Today is something like National Garbage Day in Budapest. Overnight, mountains of bulky trash dumps have appeared all over the city. This also brings out the scavenger in all of us. I saw cars driving around slowly with trailers attached to them, with people just picking stuff up. It's the ultimate craigslist/freewheel smörgåsbord. I myself found an old, half-used photo album, with someone's history inside. The paper is still good, and quite nice, so I think I'll use it to send letters. Jack picked up four mismatched, but serviceable, chairs for our potluck tomorrow. There were trucks driving around all over the place picking stuff up, but the job is so huge, I think it will take them a few days. In the meantime, smaller trash is migrating and creating a mess.

Besides clambering over trash all day, I did take a quick trip to Moszkva tér, the big junction at the end of the M2 metro line. Not much to see but people running around. It was a beautiful, sunny day though, and it was really nice to spend time outside, no matter where.

Tomorrow we host our international potluck. We hope it will be AWESOME! That is all.

It's 11am EST and no comments from Margaret?!?!?! What's wrong, sis?!

Everybody, a new photo album awaits if you click here.

Nagycsarnokban (at the Great Market Hall)

Sometimes I marvel about how forgetful I can be. Remember my big success of last week? Finally getting approval for a residence permit? I went to South Buda (the middle of nowhere) to pick it up today, and when the man at the desk asked for my passport, I realized that I'd left all my documents at home. Why? I have no reason. This compounds with forgetting my backpack and then a book in Risza on Monday night, my trombone in Frici Pa's a few weeks ago, my music for a lesson last week, my hat numerous times in various places here - the one I bought here because I left my first one in the Taxi on Staten Island before flying to Budapest - on which one flight I left ALL my books on Hungarian language... the list is endless, and without joking, I am sure that I've forgotten a bunch of things from it.

I would one day walk away without my legs if they weren't so attached. I know that sounds difficult, but somehow I would do it. I'm very scared of losing my mittens, now that the string running between them through my jacket sleeves has broken. I look like I'm in kindergarten again, but it does its job very well. I know I told everybody not to worry about me and that I'd be fine here, but I'm beginning to doubt that myself.

However, I remember the prices on food items I bought last week.

Today's adventure: shopping at the Great Market Hall, and trying one of Gusztáv Hőna's Grandmother's recipes for fish soup! The Hall is located south of us, Pest side and on the river. And it is huge, needless to say. There are hundreds of stalls, ranging from fruits and veggies to pastries to wines to meats (all parts of meats) to tourist trap trinkets... It's great just going there for the sight of it all. We wanted to pick up some fresh fish, but of course bought some other things besides, like apples and a cucumber. I bought a cluster of dried hot peppers for myself. I nibbled on one today, and they have some kick. Will go great with almost any sauce or soup, I think.

We started on dinner after I got home from a few good hours practice and study at the academy, during which I had a complete conversation in Hungarian while only stumbling a little for words. Practicing from my textbook is like a hobby for me now. I carry it everywhere and whenever I have a spare time, I fill in the blanks. I get the same feeling doing a Sokoku or a crossword.

The recipe involves layering fish, potatoes and onions in the pan, barely covering it with water (salt and pepper, of course) and letting it slowly reach boiling. Then you spice it up with some sweet paprika powder and toss in more veggies and stuff. I think the reason you're supposed to layer it is because otherwise little bits of cooked fish fall off and drift around, and give the whole soup a different texture... because that's what happened BUT IT STILL TASTED GREAT! A success in Hungarian cooking (but will do better next time).

While the soup was cooking, we brought in the armchairs from my room and watched Tropic Thunder. In comfort.

We have our first international potluck dinner on Saturday. Including all the people from our Hungarian class, we should have about 12 people here, I think, and maybe 8 countries represented. Everybody is hopefully bringing food authentic to their own country. I think we might make a pork stew or something. Probably more shopping at the market. It's the only grocery store I feel comfortable in :-)

Off to pick up my residence permit. I have my passport this time, but will likely forget something else. Like my pants.

Szentendre és Vác

On Saturday we took our first excursion outside Budapest. It's hard to believe we've lived here for a month and have never left the city - a startling reminder to get our noses out of the music stands. My first look outside gave me only a little hope for good weather. It looked very much like a normal overcast day in Budapest. I packed my French Woods backpack (which is unfortunately unraveling in parts) with a sandwich, notebook, guidebooks and some food from Margaret's gift from Heaven. Then Jack and I headed to the HÉV station (commuter rail) in Batthyány tér, which has trains every 20 minutes that terminate in Szentendre, our final destination.

The ride there was pretty uneventful. I was hoping for some good views of the Danube as we traveled north, but got mostly plain scenery and housing and graffiti (there's quite a lot of that). We did pass through a village a few stops from Szentendre which reminded me greatly of La Louvière, where Margaret lived in Belgium. During the ride I looked through my Lonely Planet guidebook on Hungary and found some points of interest to visit while there. Szentendre is an old city rich in art. It was home to Celts and then Romans, who built a fort on top of the hill in the town, which now does not exist. Serbian Orthodox Christians settled here around the 14th century, and built many orthodox churches in the area that still exist today.

