!Yo Diggity!

Well the big event of the weekend was that I went to America… well… sort of. ICSB (International Christian School of Budapest) hosts a basketball tournament each year and for fundraising different families donate candy, pop, and other goodies straight from America. There was Reece’s Cups, Skittles, Sprees, chilli dogs and even Dr. Pepper!! Can you believe it, Dr. Pepper?!?! Soooo great. So for one day, it seemed a little closer to home. It was also cool to get to see some high school basketball. Being from Indiana, it is one of my favorite past-times to watch basketball. Even high school basketball – it’s just fun. Amateur basketball is so much better than professional just because of the spirit of the players. They play with such passion that it is just plain fun to watch. It was cool to be in that environment again.

Some of the action….

Me and some of the fans…
Me ‘n Molly:

Kirby Ann shows us the RIGHT way to eat pizza!

Me ‘n Valerie:
… it is true what they say… we do look like sisters!!

Well, once again, my time and energy is sucked away by Vonage. For those of you who don’t know, I got a new roommate last week (I’ll blog more about that later) and in trying to prepare for her arrival, I moved my vonage set-up (the two routers and modem) out into the living room. There were lots of cords, a US power-strip, a transformer and electricity but the end result was that I blew up the Vonage box. Again. So now, again, I am on a quest for a router. My thought was, I’m DONE with messing with the electricity. It’s too much. So I’ll just buy a router here. So I did. Hooked it up, internet works beautifully, but alas, Vonage does not work. UUUUUUUGGGGGHHHH! And it won’t. After countless hours talking with the Vonage call center in India, we’ve found that it just will not work. I have to get a device from the States. Good news is that I know someone from work who will be coming over the first week of April, but the bad news is that that’s almost an eternity from now. (There are tears in my eyes as I write this.) Vonage, oh Vonage… how I love thee…. and LOATHE thee. …

I’ll keep you updated… but for now, if you don’t hear from me often… you know why. :’(

Towards the end of April, there will be an election in Hungary. I haven’t figured out all the exact details yet… but I do not think this guy will be getting a lot of votes… check out that mustache - remind you of anyone??

haha - yep, they’ve got vandals here in Budapest too.

Wow. It was a beautiful day today! I decided to walk home from work and look what I saw:

Now go back and examine that picture and tell me what you see that is out of place.

Do you see it?

… You see there just along all the dead trees… ? You see it?

No… ?

It’s right there….

See it?

It’s GREEN GRASS!!!!!!!!!

Yes, ladies and gentleman: the sun WILL shine again! Spring has ARRIVED in Budapest!!

Man ‘o man, I am sooooo excited!!! heehee

So I’m trying to learn Hungarian. I know, most people say, “Why learn Hungarian?! You’ll only be there a couple/few years - what good will it be once you go home?” Well, the way I see it, if I can learn Hungarian, I can learn anything! Plus two other facts: (1) I feel a little stupid because I am not fluent in any other language than English (and I can’t even spell very well in that one, right Luke?). Everyone here IS fluent in something else and I really do feel a bit inadequate. (2) It really is helpful to know a little bit of the language of the country you are living in. Trips to the grocery store, shopping, talking to the post-man and just general living. People are just much nicer to you when you try to speak to them in their own language. So it’s been valuable. I have been taking a class since about a month after I got here. I just passed the ‘Level 1′ course so now I can go on to the next phase. Just to let you know - this language is NOT easy. In fact, some may say it’s the hardest. This site, for example thinks so. I agree (of course, I like to make myself look better. heehee). I will say my pronounciation is awful (’cause they have sounds we just don’t have, ok?!) but practice makes perfect. It’s hard to step out and make those sounds that feel totally akward to you. But… you have to - it’s the language!

I have to give the folks I work with a lot of credit. English and Hungarian are structurally SO different. It’s another way of thinking. Good job them - and hey - good job me for tryin’, right?