Germany, part 1A

I forgot to mention a couple things in yesterday's post:

This sign just made us feel extremely welcome and safe when we checked into the hotel yesterday. I'm not sure what they are worried about though. I don't see how anyone could drive up the goat trail that they call a road during the winter anyway.















Here's an actual GERMAN German Shepherd we saw at the gas station today. Of course, they just call them Shepherds over here.










Here's a picture of our hotel (look up in the trees on the mountainside):

We had a great time today touring some Castles. I'll write and post pictures about it tomorrow or Tuesday. Just too tired from walking a million miles today (up hill, both ways).

Germany, part 1

May 1st is some Hungarian holiday (?Labor Day?). Whatever. The important part is that Katie and Anna both have Monday & Tuesday off. Since VJ & I were likewise free, we decided to go to Germany for the long weekend.

Munich was the original destination but when you plan things at the last minute, you take what hotel openings that you get. So we are staying in the Renaissance Riessersee Hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is about 95 km south of Munich.

We left Budapest at 8:00am this morning and arrived at the hotel just before 6:00pm. This includes the 1 hour that we stopped for lunch and, in typical Salvaggio fashion, the 45+ min we took when we got lost with only 10 km(6 miles) left to get to the hotel. I don't feel that the directions Anna got off the internet were the clearest (Anna blames my navigation...whatever...she's just touchy because she drove the whole way).

The kids were EXCELLENT the ENTIRE drive. They read books, we played a game where we tracked which countries the license plates we saw were from, we watched 2 movies (the portable DVD player is Heaven sent), listened to music (the kid's love "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles) and had snacks (Rice Krispie treats made by yours truly from some REALLY expensive Rice Krispies purchased at an ex-pat grocery store).

The scenery on the drive was BEAUTIFUL. Especially once we got to Salzburg and got to see the mountains. More power to the Van Trapps if they made it over those monstrosities.

First thing we did after checking in was ...say it with me now...go to the hotel pool! You can see a new side bar on the blog where Katie will be ranking the hotel pools of Europe.

Tomorrow we hope to visit a couple of castles in the area and Monday we plan to stop in Salzburg on our way back to Budapest.

Here's the view from our hotel balcony:

Odds & Ends

VJ had his 3yr old check up on Wednesday. He is perfectly healthy but what is of note is that his behavior can only be described as EXCELLENT. He listened to the Dr., answered her questions, followed instructions...he just was not the same little boy that went to his Dr. in Houston...until it was time for his vaccination...which is why they do that last. He SCREAMED at the top of his lungs and carried on sad. He did not even want the cool Tiger band-aid that they gave him.

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We had delayed potty training until we got over here and after one aborted attempt in which VJ was just not interested we are off to a great start. We use the "bribe" method of potty training where every success earns a toy. VJ has gotten several new hot wheels cars, plastic dinosaurs and plastic animals this week. The dinosaurs were actually a big hit and strong motivator.

Now, I told you all that so I could tell you this story: Anna also bought a glider plane and I earmarked this as a "special prize" for when he ever poops in the potty. Katie was there when I showed it to him and explained the conditions attached to receiving it. Her comment was:
Katie: "I sure hopes he poops in the potty soon."

Now everyday when we pick her up from school she asks if he pooped in the potty yet.

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Some Many of the streets are pretty narrow over here. That can lead to some tense moments when meeting oncoming traffic. Once I was going up a hill with a curve in the middle. As I approached the cure, an oncoming car appeared from around the curve and was partially in my lane. She steered back into her own lane but not until I hit the curb. With the kids in the car I held back what I really wanted to say but I did "tell her" to "Stay in your own lane, lady." From the back seat I hear:
Katie (dead pan): "I don't think she can hear you Daddy."

Then she and Anna had a nice laugh.

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One night after her shower, Katie had dried off and was putting on her pajamas but was taking forever. So I decided to give her some "encouragement."
Me: "Come on Kate. Get dressed. Get going, Come on!