Unfortunately, all the churches we found were locked for some reason, but the outsides were still something to look at. We just had a great time exploring the place, walking around most of the time we were there. The sun gradually burnt off the heavy morning fog and haze that had me worried earlier, and around noon we were left with spectacularly good weather. One of the best views we had was at the top of Castle Hill where St. John's sits. There is a large square there and we had lunch, partially provided by Margaret, on a bench there.

When we had circled the town and gotten well oriented, we went to the Vajda Múzeum, where we thought we would see works by Vajda János, a famous Hungarian painter. As it happened, Vajda was only the name of the museum, and the works inside where those of some contemporary artists. There was one painting that I recognized as a pun on Hungarian words. It was a surreal biblical painting, with Adam and Eve and a serpent and a tree and sky and such, but the center of the painting was not an apple... but a tomato. "Why a tomato," you ask? The word tomato is paradicsom in Hungarian. Paradise is paradicsomi. Funny, huh?
After that, we went underground into the Nemzeti wine cellar for a tasty experience. Paying 1500 forints (about $6) each, we got a tour of the cellar and our guide introduced us to the tastes of five different Hungarian wines, with each lots of information on each, from ingredients to history to processes in their creation to characteristics of their tastes. Really fun.

Around 2pm, we'd felt like we'd exhausted our time walking around Szentendre. It's a cute town, and if you wanna spend a lot of money, that's a good place to go. Jack suddenly suggested we go to another town for the rest of the day. That's a very un-Jack-like thing to say, so I took it as fate that we do it. The bus station was right next to the HÉV stop, so we trotted over (sprinting across a highway) and hopped on a bus to Vác, which left thirty seconds later. We weren't sure on how long it would take or how to get home, but those paths presented themselves along the way. The bus ride cost us 600 forints without our student discount (we forgot to mention that we were diákok). The ride over was very nice, with some good views of the hills. A bridge took us to Szentendre Island, which is as flat as Kansas. The final bus stop was actually on the island, and we took a ferry to Vác. I met a nice cat at the ferry station. I named it Húbá, after my favorite comic, Calvin and Hobbes, which in Hungarian is Kásmér és Húbá. It was a very quiet day, a great change from the hustle of Budapest. I really enjoyed the ten minutes just sitting on the ferry before it crossed. Totally still.

Vác was a pleasure, and I complimented Jack many times on his spontaneity. We found the train station first, to make sure of the last ride to Budapest. It left at 11pm, so we had plenty of time to explore. I caught up on churches, visiting the Dominican, the Piarist and the great Vác Cathedral, which wasn't very pretty on the outside. After annoying the locals, we took a walk by the Danube and met many friendly dogs. One big dog, named Mira, jumped on and kissed an old woman shortly after meeting us. Her face was priceless, a mixture of surprise, pleasure and disgust. I wish I'd taken a photo, but I think I'll remember for a long time.

We also found a great boardwalk through a marsh, but there wasn't much life around except for a few birds. The sun cut through the trees as we were leaving. Walked up the river a bit and saw swans. I kept thinking, "Hey, I'm in Hungary. Wow!"

My guidebook recommended Haláskert as a good place to eat dinner, and we'd spent so little that day that we decided it was alright to eat at the restaurant by the river. The place was empty the entire time we were there, which surprised me because of how fancy it was. Maybe people are usually driven away by the horrible music we endured. Much of the time we listened to American 80's and horrible Hungarian covers of American 80's. I'm not saying they're horrible because they're different - they're horrible because they sound really, really bad. I could have done a better job singing from a dictionary to GarageBand.

But back to the meal - 5 stars! We started with some forralt bort (hot wine) because the temperature dropped very quickly once the sun had gone down, and we were beginning to go numb. Forralt bort is the european, or at least Hungarian, equivalent of hot apple cider. I had a trout with dill sauce and pillow-type things (no idea what they were) which sort of released hot flavor when I bit into them. The fish was wonderfully cooked, spiced with paprika and red peppers pieces. We even topped it all off with dessert. "Szép Heléná" was the dessert that launched a thousand wight-loss programs. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, real cream and slices of pear and coconut on top. Ooooooooooooo...

My meal, including tip, cost less than $15. I felt like a criminal leaving the place.

Thus ended our fantastic adventure of the day... after, of course, some confusion at the station, because we didn't speak Hungarian very well. We got to Budapest at around 9, time enough to go to the café and upload all the photos that I hope you all have seen (check the sidebar).

Today - just practicing, studying, tea and typing. Sabine Meyer, a world-class clarinetist, plays at the Academy at 7:30 tonight. I get to watch for free, and I'm getting there an hour early to make sure of a good seat.

Szentendre és Vác - great post coming!

... but it's going to take a while to write about. You can look at the photos in the meantime. Check the sidebar on the right, you'll get an idea.

Another fantastic day! Hungarian in the morning, as usual for penték. Uneventful.

