6 minutes to post!

Hi everybody!

I hope people haven't stopped reading just because I stopped writing ;-) I'm paying through the nose for internet, so here is a quick update.

Vienna was amazing! I saw graves of tons of great composers, like Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, and SCHÖENBERG! Also walked around the Schönbrunn, and hung about the Museum Quarter. Visited the Secession museum to see Klimpt's enormous Beethoven frieze. Had good talks with Darko, my host.

Innsbruck - Also great, not for the city, but for the company. I stayed with a wonderful girl named Valeria, who is totally in love with her boyfriend Johannes, who is finishing a masters in mathematics. She wants to have a family so much, and their love just spreads outwards and infects with joy. She taught me a great austrian dish and I taught her the napkin folding trick Marsha showed me (the Sydney opera house!).

In Bolzano, italy now. The scenery is the most beautiful I've ever seen. Time is up, sorry!

Jesse

Trombone Jury

My final trombone exam was on Friday, marking my last official presence in the academy and the closing of an amazing semester. I had a few hours in the morning for a good warm-up with Balázs, Reni and Eszter - four of us playing in one room is pretty loud. The vizsga began at 2pm with a lottery determining which set of orchestral excerpts each of us had to play. I ended up with the first tetél, the easiest, consisting of the Mozart Tuba Mirum, two Brahms symphony excerpts, the khachaturian Sparticus, Berlioz Hungarian March, Rossini La Gazza Ladra and, of course, Kodaly Zoltán's Arany Janós suite, 2nd movement - Hungarian to the core.

After that, most of the time was just spent waiting. While sitting with my friends, I remembered some of the fun times we've had together over the semester. Balázs and I getting chicken and ice cream at random times of the day, playing duets with Eszter, Reni giving me Hungarian lessons over drinks in Rizsa, Adam drilling me on my curses... There are so many. Each of them has been really important to me.

The exam ended on a dramatic note. After everyone had finished playing and Guszti had signed indexes (grade books the students keep with them), Eszter stayed behind and talked with him behind closed doors. I had been worried about Eszter, because in recent weeks I haven't seen źher at the academy much, and hearing her excerpts in the morning, it sounded like she hadn't prepared nearly enough. Now she emerged from the room, trying to hold herself together. I walked with her back to the trombone room and tried to ask what was wrong. She explained in halting Hungarian, and cried as she talked. I was so sorry that I couldn't understand, but did my best to comfort her, just knowing she was hurting. Reni came over soon after and asked me to let them talk it out. I gave goodnight puszi and went to Rizsa to celebrate with Balázs.

I've been asking everyone for a group photo for weeks now, and I finally got a few. The one with Guszti is missing Eszter, and the one with Eszter is missing Guszti. Here's one of them.

Got up early the next morning for another landmark - an excursion out of Budapest with some of the internationals! But you'll just have to read about that tomorrow...

Trip? I'm already ON my trip!

I just installed the new version of Google Earth (5.0 etc). Besides smoother graphics, a good safe mode and a more user-friendly interface... it is equipped with a decent flight simulator. I kid you not. You can take off from JFK, Moscow, Salzburg, LA... or just find a good viewpoint and start the simulation from there. The F-16 is tricky to pilot because it goes so fast, but the ride in the twin engine is much easier.

My planning for the Bolzano to Cortina d'Ampezzo hike is going really well. A number of locals have given me great information about the weather, mountain conditions and links to find places to stay at night. I've bought two really fantastic maps and a compass, but it's kind of gratuitous because if I stray a kilometer off somehow, I'll hit a small town road. The maps are great for planning a route, though. Another great way to plan a route is to fly an F-16 around the mountains and scout from there... which I did with gusto. Just for future planning purposes, I also piloted through a stretch of the grand canyon and did a pass around Everest, just before going into a stall and crashing into the mountainside.

I hope I have time to practice trombone with all this planning.

