Settled In by Josie

Yes! We have our own apartment. We've been cooking our own meals, which has been awesome; we don't have to guess what's on the menu or whether it's anything like it is in America. Actually, we have to do that in the grocery store, too...but we do much better without any pressure from the waiters. Recently we've had Jeff's delicious omelets and I made a vegetable soup tonight—without any instructions at all! Just wingin' it. I'm sure you mothers do it all the time, but try to remember what it was like when you were first married. I wouldn't have said anything about it if it hadn't been delicious and one of the best soups I've ever made :) But that's not saying much...

Jeff loves houseplants, so we bought a few

Then we were out of bread so we walked around the corner, past the pub, into the little bakery in our complex. And Jeff picked out a dessert pastry. I need to learn how to make some Hungarian foods. When I made cookies for the English class, a lady there kissed my cheeks (still awkward, but they think hugs are awkward—so to each their own), and said something like, "you cake very good." Yes, my cookies were delicious. Even though instead of normal sugar I bought crystalized, and they DO NOT HAVE brown sugar over here...among lots of other things. We really miss Wal Mart. I'm going to have to get creative.

One of our many trips to the grocery store

I have been reading a ton lately, while Jeff is gone at work. And I've had some fun writing a few paragraphs of a new story each day. Then the next day I read it and delete it. I'm still having problems being confident in my writing. But heck--I could blog all day long! We haven't for the past week just because we still don't have Internet here. Jeff has to bring his work modem and computer home at night to do stuff for school, work, etc. By the way, I'm starting an online class next week. It won't keep me crazy busy yet, but I'm excited for next semester when I will finish my degree!

When we were buying appliances at a store, the girl that spoke a little English there was very chatty with us. She asked me if I had any girlfriends, then wanted my number so we could go get "coffee or someting." She really just wants to improve her English by talking with an American. Some people that come to the English classes have been coming for 6 years! They like the practice they get by talking with English-speaking missionaries. It really has helped them to learn or keep up with the language. There’s an English teacher that goes just so she can learn things that aren’t in the books. Our landlord, Zultan, is going to Los Angeles to visit a friend in a couple of months. He laughed and said, "I'll be in America before you will be!" I didn't think it was very funny. He's also the one who gave us wine when we first moved in. When we told him we didn't drink wine, he asked, "Do you eat?" Hahaha anyway. Funny people.

Here are a few Hungarian words we have enjoyed lately:

Oszibarack (oo-zee-bar-at-sk) = Peach

Kosonom (coo-sun-um) = Thank you

Yo = Good

Igen (ee-gan) = Yes

Nem (nam) = No

That's about all I know so far :)

Settled In by Jeff

Hello again. Life in Kaposvar is going really well. I feel like we are adjusting well to our new surroundings and I enjoy all of the little challenges of living here. Communicating is very hard and I have to use hand signals a lot. We are learning some Hungarian, but knowing how to say yes and thank you are only helpful some of the time. It feels normal living here until I hear someone talk or I walk into a store. It's not like America where you just go to Walmart and 30 minutes later leave with everything you need and then some. The stores don't have a lot of things that we consider necessities and shopping takes a long time. Some items are extremely inexpensive while others are ridiculously marked up. For example, we bought a box of 15 kiwis for $2, but a bathroom towel costs $15. The big store here, TESCO, only had one type of pillow and its big enough to double as a raft. All in all, I am really enjoying this adventure and know that I will miss it when it ends. I will just give a brief overview of the last couple of weeks and I'll let Josie give you a tour of our new apartment.

Our humongous pillows that make our bed look really small.

Our tub didn't have a shower and/or curtain so we bought a curtain and a suction cupped toilet paper roll holder and made it work. 

We have moved into our apartment after almost three weeks of hotel life and we like being settled. We had a little fridge in our hotel room, but we got sick of eating yogurt and bread every night for dinner and so we found little cafes that we could eat at. We found two cafes within walking distance and luckily their menus had English translations. I found a really good soup called Goulash. It has potatoes, carrots, meat, and dough dumplings. It was just nice to have a warm meal. The other cafe is right across from the church and we ate there 4 nights in a row! They had pizzas, pastas, desserts, chicken, and mashed potatoes. We each got a side, a meal, a drink, and split a dessert for $14. How could we not eat there 4 nights in a row? We even ate there on Valentines night.

This looks way more fancy than it cost.

Our cheap meals.

