So much to do… so little time
Well… still feel like I am getting set up here. I feel like there is sooooo much to do and I spend soooo much time in the office. If I can just get that e-mail down to a reasonable amount! It is getting better, slowly but surely. And I think that it will get even better. I am getting more familiar with how things work period and I am getting more comfortable with the technology (SAP BW). So that helps. The Hungarians are getting more comfortable as well and I can see everything getting much more comfortable around here. Bill Falabella is here this week. He’s the guy that some of you may have heard me refer to as, “the loud guy on the other side of the cube wall” back in Houston. Really good guy. Was at lunch with him and another expat (should I say THE other American expat here), Shawn, and Shawn told me the best news I’ve heard yet. Bill was asking me about vacation days… I said, nope, no extra vacation, still US payroll. Shawn then brought me to the light… “No, no, no my young friend. By Hungarian law you have 20 vacation days!” Yeeeeaaa Haaawwww! I have yet to speak with my boss about this but the law is the law and we must abide by it, correct!? Hahaha. I love it. So, friends, I’ve got 12 more vacation days left to spend!!! Wow. So hard work I do not mind. Come on over here people – I’ve got vacation days to take!!
The worst thing yet is that I am still not set up at home – still living out of a suitcase and no phone and no internet. My boss approved an international cell phone for me so that should be set up this week. I hope. As for my home phone… I do have a number… but not connected yet. UGH. Very annoying. I am almost afraid to leave the office for fear that I’ll be disconnected from the world. OK, I AM afraid to leave for just that reason. In fact, one day last week I was leaving my apartment for work and hadn’t quite got the locks on the door down pat (there are 3 of them just on my door alone). I was turning the last lock and it was not unlocking for the life of the thing! I tried the other locks again, went back to the last one…. Turn again… no… again…. No… other way…. No… hmmm. I stepped back and started to panic. How in the world would I get out of here if I could not use the door?! Oh my, gosh…. Oh my gosh… I could be stuck in here for DAYS and no one would know! How would anyone know?! No phone… no internet, no e-mail…. What WOULD I do? I couldn’t get out the back windows – they’ve got bars on them. I couldn’t yell down the 4 stories to the street – no one speaks English!! !! I’M STUCK. This panic really only lasted for about 20 seconds but it was very real. I walked over to the window and said to myself, “Now, don’t panic. If you really are stuck you’ve got daaaays to figure this out.” Hahaha. It unlocked right away but still… quite a funny predicament!
I did have the chance to walk around a bunch on Sunday and explore some of Budapest. I had this whole walk mapped out… I would walk to church (Calvery Bible Church – English speaking pastor translated), then over to where one of the apartments that Greg is looking at is, then over to the mall/market to pick of a few necessities. Man this is a cool city. There are so many little plazas, restaurants and parks everywhere. Every place is cool. I have so much to explore… I feel like I’ve just barely grazed it. So the church I visited was pretty cool. I’m not sure that I liked the service translated as it was pretty distracting but the cool thing was that they praise and worship was really good. They did half of it in English and half of it in Hungarian (also called Magyar) which was actually really helpful figuring out some of the sounds. This language has many of our same letters pronounced much much differently. I think I could really pick some of it up by just singin’ along in church! I headed to the restroom when the service was over and got ‘trapped’ by an older women in the bathroom. She is from West Virginia and is a missionary in Russia. She is visiting Budapest for some eye treatment. Really sweet lady but when I finally got out of the bathroom… most of the people had cleared. Soooooo… I didn’t get to chat much with folks which was disappointing. Not sure how I feel about the church but definitely worth another shot. Next Sunday, I’ll wait to use the restroom.
So much more to tell really… but it is getting late and I’m getting up early ‘cause I am going to venture to Margaret Island for my morning jog (Margaret Island is an island in the middle of the Danube which has a 5km track around the rim).
Hope you are all in good health… and more importantly…. good spirits. I’ll be in touch.
