, which we are fondly calling Tom.




This might be our last visit to Prague for quite some time so we wanted to do all our favorite things "one last time". With the reorganization of our company, we won't be having meetings and seminars here in Prague.

What trip to Prague would be complete without a visit to Bohemia Bagel, the home of American bagels and All-You-Can-Drink fountain drinks with ice!?! (Actually, we are noticing more and more restaurants are serving drinks with ice. Ahhh, progress!)




The evening stroll through Wencheslas Square with the anatomical clock and a gazillion tourists.




The gorgeous buildings still catch me by surprise!




We WON'T miss the parking headaches though! There are no available parking spaces. On the city streets are "permit only" parking. Our biggest problem on this trip was figuring out where we could park our car for 5 days. We are staying in a friends' apartment who is out of town this week and she led us to a man who rents out parking spaces behind his apartment building for $12 a day. A real bargain!

This picture was taken on Friday evening about 6 pm.




This picture was taken on Saturday morning. Not on the same street, but the same neighborhood. All the cars must belong to people who live outside the city and who drive in to work!!! The streets have gotten so congested with cars that what used to be a two way street is now one way because part of the street has been given over to parking spaces. More and more streets are becoming one way, which presents a real driving nightmare unless you've got Tom in the car with you!!!




Never seen this before but already have seen 3 this trip! Elevators outside the building. What a way to lose your bag of groceries! No, actually, these outside elevators are being used for cleaning the facades of the buildings and are much less intrusive than the wooden scaffolding that they usually use.

The last section of the yellow building on the left is the office in Prague. Many, many wonderful memories at this location. Meetings, Ebenezer (First-termers debriefing) worship services, graduation ceremony, catch-up time with our former boss, visits with Evelyn in the finance office (!) and marathons with Hawk on our computers. Sweet memories.

As I mentioned earlier, we are staying in a friends' apartment while she is out of town. Today is Sunday and Glenn is "resting" by reading a book. See that space beside him, to his right? That's where I was earlier for 1 1/2 hours today, napping. Truly, a day of rest.

We went to worship this morning at the Prague office, then met with our NEW boss who lives in London from noon until 4:30. We ate lunch with Bob at the food court in Flora mall and then just sat there and got to know each other, talking mostly about work, getting caught up on the changes and what they will mean for those of us in Member Care and MK education. It was good. We could have talked longer but we were all tired and so headed "home" to rest. Glenn was reading and I was napping next to him. zzzZZZ!

I woke to the smell of dinner cooking and the sound of Glenn saying, "Pete, it's time to get up!" Man, what a great day. What a great life!

And I guess I'll save the story behind the name Pete for another blog entry.

We're in a training seminar all day on Monday, visiting with families on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading back to BP on late on Wednesday. Glenn leaves for Greece next Monday.

Whistle While You Work!

The first Sunday in September marked the start-up of our worship services on Sunday evenings at the Eden House. Because there are 6-8 families here with our organization that are in support roles (for our missionaries) and therefore don't speak Hungarian, we get together on Sunday evenings to worship in English. Some of us go to local Hungarian Baptist churches in the mornings as an act of perseverance and because it is our only contact with Hungarians, and some of them go to either Danube International Church (non-denominational) or International Baptist Church of Budapest, both of which have their worship services in English.




We lost our "Minister of Music" in the reorganization as Robert's family moved to London and our "Minister of Children", Karen, is on stateside assignment with her family. I put their positions in quotes because we don't really have staff since we aren't a church but these are the roles they wonderfully filled.





Teri has graciously temporarily taken over the children's sermons but with the Pollard's in the States until January and when the Bakers with their 4 children-one of whom is likely to be sick-don't come, there are no young children and no need for a children's sermon. However, the first Sunday in September Teri was psyched and ready to give the children's sermon so she did one for Glenn and Alvin.




Because the Eden House was empty for a week after we got back from Czech Republic, we did some projects up there that couldn't be done with lots of people around. A little painting, repairs on windows and shutters, and lots of yard work.

