From Buddah statues to Budapest

We flew into Budapest on June 6th. Our Romanian mini bus driver was waiting for us with a sign with our names. Because we're so important. It wasn't the first time.:) We had to go back to Romania to get our car and all our junk before we settled in Budapest. We spent about 2 days or so there with family. Telling them about our trip and showing them pictures. We brought them a bunch of fruit and candy from Thailand. They found the fruit interesting just like we did. Mango-steins and dragon fruit and lychee.


We got connected with a pastor of a small church in Budapest. We stayed with him and his wife for a couple days. They helped us find an apartment  and get settled. We moved in on June 12th! We like our little place. Very small...but perfect for us! It wasn't furnished with cool stuff like the Sofia apartment but I like it better anyway. We didn't have a working washing machine for a few weeks so if we didn't take it to the pastors house we had to hand wash...that was rough. We just threw it all in the tub and I walked on the clothes.

We spent the next 2 weeks mostly hanging out with the teenagers from the church but also preparing for summer camps. Mike began leading their Friday night bible study and will continue to do so while we're here. The kids love it and it's good for Mike's Hungarian. They love to be hanging out with "Americans". There were 2 english camps lined up; a kids camp and a teenage camp.  Kids were signed up but there wasn't a program for either of them. So we worked on that quite a bit.


Beginning June 25th through July 15th we were busy busy busy! Three camps back to back with no breaks in between was tough! Kids are draining. We were in Debrecen working with Goodsports International for the first week. The following two were in Budapest with the little church.

I was happy to be helping. All three camps went really well. People like Americans.:) But I have to admit, by the last week I was counting down the days! Mostly because Mike and I have been planning this amazing birthday trip for him! We will drive to Barcelona and stop in all the interesting cities along the way! We'll be gone over two weeks! It'll be so awesome! I can't wait to just have alone time with my husband after so much sharing him.:)

I'll try to not leave such long gaps anymore, I promise.:)

Thanks for reading!

Siem Reapin'

Our time with our wonderful friends in Siem Reap passed way too quickly. (And the time since then has passed way too quickly!) We had such a blast just being with them. Mike had his guy time and I my girl time. Mike started snorting when he laughed! He's never done that before! And hasn't done it since. He says it's because I dont make him laugh like Stevee does!:) It's true, I'm not very funny. Lyg and I did P90X! She's so great keeping on track with it! I stopped as soon as we separated! And I didn't even do all the days while we were there! Mike would never do that with me.


It was interesting how both our trip and Steve and Lygia's trip coincided. We'd both been talking about leaving home for awhile and when it finally came down to details we discovered we were leaving for the same amount of time...at the same time! They left home a week after we did back in November. When we found that we had some time to kill and going to see them was a possibility I was so thrilled!! And being there was just as amazing as I thought it'd be! I cried when we left! I only cried when saying goodbye to my mom when we left home.

Anyway, Steve and Lygia have been living in Cambodia for 8 months now. They helped start a safe house in Siem Reap for trafficked girls. Rahab's House. It started when they came in November. It's fully operational and completely filled up now! Its wonderful! The girls they rescue work in brothels disguised as karaoke clubs. At Rahab's House they teach english daily to both people from the community and the girls. I think there are 5 classes a day! They also started a salon. Some of the girls that are living in the house work at the salon. They use the salon to reach out to more girls. The karaoke girls get their hair/makeup/nails done very often before they go to work. So the salon offers cheap services and "American products" to get them in. They'll get to know them this way and tell them of a better life. Let them know they have options and a way out if they want it. Alot of the girls don't know of a way out. There aren't too many options for work so if they were to leave the karaoke clubs it would be extremely difficult to live. Rahab's House provides housing, food, and an allowance for personal things. It's a very sad thing. Being there was heartbreaking! We went to the clubs a few times to hand out flyers and things...that was very difficult for me to see! I'm doing a horrible job explaining this and it deserves the best of explanations. If you're interested I suggest you visit agapewebsite.org. Steve and Lygia also created a short video where you can get a more accurate idea of what really happens there.