After class, we tried shopping at the farmers' market in Hunyadi tér. With ease, we bought egy kilo burgonya, egy paprika, ket hagymak, és sajt paprikás (a kilo of potatoes, a red pepper, two onions and cheese with spicy paprika mixed in). Nagyon finom!

Then I went on an adventure scarier than it sounds up front. I tried to find a place to give me a haircut. My head has felt as shaggy as it was in high school in the past weeks. My command of Hungarian so far has me able to have basic conversations with people about how things are going, what they are doing, where they are going, etc. Also, I can shop with relative ease and express what and how much of something I would like. I know basic compliments and words useful in any circumstance - thank you, excuse me, good day, etc.

I know absolutely no words for describing a haircut. I was determined to avoid the 'Amerikoi' hair salon, though, so I took a risk and found a cozy little place on Nagymező and Andrassy next to the operaház. Walking through the door, I put my entire trust in the short red-haired woman I saw. She spoke no English. Oooooh boy.

Through lots of gesturing and simple language, I said I would like a haircut and asked how much it would cost and that I would like it rövid (short). The radio played a lot of American music as she washed and snipped, and also the Hungarian national anthem, which I find very stirring. It's a minor hymn with great modulations. Fifteen minutes later, my handsome head was brushed off and I was paying for the half-kilo of hair on the floor (she made the joke). YAAAY!

Two more highlights for today. First being the arrival of the beautiful package Margaret sent me. The postman at the Posta told me that the notice I got today was actually the second they had sent. Somehow I never got the first one a week ago. I carried the beautifully decorated box home like a baby, gently and with occasional petting, and maybe a sniff or two to get a hint as to what was inside, which was this: lots and lots of American food items, from chocolate to maple candy to mac&cheese and more - and lots and LOTS of awesome tea, which I will savor and enjoy for at least the next week.

I took some of the tea to the academy, stopping along the way to buy a couple mugs. On the 4th floor nook (which I will photograph soon) I found Balázs (who I will photograph myself with soon) playing games on his phone. We spent the whole afternoon and evening hanging out. He speaks broken English from learning years ago and then forgetting much, and I think he likes to practice again. I usually try saying things in Hungarian, and he will respond in English. Eventually we settle in English, a good contrast with Renátá, who seems dead set on teaching me Hungarian and speaks to me only in it.

So, for the whole afternoon we just sat in the nook and talked. I gave him a mug and we heated some water in the industrial electric kettle kept in the trombone room. It heats about a liter of water to boiling in about 2 minutes - incredibly fast. We shared some great American chai green tea, and he added honey from his hometown of Mezőhegyes in southern Hungary. Good stuff. I am rapidly becoming a fan of buying local and homemade.

Gusztáv (Guszti) even came and talked with us for half an hour after his lessons for the day finished. He told me about visiting the States, and especially Boston, where Tom Everett is a good friend of his! I told him I played in the Harvard Jazz Band for a year, which Tom directs. He got very exciting and told me stories about when Tom came to Budapest, and when Guszti went to Boston and all kinds of good stuff. During his discourse, he even gave me the recipe for one of his grandmother's fish soups! We're gonna try it this weekend.

And that is how life progresses for me these days. I spend most of my time in the warmth of 'the nook' or the studio, studying, practicing and talking. Tomorrow Jack and I go to Szentendre, a tourist trap on the Danube bend north of Budapest. I hope the weather will be good, but the forecast is snow. We shall see.

I am also having a great time looking at the daily astronomy pictures.

P.S. All the Facebook ads on the right side of my screen are now in Hungarian.

Just a photo

This is from an evening walk I took on Castle Hill a few days ago.

Today I spent a lot of time hanging out in the trombone room, too. I talked with Balázs and Renátá a lot. We all had lessons today. It seems the studio is all beteg - colds and the flu, including Guszti (the affectionate abbreviation we all use for him. It's common for older people to get this). I've recorded my last five lessons and have written notes on all of them, and looking over them I am seeing fast improvements in overall sound. It's pretty incredible. I love having two lessons a week.

I've also been invited to participate in two events coming up. The first and foremost on my mind is a competition in April 4-7, held in the Hungarian city of Debreccen. I'm not expecting to go past the first round, but it will be exciting preparing to compete. The piece to learn is Bozza's Ballade, a difficult piece that's been on my to-do-(someday) list for a while. Three orchestral excerpts, also. Wagner's Ride, the Tuba Mirum from Mozart's Requiem... and I don't know the third. If I prepare well for this, it will be a great accomplishment in itself.

The other event I have few details on, but I think it's a trombone choir competition for the 'Visegrád' countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland). Not sure where it's held (maybe Visegrád!), and I know I can't compete because I'm not a Hungarian citizen, but it will be fun to go! Maybe I can ask Jack to compete for me. He is a Polish citizen, after all :-)

After another great lesson, Renátá and I went Risza for a drink. Risza is right across the street, and remarkably cheap for its location. Renátá most times speaks to me only in Hungarian (and doesn't dumb it down much, I think), but somehow I usually understand what she's asking or talking about. It's very interesting. I'll just catch a word or two in a fluent sentence, piece it together real fast and answer with something, even though it's often nem tudom or nem ertem (I don't know/understand). I bought her a Dreher and she helped me with my Hungarian for an hour. We got through a lot, and I felt really good at the end.

