Bath-tubs are evil.

This post was written August 9th while still in our original, temporary flat.

While I consider myself to be flexible and open to Euro-sized flats, products and traditions the dreaded bathtub and hand-sprayer offer's one of life's greatest challenges and discomforts.

I’ve never felt more like a sad, over-grown, clumsy man than when trying to clean myself in a European bathtub.  I simply don’t understand the technique for getting clean.  How do these people do it?  I don't like to speak in generalities, but it seems damn impossible to get clean without splashing water all over the bathroom — I’ve never desired so badly as a stand-up shower.

Imagine you are sitting in a cold tub, your elbows don’t quite tuck in correctly — there’s nothing natural about sitting and spraying yourself with this improperly-shaped water spout.  You feel warmth only on one specific part of your body, meanwhile the rest (and majority of your body) is exposed to the frigid air of the bathroom -- even in August.   Don’t take your showers for granted people.  Enjoy your full-water-pressured, larger-than-needed, most-likely tiled with something fancy, shower.

I’m waving the white flag with this one…I give up.

The pictures don't do justice for the depths of my disdain.  No adult male should ever have to experience this torture.  

I hate you.

I will never ever again consider having a red toilet. Ever. Ever. Ever.

Also, we aren't really 'down' with the "using gravity to flush the toilet" concept (I like puns).  It just seems barbaric.

Perhaps, all of this is the story behind the persistent body odor in Europe.
Future blog idea...

Fancy's School -- Bring your Husband to Work Day

This post was written August 8th...we are a little behind. Better late than never.

Today, I had the distinct honor of accompanying to work the Grade 6 math teacher at the American International School of Budapest.

It’s only her second day at the school and they have a more relaxed (and longer) introduction for all new teachers.  Meanwhile, I get to commute out to the village-town of Nagykovácsi to see what her long, daily commute will be like each day.  My suspicion is that she invited me because she wants to put me to work.

As we arrive at the school, me for the first time, it dawns on me that this school is the entire reason we find ourselves in Budapest.  Her classroom being the epicenter.  She will teach at a school that enlists students from over 20 countries and tuition isn't cheap.  I think I’m about to have a sentimental moment over this, but then the reality of having to walk up a very steep hill to arrive at her school overtakes me.

It’s been extremely rewarding to better understand Fancy's profession and get this glimpse into her world of international teaching.  Knowing someone is a teacher is actually quite different from seeing them in their element.  Watching Fancy organize and prepare her classroom is like watching an artist at work (maybe not a famous artist, but still).  Everything has a place that it belongs and a place it doesn’t belong, according to Fancy.

I took some photos of her school that seem to equate it more with a small college than a K-12 school.

They needed a new gym, apparently.

Every school really deserves it's own pool.

Fancy outside her classroom... B213

The "spare gym" with a climbing wall...

Fancy has quite the view from her classroom.

The mean hallways of AISB.

This is the real reason I was invited to school.

Turns out I'm a pretty awesome helper.

This is one of 4 soccer / football fields.

The Hunt (for a flat)

'The Hunt' chronicles the arduous and down-right painful, annoying, this-is-taking-way-too-long process for finding our flat in Budapest.

When we began The Hunt, we were warned to look past the way the buildings might appear.  We thought that was strange advice until we started hunting.

As some of you know, Budapest is actually the combination of two smaller towns (some will say three) called 'Buda' and 'Pest'.

The Buda-side is thought of as more proletariat, fancy-smancy and generally more expensive.  The Pest-side has historically been the 'blue collar' side, the factory side and generally less expensive.  Both sides offer their distinct advantages and disadvantages.  Most will agree the city centre and the heart of the city is in Pest, while Buda 0ffers the benefit of being in the city but away from the middle of the action.

Buda has the Buda castle, which is confusing because there isn't a castle.  Pest has Parliament. In Pest you tend to find more bars, restaurants, cultural events than in Buda.