Surrounding the front parking lot of the Eden House is a thick hedge. Behind the hedge is a tall picket fence. Behind the fence, the ground drops about 15-20 feet to the property next door. Glenn climbed through the hedge and over the picket fence to do some serious hedge trimming.




He made me a little nervous, climbing and holding loppers with the ground 15-20 feet below!




Behind Glenn is the drop-off! When he got cocky, I got really nervous!

But when he quit playing around and got serious, I gave him a bowl to gather apples off the neighbors' tree that they couldn't reach on their side of the fence because the tree was too tall and the ground was way down! Fortunately for us, the concrete wall that Glenn was standing on to trim the hedge on the backside was just the right height to pick apples.

Alvin ordered a container to be delivered to the back of the Eden House for him and Glenn to fill with tree branches and hedge clippings that have accumulated for the past year and then hauled off to a great big chipper.

Glenn enjoyed climbing on top of the container and jumping on the pallet to crush down as much of the branches as possible so they could fill it even fuller! We had tried burning the brush, but the lady next door came fussing at Glenn for the second time so we decided we'd just have it hauled off.

Alvin paid the guy $150 to deliver and haul off the container! What a deal!

We enjoyed doing the work up at the Eden House but we are equally glad the Stevens are back now! They arrived on Saturday afternoon and are back to work.

We're headed to Prague this Friday for 5 days for training and visiting with a couple of families while we're there. We're also going to be meeting for the first time with our new boss under the recent reorganization. We're taking our list of questions that is a mile long. I hope he has a free afternoon!

Hope your weather is as pleasant as ours! One of the things that I love about the Budapest weather is that our spring and fall seasons when the weather is comfortably cool are long! In Georgia it seemed like the weather went straight from hot to cold in September and then cold to hot in May in a matter of a couple of weeks, whereas here, we have 2-3 months in the spring and 2-3 months in the fall in which the weather is ideal.

Take care!

Cram! Cram! Cram!

Well, that's all I've been doing this week! Trying to cram so much of life into one tiny week and learning that there just isn't enough time to do it all!

I will update my blog on Monday so please come back tomorrow to see what we've been doing. No exotic trips, no medical emergencies, and nothing out of the ordinary. Just lots and lots and lots of ordinary, I guess!

There's nothing like the outdoors...

Well, here we are in Hradec, Czech Republic doing a little of the touristy thing, but I jump ahead of myself. Let me go back a week...



On Saturday morning we packed our car with a tent, some sheets and a blanket, a couple of pillows, a blow-up air mattress, a 6 foot plastic table, a card table, a tub of groceries and some kitchen supplies and headed to the Czech Republic to meet up with some friends for a few days of camping.

(Oh, by the way, we have a new used car due to the relocation of co-workers to London last week. This one has air conditioning and is reliable enough to drive out of town, so we are indeed blessed! We miss the folks that moved to London already and the receiving of the car is the ONLY thing good about their moving!)




We spent Saturday night with Mike and Wendi and their two children in Brno. After having worship in their living room on Sunday morning, we headed to Hradec in northern Czech Republic to meet up with Harold and Ginger and their two boys and a Czech man that is a friend of their family. His name is Michael and he had never been camping before. After going with us, I am sure he will jump at the next opportunity!!!




Our tent was small and easy to put up so we finished first. Glenn is laughing at the others as they put together their tents while he inflates the air mattress for his princess. (That would be me.)

Glenn decides to be helpful and go help the Youngs put up their 3 bedroom tent.

Michael doesn't have a clue how to start putting up his tent. Harold found a place where you can rent a tent for $3-$4 a night, so in fairness to Michael, he didn't even know what his tent was supposed to look like!

Of course, the 4 kids were "helpful".

Time to move the beds in!

Mike starts chopping wood so we could cook dinner.

Harold decides a grill is easier, especially when he discovered Glenn's little charcoal blower!

Glenn and I found a cast iron skillet/wok in Budapest and brought it along. It was a big hit for frying veggies and making french toast!!

