I’ve been pretty busy lately. In an effort to redeem the last few days of missing blog-posts, I’d like to share this picture with you. This is indeed a picture of red jello with little pieces of pear, peach and grapes in it. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Granny Jo sent us a couple packages of jello mix, and Laura made some. The boys and I dove head first into it.

I recently read a languistic study comparing the number of syllables Hungarians vs. Americans could recall.  Hungarians can recall 19 to 24 syllalbes with accuracy, while Americans can recall 13 syllables.  Of course the average Hungarian word is much longer than the average English word.  This might have something to do with it.  Who knows?

Jacob got some new shoes today.  I got home after the boys were already asleep tonight.  I went in to their bedroom to tuck them in, and here’s what I saw.

I went running around Margaret Island tonight.  I had a good pace for the first 4 kilometers, and I picked up my speed for the final 1.5 kilometers.  The last 1 km is really dark.  There are no lights and lots of big trees.  I could hardly see, so I decided to close my eyes while I was running.  My goal was to close my eyes until I got really nervous about running into a tree or something.  Don’t worry, there were no collisions.  Of course, I could only keep my eyes closed for 4-5 seconds.  But hey, that’s a long time when your running.  And somehow I stayed in the middle of the track.  It was so cool.  But don’t try this at home. 

This month, the web is 15 years old, and the Observer Review has ranked the top 15 websites here.  It’s just amazing to see how the web has changed the world in 15 short years.  (HT dreamawakener)

“Wherever you are, be all there.”  -Jim Elliot

The 20th of August is the biggest holiday of the year in Hungary.  It is St. Stephen’s day, celebrating the founding of the nation by King Stephen (more on this later). This is evidently the most spectacular celebration of the year.  It sounds amazing, BUT for me, I can’t wait to see the Red Bull Air Race World Series.  Check this out…

“The Red Bull Air Race is an exciting competition in which the world’s most talented pilots are up against each other in a race based on speed, precision and skill. The competition features a dynamic new discipline of flying, called ‘air racing’ where the objective is to navigate a challenging obstacle course in the sky in the fastest possible time.”  read more

While in the city today, I happened to see a couple pilots practicing the course which stretches from Chain Bridge (they fly under it) through huge pilons in front of the Parliament to Margaret Bridge and back.  Oh my goodness.  Click here for some great pictures and video.

One more note: if you go to the home page for the air race, you’ll see a video which gives you a great feeling for what the banks of the Danube look like in downtown Budapest.  This is the most spectacular part of the city. 

One year ago today we landed at Budapest Ferihegy airport with 12 bags, three carseats, and three tired kids.  It’s been a great year!  Click here to read a letter we’ve written to our Hungarian friends.

What you give away freely you can’t control.

Most gyakorolom írni magyarul egy kiscit.  Szabad érezzed az írásom jávitani kérem szépen.  Próbálom használni néhány új szólások. 

Amikor mi pihentünk a Horvátországban két hét ez ellöt, akartunk elmenni a Pagra.  Pag van egy kisci mediterén város a hátsó véghöz egy hosszu félszigeten.  Hát, csütörtökön elmentünk találni azt helyet. 

Indultuk a szálodánk kora reggelben, és ezallat utazásánk mi megnéztük a kép tenger mellet van az elképzelhetetlenül szép hegyekkel.  A földrajza hihetetlen volt.  Mi nagy örömére, tudtuk számolni tizenegy különbözö országok rendszámait.  Egy órát után megérkeztünk a Pagnál.  Meglepetésünkre, egy nagy gyermek park a Pagban.

I’ve seen this a couple times recently on some friend’s blogs, and I just had to post a link myself.  This is awesome.  Click here to watch these guys dancing on treadmills.  And be sure to adjust your volume.

We got our residency permits today!  Exhale.  Ahhhh.

~70 days + 30-some documents + 9 visits to government offices + ~12 hours of traveling to these offices + ~13 hours of waiting in lines + many hours of help from our friend Bob = 5 residency permits

Next April we can start the process all over again!  Actually, we learned some things about the process this year.  Hopefully things will be more efficient next year.  But no expectations!