Or, as some say "Pest people like to party" -- I have to admit I'm a sucker for a good alliteration.

The majority of the residential buildings on the Pest side were built during the "golden years" of Hungary which means they are over 100 years old (most likely built between 1890-1914).  Of course, there has been new construction, but not as much as you think.

“In Budapest, you will notice many building and structures might appear ugly and crumbling on the outside, but the inside of the building will be perfectly acceptable”.

It’s a fact that doesn’t make it more visually appealing, but I guess you just learn to accept it (and eventually appreciate it).

Agent number one, Judit.

Agent number two.

This was a bachelor pad that Nancy wouldn't go for.

Ahh, some tasty 'nudles' after the hard work.

After a long day, we tried some local crepe desserts...they were on fire.

A lot of interesting architecture inside the courtyards (unfortunately most are hidden from the street).

Lot's of interesting t-shirts in Budapest on The Hunt.

Some of the more antiquated elevators, pre-communism.

One of the flats that didn't make the final cut.

Smartly-dressed agent number three.

Another modern flat, but expensive flat.

More options on The Hunt.

Salesman selling us on the "deluxed sofa".

He didn't know his opposition.

House Hunting International!!

No, unfortunately, we weren't selected for the show House Hunters International (yet).

However, our dramatic and often-times annoying flat-hunt would have made for great television.  I'm positive the HGTV network is wallowing in pity over their error.

Initially, the school organized a local real estate agent to assist in The Hunt.  Her name is Judit and she picked us up the morning after we landed and we were off to look at flats.

We learned a lot about finding an apartment in Budapest during the search that would span two weeks. Previously in Spain, it took us only three-days of searching until we found an unbelievable flat in the small town of Linares (Jaén).  It had everything we wanted and was relatively affordable.  Our wonderful Spanish 'piso' had the side effect of creating extremely high expectations for our Budapest flat.  Because the saga deserves it, the "flat search" is broken apart into different episodes. Click on the links below to take you to that story.

-The Hunt (for a flat).

-The doomed Elevator Ride.

-A Hungarian "rental agreement".
-Removed.  From Budapest to a small Hungarian village.

-Rental agreement accepted...Finally.

A brief background of Budapest, Hungary.

The more time we spend walking the streets of Budapest, the more intrigued we become in the fascinating history of the city.  For anyone that wants to dig a little to understand it’s past, you’re rewarded with a rich and sometimes violent history that continues to impact decisions even today.

• The ‘golden years’ of Hungary -- until the present-day Renaissance of Fancy and I's arrival -- existed between the 1880s and 1914 (the beginning of WWI).  During this period, the Austrian-Hungarian empire (think Hapsburgs) was three times the size of it’s current size and included much of what is now Czech Republic, Slovakia Croatia and Hungary.  In that time period, it was all considered “Hungary”.  Unfortunately, choosing to back the losing side in WWI,  resulted in the Treaty of Trinion (1920) which had a devastating effect on what was considered Hungary.  Still today citizens will complain about it.
• “The resulting "treaty" lost Hungary an unprecedented 2/3 of her territory, and 1/2 of her total population or 1/3 of her ethnic-Hungarian population. Add to this the loss of all her seaports, up to 90% of her vast natural resources, industry, railways, and other infrastructure.” (AmericanHungarianFederation.Org).

Best maps I could find.  You're welcome.

• As recently as 1956 the country was spilling its blood for independence.  There was a fierce, albeit unsuccessful revolt against Communist leadership that resulted in thousands dead but a losing in Communism strict grip that allowed for somewhat greater freedoms compared to other Communist countries.

Protestors tear down the statue of Stalin (1956 rebellion)

• USSR collapses in 1989. Yes, it was also the year the Energizer Bunny was released, but let's focus on the Berlin Wall and Hungary finally gaining it's independence from communist control.  To add perspective, the country still celebrates the 16th of June as a national holiday which indicates the final day in 1991 where Russian troops exited Hungary through the Ukranian border.

