New thoughts

- This is our hotel, the Villa Classica. The hotel is very nice and the staff wonderful....but trying to keep five kids happy, content and homeschooling them, in two rooms is becoming a bit of a chore. I will be most glad, as will we all, to move into our home (hopefully next Tuesday)
- Here is a list of Hungarian words we were working on learning this morning (all words we have come across in the last few days). Realistically, we most likely won't learn a whole lot of Hungarian in just two years but if we can learn a few words every week, we can at least build up our vocab and try when we are out and about. I do hope to find a Hungarian teacher who will come to the house to teach us regularly

bread kenyer  (kenyeh)
butter vaj  (voy)
ham sonka  (shaunka)
and es (aysh)
frog beka  (veekah)
good jo  (yo)
bad rossz  (rohsh)
pretty szep  (sayp)
closed zart  (zart)
we’re closed zarva  (zee-ar-vah)
open Nyitva  (nyeat-va)
cheese sajt  (shyt)
cheetah gepard  (gehpart)
house haz (hahs)

- I have just discovered, thanks to my sister, a new Christian friend who lives in Hungary. She is a missionary and has been here for 10 years..they live 4 hours east of us. Her blog is wonderful if you care to read it - Confessions of a Missionary Wife

- We are going to a couple's Bible study tonight and I plan to join a women's Bible study next Tuesday morning on Beth Moore...looking forward to the Christian fellowship

- A couple things I like in Hungary that the US might benefit from doing:
  -- Dryer racks in hotels -- metal racks that heat up...put your towels (or your laundry if you are doing it in the hotel to save money) on and pretty quickly they are dry
  -- at the grocery stores (we saw this in Korea also) you get your cart by putting a small coin (a 100 Forint piece here - equivalent to $.50) into a little box on the cart. Once you put in the coin, you can release the cart from the one in front of it. Use your cart from shopping and then return the cart and retrieve your coin. Costs you nothing but causes the shopper to return the cart to the place where it belongs
  -- traffic lights that count down the seconds until they turn green
  -- traffic circles...make turns faster and easier (though I have heard there are some in Europe that are pretty tricky)
  -- these metal roller shades on the outsides of windows that roll down to keep out light...really keeps a room dark...would be great for hurricanes on the East Coast (I think they might have something like this in Florida)
  -- I know there are more but can't think of them at the moment

- Nathan is enjoying his Kindergarten class (not true Kindergarten...more like preschool). The teachers are very nice, kids friendly, lots of toys to play with and they include songs and games in both Hungarian and English. At snack and lunch time (he spend four hours there from 8:30 - 12:30) they set the tables with table clothes and real china dishes and glasses. The kids behave very well. He has three pairs of shoes - the ones he wears to school which he changes out of in the coat room for his indoor shoes, plus, he has gym shoes that he puts on when they run around the room and play with balls. Plus, he has his own toothbrush, paste, towel, comb, kleenex, liquid soap and cup which is all kept in a certain place in the bathroom. His little symbol is a croissant.

- We had a light dusting of snow this morning - looked like God sprinkled powdered sugar over everything - so pretty. Now it's almost all gone

- We started watching the Waltons last night. What a great show...I had never really watched it as a kid.

- Jeff bought a little Ford Countor to drive around. He gets off work at 4:30 and unlike in Charleston, everyone goes home at 4:30. Yeah!

- Life is good in Hungary. We are truly enjoying this lovely little town!