Rhythm

I hope you all got a chance to see my photos! It's been a few days since I last posted any substantial literary content. I think the reason is because I've lost my initial "AHHHH BUDAPEST!" feeling and things are falling into a rhythm. A good rhythm.

I feel very comfortable in our apartment. After the initial shock of having no internet, phone, or bed for me (the internet and phone really didn't bother me much, actually, but Jack is paying through the nose to call home on a cell phone), we've both been realizing what we do have here. It's a spacious place to live, and we each have our own room. The realization that I do in fact have a bed was a blessing. The kitchen is well equipped with a four-burner stove, lots of dishes and cooking utensils (including a few which we have no idea what are used for), a fridge, microwave, cupboard space... all the necessities of a good dinner.

My room is great. It has a matching furniture set of a big sleeper-sofa and two big armchairs. A very large armoire covers the far wall, in which I've got more than enough space to put stuff, and have found pillows and a nice red blanket. The bed goes away in the day, making a great place to host company. Oh, there's a fantastic rug on the floor, as well.

We haven't done any very touristy things over the past few days. We've both been staying up late doing various things. Jack usually talks to his Mom or Chelsea at night, and I often curl up on a sofa with my Hungarian textbook learning how to talk to girls - thanks, Mom! The internet that we have here is a plug-in stick which has a slow connection, so I don't use it often, mainly because it can't do anything besides check e-mail and post to my blog.

We've been cooking, and the past two nights have been successes. First we made chicken on the pan (egg, flour, chicken + hot = tasty!) and pasta with a mushroom sauce from the store. The night after, we tried the remaining chicken with a wine sauce and rice with veggies, but neither of us had ever done anything with wine in cooking. I just tried marinating chicken strips for a while and throwing it on the pan. It came out purple and tasted like it was boiled. The veggies and rice were good, though.

In the mornings we go to the Academy to practice (if we get up early enough). Waking up is difficult because we get very little natural light in the place. All the windows face an interior courtyard, and there are three floors above us, so most morning light gets blocked. That's the only complaint I have about the place.

Our neighbors seem to be all but non-existant. In the past week, we've seen only two people coming in or out. When we come in at night, there are usually no lights from any of the windows. This all only means I feel no guilt when I play trombone in my room :-)

If we don't wake up early enough, we go to the Academy in the afternoon. Hopefully there is a room or two we can use, but often not. School isn't even in session yet, and people are there practicing all the time. It's incredible. I hope I can be as dedicated as most people here. I hope I can get as good as them, too. I've been hearing some incredible trombone players over the past few days.

Today we got back into tourist mode a little. Realizing that it was Sunday and there were no practice rooms available at the Academy, we thought about what else we could do. One of us had the idea to go to Hősük tere (Heroes' Square), a famous area in Budapest. The big eye-catcher there is Millenary Monument. Pictures to follow, but here's what Lonely Planet says about it:

"A 36m-high pillar backed by colonnades to the right and left, the Millenary Monument defines Heroes' Square. About to take off from the top of the pillar is the Angel Gabriel, who is holding the Hungarian crown and a cross. At the base are Árpád and the six other Magyar chieftains who occupied the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century. Beneath the colums and under a stone tile is the nation's solemn memorial - an empty coffin representing one of the unknown insurgents from the 1956 uprising [against the Soviet occupation]."

To the north of the square is the Museum of Fine Arts, our real destination for the day. They have a big El Greco exhibit going on right now. While we didn't get there today, it will definitely be on our to-do list in the near future. The parts of the museum we did see included a full floor of paintings from Spanish, Italian, French and Dutch schools. I can't talk like I know anything about them, but I did really like the Spanish part. There we a lot of religious paintings, especially of Mary, of course, and Francis of Assisi. I didn't know he had the Stigmata. There was one in the Italian section that really grabbed me. It was a very small portrait of the face of Christ with the crown of thorns. It might have been the way the light was painted on his face or the smoothness of the texture, but it stuck me as a very real, human face of fear.

We're going out to meet our new friend Nikolai, who plays violin and speaks five or six languages and, needless to say, has a huge head of hair.