December 16/17: Ruth arrives bringing with her the cold!

December 16, 2010: Today I arrived at school to be told to pick up my Christmas bonus which was a significant number of vouchers that I can use to purchase meals at restaurants or food at a supermarket (I was told that the school normally likes to give cash but that this year they were not permitted to do that so they used these vouchers instead since that was permissible.) What a great Christmas gift!

After school, I went directly to the airport to meet Ruth who was to arrive at 5:05 p.m. At the final bus stop that would take me from the subway to the airport, I looked skyward to see thousands of black birds flying toward the south. It was amazing -- the sky was dotted with them from one horizon to the other.

birds flying south for the winter - thousands were in the sky horizon to horizon

 I arrived at the airport with twenty minutes to spare only to see that the arrival time for her flight was delayed to 6:46! I waited patiently until her plane finally arrived. People from other flights besides hers were entering the waiting area with small suitcases, or in many cases, only a small carry on bag. Not Ruth. She appeared lugging behind her two large suitcases plus two carry on bags. After putting on her gloves, scarf, and hat we trudged outside into the coooolllllddd to the bus stop and were fortunate to find one that had just arrived. We gratefully got on the bus and rode to its endpoint, Kobanya Kispest, where we caught the subway that took us to Ferenciek ter where we waited for a bus to take us home. Fortunately a bus arrived in a few minutes and we were on our way home! I heated up a chicken dish I had prepared and we had a late dinner followed by Ruth unpacking. She filled my kitchen with many hard to find items, so I'm all set for the next several months.


December 17, 2010: While I was eating breakfast, Ruth packaged some packets of peanut brittle that I would give to my fellow teachers today. She helped herself to a few of the smaller pieces and after a few minutes discovered that the stickiness of the peanut brittle had pulled off one of the caps to her teeth. A great way to start her trip to Hungary! At any rate, I went off to school while Ruth rested trying to get over jet lag. 

Today's lessons ended what will probably be the last teachable day of the calendar year -- the boys were just not in the mood to study, but I managed to get some things done. I also arranged via Fekete Kati an appointment with a dentist for Ruth so that her cap can be reglued to her tooth. Then it was off to my Friday Hungarian lesson. I returned home exhausted, but ready to enjoy the weekend with Ruth.


Upon entering my apartment, I could see that Ruth had been hard at work decorating my apartment. We even have a small Christmas tree!

She also had been busy vacuuming the apartment (even though I had done it a couple of days ago) and she decided to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom. After I moved the furniture, we decided to go out for dinner, but she said that she needed to use the curling iron on her hair before we could go. As soon as she plugged it in, it blew the fuses for all the electricity in the apartment! So, I had to call Fekete Kati again with my second problem in a day. Kati called me back to talk me through how to switch the fuses and in no time at all, the electricity was restored in my apartment. What a great source of comfort it is to have Kati's help.


Ruth and I got on the bus downtown and had a great dinner at my favorite restaurant. After that it was off to the Christmas festival where Ruth bought some jewelry and some straw Christmas ornaments to add to her collection. I also found a stall that sells delicious looking stuffed cabbage. 

Stuffed Cabbage for sale at the Winter Festival

And another one where men were forging hot iron to make iron pieces.

forging iron at Winter Festival

Ruth carefully browsed in all the stalls and after that we went to the Strudel House for some dessert. This time I tried the sour cherry with poppy seed strudel and Jack was right -- the taste cannot be explained. It certainly tasted like sour cherries but there was an additional flavor that added to the deliciousness of the strudel. After that, it was back home. On the way, Ruth wanted her picture taken with the bronze soldier that faces St. Stephen's Basilica. 

Ruth and friend at St. Stephen's Mall

And so ended our first evening on the town in Budapest.