Katie looked up and opened her mouth to defend herself but saw my smile and realized I was joking. So she just shook her head and continued and said:
Katie: "Sometimes it takes me a while to get dressed."

I fell for it.

Me: "Why?"
Katie:"I don't know. May be because you keep BUGGING me."

You're a Fat-Ass, Daddy

So last night at dinner Katie basically told me that I was fat.

She didn't say it in so many words, but the message came across anyway. Here's how it went down:

We had just finished dinner and the kids were waiting patiently (for a change) for dessert while I cleared the table. Katie was looking at the various pictures we have hanging on the wall and she pointed to a picture of Anna and me taken on our Wedding day.

Katie: "Daddy, your face looks weird in that picture."
Me: "Oh really, how so?"

Now I fully expected that her answer would involve me not having a goatee then or how my hair was "poofier" but then I got blindsided:

Katie: "You are a little bit thinner in the picture."

Wonderful. At least Anna got a good laugh.

OK, may be I have gained a LITTLE bit of weight since then, although I don't really know how I thought as I sat down to my ice cream with chocolate sauce.

School Award

At Friday's School Assembly, Katie was one of a few students to receive a "Trustworthiness Award" (I think that's the name of it).

Basically about 2-3 kids from each grade levels (pre-K thru 2nd) were identified by their teachers to receive this award. This is the 2nd week that they've done this. The kids were called down in front of the whole school and the Principal read off what each kid had done to be recognized. A couple of examples: One Pre-K'er "always picks up without being told", one 2nd grader "always helps out the little kids on her bus."

Katie was selected because she is helping her friend Anya to learn English (Anya is from Moscow and when she started at AISB in February she did not know any English) and she helps her friend Sophie get around (Sophie just came back to school on Monday after being out several weeks with a broken leg. She got her cast off on Wed but is still limping around).

Each "Trustworthy Kid" received a wristband (think Lance Armstrong but blue) that they get to wear around school. They took a picture of all the Trustworthy Kids from this week and last that will be in next week's newsletter so I'll post it next Wednesday.

Great Job Katie!

New Microwave

We finally took the time and went and bought a microwave. So far I can report that it makes delicious popcorn!

I was reading the instruction manual that came with it and decided that it should be called "Microwaving for Dummies." Here's a few examples:

• Do not dry clothes in the microwave oven. They may become carbonized or burned if heated too long.

What jackass tried to dry their clothes in the microwave? And you just know that someone did and sued the manufacturer for not explicitly stating "Hey morons, this is not a dryer."

• Do not use the oven for drying kitchen towels or paper products. They may burn.

We can guess that this was the aforementioned jackass' idiot cousin that caused "dish towels" to have a separate entry from "clothes."

• Do not attempt deep fat frying in your microwave oven.

Now we know why microwaves aren't as popular in the South (or Hungary based on our experiences with restaurants).

• Do not cook eggs in their shell. Pressure will build up inside the egg which will burst.

This one is a bit of a Catch-22. On the one hand you want to warn the idiots off, but on the other hand it just gives them ideas. Besides, it's an egg. How bad of an explosion could it be?

As I typed the previous sentence it came to me that YouTube just HAD to have something to satisfy our curiosity and sure enough: Exploding Microwave Just turn the sound off so you don't have to listen to the rocket scientists.

Easter Cleanup

So for the past couple of days Anna has been complaining that "the garbage or something" smells. I made supportive noises and opened/closed windows as directed but I didn't actually smell anything. Evolution has equipped men with stronger...let's call it "smell filters" than women. Why? Well, if we actually smelled disgusting things we might be moved to get our asses up off the couch and clean it up and we certainly don't want that to happen.

So anyway...the smell actually reached a level that it broke past my smell filter and I made an effort to find out just what the hell was that smell? The garbage was emptied earlier in the day so we ruled that out. We spent the evening sniffing various areas in the living room until I came across a hard boiled Easter egg that had escaped our notice.

