Szekesfehervar

2/23/12
We decided that we would leave the mission home and head down to our apartment in Szekesfehervar, (Sai-kesh-fe-hair-var) as soon as we were through with breakfast, but another couple that had been here for a month, was back to Buda to apply for their visas, and the Assistants to the president decided that we could apply for ours at the same time. That was quite a process! It took forever to fill out the forms, which they had at the mission home. Then we had to go to the mall to the photo booth to get our pictures. It's funny that you have to come with pictures because they take some at the visa office and made me pull my hair away from my face. Next month we'll have to go back to the visa office for more official business, as do all the missionaries that come here. What a big job to have to keep on top of all that!
Szekesfehervar is not as big as Budapest, but has about 120,000 people. The missionaries help in an English class and the teacher, who is not Mormon, but does tours of the city, is going to give us a tour tomorrow. This city was one of the last stands of the Germans in WWII and all but the medieval and Baroque buildings in the old town were destroyed. The rest of the city is described in our tour book as "bland" and probably refers to the huge, cement apartment buildings the Communist put up all over, during the Soviet's rule. (We live on the 8th floor of one of them.) It is in the region called Northern Transdanubia and borders with Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. We also are on the calendar to speak in the Around Budapest region and Southern Transdanubia.
Our apartment is sobering. It was used by the young elders and is filled with the cast-offs of all the sets of elders that have lived here. After we first saw it, we went to the store to do The Grocery Shop, and I was feeling a little down. Then I kept picturing some of the places that Ryan stayed in on his mission. This is far from primitive, but it is plenty seedy. There is some problem with the pipes, so we have to be very careful to keep both the toilet room and bathroom doors shut or the place smells like an outhouse. But I woke up this morning and remembered that we can find another place and I felt a lot better. After we look around, we may decide to stay. I hope that we figure out what we are going to do quickly so we can unpack!