Classmates living in other countries

Monterey High School Class of '65

Living in Hungary with Larry Ewing

Larry Ewing wife Melinda and her mother.

Melinda's mother visited us for two weeks 2 weeks ago. We had snow last Sunday and snow again last night. It gets dark a little after 4 in the evenings. Our building is the light colored building to the left of Melinda's mother. Our building is 100 years old with 14 foot ceilings. We brought our borders and material from Texas for the drapes. Europeans don't have closets so they use wardrobe cabinets. Very rarely are the inside of the flats painted because of the expense, but we Americans like our colors! After living in our house for 30 years, it is really a change to live in a building community!!!

The commode is in a separate room from the bathroom. Our washer and dryer is "one" unit, very interesting. Sometimes it runs for 4 hours, again very interesting! Every day presents a new challenge in a country where only 19% of the people speak another language. The other language is usually German, some French, some Russian, Italian, and Spanish but more and more the younger people are learning English.

Thank you Larry so much for sharing with us. I know that very few if any have been to Hungary and it is really neat to see what it is like there.

This is a typical scene taken in October. We had a nice fall with blue skies but now the "gray" days have set in and it will be gray and overcast most of the winter. It is really a contrast to "sunny" Lubbock. The countryside is beautiful and the trees (which we don't have in Lubbock) were awesome in color. The folk dancer in the white shirt and red apron is the daughter of our language teacher in the earlier picture. They are big in tradition and the 1 hour dance they performed was 500 years old that came from a village in Hungary.

The building below is the city hall. It is nest to our park where we live. We live right on the historic walking district. It is filled with cobble stones and flower markets.

How the Lord is using Larry Ewing.

Living in Batam, Indonesia with Dan Butler

I ask Dan what he was doing there and this was his answer.
I have lived outside of the US for the most part since about 1997, including Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Nigeria, Germany, St. Croix (USVI), and England. I work in the oil and gas industry. Up until April 2007, I worked for a company that built refineries and gas plants. I now work for McDermott building offshore oil and gas platforms. Tammi and I met in Singapore and have been married for over 8 years. I have one son and 3 grandchildren from a previous marriage. Tammi and I don’t have any kids and are thoroughly happy spoiling those of others.

We plan to retire in Southeast Asia, probably the condo (previously mentioned) in Batam and another place in Singapore.

The landscape here is rather boring and I am not particularly good at remembering to take pictures. Having said that, I will “try” to get a few pictures. You have to remember this is a third world country and very poor by American standards. The minimum wage here is about $85 per month and many people do not even get that. Because of the low labor, things here are generally much cheaper than the US or even Singapore.

Batam is a small Indonesian island 45 minutes by ferry south of Singapore and located almost directly on the equator with a population of about 1.5 million. We have two seasons here hot and rainy and hot and more rainy. Outside of work I play golf on several of the nice courses around the island. Normal green fees for non-members (including a cart and caddy) are around $35 on weekdays and $45 on weekends. A couple of the courses include monkeys that will steal you cell phone from the golf cart if you leave it unattended. There is also the occasional 4-6 foot monitor lizard wandering across the fairway.

Tammi and Dan live in a company furnished 3 bedroom western style house. We bought two condos on a golf course recently and are currently remodeling into one large condo.