We didn't color eggs at home this year as #1. I couldn't find any dye in the stores & #2. the eggs are already brown and kinda hard to dye anyway. But Katie had brought this one home from school and it sat out for 2 weeks. Needless to say...Eww!

Gellért Hill/Citadella

On Friday the four of us went and visited the Citadella on Gellért Hill.

From Wikipedia:
The Citadel was built after the 1848-49 Hungarian uprising by the ruling Habsburg Austrians, as it was a prime, strategic site for shelling both Buda and Pest in the event of a future revolt.
It also saw action in the Second World War and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, when Soviet tanks stood up on the hill and fired down into the city.
End of history lesson.

The view of the city is just spectacular.

Here you can see The Parliament Building and Margaret Island.

The Buda Castle.
The Liberty Statue.
Goofy VJ often put his sunglasses on upside down.
A few more pictures from this excursion are available on our Kodak Gallery site.

Our TV Speaks English

We finally got our landlord to understand that we wanted more English language TV channels. Previously we had exactly one: CNN...and the reception wasn't even that great.

So the satellite people came and did whatever they needed to do. So now we have 245 English language channels. However, remember that this is free satellite so about 230 of them are mostly crap...Home shopping, etc. At least we have some news channels and some movie channels that we can understand (I'll let you know if they ever show a movie that's any good).

All that doesn't matter though since we have a channel called Tiny Pop that shows cartoons all day long. Pretty good cartoons, in fact: Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Berenstain Bears, Paddington Bear, Timothy Goes to School & Rainbow Fish.

Katie was so excited.
Katie: "Daddy, the TV speaks English now!"

All the shows are somewhat educational and pretty non-objectionable (can't say that about everything on Nickelodeon...Sponge Bob). Plus Katie LOVES the Berenstain Bears. She has lots of their books and almost always gets at least one Berenstain Bear book from the school library each week. We even made an Excel spreadsheet to track which ones she has and which ones she has borrowed from the library (got to start the Excel training while they're young).

Budapest Zoo

The kids and I took a trip to the Budapest Zoo today. Katie & I love to see all the animals at the Zoo. Come to find out, VJ likes animals but would much rather see them on the TV rather than anything approaching "close".

As luck we have it, the first animals we saw were my favorite, the Rhinos. We later got to see the baby Rhino (not pictured) that was born this past January.
VJ was a little nervous being near the hippos. And that was BEFORE they started swimming our way. He demanded a 3 foot minimum distance between him and the railing.
Surprisingly he was (mostly) OK getting this close to the giraffes. This reminded me of my trip to the Catskill Game Farm when I was 3 yrs old and I got to feed the Giraffes.
Two Monkeys escaped from the Monkey House.
Me: "Katie, let's go see the elephants!"
Katie: "OK, but I hope that they don't smell."

VJ told Anna that they were his favorite. He said that they smiled at him. I thought it was because we couldn't get any closer to them than this:

VJ, Katie and some rude European kid who wouldn't move out of the picture.
Of course we had to go see Grandpa's favorites:
And now for the actual favorite part of the trip:

Visit our Kodak Gallery homepage for more Zoo pictures.

Margaret Island

Today we went to Margaret Island for a picnic lunch (OK...it was McDonald's drive thru but that's beside the point).

Margaret Island is BEAUTIFUL. We only scratched the surface and we look forward to going back. Here are some pictures:

VJ's favorite part of the park was watching the turtles, fish and ducks in this pond. He had a fit when we made him move on.
Running through the field:
Katie thought that the ruins of the Dominican church and convent were cool..."They're like a maze. "
Picture of the Danube and the Arpad Hid.
Just a picture of a pretty tree, but we are totally going to rent one of those cool pedal cars next time.


Visit our Kodak Gallery homepage for more pictures from Margaret Island.

Easter Weather

Just wanted to point out that Budapest is kicking both your asses, weather-wise, this fine Easter Sunday.

