Wow - so had a good week last week & weekend!
I rode the tram downtown by myself and then walked across the novy most (new bridge) over the Danube to the Aupark mall. I found socks for Hayden, who had only 2 pairs left due to holes, and did some grocery shopping. This is actually harder than it sounds because clothes are expensive and not as nice and also in European sizes! I can't wait till our stuff gets here!
Then I walked back across the river to downtown to the American Embassy. It's hard to miss - in among all of the beautiful old buildings, it has a giant fence all around it. Pretty sad. I was trying to ask if I needed my whole family there to register, or if I could just bring the passports for all of us and do it myself. Well, the guards didn't speak English well. Hmmm. So, I took down the phone number and called when I got home. After listening to the messages in English, and (just like in America) not getting any of the answers I needed, I decided to try the "push zero" trick and it did work! But, it connected me with the operator that didn't speak a lot of English - or enough to answer my questions. So, she connected me with another heavily accented person who actually was able to help me after some repeating for both of us. It turns out that you don't even go there anymore, you just register on-line. And, typical government, the on-line form looks like it was done by an 8th grader. It is the form for ALL travel registration for the US. Either we used a summer intern, or paid the lowest bidder....mmm, the good old government intern days - at least I never slid down the halls of the CIA with duct tape on my feet!! (Brian)
So, Friday we went to the QSI (American School) Halloween party. It was early since there is no school the last week of October. First there was a movie and then food & crafts, then trunk-or-treating and a walk through the scary forest! It was great fun! I'm just glad I thought to pack one costume for each of the boys in the bags that came with us on the airplane. Halloween isn't something that is really celebrated here. We got to hang out with Hayden's new "best friend" and his dad. His class has been talking about him each day (they do attendance and whoever isn't there, they wish well), so they were all super excited to see him actually come to school! And, Eiden and he took to each other immediately. Eiden's dad is Dutch and is the manager of the Crowne Plaza downtown. It is really neat how everyone is from all over. We even found out that one of our very own neighbors is in boy scouts at the American school. His mom, Cala, is Slovak and his dad is British. It'll be good to get to know them and their son Alex is 9, so hopefully he and Owen will get to play.
Pictures from Halloween:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=248011&id=518481164&l=6e8df3f096
Saturday, we headed to Budapest to see some friends that used to work in Mt. Vernon, IN at GE with us. They work for Celanese now and started an expat assignment a few months before us. We had lunch at a really neat restaurant right near their house. The food was great and there was a playground for the kids to play on while waiting. Then we walked around downtown and saw some really neat stuff - great architecture, shopping, markets, playgrounds, etc. The money is still not Euros there - so it was really strange to pay with bills that were in the thousands! Then we ate dinner and it was time to drive home. Next time, we'll go stay longer! And, when we get our stuff, they'll get to come here - gotta have a place for them to sleep, even if it is just a futon. :)
Check out our pictures:
Well - I'll try to be much better about not stuffing it all in one post. More frequent updates to follow!
Love to you all!
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