The sentiment of the older generation appears to straddle the line between “we know things are better without communism” and “but things might have been a little more stable and predictable with communism”.  Of course, modern scholars agree the 'forced stability' was unsustainable.   Yes, I just used "modern scholars" in our classy blog.

Observing the buildings, it's tempting to call some of them ugly and unmaintained.  However, if understood through the lense of Communism, you gain more perspective for what most of Eastern Europe countries endured for an entire generation.  Like many other countries, Hungary was entirely controlled by Communism’s “central-planning economy” where there was no emphasis on how ‘nice’ things might have looked, only functionality.  If you look past the exterior, there is much more to the story.  There existed an entire generation of the population where 'taking initiative', turning a profit, and in general, being capitalistic, was not supported or tolerated.  The exteriors of buildings were quite low on the list of priorities.  Many scholars agree that Budapest is just now able and beginning to invest in its infrastructure and it's aesthetics through the building of new entertainment districts, public parks, etc.

From talking to locals and other expats, you get an strong feeling that Budapest is on the precipice of being a new European juggernaut. While that opinion might be a bit inflated, it's definitely an interesting time to live in Budapest.

It's infrastructure can match most other European capitals with standard of living (constant power, drinkable water, great internet connectivity) but it is still cheap -- normally half the cost of other European countries.  Consequently, it has offices for large MNC like GE, IBM, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard to rattle off a few.

We are continuing to learn a lot of and we'll see what these modern scholars have in store for Budapest over the next few years.

Why Budapest.

To some Budapest will sound more foreign and unknown.  It’s usually not on the A-list for the 10-day vacationing, American traveler like the London, Paris and Rome's of the world.  It’s a little too far out of the way and doesn't carry the same allure.  Admittedly, it doesn't  have as many well-known tourist attractions.   By the numbers, Hungary wasn’t even in the top 10 for European ‘tourist arrivals’.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Ukraine will fall out of the Top 10 next year.

However, as recent as 2013 Budapest tied Florence for being ranked #2  in a user-submitted poll for World’s Best Cities: 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/16/travel/cn-traveler-top-cities/

As we would say in Spain, "¡Toma!"
The equivalent for 'take that' or 'in your face' or 'we don't care about that silly little Wikipedia list where Hungary isn't ranked in the top 10'.  It can literally mean all of those things -- Spanish is great.

The country of Hungary captures enough of Europe to feel slightly enchanting, safe and historical, but still exudes the eastern European decay, grime and authenticity of a post-Communist nation.  The more one understands the context, the more fascinated one becomes with the hardships these eastern European cities endured from the brutal Nazi-led occupation until the end of WWII, and later to an almost immediate (and not much less brutal) Russian occupation, until the USSR collapsed.

Budapest in ruins after WWII.

Why Budapest?

We are asked often, "Why did you pick Budapest"?  However, more than anything, it picked us.

When Fancy was interviewing with schools around the world, we were very excited about an opportunity in Europe, or a Spanish-speaking school.    In a later post, an attempt will be made to document the conference itself, and tenacity and grueling interview process for these international teaching positions, and our personal experience at the conference.  For now, it's important to understand that teachers can only apply to schools that have have an exact match in their opening for your qualifications (i.e. Middle Grades Math).  Fancy interviewed with schools in South Korea, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Budapest, UAE-Dubai, among others.  However, it was Budapest that expressed the most immediate interest and made the first offer.

Our thought process when contemplating the offer went something like this...

Budapest would be Eastern Europe.
That's cool.
We really enjoyed our time in Budapest when we spent a couple nights there in 2012.

But, is two days really a good-enough benchmark to make a two-year decision?

At least it's not Kuwait.
That would have been terrible -- the entire country is a 'dry country'.

   =

We just bought a house.

I kind of wish we didn't just buy a house.

There’s not much more that signifies ‘putting down roots’ than making the largest purchase in the lives of many of us.

Yes, we can rent the house.
What are our parent's going to think?
How will we be able to watch football in the Fall?

