I Heart Hungary!!

Yes. I am in love. This place rocks!!! I will attempt to sum up our adventure so far: (pictures will have to come when I can find my cord, which might have been packed and shipped...)

1. The Plane ride: The 2 hours to NY were fine. Thanks to the Harpers who waited with us and helped us with our luggage because we didn't leave on time. All other flights were cancelled, but ours happened to be fine after a few delays. hmmm. Good thing we had a 3 hour layover to catch our next flight. We left from NY "on time" but we stayed on the Tarmac for 2 hours before they would let us go. They just opened up some airports that were closed due to weather, so there were REALLY long lines of airplanes. Then the wind changed, so they shut down the runway we were going to fly on and made us go on another runway facing a different direction. . . more LOOOONG lines. Then the plane in front of us broke down right before it's turn, so we had to wait for that to get fixed or moved, too. We are a HUGE plane, so we couldn't just go around it. The flight was 9 hours but I figure the kids slept for about 6 of those hours, not including the 2 on the runway. phew. It took 2 days for most of us to figure out the time difference. It does a toll on the body. Maleia, B and I were fine, but Dylan and Haley had a rough go and finally are okay.

2. We landed to a welcoming committee consisting of half of B's office, our social sponsor, and a driver to help us overlaod three carts to truck our things into a large government van and the government suburban. I took pictures of the "Welcome to Budapest" sign in front of customs. Then another one of B in front of Customs signing paperwork and such. I got some meeeean looks and whatever they yelled at me sounded pretty important. B had to tell me that I shouldn't have done that. I just smiled and waved which made them even more caustic. I wasn't in Budapest for one minute and I was already in trouble. :) oops. Note to all ya'll who plan on coming. Don't do it. They get rather upset. Or do it and play dumb. "What? I'm just a dumb American blogger who takes pictures of everything."

3. We drive to our house... someone pinch me. I keep thinking, "they must have made a mistake," but apparently we scored pretty big. I know they told us that we have 4 1/2 bathrooms, but I still haven't found one... it's . . somewhere . . . Anyway, we just feel very blessed to live in a great home. They gave us a china hutch. Any suggestions on what to put in there? I was just going to put in our crystal temple that was on top of our wedding cake and some other breakables, but it's pretty big and we aren't that fancy to have that many matching dishes let alone china.

4. Some friends (I call them friends because I feel like I already know them since I have been emailing them for over 6 months) brought us dinner that first night and then invited us over the next night along with three other families for an amazing dinner. They work in the Atache' side of the State Dept. so they know how to throw a party. Their house is exactly like ours and they have four kids. Then the third night B's office mate brought over dinner as well, then another family invited us over the following night, so we have not starved yet. Also, our social sponsors supplied us with a fridge, freezer, and cupboard full of food for us. VERY nice. Also, every day we have been invited by someone on the compound to go somewhere in the city with them.

5. Church on Sunday: The Branch president came and picked us up and brought us to our church which is ten minutes away from our home. It is right next to the metro station which will be nice until we get our car. It is a small branch consisting of 4 stable families with some visitors, singles, and some Hungarians who are trying to learn English and come to their own Ward beforehand. It is only 2 hours long and of course it was really easy to meet everyone. Two of the four families are young couples, so we are excited. One with 3 kids the same sexes and ages of our kiddos, and another with a 15 month old. hooray! Church ran just fine, but as the Primary President was telling me how my kids were. She told me that Haley knew ALL the songs and even helped her out with some of the words and then when they were all coloring, Maleia yelled, "Wow! This looks like a butt!" Nice Maleia. Nice. Great first impression. To make it even better I bent down and told her that we don't use that word at church and she replies, "Oh yeah. I forgot. We only say those words at home and when we get really mad." ??What?? (sigh) I really don't know where she got that from, but I bet my face was bright red.

6. North American Womens Association (NAWA) -pronounced (Now-wah)- is a group of ladies that get together for a play group every Tuesday at a different part of the city every week. I got a ride with another friend on the compound, along with 3 of her kids, and we got to go to a really neat park hosted by one of the girls I met at church. Both of the young mothers at church attend this as well, so this will be a great opportunity for us to go out and see the city and to get to know the roads. By the way, the roads are NUTS!! Driving here is close to a nightmare, but I'm excited to try. Some people have drivers or only use public transport, but (hehe) I can't wait to tackle the Budapest travel roads. We will be getting Diplomatic plates, so that will be nice, too, but still sooo crazy! There are signs everywhere and when I was asking my friend what the different ones mean (she has been here for two years) she wouldn't even know some of them. The Hungarians would often put two signs that contradicted each other on the same road. When all else fails, look to see which one is newer looking... sounds fun, huh?

7. All in all we are so grateful and as excited as ever to live here. B LOVES LOVES LOVES his job, which means more to me than anything else ever would, and I have fallen in love with this place. My kids have friends on the compound already and we feel like we belong here already. . . now if only we can find friends that like to play board games, sports, or Rock Band. . .

8. Please come and visit. We already feel like we could be excellent tour guides with all the information that we have received and the places we have already been. I still only know 7 words, but my goal is one new word a day, so after a year I should know 365 right? And hey, I'm above average right now. We've only been here 6 days! :) See you all soon, right???

QOTD:

Maleia: "Mommy, can you do my hair like a Deer's?"
Mom: "How do I do that, babe?"
Maleia: "You know. Two pointy things out like this." (Pulls her short hair out to the sides)
Mom: "Aren't those called piggy tails?"
Maleia: "Piggies have only one curly tail. And believe me. I know piggies."