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.