We were at a nice little hotel in downtown Kaposvar and really liked our time there. All of the workers were very nice to us and talked with us quite a bit. Some mornings we were the only guests and so the hotel workers would wait for us to come down for breakfast and then talk with us as we ate.

This is where we would sit and talk and we ate some mornings.

The hotel breakfast we became very familiar with.

Our new apartment is about 3 miles from "down town" Kaposvar and is about a ten minute drive to the worksite. We live on the ground level and have a parking spot about 15 feet from our door. We've spent the last week stocking our shelves and buying the necessary items to fill our house. It seems like every night we went from store to store getting things we would need. One night we went to the same store 3-4 times. But, we seem to have everything we need now and are pretty content. 

The snow comes lightly and melts quickly.

Our Car

As far as church goes, the branch is going well and we still wish we could communicate better. We did attend a baptism this last Saturday that was held at a local school swimming pool. All of the members seem really close. Josie has been asked to make refreshments for the weekly English classes taught by the missionaries. We missed two weeks ago because we were getting appliances and food and simply forgot. But, last week we went and attended the advanced class that is taught by a senior couple from St. George, the Colledges. They had us introduce ourselves and we got to know the four Hungarians in that class. Sister Colledge taught a lesson about Heavenly Father's creations and it was really fun. Josie made M&M cookies and they were a big hit. The branch doesn't have very many active priesthood holders and so they are utilizing us Americans. I have been asked to serve in the Elders quorum as a counselor to the Elder's quorum President, Elder Nabrotsky, and to assist the ward clerk. I'm looking forward to serving and getting to know the members better.

Josie walking into church.

Where Sacrament meeting is held. 

As for work, we finally got all of our office furniture on Monday and it is nice to have my own desk and have room to work. I handle all things money and whatever else needs to be done. Today I met with a Hungarian doctor with our translator to see if the doctor could help us obtain work permits and then I met with the owner of a Ford dealership to get some details about a van for a family coming from Idaho next week. I like it so far and it is definitely stretching me. I just hope that I can be beneficial.

Those containers just right of the building are where I work. 

An old train at the sugar factory.

This is by far the biggest drill I have ever seen. It is easily 75ft tall.  A subcontractor is using it to  drill the foundation piles. 

Next Step

In the game Monopoly bigger is better, so players upgrade from little houses to big hotels. Well not in the Ryan game. We cannot wait to downsize! We are through with hotel-living, and will be moving into an apartment tomorrow! Yep. Jeffrey Ryan took the keys and left the wine the owner gave us. (Gave us wine, but forgot to leave the T.V. he had promised, and almost charged us $1000 to put curtains in. Good thing Jeff is a fix-it guy and loves to save money!) I can't wait for how busy I will be in just a few hours. Hopefully I'll be able to improve the apt well enough to do "before" and "after" pictures.

We've been eating out of goblets with mini spoons. It was kinda fun at first--now it's driving me crazy.

This is a picture from the hallway--I thought it was so cute!
Traditional Hungarian dance and dress

This hotel is a cute little place, though. It was refurbished recently, but keeps its old-fashioned charm. They printed and framed pictures of what Kapsovar used to look like--old buildings and stuff. There is a mannequin in the hallway of a traditional dress Hungarian women would wear, some paintings, and old pictures.
This Hotel Dorottya has a cool elevator that Jeff loves. Every once in awhile we have races going up and down. (Jeff uses the stairs while I take the elevator). Or we drop things. It's an open stairway, so you can see all the way to the top. Last night Jeff wanted to drop his chapstick from the 3rd floor down to me on the bottom floor. Now when he dropped the chapstick there wasn't any wind, so I can't say that the wind caught it. But something did, and it went into the elevator shaft--never to be seen again. It was Burt's Bees chapstick and he's pretty upset because they probably don't have it over here.

Elevator

Jeff is very creative, though. Our date the other night was designing a bathroom. We both did our own, and we could do anything we wanted to--expense was not an issue :) We showed each other after 15 or 20 minutes of drawing, and Jeff's was definitely cooler. He had skylights, a chandelier, a bathtub level with the floor...very sweet stuff. Mine had a toilet, a shower...and a sink.

We've been having fun, but we can't wait to move in and start the next step of our journey.

Job

For those of you following the blog, you might think that all we do is wait for the weekends so that we can go see cool things. Well this post is to inform you that I actually have a job and go to work each day. I'll explain some of the things I do and show you where I work.

