Gitta, our exchange manager here, is a saint.  I hope she doesn't hate us.

To start, out of about 25 students, 3 didn't have their luggage arrive with them.  They still don't have it, except for one (more on that below).

As noted earlier, on our first outing, one of our bunch got pick-pocketed, with all that entails.

Meredith, the American manager on our end, came down with the flu yesterday.

Gitta arranged for a bunch of us to get SIM cards (and about a half dozen of us to get phones, and the SIM cards don't work.  Gitta arranged for all of us to go back to where she bought them, after talking to the retailer to make sure they could fix it.

The retailer was closed.

Gitta got everyone but me, as it's near where the students are staying.  She tried to call me, but my phone was dead.  So she waited until I showed up.  And then she took me to a Vodafone dealer, who tried to explain that due to a Vodafone glitch all the SIMs she bought weren't working.  So it took about 1/2 hour to get me squared away, and the rest of our group needs to do the same.

While we were squaring this away, Gitta got a phone call saying that one of the students' luggage arrived, but the facility where they were staying was refusing to take delivery.

You can't pay this woman too much.  And I'm sure they aren't.

MY day was pretty good... at the end of it all, I got a cell phone that worked.  Then I took a long walk, up to St Istevan (St. Stevens), then across the Chain Bridge, down along the Danube to the Elizabeth Bridge, and then back home.  Along the way, I passed a fantastic "pass the hat" trio -- two guitars and a bongo -- playing a combination of U.S. hits and Western/Hungarian fusion.  They guy playing "lead" on a mediocre Ephiphone accoustic was AMAZING.  I'm not sure I've ever seen such skilled and aggressive picking technique.  He made that guitar sing.

Talked with Adam by Skype tonight... am excited to have my family with me in a couple of days!