I met the American Ambassador

Well, I didn't really MEET her but I went to hear her speak. I sat on the second row in front of her and I was about 10 feet away, so does that count???? She was holding a Town Hall Meeting and all Americans registered with the Embassy were invited via email a few weeks ago. I made reservations for Glenn and me just because I was curious about who she was and what she would have to say.

There were only about 250 people in attendance; two small handfuls of missionaries, a few students studying at the Central European University, a cluster of business expats, a large number of foreigners married to Americans, and quite a few Hungarians who fled to the United States at the time of the Hungarian Revolution (against the Russians) in 1956 but who have since returned to Hungary to live. They introduced themselves as "56ers". They have dual citizenship in both Hungary and the United States.

The U.S. Ambassador didn't speak so much as she answered general questions posed by individuals. Most questions dealt with the tense political climate in Hungary and the failing economy. For someone who doesn't read the local newspapers, listen to the radio or watch the news on TV, it was a rather enlightening evening and pretty interesting. Ignorance is bliss. If anything happens to this country, I hope someone will call Glenn and me and let us know!

Other than going to hear the Ambassador, it was a calm week.

We have had snow flurries just about every day, but no accumulation. It's cold and gray, which is perfect weather for Glenn's homemade fish soup!

Before the icing...

I was in the mood for some gooey sweet rolls so I made HALF a batch of Cinnabon rolls which made waaaaay more than was good for our waist lines so we froze some of them in individual squares for later in the month :-).

In the fall of 2009, I met a young American lady who had just arrived in Hungary 5 days before. (You may remember them from a previous blog update.)

Melissa' s husband, Scott, is working on his Ph.D. in Ottoman Turk History at the Central European University and Melissa was teaching English. (As an interesting personal connection-our son-in-law, Jonathan, was Scott's Bible study leader at Iowa State University years ago.)

Anyway, Melissa gave birth to a beautiful girl named Ellie earlier this week. Here she is, just 4 days old! She is maybe the 5th most beautiful baby I've ever seen. A head full of hair! (Chris, Kari, Jazmine and Alec, in case you are wondering about #'s 1-4.)

Glenn and I have had several folks over for meals this week but I keep forgetting to take pictures, and we've worked on emails a good bit. Over the weekend, we did some home projects that were long overdue! (And yes, Kari, I'm needing a picture of Glenn and me for the middle, circular empty frame) :-)

We're home this week and I will try to find something new and interesting to write about for my next update. Having written this blog now for 5 years and the newness of living in a foreign country having worn off, it is hard to come up with new "fodder" about which to write!!!

I am often amazed when one of our co-workers tell me they follow my blog. I want to ask them, "Why????"