New York apparently didn't get the memo that Spring was here.

Texas, the normal front runner in the weather game, is definitely off it's stride but looks to be back on track with a nice thunderstorm this coming Tuesday.

We now resume our regularly scheduled blog already in progress.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to Everyone!

VJ slept in today...almost to 6:45AM! As usual, he got in to bed with us (we try to get another 30 minutes or so before we actually greet the day). However, today this was my cue to go downstairs and hide the eggs. For the first time we hid them outside as we weren't afraid the candy would melt in the blazing Houston heat.

Once Katie woke up we got them dressed and headed on downstairs. We had some chocolate bunnies, bubbles, etc. inside the house and then on to find the eggs outside. Before she saw the bunnies Katie had this to say:

Katie: "May be the Easter Bunny brought us toys like last year.
Me: "He brought toys last year?"
Katie: "Yes, he brought me a Care Bear last year."

Now I feel like crap because, no toys this year -toys in Hungary cost 2-3 times as much. Then I got mad. I wanted to ask how she can remember what the Easter Bunny brought last year but can't remember to flush the toilet after she pees?

Whatever. The kids were both very excited with their candy and the egg hunt. Here are some pictures:



Visit our Kodak Gallery homepage for more pictures from Easter morning.

TV Good, Outside Bad

Anna is always complaining often expresses concern that the kids watch too much TV. Well here's what I have to say: No one ever got a bloody nose sitting on the couch watching TV.

While playing "Monster" (the kids are monsters who chase me) outside yesterday Katie basically jumped or fell on VJ's head -end of outside play. Back in the house we go.

As far as nose bleeds go it was pretty minor but still. He was fine after a few minutes of "A Bug's Life."

Easter Discussion

So after picking up Anna from work we had this discussion:

Katie: "Easter is this Sunday. That means we all have to go to church."
Anna: "That's right. Do you know what we are celebrating on Easter?
Katie thinks for a second.
Katie: "No. What?"
Me: "That's when Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead."
Anna: "That's called 'The Resurrection' ."
Katie is quiet for a few seconds but you can hear the wheels in her head turning. I can feel a question coming our way and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm just a little nervous as to what it will be. How did he die? Sins? What's a sin? Is he still alive? Uh oh, here it comes...

Katie: "Will church be as long as it was last time?"

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Later at dinner we continue our discussion.

Anna: "Katie, what else happens on Easter?"
Katie: "We get eggs."
Anna: "From who?"
Katie: "The Easter Bunny!" Very Excited.
Me: "No. That's only in the USA. In Hungary, The Easter Kangaroo comes. She keeps the Easter Eggs in her pouch until it's time to hide them."
Katie: "No Daddy." frowns at me
Me: "Yes. You can ask Ms. Monika (her Hungarian Culture teacher) about the Easter Kangaroo tomorrow."
Katie: "Nooo Daddy. You're just joking." rolls eyes

The funnier thing is that she usually knows when to call "Bullshit" on me. Except that she's taken to erring on the side of caution and disbelieving 90% of what I say, assuming that I'm just having her on.

Conversations from Hell

So the kids and I were on our way to pick up Anna from work (2nd car was delayed, but we pick it up tomorrow)and we had a conversation that, by the end of it, I just wanted to bang my head on the windshield...all the more so since I was the one who had started it!

We were going over the Arpad Hid (Hid = Bridge) which spans the Danube. In the middle of the bridge it crosses over the ?northern? tip of Margaret Island which effectively splits the river in two. Traffic was wretched (as usual) and I was able to look out and see several row boats, you know, from like a rowing club. I called it "crewing."