Our stay there was not just spent hanging out with our friends. One of the main reasons we decided to go to Cambodia in the first place was because we'd be kept busy. They mostly needed Mike's handyman capabilities but I was right there helping with what I could too. The first week Mike and Steve made planter boxes and planted trees and bushes. Then Mike and I painted quite a bit. The biggest project was adding 2 rooms to the house. To house more girls. They had the space but it was a weird layout. So Mike put up two walls creating 2 new rooms! I learned alot about construction those 2 weeks. My job consisted of holding things and handing him things and sweeping. There is A LOT of sweeping required on a construction site! I'd bring him cold drinks. I did a lot of sanding and painting of these walls too. It was mostly Mike working though!:)




We did alot of going out in Siem Reap; out to dinner a few times a week, night swims, night market, walking around pub street. (which isn't only pubs) We got a fish foot massage! Where you soak your feet in a tank with a ton of little fish that nibble on your feet! They eat your dead skin. It was weird! Mike was a champ, no one else could handle it. Mike didn't lift his feet out of the water at all! I couldn't keep mine in for more than about 2 nibbles. It crazy tickled! And if the fish got you right it kinda hurt at times too.

Our last 3 days in Siem Reap we went templing! There are so many ancient temples! They were very unique. The pictures speak for themselves.

We also got to hang out with Jimmy and Andrey for about 3 days. More fun for mike than for me but still fun! The boys flew in on a Thursday night and on Saturday morning we all left for Thailand again!! Mike and I to fly out of Bangkok and the rest to hang out! It happened to be my birthday weekend so I was super excited to learn that it would be a group trip! We had so much fun. It's great to be with friends! We realized how much we miss our friends when we got to hang out with them for a little while. We miss them way more than we did to begin with.

This time in Bangkok we explored the shopping district. The modern area opposed to a month prior when we mostly saw the historic things. I haven't looked this up or anything but I can pretty confidently say that Bangkok has more malls than any other city in the world! It was like a strip mall of huge malls! And a block over...another strip mall of malls! It was insane. We hung out there quite a bit. We went to a rooftop lounge for my birthday! It was the most amazing view! It was on top of the hotel where the movie hangover 2 was filmed. This was the best view we had of any city! It was a 64 story building I believe.

Steve, Lygia and the boys left a day before us. So we had a little time alone where we wandered around the shopping district some more and hung out at a local park and rode a paddle boat. We saw a Komodo Dragon!!! It was so scary! It looked about 6 ft long! We thought it was a crocodile! It was just hanging out in a public park. There were a ton of people everywhere and we were the only ones freaking out about the thing!

It was definitely a birthday to remember. It was perfect; time with friends, time with mike, beautiful city, shopping.

-Komodo dragon

Tuk-Tuks and more Tuk-Tuks

Bangkok

Well Cambodia has come and gone. WAY too quickly! I really wanted to post while we were there so that things would be fresh in my mind but just couldn’t find the time. We really were kept super busy, to our contentment.

We landed in Bangkok, Thailand on May 3rd, Thursday afternoon. As soon as we stepped off the plane into the jet bridge the heat hit us like a wall! We both thought that the heat was coming from the engine or something…but that was just outside. Insane.

Buddhist Temple, Bangkok

Although Asia really felt like a different world we managed to find a taxi and our hotel just fine. Mike and I wandered around the city a bit while we waited for Stevee and Lygia to get there. Our hotel was super close to the river so there were a lot of things happening. Cute hangout spots on the waterfront. We hung out there for some food. We liked it so much we went back there the following night with everyone for their live music night. The city is HUGE and super developed; a ton of skyscrapers. Mike compared it to china town in SF. Him and his comparisons. We had dinner while we were out and about…got the pleasure of dining to an Asian soap opera. The Asian youth is also into vampires. The reunion was amazing! It felt so wonderful to be together again!! Lygia gives the best hugs ever! We got to meet new people too! Brittany and Jayme (spears is the first thing that came to my mind) are 2 girls from bayside that are living in Siem Reap, Cambodia and working with AIM (Agape International Mission). They came to Thailand with Stevee and Lyg. The following day we explored the city. We searched for Starbucks for super long but did not find it. Had some McD's instead. The Cambodian bunch had not seen it for 6 months, they are all over in Europe. We took a river taxi to a huge market street; Koa San road. It was chaotic to the extreme! And we thought Europe was a different world. Everybody is trying to sell you something; screaming things from every direction. We had to shoo them away like flies. "tailor suit for you" and "tuk tuk, cheap cheap" are the two pick up lines that stuck. After we repeated our place from the previous night we went to a rooftop restaurant. Not the best one in Bangkok but it was SUPER nice. Amazing view and all the way around! Up to that point it was probably the best view we've had of any city. Up to that point. :-)