This is the short version of the ideas that bounced around our head.  There was definitely some teetering back and forth.

To add perspective, in order to break into the international teaching community, the majority of international teachers may accept what some might consider a less desirable location.  It's not uncommon to meet teachers that spent their initial two-year contract in central Africa, South Korea or the Middle East.  Only after 'paying your dues' are some able to later transition to a more 'desirable' location, if you desired.   I hasten to add (as a Brit would say), the word "desirable" being somewhat arbitrary as any two teachers might wish for different locations and desire different experiences and teaching at one of these locations doesn't indicate an inferior experience or quality of teacher.  It appears to be a simple result of supply and demand.  The schools at the more 'desirable' location typically will have a higher demand of applicants, as a result, can pick from more qualified and experienced teachers.  All of this is to say, when Fancy was offered a position at a premiere European international school in her first application, we realized there would not be many similar offers.

Cue Violin Music

To wrap up, everyone has different goals in life, just like everyone has different definitions for success.  While there still remain many unknowns for us, this opportunity represented the epitome of attempting to pursue an intentional life.  It’s scary to not know all the consequences of our decisions, on the other hand, we only get one chance at life.  Shouldn't we all strive to maximize it, despite the trepidation and fear?  Personally, it’s been daunting to step into the unknown, break away from a career that I've been building the last 5-10 years.

I still don't have a decent response for, “Todd, what are you going to do?”.  Well, I'm writing this blog for all you, aren't I?  You're welcome.

As the principle was confirmed to me during the summers I spent selling books during college, understanding the fear of the unknown and still moving forward is what brings meaning to life.  It’s an example of making the decision to live life intentionally.

As difficult as it is for me, I’ll spare us all the motivational life quotes.  Nonetheless, these decisions are some of the most important decisions we make and I believe that these unknown life experiences have a tendency to create some of life's most rewarding results.

Whew, that got intense.   Let's all relax.

Hello (again) Budapest.

We were thrilled, nervous, excited, anxious to finally arrive in Budapest.
Were we going to like it as when we visited in 2012? We'd only spent 2 nights in Budapest, previously. It's interesting the narratives we can build in our minds about a city after only spending 48 hours in a place.

A well-placed and accurate mirror.

We were met at the airport by a driver with a fancy sign, "Nancy Perzel".  I wanted to complain, but quickly accepted that it's not about me (unfortunately) and Fancy's position is what allowed us to move to Budapest -- but would it have been too much to include my name on the sign?  Despite my strong objection, Fancy would not allow me to take a photo, either.  We barely fit all 8 (who am I kidding, we probably had more) of our bags in our driver's euro-sized car.  But, I've always been good at jigsaw puzzles, and with bags in both of our laps, we just barely fit.

There was nothing especially eventful about our arrival into Budapest, but still a singular moment that can never be forgotten.  It was an event with such anticipation and now it was finally here.  It was close to sunset, the air felt good on our skin after a long day of travel confinement, it was somewhat humid which reminded us of home.

We had departed Atlanta, Georgia around 9:30pm EST and had arrived in Budapest, Hungary about 18:00 local time.  We were 8200km [5095 miles] from home.  I'll do the conversions this once, but after that ladies and gentlemen, we will be your weekly dose of the metric system.  I anticipate to post more frequently than weekly, but don't want to set the bar too high.

We left the airport and headed into the city.  Reading the signage into the city, I was convinced in the first 3 minutes that this language was someone's practical joke.  Apparently not.  This language was going to be more difficult that we'd imagined.

The school reserved a studio apartment for us for the first week while we were apartment-hunting.  We were so happy to finally be at the end of our travel, we overlooked some of the apartments, shall we say, shortcomings.  Or at least, the shortcomings (documented in "Temporary Housing") that would present themselves as the days progressed.  Initially, we were stunned by the view -- it overlooked the Danube River at sunset.  Tonight, we were very happy to be in Budapest.