Me: "Look at the boats. Do you see them."
Katie: "Yes. What are they."
Me: "That's called crewing. They are rowing the boats with oars."
Katie: "Why?"
Me: "It's a sport. They are racing."
Katie: "Why are they racing?"
Me: "Because That's what they do. It's a sport."
Katie: "Like Soccer?"
Me: "Yes."
Katie: "What if someone had a motor boat?"
Me: Laughing "No Katie. They all use oars."
VJ: "Mickey has oars."
Me: "Really VJ?"
VJ: "Yes he did. And Goofy too. On the TV." (I should note that we haven't actually seen 'The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' since before we left the States.)
Katie: "I think someone could use a motor boat."
Me: "OK." I just wanted the conversation to end.

By this time, we made it to the middle of the bridge and were therefore passing through the tip of Margaret Island so the boat conversation died down. However, as we got past the island I saw some more boats on this side of the river, but they were kayaks this time.

Me: "Look, there's some kay..."
Katie: "What?"
Me: "Nothing. Never mind." What the hell was I thinking? Did I not just learn anything?

Kindergarten Report Card

So basically, my daughter is a Genius. Again, the teacher never comes right out and says that so as to not inflate Katie's ego, but I can read between the lines.

Katie got all "S's" on her report card. In kindergarten they don't give out A's, B's or C's. It's basically are you getting it (S) or do you still need some time (some other letter that I didn't pay attention to since, as I may have mentioned, she got all "S's").

Today Anna, Katie & I met with some of Katie's teachers and Katie led us in some activities to show what she does at school. We watched Katie do a puzzle where she had to match up words that rhymed. She showed us how she can recognize and make patterns, took us through the alphabet and made some cool shapes with rubber bands.

Actually, Katie's teacher said she is doing very well both with her school work and socially, making lots of friends in the class. I can actually see that when I drop her off for school each morning. Picture Norm Peterson walking into Cheers (Norm!) and you get the picture.

We also visited with the Music, Art and Hungarian Culture/Language teachers and reviewed what was going on in those classes as well.

Where was VJ during all of this? Katie's school is so cool. They provided teachers/teaching assistants to watch any siblings while the parents and student were in their conference so they could concentrate on that. VJ did great when I dropped him off in the room. They had a table for coloring, puzzles and a video tape going. When I went back to pick him up (about 75 minutes later) I was told (by him) that I had to wait until he was done playing (he had to finish a puzzle he was working on). This only reinforced our feeling that he is missing school, so we will be looking for a preschool for him to go to (for at least part of the week).

Palm Sunday

OK, so we haven't been the best about keeping up with going to church since we moved over here. The English Mass at St. Antal's is at 4:00pm on Sunday. It sounds like a good time, but usually we've found ourselves in the car returning from whatever errands we were running that day.

So anyway, we decided to recommit and make a better effort to get to mass. In retrospect, perhaps Palm Sunday was not the day to ease back into things.

This happens to me every year. I think..."Palm Sunday Mass won't be that much longer than a regular mass." I mean they have to bless and hand out the Palms, but that won't take too long, right? Well, that does take longer than I think, but that's not really the issue. Another name for Palm Sunday is Passion Sunday. The Gospel reading is "The Passion of Christ." Which is REALLY long.

Mass started at 4:00pm and we only made it to the "Our Father" (5:20pm) before we had to leave since Katie's bladder was about to burst. The Church is an older church (but not that old) and no restrooms were in evidence. We'll have to ask around next week.

Other "highlights":

The whole congregation was "invited" outside for the beginning of Mass. The Palms were passed out and then the holy water was sprayed to bless them (and us). VJ thought it was raining.

VJ: "It's raining." Looking up at the sky.
We of course don't say anything. Then he gets sprayed again.
VJ: "Hey guys, it's raining."

Then the priest breaks out the incense.
Katie just makes a face and holds her nose.
VJ: "What that 'mell? That's stinky!"

Other than that, they were very well behaved. It helps that this is a more "family friendly" crowd with lots of other kids (including one of Katie's classmates, David). So any ruckusing on their part tended to blend in.

One final note. At no time did I actually see any "palm leaves." Maybe Hungary can't get real palm leaves, I don't know. We got some branches from some tree. Kinda hard to hang them behind the crucifixes in our bedrooms.