The next morning we took a bus to Pattaya, Thailand. This was a beach town in the gulf of Thailand. It was pretty. I was a little shocked at how much Russian I saw and heard. Every sign had a Russian translation. It was interesting. I guess that’s where they vacation. We had two women come up to us in hopes that we spoke Russian. Both were lost and needed a Russian speaking person that could get them directions in English and then translate. One of the women was named Alla. I was happy to help and happy to be bilingual. Never thought I'd need my Russian in Thailand. We didn’t know this going into it but Pattaya is known for being the Lady Boy capital of the world (that is transvestites). Also, we have never seen so many obviously gay and lesbian people. It definitely beats SF…by a long shot! In my eyes anyway. Sex tourism is HUGE! It wasn’t even discreet either. There was a street, along the water, where it was all over. Old white men hanging out with tiny Asian girls every which way you looked. "_______ a go go" was the name on every other sign. Girls lining the streets and it was hardly dusk. It was so so sad to see.

We did on the other hand enjoy our elephant ride in Pattaya! I was a little bit freaking out at first, but oh so glad we did it and fed them and all that. The scarier of the two was def feeding it. The ride was 45 mins long. The elephants went through a little body of water!! While we were in the water Mike decided to feed the elephant behind us a banana….well Mr. elephant wanted more! Wouldn’t leave us alone until the bananas were gone. He kept reaching up with his trunk and sniffing for more bananas. Humongous hairy trunk touching me randomly when I wasn't expecting it. And it was always me and never Mike. I had elephant snot all over my back and legs…that was definitely most scary! It also started pouring rain while we were on our ride; didn’t like it much at the time but def a great memory!

Alla being afraid of a baby?!?! Never thought I would see the day

We left for the border between Thailand and Cambodia early enough to make it across before the border closed. I have never heard of a border closing until then and we've crossed many a borders. Of course there were issues. Forgotten passports and such. Everything ended up great and we made it to the border within minutes of them shutting up. They were unhappy with us but they let us cross and gave us visas and all that.

I will get to Siem Reap and all caught up to date in the next post. Don’t want to overwhelm you all. :-)

Bangkok by night

And the winner is....

Budapest, Hungary

Eger, Hungary

We went to Hungary again. This time to Debrecen, Eger and Budapest. There is a tiny town right outside of Eger called Monosbel. That is where we spent our first Easter. Our Hungarian contacts have a house there. The mama-baby home that is in the works is there in Monosbel. (don't know if I've mentioned on here yet...but helping with the building of this home is what we had lined up for the second half of the year, while in Hungary) Due to the lack of funds the actual building will most likely not get started this summer but there are still little projects on the property that need taking care of. We had a wonderful Easter. Very very laid back. It was raining quite a bit so we just sat around all day...and ate of course. The traditional hungarian ham and eggs. It was great to finally meet our contacts Sandor and Patricia face to face. We've known each other close to a year now but hadn't officially met. We also got to meet some of the kids (now grown) from the orphanage in Monosbel that Sandor and Patricia have been family to for many many years. Mike got an idea of how the place looks and what he could help with. So that was good.

Spa, Budapest

After Monosbel we drove to Budapest! That city is so beautiful! All the buildings...so unique. I loved it!!! We went and saw an apartment to possibly rent! I can't wait to live in such a pretty city! We already found our favorite restaurant. I'm really excited! We spent 2 days in Budapest. We spent the night in our potential apartment...trial run. That was really nice of them to let us. We know the people. Day one we got mike's passport taken care of. He looks like a cave man in the picture. The lady doing the paperwork left for quite some time. She comes back and says there is a problem...the forms of id that mike provided were his US passport and CA drivers license...on both the pictures are close to 10 yrs old (really short hair, shaven). Well they were having a really hard time believing that he was the same person. We had a laugh. She ended up putting a note in the file stating that the reason he looks so different is because of all his hair.:) Day two we wandered a bit and then went to the #1 spa in all of Hungary. More relaxing. Im in love with the places...all of them. And I thought David Walleys was nice.