We paid Émoké next month's rent today, and gave back the little internet stick we've been trying to use. Now the only internet access I have is walking to this café. I'm not as concerned about it as Jack is, because I can write e-mails and blog entries without having to be online, but he needs to call home every night, so it's a pain for him.

Don't worry, I'll still post as often as I can, Margaret.

Sok Puszi!

Tuesday was a mix which turned horrible around 4pm. Had a good, but short, run in the morning due to really bad weather and blisters acting up. Gotta break in my runners again. I also got two great hours of practice in before Kórus at noon. Met two more basses, Árpád and Matti, who were both very friendly and helpful. Árpád told me he likes to sing in kórus because, "the menu is good to look at." Heh heh. Hungarians cracking jokes in English. Almost as tacky as my Hungarian jokes.

(I'm trying to translate this one: Descartes walks into a bar, and the bartender asks if he'd like something to drink. Descartes replies, "I think not", and disappears!)

On my way home I decided to finally invest in a Hungarian dictionary which covers more than the basics of my phrasebook (which has proved invaluable during my time here). This is the point where my day goes from good to horrible.

I will make this very, very short because I don't want to re-live it.

1) I buy a big dictionary in Libra, a Hungarian chain bookstore, a branch of which is by the bus stop near our apartment. Mistake number one is realized halfway home, that it is only Hungarian to English, and I need both ways.

2) I go to return the book, and realize that I didn't have the receipt. I spend ten minutes checking pockets, but finally in defeat I buy the companion dictionary - English to Hungarian - another 4400 forints.

3) I find the first receipt in a puddle on my way home. With elation that I'll get my 8800 forints back and a more useful book, I return to Libra, only to be told...

4) Absolutely no returns on anything ever. Only exchange. Apparently this is the way most things are in Hungary.

I used the curse section of my phrasebook at that point. What am I gonna buy with 8800 (about 40 bucks) in a Hungarian bookstore?

I'll stop there because I'm getting angry thinking about that shopkeeper and that stupid little half-grin that said "I'm trying very hard not to laugh at you." I can understand that expression in any language. I showed up late to my philosophy class and spent the rest of the day cooling down. Music History with Paul Merrick is a good one for that, because he's very entertaining. He paces during the entire lecture, and frequently looks out the window in a kind of John Nash sorta way.

Let's go to my good day, shall we? It was today, Tuesday, 'Kedd' in Hungarian. Wednesday is the only day of the week of which the emigration office sees only students, and is has been on Wednesday for the last two weeks that I have gone there and walked away without a residence permit. I did my homework this week (and last week too, but no matter). As my previous entry says, I needed the signature of Émoké's parents in order to complete my application. I got her mother's a few days ago (Mrs. László also yelled at us in German, Hungarian and a little English for having clothes on the heater), along with an official document stating that the father was dead. At the office, when called to the window promptly at 8:30, I handed all the papers to the woman at the desk in a manner which demanded approval for a permit. Ten minutes later, with those same documents covered in ink stamps, I was whistling happy tunes to myself while shopping for cereal in the Tesco across the road. I go back next week to pick up my permit...

... Which is only useful if I get arrested, I think. But whatever.

The rest of my day was spent in the hársona (trombone) room at school. I've grown very comfortable there. I have bought some food for the community to compliment the stock of teas and mugs already there, and am now leaving my trombone there overnight so I don't have to lug it home. Today I made a copy of the room key (everyone in the studio has a key), and stayed in the room all afternoon and evening practicing trombone and piano, and studying Hungarian. I've gotten much closer with Balázs, Eszter and Renáta, the people I met on my first visit to the academy. Balázs is an extremely talented musician. He just won a brass competition hosted at Liszt Ferenc, and got a big scholarship. Eszter and Renáta are also killer players, and very sweet. While I had my nose buried in the book, they would frequently join me and check my work. We would find things to talk about (where are you from, what do you like to do, etc.) in Hungarian, and whenever I want to try words out, they help with pronunciation and grammar and such. If there is a single reason for me wanting to learn to speak better in Hungarian, it is so I can better communicate with these wonderful people.

Émoké visits Wednesday morning to collect rent (and bring joy and sunshine to our cloudy lives, needless to say). Must. Sleep. Now. I'm up way past my bedtime, which is now 10pm.

Jó éjszakát!

One Month Anniversary

Friday morning Hungarian class was cancelled due to lack of a professor. A wonderful surprise because Jack and I were not eager to talk about our hastily and poorly done homework. We found instead a great Farmer's Market stationed at Hunyadi tér, next to the old academy building where the class is. Friday morning will be our fresh food shopping day from here on.

