!Yo Diggity!

I’m tryin’ to shorten the blogs a bit ‘cause I realize that ya’ll don’t want to read pages and pages of stuff… BUT I just have so much to say!!

Anyhow, I had posted a piece a couple times back and didn’t explain much about it - you remember the title I think: “She’s Hungarian and I’m crazy.”

So, the Hungarian girl there is Corneilia. And then there is me…. yes, I am crazy. But you knew that. The guy behind me is one of the guys that Simone and I met at the wine festival. He is Irish and his name is Liam. The couple were some folks we met that night, I don’t actually remember their names but they work with Liam and Ray, Corniela’s boyfriend, who we also met at the wine festival.

This Irish crowd is really a fun one - nice folks. Yes, they are a little weird….

… but so am I… so it’s nice. hahaha

This is one of my favorite pictures. I’m giving it the title: Proverbs 12:16.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and this one could be worth two thousand. The girl in the back with the cigarette was possiblly one of the most annoying people I’ve ever met. She is from England and her most exemplary phrase of the night was, “Well, I just do not like Prime Minister Blair. That’s why I moved over here. I mean, if you don’t like him, just move.” I am soooo sure! Move from your country because you don’t like the head of government? Right. This was jus her intoduction to her next lovely phrase, “You moved here from Houston? Geez… I just want to see my British news again - too much of that Hurricane stuff on TV!! Where’s my British news?! Can’t they take a break from the Houston crap?” Ok sister… so notice in the photo I am practicing my Christ-likeness… just peacin’ it. Keepin’ my mouth shut and just smilin…. hahahahahhaa

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult. - Proverbs 12:16

Speakin’ of peacin’ it…. I’m out!

I’ve heard a lot of different things about the mail here in Hungary. Before I came, I heard, “the mail is corupt.” If you send through regular mail there is a good chance that it will get stolen. Ok… I thought, no problem… I can use UPS. Well… what no one told me is that UPS is RIDICULOUSLY expense!! Sasha and some folks tried to send a package at a minor, $400 charge! YIKE! Can you believe they did send it?!? haahaa

So, I have received 3 packages now in the regular mail and I think it is relatively ok. The other day, I came home and there was a package… I the package was literally hanging from my mailbox. I don’t imagine that it left the US in this condition:

Wow. So what I am saying is be careful what you send! And send light!

I will be home for Christmas so you can stack up my birthday and Christmas together.

I did want to show you my new favorite t-shirt. Ok, so my photos skillz are wanning but don’t you remember the old commerical for tootsie roll pops? “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop? ….the world may never know…. ” I LOVE it!!

THANKS KEVIN!!!

Hungarians have this thing with being warm. It’s quite funny. They keep everything reeeeeaaall warm. The subway, restaurants, homes. I’ve heard they think that they’ll get pneumonia. I haven’t heard anyone actually say that yet, but that’s what all the American’s say that they say.

So, this morning, I made the most fabulous discovery: HEATED TILE!!! Wowie. I have this heating unit-thing that I really don’t know how to operate (not that I know how to operate them in the US - Christie was on temperature control at Palo Pinto for the last two years).

So, while the weather is not so so cold, I thought I’d do some testing. I turned one random knob yesterday. When I got out of bed this morning I was makin’ a jog for the living room where I had left my slippers and discovered that my floors were OH SO WARM!! Man… it was great. I know that it may not seem that exciting to you…. but it just really really was a great feeling!

I’m adding these pics ‘cause I wanted to show Valerie the placement of my new bathroom rugs… I felt like heated floors and bathrooms sorta go together.

Not only did I get one cake for my birthday, I got TWO!

Wow - a vanilla cake,

And - yum - a chocolate cake!

Now, being 27 doesn’t mean that it’s not fun to blow out the candles. I did have a bit of trouble with the last one there. I AM gettin’ old!!

So for those of you that haven’t checked out the Seely’s site…. here they are!!

Yes… they were givin’ me the ‘ol peace sign. Funny that it was Valerie who was doing it!! haha - what a kid at heart!!

ps. She actually was NOT the one givin’n the peace sign.

I spent the day with the Seely’s which is always a good time, especially on your birthday. I can’t get over that I randomly got the name of this oh-so-cool family!! Seriously, someone up there must really like me a lot!!

I’m just postin’ this one ‘cause Kirby is just SO darn cute!!! heehee

Geez… it looks like I have the same cheesy smile in all my pictures. I’ll have to do something about that! haha

(As a preface to this blog, I wanted to say that I will soon be posting a note about what I really actually do at work because there have been many questions… however, that will have to wait.)

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love my job… but you also know that this isn’t necessarily what I want to be doing with my life. It’s not exactly the most rewarding job ever. However, this whole experience over here has been just amazing and they keep doing things to make it more and more amazing. So… what I’m saying is that even though my job doesn’t feel real super meaningful… they sure are doing a good job of bribing me to stay!!! haha

I am the newest member of the leadership team here in Budapest for ExxonMobil SAP applications support. There are 9 of us total – from all over the world. Three times a year we get together at an off-site location to do some planning for the organization: upcoming activities, recruiting, interviewing, retention, etc. This was my first time to attend and man was it a nice trip!!! We went to a nearby lake(1.5 hours from Budapest) called Lake Balaton. It’s 70 kilometers in length = HUGE. The summer crowd had gone so the villages around the lake were really quiet and serene, but it was really nice and just relaxing. The best thing about it was that we went sailing!! I’ve never done this before so it was a new experience for me. Was AWESOME! I think maybe someday I’ll want one for myself!!

Let me introduce the team for you:
Alberto (Portugal) on the left and Jorge (Germany) on the right.

Here they are workin’ hard….

… and then hardly workin’….

Alberto again… about to get hit by the boom…

Three of the ladies on the team: Eszter (Hungary), Ritva (Finland), Fiona (Ireland).

Kati (Hungary) is peakin’ around the corner there and Kees (Dutch) is next to her – he’s my boss here in Budapest.

Here I am… chillin’ like a villan in my usual, squinty-eyed expression! Haha

And now… the really, really beautiful scenery….

OH!! Whoops… how’d that get in there… HERE’S the beautiful scenery….

This tall building in the background was our hotel.

We also went to a winery afterwards for some wine tasting…. SUCH beautiful, peaceful scenery…

Thanks again, mother ExxonMobil, for giving me this opportunity!!