Vienna ... not the sausage!

As of last Saturday, I have now visited a grand total of two European countries. I went with several other teachers from ICSB to Vienna! We had quite the adventure and ended up spending almost 2 hours in stand-still traffic outside the border crossing. Apparently, there were a lot of other people travelling to Vienna with us! The highlights of my trip included my first shopping trip to H&M, a peppermint mocha frappuccino at Starbucks, getting to reunite with several teachers from the Vienna Christian School, and a short visit to the summer palace! It was a welcome change from Budapest and all the preparations for the first day of school.

St. Istvan's Day!

Sunday was St. Istvan's Day here in Hungary. St. Istvan (Stephen) was the first Christian king of Hungary and because of this, Hungary claims to be a Christian nation. Ironically, only 2% is estimated to be an evangelical Christian!

As part of our celebrations, several of the new teachers, accompanied by some more experienced co-workers, ventured into the city for a day of celebration. We watched an amazing airshow and some pretty impressive fireworks. I am sad to say that in the middle of the fireworks display a terrible storm came and caused mass chaos. We were only about 15 yards from a tree that fell and killed 2 people. We ran (along with the other million or so people in the city) into tram tunnels and made our way back to the car soaking wet. I know everyone is disappointed that I do not have pictures of this, so I apologize in advance! Anyways, we piled 7 wet adults into a compact car and made it home in about 45 minutes! What a day!

From what we understand, there are many people still in the hospital with injuries from the storm. Thankfully, everyone with the school was safe, but please pray for the safe recovery of those injured!

To Szendtendre on the Danube!

As part of our new teacher orientation this week, one of the Hungarian teachers, Kata, took us on an adventure through Budapest! We traveled by bus and by tram into the center of the city and then boarded a boat for a trip up the Danube River. (The Danube River separates the city of Budapest into two sides, Buda and Pest.) After about 1.5 hours, we arrived at a small village called Szentendre. Known for it's beautiful architecture and great gift shops, it's definitely a tourist trap. Being tourists, we ate it up and had a great time! Here are some of my favorite pics of our adventure!

Hello from Hungary!

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at a blog and sharing pictures. I hope I'll be able to use this site during the next year to post pictures and other excerpts from my adventures in Eastern Europe. Be sure to check back often for some hopefully exciting updates!

I thought I'd add a few photos of my first couple of days here! This is of me (and my luggage, and some of my roomate's luggage) in the Budapest airport! Thankfully, a nice non-English-speaking Hungarian was able to pile these onto my cart! Otherwise, I might still be there!

The next pictures are some from my new apartment, right across the street from the school. Most notable are the "Sesame Street" orange couch covered with several blue blankets, the red cabinets with inlaid circles for handles, and the Soviet refrigerator! Thankfully, our decades old fridge is working quite well and is now stocked with lots of food!

The director's wife transported us to Ikea and Auchan (French Wal-Mart) to do some shopping, so now we're learning how to light our gas stove and oven. It's quite the adventure, but our landlord says it's a "safety stove" ...that means we can't blow ourselves up!

Our apartment has been used by ICSB teachers for several years now, so there was even a Brita water pitcher with a brand new filter.