weekend fun (and a little stress)

I love weekends, and this one was especially good! On Friday Heather and I met up with a new friend of ours, Aaron, in the city. He introduced us to some of his friends and some really cool places in the city. It's kind of mind-blowing to realize you're in an open air restaurant in Budapest talking to people from Canada, Germany, and Lithuania. Very cool.
Saturday we cooked for Austin's birthday, and I have to say Heather and I did a pretty good job. Plus, we introduced Minkee to macaroni and cheese!
Yesterday we tried another fun place, a park just down the road from us. Apparently Beethoven used a house there for a summer home or something. Anyway, it was gorgeous. And it became highly entertaining when the frisbee and football came out. It's so strange how we take certain things for granted. For instance, I don't know a single man in America who doesn't know how to throw a football at least passably well. That clearly is not the case in Hungary! Austin started throwing around with some Hungarian guys near us, and it was obvious they had no clue how to do it. :) One of them spoke a little English, so we got the chance to explain why we're in Hungary while we taught them how to hold a football! It was a fun way to spend a gorgeous day.

So this has been stressing me out a bit, and I know that you guys are faithful in prayer. You may know that the dollar recently hit an all time low. I'm working to stay on top on my budget and spend my money wisely, but it is frustrating. As an example, the amount of money I pay for rent each month is 60,000 forint. Today, that equals $341. A year ago, that would have been less than $300. Obviously, this is really affecting my budget. I also recently discovered that the rules for overseas ATM use have changed, and I now pay additional service fees on everything I withdraw. I used my card last week for $90 and paid $12 extra in fees. I'm really frustrated with that, and I hope to call my bank this week and see if anything can be arranged. Please pray for mercy from Wachovia, or a new bank to switch to! :) Most importantly, please pray that all my financial needs will be met, that people will be faithful to their pledges, and that I will be a wise steward of what has been given to me.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate your prayers.