Work and Play

We (or I) had company come this week from Sunday through Thursday. Katie, the new Lead Education Consultant, came for 4 days for us to "talk shop". She has picked up some of my work for me so that I can move closer back to doing member care, which I've appreciated. I have loved working as the Education Consultant for Europe for these past 4 years, helping families with their educational concerns, but I have requested to be relieved of my consultant role because it is too difficult to do two full-time jobs and do them well. I am wanting to move back to member care full time.

If you remember .... last Sunday was Glenn's birthday and I gave him a 3-D puzzle of the Parliment building. Well, while I was meeting with Katie, Glenn was working on the puzzle.

Glenn numbered each piece before putting it in place so that we could take it apart and put it together again another time.

Piece by piece...

It slowly came together. Glenn was able to eavesdrop without being obvious about it. :-)

He completed it in three days.

And now it is on display in our living room for all to oooh and ahhh over.

And here is the real deal. This photo was taken earlier today while Glenn and I were in town.

Jimmy and Natalie, two of our former Journeymen, are in Budapest on a mission trip from the U.S. and are staying with us. They are here as media specialists to document Michael Frost, an Australian church planter and author, as he speaks on The Church in a Broken World at one of our local community centers (a ministry point place). Natalie went through the Orientation Center with us in Virginia 4+ years ago so we go way back. Jimmy and Natalie became sweet on each other 2 years ago when they both came to Budapest for the Journeyman Christmas that we hosted at the Eden House so we feel we had an integral part in the beginning of their relationship! :-)

We accompanied them into town this morning to help them meet up with the rest of their group who were staying in a hotel in downtown Budapest since they didn't know where they were going.

After connecting them with their group leader, Glenn and I decided to stay downtown and walk around for some exercise. Following are some of the things we saw...in no particular order.

We came across a store called Culinaris which is an import store that sells a lot of food items from around the world, including the U.S. There are now 3 Culinaris' in town.

We happened on the only one of the 3 that is open on Sunday, so we walked in to look around. They had all the normal goodies, like pancake syrup, Pop-tarts, cake mixes, Rice Krispies, Oreo cookies, etc. and they were for sale for an arm and leg, of course! If you know how to enlarge this photo, you may recognize Bazooka gum and Oreo Bits in the window for sale.

When the weather turns warm, all Hungarians come out. And they bring their dogs with them.

And their plastic baggies for cleaning up their dog messes. With this many dogs in one small patch of grass, that is important!

We also walked down to Margaret Island, a small island in the middle of the Danube River that has been transformed into a city park. We walked around the outer edges of the island and enjoyed a langos (a flat, fried piece of sweet dough smeared with sour cream and shredded cheese, lightly dribbled with a tasty garlic sauce). Yum!

We then walked back along the other side of the Danube River to the Gellert Hotel, passing the famous Szecheny Bridge with the lions (without their tongues???) where we caught the tram home.

Funny sight for the day-someone storing their summer tires out on their balcony. Guess they will be soon swapping and storing their winter tires up there.

I saw an add for Walmark brand Omega 3-6-9 pills and wondered if they were capitalizing on the American brand, Walmart. What do you think???

This sign points to Budafok, which is the area of Budapest where Glenn and I live. The sign says it is 10.1 kilometers to Budafok. Well, we didn't walk home but we probably did walk 10 kilometers in town today! We walked from 9:30 am until 2:00 pm, pretty much non-stop. Oh, my aching feet! And then we came home and took a nap. Tomorrow, if I can get out of bed, we'll know that the glucosamine tablets I've been taking for the past month work!!

Well, that's it for this week. Jimmy and Natalie are here until Wednesday, and then we'll have a quiet house for a few days before Annette comes to visit. But that's a story for the following week! I love having all this company!