Tomorrow morning we will drive to the Croatian coast for a week-long holiday!  The boys are really excited about it.  And so are we.  We’ve got a bunch of sand toys, a beach umbrella, two chairs, and a couple of good books.  I probably will not have easy access to the internet while in Croatia, but I’ll post some pictures when we return. 

Tonight I went to hear my friend Marci’s band at the Fészek Klub.  The band is called “Memoria Mortis” (”Remember Death” in Latin).  They’ve got a great sound and some really creative composition and lyrics.  It’s a blend of grundgy rock and jazz rythm and overtones (I think).  A few songs took me back to my Pink Floyd days and my Metallica days all at the same time.  Check out their blog.

My blogging has been lame lately.  Sorry!  Today I had the “opportunity” to go back to the infamous “BÁH” office (bevándorlási állampolgárság hivátal…the office that requires 24573 documents to prove that you are worth having in Hungary).  It appears that we’ll have to take the kids to the BÁH on August 11th or 14th to prove that they exist.  Hopefully we’ll have less than a 3 hour wait!  (Don’t worry, I’m not bitter:-)

We are getting really excited!  At 3:00 AM this coming Saturday, we’re going to drive to the Croatian coast for a week long vacation!  Whoa.  It’s about 8-9 hours away.  We’re staying in a little fishing village near Zadar, and there is actually a sandy beach (most Croatian beaches are pebble).  Oh my goodness, I can’t wait. 

We had a humongous rain/hail storm today.  In a matter of minutes Batthány utca turned into a river.  The hail was the size of a two Forint coin. 

Lastly, Laura and I had a conversation tonight in which I suggested that there has only been two, maybe three, movie sequals that were as good as the first movie (Star Wars, God Father, LOTR, Pink Panther).  We haven’t seen the sequal to Pirates of the Carribean yet, but I’m counting on it to be a flop.  We’ll see!

I recently came across PC World’s top 100 products for 2005.  There are some really interesting results:  1. Mozilla Firefox browser; 2. Google Gmail; 8. Skype; 10. Palm One Treo 650; 30. Vonage; 34. ITunes; 43. Blackberry; 51. Flickr.com; 60. Wikipedia.

What makes mass society so difficult to bear is not the number of people involved…but the fact that the world between them has lost its power to gather them together, to relate and to separate them. — Hannah Arendt, 1958

“The comparison of life to a road is a very ancient one, and you and I are travelers along that road whether we think of it that way or not, traveling from the unknown into the unknown…….What becomes increasingly real as we travel along is…the actual face that lies behind all the masks [that we wear].  Travel (life) can be a very unmasking experience, bringing us suddenly face to face with ourselves–as when we are gazing out of a train window at the endless line of telegraph poles whipping by, and we find that part of what we are looking at is our own reflection.”  -Frederick Buechner, Magnificent Defeat

I just read a story about a guy who traded a red paperclip for something else, and then he traded that thing for something else…again and again until he got a house.  Here’s the story.

Last Saturday morning, we took a day trip to Lake Balaton.  We found this amazing little spot in Siofok.  Balaton is a very shallow lake, and you can walk 300 meters out into the water.  In this spot, the water was about knee-high for 100 meters.

Fagyi!  (Ice Cream)

 Seth and Jacob are monkeys.

 Smiling Monkey.

 Nathan is growing like crazy these days.

We’re so excited that we can get Watermelon in Hungary!  (Görögdinnye)

A couple weeks ago a group of American students from Virginia ended their time in Hungary, and I had the opportunity to see how many bags and pieces of luggage I could fit into our little van (with Kyle and myself in the van as well).  Amazingly, we carried somewhere between 42-49 bags and pieces of luggage from Nyugati pu. (West train station) to Keleti pu. (East train station).  You may be asking, “what did you consider to be a “bag” or a “piece of luggage?”  Well……I guess we were generous with the counting.  But we DIDN’T count coats or hats!  Here’s the proof:

I play soccer with some guys 2-3 times a month on Saturdays, and today Kristof wrote out a page of Hungarian soccer lingo (words/phrases).  I needed this Hungarian lesson like it was going out of style.  When I’m on the field I just speak in English all the time.  (The fellas have good English, and I think they can understand most everything I’m saying.)  BUT, now when one of the guys does some really fancy footwork I can say, “Szétcselezi az agyát” which means, “he tricks his own brain apart!” 

Some other very cool/useful phrases: “Vigyázz mögötted!” (Watch out, he is behind your back!), “Lőjj!” (shoot!), “Remek védekezés” (Good Defense), “Héé” (Hey, I’m running here too so would you be so kind as to give me the ball), and “ketten vagytok” (there are two of us, so you’re not alone at the attack).  I can’t wait to try some of this out.

Our team of researchers have concluded that there are three effective and proven ways to learn the Hungarian language. 

1) be born in Hungary…to a Hungarian family.

2) marry a Hungarian who only speaks Hungarian.

3) have a brain transplant with a Hungarian brain.

Today is July 4th, the 230th anniversary of America’s independence as a nation.  Wow, I wish I could sit on the lawn in D.C. and watch the fireworks tonight.

Saturday morning, Kyle and I took the boys to “hang out” at Margit Sziget.

Last Thursday, some American university students passed through Budapest.  Kristof became a tour guide and showed us some very cool parts of Budapest.  This guy was doing some crazy tricks at Hero’s Square.

Thursday night, we had a great time at AngolEst (English Club).

After English Club, Kristof took us up to Buda Hill through the secret Palace elevator.  We walked over to the Fisherman’s Bastion for a great view of the city at night.  Thanks Kristof!