We were there from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday morning so we had time to settle into a nice rhythm. The guys hiking and the ladies going shopping!

On Monday morning, Ginger, Wendi and I (with Wendi's GPS on the front dashboard of our car) headed to Boleslawiecka, Poland, the city famous for making Polish pottery! I was very proud of myself, driving into a foreign country without my hubby. First time I've ever done anything like that and with the GPS, it was a breeze. I know what I want for Christmas!

This is the border between Czech Republic and Poland. What a change from a few years ago! Thanks to a treaty between certain countries in what is now called the Schengen Zone, there is now free access from one country to another. Where there used to be armed soldiers and lots of passport controls, there are now just empty lanes. Here, they have even taken down the booths and all that remains are the awnings that indicate that you are leaving one country and entering another.

Ginger was our wonderful guide that got us from one store to another. We visited about 8 shops but there must be another 10-20 that we didn't have time to visit. You can see my "loot" above. I had birthday money from my Dad and Glenn's parents and I was happy to spend every penny of it. Actually, I enjoyed spending every Zloty. (FYI: 1 Polish zloty = 0.349211 U.S. dollar) Thanks Pop, Queenie and Pa! I love my birthday presents!

Because the Czech's haven't caught on to selling ice in 2.5 kilo bags like the Hungarians have, we would have to make a grocery store run every morning to buy food for that day. The Czech's have something called rholik that is similar to a hot dog bun that is their staple bread (only they don't call it bread!) The "bread" is only good for one day because it becomes too dry to eat. Does that mean they will sell all these rholiks in one day?

If the kids got bored, we gave them something to do. :)

Or they could ride their bikes or play games. Glenn shows Harold and Hayden how to play Bocci. What perfect form!

And, of course, there is always time for chit chatting!

We had a great time. It was good getting to know these two families who invited us to join their annual camping trip and we hope to be invited again. I don't know if we did any member care for them, but they sure provided member care to Glenn and me!!!!

After the camping trip, we went back to Hradec and stayed with the Johnson's for a few more days. They showed us their city, took us to a few bazaars (stores that sell used items), and Glenn went to a meeting at a church with Harold one night. Ginger and I did a lot of walking in her neighborhood to walk off all the S'mores we ate on the camping trip!

A view of one of the city "squares" from the White Tower.

I love the painted buildings!

Gorgeous old buildings.

I also love the old right next to the new.

Harold took us to all the "unique" places in his city, such as this umbrella repair shop. Now, have you ever seen a shop that solely repairs umbrellas? Have you seen a shop that repairs umbrellas, period? I don't think I ever have!

He also took us to a shop down Memory Lane that sells African artifacts! We had these same guardians chairs when we lived in Ivory Coast! (Same style, different designs.) (In case you are wondering why they are called guardians chairs...its because this is the kind of chair the night guards slept in while they were "guarding" our home.

And as I mentioned earlier, we also visited several bazaars, or second-hand stores. Unfortunately, these do not exist in Hungary or else we just can't find them, but they are all over Hradec! Glenn managed to find just the bike he has been wanting, even though he just recently got a purple girls bike from his friend Istvan for their bike ride around Lake Balaton! So, being the kind wife that I am, I "approved" of the purchase...and now he has a red boys bike and I have a purple girls bike!!

We returned to BP on Friday and have almost finished all the cleaning, unpacking and repacking that is necessary after a camping trip. That's the worst part!

On Saturday, the first really cool fall day here in Budapest, Glenn and I hopped on our "new"bikes and rode them from our house down to the Danube River, and then followed the river into downtown Budapest to the Gellert Hotel before turning around. About 2 hours of riding. Man, am I sore! Budapest has lots of wonderful bike lanes so we don't have to ride in the busy streets. (I'm just not sure I could do that because then I'd have to wear one of those goofy-looking life-saving helmets.) I look forward to more bike rides...once I get over the soreness!

We're here for about 10 days before our next trip. Have a good week!