Today was the last day of classes. It is a big occasion for us, but I didn't feel the impact very much. My mind has been occupied with trying to figure out my travel plans. I think I have a good path set. Now get a map and follow along:

Budapest - Bratislava - Vienna - Innsbruck - Bolzano (Italy) - HIKE TO CORTINA D'AMPEZZO over several days - bus to Trieste - bus/train to either Ljubliana or Zagreb - back to Budapest.

Thanks to everyone who's sent me e-mails over the past few days. I miss you guys a lot.

Now to bed. I get up early now to hike Buda with a loaded rucksack.

The photo is me finding a geocache near Parliament a few days ago.

Performances! Finally!

Many of the international students had chances to perform today. There was a chamber ensemble performance at the school at Semmelweiss (where my theory and solfege classes are held). Jack played with his frequently-absent violinist partner (who showed up half an hour late). Nuno performed with a cellist, and Hosung played a Brahms cello concerto with Catarina accompanying on piano. They all did wonderful jobs.

Take a look at this guy, though. He volunteered to be a page turner for one of the pianists that played. Page turners are generally meant to be a functional background piece in a performance, of course. However, this kid perceived it as his duty to interpret the music through body motion and facial expressions, which he did with gusto. Through the whole movement he stood towering over the pianist, his hands firmly planted on the piano and the pianist's backrest. With crescendos, his body shook, and relaxed again on the backslide of the music. I don't even remember what the cellist looked like in this group - I was distracted by this raging Beethoven the whole time.

There was an encore performance in Music History later today, as our last class of the semester. I also got to present a piece, a Bordogni etudé I'm working on for my jury in ten days. It went very nicely, and reminded me that I need to work more on the things I'm not yet comfortable with. Jack played Prokofiev's Diabolic Suggestion, a short catchy ditty that makes one want to sacrifice a black cat in a graveyard. Mr. Merrick signed my credit form, and that is that - no more solfege, philosophy or music history.

My big concert is tomorrow! This is relative, of course, to the number and quality of performances I've had this semester, which is two... both in the chorus. Tomorrow night however, I will play trombone! Gabrieli will echo in the Nagyterem (the big concert hall)! It will be fantastic. A small after-party will follow with the rest of the department, as well. Apparently some brass from the ministry will be there. I will practice my kurva anyad... ;-)

I've gotten some responses from questions I've sent to various sources for information about hiking the Dolomites, and I've narrowed my exploration to the provinces of Trento and Bolzano-Bozen. There seems to me lots and lots of good hiking here. "Bill" from Trailspace said there are enough trails "to occupy a full year without repeating." The photographer Lacitot, whose stunning pictures I found on Panoramio (check these out, Margaret), also replied to my query and suggested I pick up a book at the library he found useful. Momma, I may not get out to the temples - they're in the west, beyond Milan, and I also really want to go south. There's also a chance I'll be going through Slovenia as well, depending on what Malcolm has to say about it. I definitely want to see the Adriatic Sea, but Rijeka, Croatia doesn't look like the best place to do that from. Possibly I will stay a night in Trieste, which is an eastern coastal city. If I visit Venice, I will see plenty of it there, as well.

Another far-flung idea I had was to cross the Adriatic from Bari, Italy to somewhere in southern Croatia or Montenegro and go east to Kosovo - FAR-FLUNG IDEA! But on my last skip through Boston, my old Earlham friend Rachelle mentioned that she has a good friend living there, and if I needed a place to stay I should contact her. I also hate the idea of backtracking north through a chunk of Italy. Why go to Kosovo? I love the idea of a brand new country. How often do you get to see a new country? Ok, so that is still disputed, and it's not exactly a gem of a place. It probably won't even happen, but... I'm looking into it. It's fun!

Well, I've dissipated another perfectly good evening reading and writing. I will be on a stage in tux in less than 9 hours. Sleepy time.

Geocaching

(Picture is Jack, Petr, Hosung, Nuno above, Catarina, Dinah and Elisa. Taken at the hazi buli, written below)

Ok, even though I'm super busy with things right now, I feel inspired to tell you about this hobby of mine I've picked up recently. It's called Geocaching. My friend Barbora (batocache on the website) from the Czech Republic introduced me to it earlier this semester, and in the past week I've really taken a liking to it.