Speaking of food, the big pot of chicken noodle soup Jack made a few nights ago is finally polished off. I took the bones off the leftover chicken, combined the meat with a mushroom sauce and put it over pasta. Tasted excellent, and made two meals! I've also done a bit of home improvement recently. I found a utensil hanger lying in one of the cupboards in the kitchen recently, and took the time to screw it into the wall. My big accomplishment was completely taking apart and cleaning an old Ikea lamp that we found in the apartment when we moved in. The contacts on two connections were badly corroded, so I stripped some of the wiring and tied the new wire on and presto! Let there be light! It took me three hours, but well worth the effort. Now I can study in my room instead of the cold kitchen.

This weekend marked our one month anniversary - in Hungary! To celebrate, Jack and I and a bunch of the international group went to Szimpla kértmozi, one of the cool clubs we've recently found. It's a favorite of students at the music academy, and also of Matthew DePasquale, our friend who did the Hungary program three or four years ago. He sent me a big e-mail a few weeks ago giving advice on everything from getting around to good food and nightlife. He told us that Fußball is a popular bar sport and to bring our game faces because people are serious about it.

For our elderly readers, Fußball (fooz-ball) is a table sport, like ping-pong or pool, but it mirrors soccer (world football). There are eight metal poles going across the table, with 4 handles on each side. On the pole are little plastic kickers, and you maneuver the little kickers to hit the little plastic ball on the table and... oh, just look at the picture.

Anyway, on Saturday night we found those serious players Matt told us about. Jack and I played against this Hungarian guy named Andrew who was good like nothing I've ever seen. The little players seemed to come to life and he moved. They would fake, dribble and pass just like real players. It was unreal. The biggest shock was that, instead of randomly trying to hit the ball up the field and hope to make a goal, he keep the ball in his possession and shoot FROM HIS DEFENSE! And most of the time, we would head the solid THUNK as it shot straight into the goal!

Jack got frustrated with this after a while, and took to twirling his players wildly, in hopes of getting lucky (me: "Jack, that's kind of a cheap tactic." Jack: "Where does it say I can't do this?"). Then Andrew told him (while making another goal) that some Hungarians take the game so seriously, they'll attack people they feel are being unsportsmanlike. When they play, it isn't for fun. It's for blood or money.

After that crushing defeat we thought it best to find another part of the club. Spent the rest of the night hanging out with Catrina (Portugal), Ide (Ireland), Harmon (Belgium) and Elisa (Italy). Good times!

I've started running in the mornings again. The last month of Hungarian living has left me with a little more heft that I had. Temperatures at 6am these days hovers around 0°C, but so far it's been ok. My runs follow the Danube, currently across the Széchenyi híd, up the river and back across the Margaret híd. A run past Parliament and I'm back. A hot shower and Mom's homemade oatmeal feel so good afterwards. I can feel it helping my lungs a great deal, too. I don't play like a 6-year old like last week anymore.

Off to Solfege class. Szia!

A Széchenyi Híd

This is the best photo ever taken of the Széchenyi Bridge. I live three blocks away from this, by the way.

Hungarian Bureaucrasy Strikes Back (again)

Jó reggalt, world! Been a while since you woke up to a new post, eh Margaret? Well, this one won't be particularly exciting, sorry. I haven't gone back into the Cave of Wonders yet, and haven't taken many exciting trips. The weather, on the other hand, cleared up a great deal yesterday, and the only clouds in the sky for a good while were those puffy white ones you make shapes out of. Unfortunately, I spent the good part of the day at the Emigration Office trying to obtain my residence permit. Remember I went last Wednesday, too. I obtained everything they asked for last week, and confidently handed the neat packet over the desk, clipped together with a few fancy-ish bindings, all the while thinking (POINT USA!).

There was, of course, one problem. It wasn't the office worker, who was a cutie and laughed when I cursed in Hungarian when she told me the problem. The problem was that the tulajdoni lap, a document that certifies that our landlord Emőke in fact own the apartment we are renting and allow us to stay there, had two other names listed besides hers. Her parents.

To save you the next ten minutes of confused exchanges that I wasted, I'll cut to the fat of it. To obtain a residence permit, I also need the signatures of Emőke's parents. Their birthdays are listed as 1926 and 1935, and I have no idea if they're even alive. Apparently the 'ancestral home' is an important concept in Hungary, and they have some kind of lifelong claim to the flat. The girl at the office told me that if they're dead, I don't need to get their signatures...

Which puts evil thoughts into my head... I think that, with our mostly uncaring and uncooperative landlord, it may in fact be easier for me to dispatch her parents than to get their signatures.

By the time I left the office after 3 hours, the clouds had come over the sky and the wind picked up. I've been wishing for a truly sunny day since I arrived here, and had just wasted it being told I need signatures from two possibly deceased 80-year-olds. Brilliant. I spent the afternoon salvaging some life and talking a walk around Castle Hill. The high point of this was getting a few OK sunset photos of stuff and a stunning photo of the Széchenyi bridge, just after watching the light on it flicker to life. I'll post it as soon as I find a decent internet connection. The evening was spent on a recording project I started recently. I'm attempting to record all four parts of a trombone quartet by Hidas Frigyes (lastname firstname in Hungarian). He's a very popular composer now, and Hőna as recommended him to me highly. Jack made some great chicken soup from a recipe his Dad sent.

