Diane's Review

This is Diane, and you can get my thoughts today.  I have been busy.  First it was unpacking all the clothes.  Then it was cleaning up the house, and figuring out laundry and buying groceries, and cooking.   All the things I had taken for granted at home.

Across one of the famous bridges

I will say that our traveling went more smoothly than I thought it would.  Some of us were a little nauseated when we landed in Frankfurt because the ride was a little bumpy and a little long.  We persevered until we got to Budapest, Hungary.  That is the closest big airport to Oradea.  We spent the day and night there.  It was interesting, since Hungarian is not like any language I've ever seen, but many people spoke English, and signs were in English.  We had a very comfortable hotel, too.  Our view was nice, especially after we had all gotten some sleep.

Sleep!

Big boys need to play too

Local neighborhood playground

Budapest hotel view

Now we are settled in our little home.  We're doing okay most of the time.  Sometimes the little things are annoying.  Sometimes we don't have hot water.  We thought we had figured the machine out, then yesterday it looked like it was working, but the water never got hot.  Today it has been fine.  The washing machine is kind of small.  It holds six kg.  I'm pretty sure the one in Austin holds more than that.  The drying rack, that Sam posted a picture of, is handy, but clothes dryers, even my electric one, are handier.  Apparently, we drink about six liters of water a day.  We have to buy our drinking water, though, and we don't have a car, yet, so that has meant going to the store a little more often.  In general, not having a car means going to the store more often because we can only buy what our hands can carry.  Oh, well.  Grocery shopping has been challenging at times, as well, since the labels are not usually in English.  Sometimes there is Russian or Ukrainian, and I can figure it out.

Walking everywhere has provided us with exercise.  Yesterday, we went to the zoo, then walked downtown.  We took a bus back home, but I had to go to the store again.  I walked more than 20,000 steps yesterday.