Journal Entry # 13

February 14, 2000

Since I last wrote, Ted traveled for a conference in Budapest and I went along for the journey. Each of the girls stayed in Almaty with a family with a daughter their age and continued with school. We flew out of Kazakhstan in the usual manner, very late at night with much paperwork at the airport. We do have what are called travel expeditors who are specialists in cutting through red tape involved with visas, passports, etc. Still it is difficult for me to enter a room packed with about 30 square feet of people shoulder to shoulder and force my way through them to a small ticket window. There are no lines and it is almost impossible for me to reach out and touch people and push them out of my way. Because of this hesitancy on my part, I fall way behind my "travel party" and my papers get processed without me being present. The travel expeditor soon notices that I am not present and accounted for and returns to shout encouragement to me from the edge of the room. Saying, "excuse me" in a language that these people don't understand, I squeeze my way to the next room, keeping my hands to myself. After a two hour wait in the terminal, we finally aboard the plane and head for Europe.

In Budapest, Ted had an afternoon before he needed to start work, so we taught ourselves how to use the mass transit system in this city which straddles the Danube River. Travel was easy and inexpensive. In fact, the use of tickets seemed to be an honor system which only tourists seem to be following. I had looked forward to buying some things such as brown sugar and popcorn that we cannot get in Almaty. Budapest is also a former Soviet country and I was surprised to see that the selection in the grocery stores was also identical to what we have in Kazakhstan. We do have some products imported from Germany, and so did they, the same ones.

Budapest is a beautiful river city and it was tastefully decorated for Christmas. The buildings are ancient, although the wars have caused many to be partially rebuilt and restored. We, along with the 70 conference participants who were from all over central Asia and Eastern Europe, went on a guided night tour of the city and then had dinner in an armaments museum. Imagine an entire multi-storied museum dedicated to cannons, spears, and munitions of every sort. The building itself had once been a horse stables and the halls and doors were large enough for large horse drawn war wagons to be fully hitched up and pulled out for duty.

During the days when Ted worked, I would travel the city and enjoy the sights. The townsquare was filled with small tents and stalls with traditional folk crafts and wares for sale for the holidays. In the very center was a one-half-life-sized nativity scene made from wool. Our family has made something similar in scale in the past, but the detail and craftsmanship of this one was beautiful. Not only were the bodies of the people and animals made from wool, they had ornate garments woven from colored wool. The crafts for sale reflected the handcrafts from the history of this region: woolen sweaters and hats, wooden platters and spoons, pottery, jewelry, wood carvings, leather works, candles, gingerbread and pastries.

One of the wonders of being in Hungary was that every one seemed to be able to speak four languages. We were never in a bind with language. In fact, in any situation, the person seemed only to need to hear one small word from you in order to instantly change into your language to help you. Even though it is a former Soviet country, Russian is not one of the languages used. No signs were in Russian, although I now know enough Russian that that would have helped me get around. Signs were not in English, but the spoken language was everywhere and we had no trouble.

The city had outdoor ice rinks and places where you could buy hot cider, grilled sausages, and warm bread. As you would expect, the beer was plentiful and delicious. We visited some ancient churches, which for periods of time had been used as Muslim mosques, and now were secular concert halls. On one of our last nights there, the conference group was taken on a tour, which included a new shopping mall. We were later told that this was now the largest mall in Europe and had only been open for one month. We thought that it was interesting that although large amounts of people were in the mall, no one seemed to be in the actual shops. The shopkeepers seemed so bored, ready to help, but no customers. We were able to buy a few electronics and computer parts that we can't find in Kazakhstan. The best thing we found in the mall was a movie theatre with a few movies in English. The next day we returned to watch the new James Bond movie, which deals with some of the oil pipeline issues that Ted has to mediate in this job.

That day we headed to the movie theatre, the tram we were riding on suddenly stopped. An announcement was made in the local language, Hungarian, and everyone got up and got off. We followed. We noticed that all the trams ahead of us were stopped and hundreds of people were walking on the sidewalks. We followed until we came to the bridge over the Danube River. Some people started walking across, but most started piling up at the last bus stop before the river. We decided to walk across the river because when a bus did come, it could probably only take about forty people at a time and there were easily several hundred waiting. We made it to the theatre in time and enjoyed the movie. Afterward, we went to the large indoor produce market. It was similar to the one in Almaty, but with a better variety and wider aisles. Only a few weeks back, it had been very difficult to find turkeys for Thanksgiving, and here were hundreds of turkeys, ducks, geese, and cheeses in every aisle. The local embroidery was displayed in stalls in this market also.

That evening, we flew to Frankfort for the weekend. We stayed in a tiny hotel that reminded me more of a boarding house. A family ran it and also a restaurant in the evenings. Each morning the wife would lay out boiled eggs, juices, breads and cheeses for breakfast. We spent our days walking and riding the transit system to get a flavor of this city. We found an Internet cafe and kept in touch with our children.