Lesson today. Did I tell you I get two a week? It's wicked. OOOOH and tonight we go to the Palace of the Arts (look it up on Goodsearch for pictures - donate to St. Thomas in Winn!) to see the Philadelphia Orchestra play! Smetana, Beethoven, Sibelius (not symphony 2, sorry Mom) and Schubert. 300 Ft tickets and standing room only. Díák vagyok!

Sok Puszi!

Last night the sky was clearer than it's been since we got here. The moon was full, too, so I decided to take a walk and get photos. Unfortunately, all the lights on the Széchenyi bridge and Castle Hill and the Royal Palace seem to turn off at 12:30... just as I was about to take some great shots. Balszmák.

So I went back home and still felt like exploring. No roof access, I found out. I followed the stairs down instead of up and came to a gate barring entry to the basement of the apartments. Locked. I was about to turn back, when I saw the key to the gate hanging by a string on one of the iron bars. The next ten minutes were the scariest of my life. I tried the key on the lock, and yes, it sounded like a bone scraping on bloodstained metal. The stairs past the gate curved around on themselves, and the floor I eventually reached was covered with dust. The musty hall was eerily lit only by my camera. Each step I took was very quiet because of the soft floor. The hallway split and went two ways, and looking each way I saw yet another turn and plunge into darkness. And then...!

Then I went up the stairs and locked the gate behind me because I was so creeped out. The whole experience was the beginning of a horror flick where college students get killed in terrible ways while studying abroad. I'll go back soon and take some pictures, if I find the balls to do it.

Forgot to mention that I put more photos online. Check out Hungarian Album IV.

First Week of School!

I've completed my first full week at the Academy! Huzzah! Thursday was my first full lesson with Hőna (HOO-noh), and it took another good bite out of my ego. We worked for an hour on two exercises. His method is more like a regiment than a routine. I won't go into the details, for the sake of the lay-people reading this, but it is strict and it takes a lot of concentration, and every time I did part of it out of order or missed a bit, he would take time to explain again and again what needed to be done. At the end of my lesson I had a good idea of where I needed to go musically and what I have to do to get there.

I've been working on it every day, at least 2 or 3 hours each. Jack also took me to a huge sheet music store with lots of Hungarian publications. There's a lot of trombone books I've never seen before, and I'm eager to try them. I picked up a quartet and read through all the parts. It should sound pretty good together.

The weather here as been cloudy a good deal of the time. Over the past three weeks, I think we've had only 3 or 4 nice days. The sun broke out a little this morning, but unfortunately the practice room I chose had a great view of the neighboring wall. I'm currently in Szábadshag tér hoping that it will come again, but I think I'm going to be disappointed. Come hither, spring...

Here are two reasons I love this city. One is that the buildings are really interesting. Most residential buildings have architecturally similar with minor variances, but are usually different colors, mostly tan, brown, grey or yellow. See the pictures on Facebook for a few shots. The other reason is because I see dogs all the time. Szábadshag tér is like the Boston Common of dog walking. Today I've pet a golden, a huge St. Bernard (with some Newfie, I think), and it's just past one.


From the vague and repetitive CNN channel, I hear that Iceland has collapsed, people are still losing their jobs, half of Australia is on fire and the other half is flooding... and that Michael Phelpes smoked a pipe. It must be the apocalypse.

We tried getting our Residence Permits on Wednesday. It was an adventure in bureaucracy, shall we say? I'll just leave it at that, but add that NOW I am ready to reapply on Wednesday.

My keyboard is now formatted á la Magyarul, which means that Y and Z are switched, the keys by my right pinkie are accented vowels and I can't find the 'at' sign. I am still loving every second of my time here.

And the sun came out just as I typed that!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I found an e-mail from Nick, a director at Friends Music Camp, offering me a job this summer! I'm so happy to be going back to one of my favorite places in the world. Spending the summer with Margaret is going to be fun. We haven't had one of those together since... FMC 2öö4! (sorry about the accents, I can't find the number zero on this keyboard setup, either.)

Up for next week are concerts cheap and free, the exciting one being the Philly Orchestra playing at the stunning Palace of the Arts, of which I'll put pictures soon. Here's to you, good lookin'.

First Days of School

The 'post a comment' link is now working again! I have also edited some settings to allow posting even if you do not have a blogger account. This is great for Grandparents who wish to stay out of the blogosphere, but still would love to tell their Grandkids that they love them :-)

I've felt like a little kid going to first grade again. Monday was our first day of school, and little Jacek and I went off with smiles and Spiderman® lunch boxes filled with peanut butter and fluff to our first class at 10am - Hungarian for dummies.

(And just for the record, I was deprived of Fluffanutter as a child. I was also deprived of old Bugs Bunny cartoons, for which I am ignorant of a great deal of classical music. Thanks, cheapskates.)

