Week 8

Why hello again! A little silly to be posting so soon after the last one, but I do have a few events to chronicle.

First, two anecdotes I forgot from the most recent post.
-When we arrived at Aqualand and English-speaking couple called Megan on the phone, he told us about the couple who was also staying in the hostel that night. "Don't worry, they are educated, so you will be able to communicate with them." What did this end up meaning? That they were American. We kind of got a kick out of this.

-In my lit class the other day, we were talking about something random, as we often/always do. Somehow, the professor got on the topic of language learning or curse words or something, and asked us if we had learned the "four-letter words" in Hungarian yet. Most of us said no, and he recommended that we do so as soon as possible, because he believes that learning the worst words in a language gives you a sort of intimacy with the language and makes acquiring it easier. We sort of looked at him blankly...expectantly. He says, "Of course, it's not my place to tell you..." Pause. One girl, Monica, asks "Isn't the word for wooden spoon a bad word?" He fails to confirm this, but instead uses it as a foundation. "Okay, the word for wooden spoon in Hungarian is fakanál...if you take off the -kanál part, and add -s, that makes a dirty word. [Pause] In Hungarian, f-a-s is the same as p-r-i-c-k in English." OMG, the best giggle. He actually spelled both words out. It was a hoot.

Okay, so the days since Friday. On Saturday, (HALLOWEEN), I stayed in and worked most of the day. After waiting around to hear the result of the rugby game, I went for my first run in several days, then got ready to go out to dinner. I wasn't planning on dressing up, but everyone else was, so after my shower, I put on my flannel and my rainbow belt and went as a Vermonter. Har har. It would have kind of worked except (unbeknownst to me) Allie and Tasha were dressing up as farmers--I just sort of blended in.

This photo is from later, courtesy of Miss Alli Friedzz, but the only one of my costume. Here I am also rocking the stereotypically Vermont socks and sandals...



Audrey, Sam, Tasha, Allie and I went to the Hummus Bar for dinner. Yum.

Evidence of Halloween in Budapest.






I managed to get falafel there...I LOVE falafel, but every place that has falafel here also has gyros, and, as I don't really cook meat for myself and gyros are SO GOOD, I can nearly never resist the meat option. This time, though, I did, and got the hummus complete platter.



We then went to Hősök ter (Hero's Square), for the "Pumpkin Fest" that dear Kata told us about. The website I linked to particularly amused us...it says to bring your own pumpkin, then also says you can come and not bring a pumpkin, or just not come at all. Funny joke, lalalalalala. Anyway, this fest was pretty lame...just a bunch of carved pumpkins set up around the square. However, this lameness was kind of cool from a cultural standpoint--the Hungarians were SO INTO the pumpkins and taking pictures of them. For Americans carved pumpkins are NBD, but Hungarians think it's cool and weird. I even found a YouTube documentation, in two (2) parts. They're just jack-o-lanterns, guys! Tasha kept saying that she felt so bad for the kids there... "If they knew what they were missing..."







Friends dressed up.



Sunday, I didn't leave the building, but successfully studied for art history, wrote my art history paper, and avoided studying for history. Must do that today.

Today, Monday, I did a big grocery shop. I have class in half-an-hour, then will fill out my paper with real sources from the CIEE library, supplement my Tesco shopping with a Spar run, and then memorize the history of Central Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th century! Oof.

Midterm Schedule:
Tuesday, Nations in the Crossroads of History, Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
Wednesday, Contemporary Cultural Trends in Central Europe and 19th and 20th century Hungarian Art (and paper due)
Thursday, Hungarian

Altogether, it's not too bad (one of my classes doesn't have a midterm, and nothing is very hard), but definitely tedious and unfun. I'm looking forward to midterm week being over--this weekend will be very freeing!

Thanks for reading!

Big love,
Avery