Spa, Budapest

Went back to our home in Arad and the following 2 days went like this...discussing thoughts and opinions, talking about percentages of which way we were leaning, making multiple pros and cons lists, praying, flipping coins even.:) And this is what the dilemma was. We had been discussing and praying about weather or not we should go to Cambodia for two months now. I've been hinting at it and begging almost since the first time we skyped with Stevee and Lyg (4ish months ago). Mike got on board when we left bulgaria and found that we have some time that we need to fill. It was pretty much a set thing until we went to Hungary this last time. Patricia had found some work for us to occupy ourselves and everything was working out perfectly with the apartment so we were at a crossroads. Moving to Budapest start of may or going to Cambodia for all of may and beginning our time in Budapest when we return in June. I don't know why this decision was so hard for us to make but it definitely was. Here are some of our thoughts (directly from our pros and cons lists)...-The flight alone costs as much as it would to live in Budapest for 3 mos. -If we don't move into the apartment now we risk losing it altogether...and it's really nice. The location is awesome! -Some projects for us to do in the coming weeks were already in the works. -We'd be missing mike's cousins and his brother that will BOTH be in Hungary (Budapest) in the month of may!! (that one was tough) And side 2...-Stevee and Lygia are there! -Arella and wolfie are there!!! -Jimmy might be there. -Getting plugged into a mission is so much easier than figuring that out on our own. And it takes a lot of time, planning, connecting with others. (all of which we can do while we're away. So when we return to Europe we can just jump right into something). -We will probably never again have contacts in that part of the world that could take us in and things. -We can be certain that we will be used. They have things happening daily...Sofia was just whenever things came up. Budapest will most likely be the same. We liked that we would be worked in Cambodia. -The most important one is what they're doing...the issue just breaks my heart and to have an opportunity to help and so closely would be nothing but a blessing to us.

So after much deliberation the choice we made was Cambodia!!! It was a tough decision but we feel that is where God wants us right now. We are so excited to go! I can't stop thinking about how great it will be to see our dear friends and their kids whom I love so so much!!:):)

We spent our 2nd Easter here in Romania with the family. The food was the same as in Hungary. Ham and eggs. The family doesn't all get together...there isn't enough space. The orthodox have this tradition...On the official start of Easter morning...at 12 midnight....they gather at the churches and light candles and sing in that pope way. We went to see it. There were so many people it was ridiculous! At every church in the city there were huge crowds. Streets blocked off. There were policemen at every gathering. The cousins tell us that the week after easter the orthodox people (to honor their dead loved ones) will hang out at the cemeteries and sometimes just on streets and hand things out. Food and candy and easter eggs. They also leave money on their tombstones and such. Mike's little cousin would go to the cemeteries and collect himself a little allowance:) and fill his belly while he was at it...and stock up on candy. Between here and our time in Bulgaria we've heard of some strange traditions these people have. It's so interesting how I never met or even knew of any orthodox people in the states and here there are so many!

We're not doing much now; just waiting until it's time to leave! Picking up little things that Steve and Lygia can't get in Cambodia. Figuring out logistics...how we're gonna get to Budapest (to fly out) and back here when we return. We're leaving our car here and all our winter clothes too. Gonna do a practice pack tomorrow. Just tying up loose ends. 

Lygia-see you in less than a week!!! Yaayyy!!! :):)

Little Miri called him Baa

Oradea, Romania

We got the appointment date we've been waiting for. And well...we have an official Hungarian citizen on our hands! He's so very proud! And I'm proud. It was a long process and a complicated one. Considering all the moving around we've been doing. This would have been done months ago if we were back home. We were in Sofia for the appointment...just for the weekend. Too short. We were out of there as soon as we got the papers. Didn't want to risk any fines at the border. We thought we had 4 days left in BG but with careful counting and recounting found that we only had 2! Well we shouldn't have been so stressed...no one cared at the border that we were one day over! It was really great to be back in Sofia! It felt like home! I loved seeing everyone. I understood people...it was wonderful! Emo and Luba were so amazing in taking us in and feeding us. The Kostinbrod families that we've grown to love had us over and fed us a ton. My cousin had us over and fed us again. The youth got together to welcome us! We had a very nice time!