Dome Technology is based out of Idaho Falls and builds domes all over the world. The dome here in Hungary is at a sugar factory called Agrana Cukor (Sugar). Anyone who has ever lived by a sugar plant knows how terrible the smell can be. In Lincoln, Idaho, where my dad grew up and where Josie and I lived the past 5 months, there used to be a sugar beet plant and the people called the town "Stinkin Lincoln" because it smelled so bad. I now know what they were talking about. Luckily our office doesn't smell like outside. But when you open the door, you immediately remember that you are at a Sugar factory. Anyways, the dome will be almost 100 ft high with a diameter of 196 feet. It will be used to store sugar, obviously, and is set to be finished on Sept 30. The project is in its' beginning phases right now and I am here with only one other worker to set things up.

Work site where the dome will be.

Part of the sugar factory. The dome will have a conveyer belt connected the main shaft on the right.

Currently, the site is being prepared for tunnel and concrete work and is being completed by a European company, Strabag. Our scope of the project won't begin until April. Until then, we are making sure that everything is in place for the work to be done. Just this week, we moved into our "office" which is a barge-like container with desks and chairs inside. It is actually pretty nice inside with heat, AC, and windows.

My desk at the work site.

My title is Financial Field Office Administrator and I handle all things money for this project. I keep track off all receipts, invoices, cash, time cards, etc. I also keep track of contracts with vendors for materials, phones, housing, cars, etc. I feel pretty overwhelmed and am trying to soak up as much as I can each day in order to learn the computer software and how to do all of these things. The good news is that I have many resources to help me learn how to do my job effectively. I skype with the home office regularly and have my email open constantly so that I can ask questions as I go.

Kaposvar

I almost typed "guten morgen", but that's German--not Hungarian. I don't even know how to say "good morning" yet! Jeff is the only one who has posted on our blog so far, (he does it while I'm asleep) but he's at work; hope my post will be almost as entertaining as his. FYI, Jeff posted the pictures and captions.

We've been in Kaposvar for a week and a half. It's not as crazy as Budapest, which is what I prefer. We're sick of eating bread, meat, and cheese, and buying bottled water. But how can we complain? We have a nice car, live in a nice hotel, and just found a little apartment we will be moving into within the next week. Our church building is around the corner, the grocery store down the street, and in between is an old brick street with surrounding churches that chime every once in awhile.

Center Street 

Church in the middle of town

Lemon tree in our hotel hallway

We've just been chilling in the hotel and doing things here and there for the company Jeff's working for. We sleep at crazy hours--still haven't gotten through our jetlag. Can't stay awake all day, can't sleep throughout the night.  But we went back to Budapest the other day to return a rental car and that kept us awake because we got to tour Parliament before we went home! It's an amazing building built in the Gothic style. It isn't old like the Buda castle we went to earlier, but it is definitely majestic. Sorry the pictures don't do it justice. 

We heard that here in Europe, if repairs or restoration work is being done on buildings, they don't have to pay taxes on them. That's why there's always scaffolding and tools everywhere around the building, but no workers:)

While we were waiting for the English tour of Parliament to begin, we went to a little cafe across the street. It was raining a lot and we mostly went in there for shelter. But the cafe was covered in plastic and it had heaters, blankets, and hot chocolate inside. We played "Ticket to ride" on our co-worker's iPad while we waited. Eventually (that same night) Jeff downloaded it onto his phone and we play it whenever we can't sleep...and sometimes a lot more...

This is an old castle wall in the city of Pecz (pronounced something like "page"). When we returned our rental car to Budapest, we took the scenic route and drove through some little villages and passed by this place. On the way here, through the villages, we saw farmers still using horses out in the fields. It was fun to see that and drive past vineyards and old churches and what not.

The main part of the "castle" in Pecz, Hungary

The Parliament building

Main Hall

Cute Josie

Rotunda

This display is in the middle of the Rotunda and the crown shown is almost 1,000 years old and over 50 kings wore it.  There is also a sword under the pillow that I don't really know the history of, but I'm pretty sure the tour guide said something about it being as old as the crown.

This parliament room seats over 300 political leaders and is where they vote on bills and what not and whatever else Hungarian leaders do. One cool thing about this room is that it has had heating and A/C for  over 100 years. They used to get a huge ice block in the basement that let cold air into the vents and into the parliament room.

Outside

Inside

Josie taking a picture of me taking a picture of Parliament