I've been here six months and just had my first day of work...

March 1st was my 6th month mark. Last month I celebrated my half-way day. In a couple weeks, we'll celebrate Day 200... it seems like we're entering the 'countdown to re-entry' stage. However, yesterday and today marked a few FIRSTS for me.

a) yesterday I started my first day of work at the Gyerekekért (literal translation: kid garden... like Kindergarten!... but not) I've decided to keep any further update until I've been there for a week, especially since there weren't any kids on my first day :P
b) Today I did something I thought I would never do - from the first time I stepped foot in a Hungarian household and was asked to take off my shoes and put on sandals, I REFUSED to put on flipflops while wearing socks. Today, i gave in. At the Gyerekekért, we have to take off our shoes (no tracking mud/small stones/street rubbish into the playroom!) and put on sandals. We're also supposed to bring said sandals from home. Well, the only sandals I have are my 3 or 4 pairs of flip flops (yeah, yeah... packing fail? :P) I wore socks with my flip flops. Yup.
c) if you would have told me a year ago that I'd be hanging out with 6 kids under the age of three, I would have probably said "no way, José - you can count me out." well, today, I did it. I survived. The kids survived. Whew.
d) I made a friend. A real, Hungarian friend. Someone I went out with tonight - we laughed, we talked, we shared some good times... yup. His name is Balazs and we'll probably hang out again.

It's been a good day :)

*~*~*

Randomness

One day, as I was walking home, I caught sight of this. A Trabant parade! Trabants were produced by East Germany and are commonly referred to as "Communist Cars," as they were widely sold in the Communist Bloc - however, they were also exported, but it's rare to see them elsewhere. There seem to still be quite a few of them around, even though they were discontinued in 1990.


This is a nice breakfast compare/contrast picture. You see three pieces of 'toast kenyer'/american style sliced bread. Two pieces have peanut butter (mad props to Jay Harsevoort for the provisions!) and one piece has the Hungarian food that I will probably miss the most: vajkrém. This literally translates to "butter cream," but it's more than that. It's only sorta butter. it's really more like whipped cream cheese with a light butter flavor. It's healthier than butter (so says my Hungarian reading roommate) and it's really quite tasty. We just don't have anything like it in the states.


For the next three pictures, I owe a thanks to Claire Sofi, Silvia's friend who came to visit for a while. Her pictures turned out amazing and I must tell you - these are NOT photoshopped or corrected in ANY way. Budapest is really this beautiful!
this is our front door/gate


The Danube in the winter. I am in love with my city all over again :)