We found a large courtyard with a very extensive and intricate nativity scene and also huge wooden kegs for apple wine. We decided to try and find it again come dinnertime. We were able to locate it again, but when we entered, the place was packed with people and we couldn't find a single empty seat. We had walked through three large dining rooms and were trying to find our way back outside, when a waiter asked us if we wanted to eat dinner. He escorted us to an occupied table and asked the occupants to slide closer together on the bench seats. When they objected, he teased them and they let us in. He gave us each a glass of apple wine and asked what we wanted to eat. When we told him, he indicated that there was no room on the crowded table to add two more plates and "did we mind waiting until someone else was through eating?" We waited. All at our table spoke German and we noticed that each person had a cardboard coaster with small ink marks on it. Later we learned that each person keeps track of how many glasses of apple wine they drink and your coaster is your bill at the end of the evening. We had huge slabs of cured pork and sour kraut with wonderful brown bread. One of our tablemates spoke a little English and told us that some of these people came here every night. We wondered how he would know that. Two other people, a couple, joined us later, and only seemed there to drink the wine. They carefully removed two beautifully carved coasters made from apple wood. Each had a local coin embedded in the wood, hers the largest denomination, and his the smallest. A very fascinating evening!

Back in Almaty, and reunited with our children, we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday. Much is different here. Most people here do not celebrate Christmas. School holiday begins only on Dec. 24. Decorations do not go up until that week and although we would call them Christmas decorations, they call them New Year ones. There are "New Year" decorated evergreen trees, men walking around in Santa Claus suits. We went to Christmas Liturgy on Christmas Eve and it was strange to be in a place where none of the businesses close early, or at all, for the holiday. The few people in Almaty that celebrate Christmas celebrate the Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7. Dec. 31 is a big holiday here, but it is not really their New Year, that comes in March. But Dec. 31 was a big holiday with gift giving, days off of work, many hours of fireworks, etc. No Y2K problems here, although we had been very prepared by the mission to pack emergency supplies, etc. Because we live in a house with a generator, we were asked to be an emergency house in case the power failed in the city. In such an event, we have nine designated "emergency guests" along with our friends who would come and stay with us in such a situation. The girls are actually looking forward to this as it sounds like a good party to them. However, it has not come to pass.

The girls have started the second semester of the new Miras School. What a year it has been! Although the school did not turn out to be all that it promised, it has still been a wonderful academic year for them. Most international families here were hesitant to try the school this first year and opted to "wait and see." I feel that this year has been a wonderful gift to our family and may end up being the high point of the development of this school. Those who wait until next fall to enroll may find all the international teachers have left and the dream of becoming an International Baccalaureate School has passed. It may still happen, but the administration does not seem to be able to plan a way to achieve the goals that they spend too much time arguing about. The reality for our children although, is an incredible year with almost one-on-one professional tutoring from the English speaking teachers. I do not believe that I could have purchased such a positive academic and educational year from any private school in existence. Both girls are doing well in advanced mathematics and sciences and in learning Russian. Lydia is also taking Latin and doing well. Both girls are on basketball teams and there is a new league for four international schools in the city.

Last weekend, Lydia and I went on a wonderful mountain climbing hike with friends. We climbed up snow-covered trails for about three hours. We saw many people carrying sleds and I wondered why. I was told that there were many sliding trails down the other side and it was worth the hours of carrying up the sleds. Our children had brought plastic garbage bags to use and I was a little worried about the danger of being hit with a down-coming sled on the trail. My worries were not realized. When we reached the top and had eaten lunch, we began hours of downhill sliding and Lydia will never be satisfied with a small snow hill again. This mountain sliding was very much like being on a "luge" track, your own private one. For all the hours we slid downhill, it was only near the bottom that we encountered any other people, and then only about four, which we let pass through. I did not slide as much as the kids, because I had visions of missing a turn and flying airborne off the mountain. It never happened and there were no injuries at all. I slid a fair amount because there were places where it was simply the safer alternative to walking. My muscles were sore for a week afterward, but it was an unforgettable experience and Lydia would have gladly gotten up the next day and done it again. We started the uphill climb around 10:30 AM and didn't finish the downhill slide until it was getting dark at 6:00 PM. A very full day!

February has brought the snows in earnest and I am adjusting to being snowed in better than I thought I would. School or work never closes due to snow and the driver who takes the girls to school always makes it. We brought snow chains and use them when it is important to get the car out. It is also easy to walk out and catch a taxi and leave the driving to someone else. One of the benefits of living in this part of the world is that no matter how cold and snowy it is, the sun is almost always shining. There is very little depression here due to lack of sunlight like in other parts of the world. We are doing fine and having a wonderful winter halfway around the world.

Brecken