The citizenship ceremony was formal! We were underdressed to say the least. The room was beautiful! Chandeliers and old style furniture. In the center two fancy chairs and a table for the people of the hour. Everyone was required to stand the minute the consulate entered the room. After mike shook her hand he sat back down...well that was a no-no. All the documents to be signed and pens were aligned neatly on the table before we came in. There was a photographer and a guy dedicated just to playing the music. He didn't even walk two steps from the stereo the whole time. He'd switch the music on and off. The national anthems. There were 2 we had to stand and look at the flag for. We were all served wine after and took pictures in front of the flag. Now we can stay here forever!

We're still hanging out in Arad. We have our own house! It's pretty neat. Mike's cousin Yanchi is building a house and a few of the rooms are completed. He put in a shower for us and it's totally livable. We have a ping pong table and a drum set and a keyboard. Entertainment a plenty. We like it. Its just an empty house that the family uses for things that they'd rather not do in their homes. Or dont have space for. Music practice, ping pong tournaments and they have a huge bible study that gathers once a week. Suits us perfectly. We're still going to the Aunt and Uncle's house for food everyday. They've been feeding and housing us for a month! We've really started working on a plan of action. It'll all come together soon.

Gyula, Hungary

In the meantime we've been taking some mini trips to nearby cities. We went to the cities Szeged and Gyula in Hungary for a weekend of thermal baths. It was so nice! Like a mini vacation...from our 5 mos vacation.:) Also went to Lipova, Cluj and Oradea. There is alot more of Romania we want to see like Sibiu and Bucharest but I think this is all we'll do for now. We came home from the day trip around RO pretty late and got woken up the next morning to loud baa-ing. The house is located in a really new development, no roads and fields all around. There is a pastor with I think 500 sheep that hang out in the fields next to the house. So I thought "one of the babies has wandered off and is trapped somewhere! We HAVE to rescue it!" So we follow the baas downstairs to our backyard. Turns out he's ours!! Yay! He's really cute...has a heart on it's side! I'd never even touched a sheep before this. Now I feed him milk from a bottle! I was scared at first but once Yanchi's kids came over and were all hugs I saw how harmless the thing is. The kids wouldn't leave it's side. They were asked to name him...5 yr old Miriam is sticking with "Baa". Yanchi decided to keep him here for a while. I like him. He can stay.

Getting ready for Easter. Here in the Orthodox countries it's a week later. Thanks so much for reading! Come back soon!:)

Baaaaaa

More Pictures Online

Here is the link to more pictures from Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania. Hope you enjoy! http://s1196.photobucket.com/profile/mikeandalla/index

Bye Bye Balkans

Hello all! Glad you're here! Here's what we've been up to since the last post. We've showered!! And have had a warm bed since family got a hold of us. We spent a day in Macedonia...not the night though. It looked a little fishy. Mike didn't like the people. We didn't really blend in very well like we do everywhere else in the southern countries. (We won't have such an advantage in the rest of Europe) the people were darker but maybe we weren't dark enough. Mike blamed my bright colored clothing...but I think it was just because it was a small town and everyone knew each other. We saw the city of Ohrid. In which was Lake Ohrid. That reminded us of Tahoe too. Just because of mountains surrounding the lake. It was beautiful. I've heard that Macedonian and Bulgarian could be the same language, they're so similar...it's true. We didn't talk to people but people talked to each other. They had t-mobile there. They were our wifi provider. We hadn't seen it in any country before Macedonia or since then. Kind of interesting. We drove up to Skopje but never really made it to the center of the city. Got a little lost and so we explored the outskirts by car. After being in Ohrid and driving around Skopje we kind of got a feel for the country and we didn't like it too much. Mike thought it best not to spend the night there. We found out later that there are friends of a friend that could have taken us in and showed us around. Would have been nice but from the research we did on Skopje there wasn't too many things that interested us so it's ok. Drove to Nis, Serbia for the night. 