(Just for the record, I really do have very loving parents.)

Anyway, we got there half an hour early, because we realized when trying to enter the locked and dark room that class actually starts at 10:30. Decided to walk around a bit, and found a cozy little English book store where I picked up a 2006 copy of the Lonely Planet guide to Budapest. I'm really excited about this, because it has great ideas for walking tours of the city. I plan to do a few this weekend if the weather is good.

Our classmates for Hungarian seem to be our classmates for a few other classes, as well. As international students, the common language is English. In our little international cadre, there are a students from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Turkey, Ireland, Holland, Portugal and Belgium. They all seem very friendly, and all know each other from last semester. It seems to be more common to take a year abroad for other countries than the semester abroad American students are used to.

Our other class of the day was Solfege, held in yet another building near the Astoria metro stop (Mom!). It's smaller class taught by a cheerful Hungarian man named László Matos. Our other classmates include the two Japanese girls, the girl from Singapore and the guy from South Korea. The class moves at a really quick pace. We started with a standard 10 question interval quiz, which took about a minute, compared to the 10 minutes it might take elsewhere. László keeps us on our toes, and gives little time to ponder before moving on. I really like it so far :-)

Today our first class was Chorus at noon. WOW! Our director there is also a cheerful guy, but doesn't cater to the two frightened American students in the 80ish member Hungarian choir. Luckily I sat next to David, a Hungarian conducting major who speaks some English. He occasionally pointed out where we were if I got completely lost, or explained what the director wanted if it was directly concerning us. Jack and I got through rehearsal alright, though he was coughing all the time and I quickly realized I should probably be in the bass section, not the tenors. Whatever.

There are some wicked cute girls in that choir. I need to learn Hungarian.

We also had Philosophy with Mr. Zoltán Kovács. I think this class is where we might run into trouble. Mr. Kovács doesn't speak English very fluently, and he doesn't seem to have a game plan for the class. It must very extremely difficult trying to explain complicated ideas in a second language to students who have never studied philosophy. We have also come into the year at the halfway point. I don't know what's going to happen with this class.

I spent 45 minutes waiting for a practice room after that, and I used the remaining half hour before our last class well. Pedal note after pedal note for 30 minutes. It felt great. I found myself concentrating harder when I knew that time was limited and pressure was on to do well. I forgot to mention that I met and played for Mr. Hőna on Monday, and I didn't do so well. I'm well aware that I'm currently below par for the studio, and if I wanna blend I've got to hit the shed, so to speak. Our lesson on Thursday will be sort of an evaluation/audition to see where or in what I get placed for ensembles. The next few days will be full of practice.

Our final class was with Mr. Paul Merrick. Not a very Hungarian name, you think? Right. Mr. Merrick is an Englishman who's been residing in Hungary for the past 20 years or so. Doesn't like the label 'ex-pat' to be applied to him, though. Very friendly and interested in his students and, like Mr. Matos, keeps you on your toes. While giving today's lecture on Renaissance music (in a VERY English accent) he would suddenly quiz random students on their knowledge of particular composers, places or dates. I'm a little worried because stuff like this usually leaves my head when my head leaves class. Apologies to Professor Dolp. When one of his questions was directed at Jack ("Why was Palestrina noted above other renaissance composers?") and got a full and comprehensive paragraph-length answer, he seemed very impressed. Heh heh heh! That's my roomie! Too bad I had never heard of Palestrina before today, or any of the other dudes he talked about. I think Mr. Merrick will soon develop a loathing towards trombonists. This particular one isn't much of an academic.

Well, that covers the last two days. We're almost out of food, but I've done a few cool things in that department today. This morning I took leftover chicken, rice, veggies and almonds from our Chinese food dinner last night and made a huge omelet. I mixed in some paprika to spice it up and had it with tea to chase with. I remember Grandma Metzler making me a Chinese omelet when I visited once, so I remembered her while making it. I've also gotten very skilled at toss flipping stuff on the skillet. Dinner today was leftover stew (it's taken four days to finish what we made on Saturday), half a bell pepper and leftover kielbasa from... a week ago, I think? Just fried the kielbasa and later the pepper in some oil and made rice to go with it all. It came out pretty starchy, so I'll try rinsing it first next time.

Tomorrow I plan to use the rest of the beef somehow. I was also deprived of beef as a child, so I have no freaking idea what to do. Jack just wants to fry it, but we paid so much for it I'd like to do something more interesting. Any ideas, send them quick.

Sziasztok!

An out-of-place experience

Hi everyone. I had a really interesting time last night. Made me think a lot. And since I usually don't, I think it will be worth it to take some time to tell about it, so I'll post when it's finished. Consider this an IOU for a good story.

Two good days

Saturday was a big success in learning! Yaay! My big accomplishment of the day was doing the grocery shopping entirely in Hungarian! When buying some meat, I even changed my mind about what kind halfway through and was able to communicate that I wanted a different kind! Ok, there was some pointing, but I didn't use English! I walked out of there with everything I needed.

I'm beginning to string sentences together in a comprehensive way. The words don't always have the right ending or vowel (there are a lot of these), but people usually get the general idea of where I'm going. Still have a long way to go, though, which is why Jack and I have decided to take a class of Hungarian after all. It's only two hours a week, and it can't hurt. We got a lot of good advice from our friend Matt DePasquale, who did this program a few years ago. One of them was TAKE THE CLASS. At least it's an opportunity to meet other people in the same situation, and an environment to ask random questions we've had over the past weeks.

Tamás came over in the evening to show us how to cook some Hungarian food. The paprikás we made is like a stew with homemade noodles and lots of Hungarian paprika, meat, onions, etc. The cool thing in this is the noodles, the recipe of which is this:

Eggs + Flour + Salt + Milk = pancake batter type goo. + boiling water = COOL NOODLES! (paprikás - pa-pri-cash)

Tasty, and we've got tons of leftovers.

Today (Sunday) productive, too. We both put in a good 2 and 1/2 hours practice before noon, and played duets together after dinner. I went to Ikea (here pronounced ee-kay-ah) and bought a few glasses for the kitchen, and a peeler for which my knuckles are very grateful. We also returned to the Museum of Fine arts in Hösűk tere to visit the El Greco exhibit, which is only around for two more days. I had a great time looking at the paintings, but of course most of the historical information and intellectual discussion of painting techniques was lost on me. I don't know squat about art, other than that Margaret is a fantastic artist. I just liked watching the paintings.

Cafe is closing. Hope everyone is well. I'm enjoying calling random people, thanks for picking up the strange number. If you want me to call, send me an e-mail or message on Facebook. I know the 'post a comment' link is broken, I'm trying to fix it.

Sok puszi!

Castle Hill

Friday was a tourist day for Jack and me. I've been itching to see more of the Buda side of the city, so we decided to check out more of Castle Hill. The picture at the top of my last post is my favorite of the day. You can see the rest if you click here.

The day actually started off with a bit of a scare. We ascended the hill after crossing the Széchenyi bridge, and at the top were various tourists. One man approached us and asked where we were from (in English). He was an older man with great white hair and mustache. Looked a bit like Albert Einstein, actually. His English was very good, but I don't think he was a native Hungarian. The accent sounded somewhat German.

He was selling himself as a tour guide. While he gave us a very articulate and charismatic plug, he showed us a laminated tour guide card. While he talked I thought it would be nice to take a tour with him, but we already had plans to go to the Labyrinth. He advertised it as about an hour long, for $15 dollars each. Included was information on where to eat well for reasonable prices, historical information, etc. As I said, very articulate and well rehearsed. I thought to myself it would be great to take a tour later, maybe on a less dreary day.

However, when either Jack or I would try to express this, he would ask us with increasing desperation not to interrupt him. His speech became faster as he started pre-emptively giving us a tour. We tried again and again to say we weren't interested at the moment, and then he started shouting. Jack gave up and walked away, and I tried for a moment to explain over him that we might do it later. Then, my astonished ears heard, "Shut up if you want to live."

Woah.

As we walked away, we were followed by shouts of "Stupid Americans, can't understand my language, waste of lives," etc. I don't know whether he was a scammer or would have led us to a robbery or if he was mentally ill. He genuinely seemed like he would be a good guide, had we need of one. Too bad he flipped.

Well, after that experience, things went uphill significantly. I found a Posta, where I mailed out 5 more postcards. The buildings in the first district are quite different than ones I've seen on the Pest side. Smaller and cozy looking, they reminded me more of Belgium than Budapest. There were more European compacts, too, for some reason. On a sunnier day, I'll go back and take color photos, for the buildings looked like candy. This day, however, was more suited to black and white.

We had a great time walking around the area. It was freezing out, but we spent as much time as we could just strolling. We eventually found the Labyrinth and began the climb down into the underground tunnels. My glasses fogged up the instant we started down. The air was stale, hot and wet. It definitely smelled like mold. Tickets were an expensive 1100 Ft each (5 bucks, but relative to what we've been paying for things...) There was no walking tour. We were free to explore on our own. I was expecting something very different from the commercialized experience we got. It was fun to walk around dark, underground tunnels, but there were a lot of parts that disappointed my expectations. The passageways were used as a secret military installation years ago, and as such cement covers most of the walkway and bricks line the walls. There were some joke exhibits, such as a boot "fossil" in a rock and a plaque describing the discovery of "Homo Consumus". The most tacky of all these was a giant fossil of a Coca-Cola bottle, which is in the pictures. All of this made me wonder how much of the tunnel was actually historically authentic.

I forgot about a trombone recital Eszter (from the Academy) had told me about the day before. I need to learn how to apologize and say "I forgot" in Hungarian.

Looks like I'm a day behind in my blogging. Tomorrow includes 3 hours of practice in the morning, then a trip to Ikea. I think there's free WiFi there, so I could post some photos, as well. Sok puszi!