In Nis we spent a lot of time looking for skull tower! It took way too long. Google maps was off. Had us wandering through neighborhoods looking for skulls. With the help of multiple people we found it. Only to find that they didn't take credit cards...or Euros. So we went to find a bank. When we finally had everything in order we were the only ones visiting! The man unlocked the place for us and waited for us to finish to lock up. It was a little bit awkward. This tower is built of the skulls of Serbian heroes that fought against the Turks; In remembrance of them. It looked a bit like Halloween. There were 4000 skulls used. Not that many remain intact. Serbian I also understood. With the Russian and Bulgarian I know it really helped make sense of it. Speaking and understanding are on two totally different levels though. So directions were given in Serbian and policemen spoke to us in Serbian. I was proud of me. 

We continued on to Belgrade. There we just wandered. Hung out in a really busy park and saw some of the sights. Didn't do too many touristy things here but that's just fine with me. We had some really good pizza baked in front of us in a brick oven and hung out with some coffee while we people watched. We saw this one billboard very many times. I commented on how it was Serbia's favorite...then mike says "that guy looks like an old Vlade Divac" turns out it was Vlade Divac! Some billboard for the foundations he's started back in his homeland. He's a star there! After that I'd smile every time I saw that billboard. 

Grandpa with my brothers

From there we drove to Temerin to stay with family. There was a family there and another a half hour away in Becej. We stayed with each for a couple days. Mostly what was talked about was family. It was very interesting for mike. I barely understood what the plan was much less what was being discussed. Mike was really cute...I loved seeing him so excited about something. He loved learning about his family's history and meeting some of them. He has family trees from both his grandma and grandpas side of the family. One of which goes back 5 generations. I was so inspired! I've always been interested in genealogy and I've always wished we had something for our family. So one of the nights as mike discussed family I started my own family tree! It only goes as far as grandparents...and I only know a few of one grandpa's siblings. Not nearly as much as I should know. I don't even know my cousins from my dad's side...or aunts and uncles. The ones that didn't migrate to the states I don't know...it's a sad sad thing. I know a ton about mike's family though!:) Mike discovered that he's got painters and authors and sculptors and musicians in his family. We got to see some of the works of these artists. It was really special. Looking through old photographs and making comparisons in appearance...who inherited whose looks, hearing the stories of what they did and how they lived and died; From what was translated it was a really touching experience. I can't imagine how much more so for Mike. Being in the land of his grandfathers gives you a sense of who you really are. We are so grateful for the opportunity to do this!

The bigger city near Temerin is Novi Sad. We explored that for a day. It was fun. There is this huge music festival held here every summer. Exit festival is what it's called. It lasts a few days and we looked at previous artists and were impressed. Arcade Fire, M.I.A, Mika, LCD Soundsystem, Arctic Monkeys. Were among some of the ones that popped out to me. They say it's the biggest music festival in Europe...or maybe it was just southeast Europe.:) either way...we really wanna go!!! It's only half hour from where the family is so we'd have a place to stay. The coolest part...it's held inside a fortress!! I think we'll make it happen. 

We left for Arad, Romania on the 7th of march. The route that Google maps gave us told us to cross a border that has been closed for over 10 yrs. We aren't liking Google much these days. We arrived to a house full of people...and that was just like 4 of them! Mikes dad's brother and his mom's niece got married and had 13 children! So the families are double related. I'm loving it so much here! I feel right at home. Not just because of how wonderful and welcoming the family is but also because it reminds me of my family. The way things work in big families is the same. The bonds between the kids is similar. The way the parents are. How much fun they have when they're together. I can't explain it well...I've tried explaining it in my journal and I just can't. There is just something about all of them...I almost feel like they're my brothers and sisters and I can't quite pinpoint why that is. By the end of day 2 I was able to name all of them and almost in order!:) 2 weeks here and I still haven't met everyone. We've been having fun with the kids. There are a few younger couples that like to hang out so we've been doing all kinds of things with them. Went to a nearby cave which was really neat. Mike's been doing all sorts of boy things...hunting and other sports, exploring the forest by night. I've been spending a lot of time at the mall and various coffee places. 

Its kind of slowing down now...people have to get back to their lives. We're looking into day-trips we can take from here. Still waiting on the citizenship paperwork to arrive. We don't have a plan as of right now. Hoping to figure it out soon because we don't want to overstay our welcome...hope we haven't already done that!

Well that's all folks! -Bugs Bunny