Geocaching is sort of a worldwide treasure hunt. Geocachers hide small containers in places where other geocachers can find them. In these containers (varying from 35mm canisters to big buckets) can be anything. The bare essential is usually some kind of logbook, where people can record their visits. The ones in the film canisters are really creatively made! If the "cache" is larger, it can contain other stuff. Some popular items are the Geocoin and Travel Bug, which are custom-made, trackable items that travel wherever their finders take them. Someone who finds one of these in a cache doesn't keep it, but moves it to another cache in a different place. For example, when I visited Barbora in Prague, she passed onto me this travel bug, which I brought to Budapest with me, and hid yesterday. It started at an ice hockey arena in the CR, but who knows where it will end up!

The main online portal where all this seeking and hiking and tracking happens is at Geocaching.com. Through it I've found caches (but only virtually) back home in Maine. There are a good number in Lincoln, thanks in large part to Ryan Pickering, who designed and set a series of caches which has been a big hit in the local geocacher community.

Whatever a geocache contains, it is inevitably located in an interesting place. On many geocache listings is thought-provoking information about the place in which it is found. Eric Hendrickson is one geocacher who has contributed greatly to education about Maine's particular geological quirks through a large series of earthcaches. These are atypical caches in that there is no container to find - only a location listing found online with an earth science lesson attached. Mr. Hendrickson is a science teacher in Presque Isle, and has written over 75 earthcaches and hidden almost 100 physical geocaches. Here is his website, and a sample earthcache he wrote.

This picture is from my first solo find. It was hidden at the top of a parking garage near Nyugati Station, cleverly disguised as an electric maintenance box and hiding in plain sight. Inside was a logbook, a small toy, a 1992 Barcelona Olympics pin and a sample package of fabric softener. I took the fabric softener, because you can never have enough. I left my travel bug there. It was picked up this morning and moved somewhere else in Budapest. Hopefully it will leave the country soon and pick up more history.

In other news, we had our 2nd international potluck hazi buli last night, hosted by Irish Íde. I came about 4 hours late due to a hellish Saturday night rehearsal, but made time to prepare a good dish - I call it Magyar Gyümölcs Joghurt! Because, I'm sure you realize, the color scheme represents the Hungarian flag. There's nothing Hungarian about the ingredients. Raspberries fill the top, coconut flakes and sugar cover the middle stripe and sliced kiwis line the bottom. Under the yogurt is a layer of chocolate granola. It was almost overflowing the dish, so transporting it on the tram eight blocks north was tricky and took a lot of concentration. Got a lot of stares, and some quirky smiles. Unfortunately, everyone was full of great Italian pasta and salad and chocolate cake and palacsinta by the time I showed up, so nobody touched my dish. Íde will be eating well for breakfast the next couple nights, though.

Jack had his solo concert today! He played Liszt's Sposalizio, with a quiet accompaniment by myself, who hummed the whole thing because I've been hearing it every damn day since we moved to Budapest. But really, it was a fantastic performance. Jack has been working extremely hard for this, and it clearly paid off this afternoon. Before he came on, Íde, Mirva, Elisa and Dinah hurried in from the Hilary Hahn concert with the Budapesti Fesztivalzenekar, which gave Jack quite an audience. We went and enjoyed some gelato in Liszt Ferenc tér while contemplating the monstrous statue of Liszt there. He definitely deserved the two scoops I bought him. If you want his own biased analysis on his performance, read his blog entry here.

This is the last week of classes for us. My final (and only) exam is my trombone jury on May 22nd. Then, almost a full month of travel. I did more planning this morning, and it's looking like eastern Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, Italy. Hopefully I'll find some travel bugs to take with me before then! More updates as the story develops.

WHEEE!

Life is speeding up. I have so much to do in so little time. Every day I'm scanning the koncert kalendárium for interesting operas and concert to go to. Tonight I saw Tosca at the opera house (four bucks, thank you), and last night I saw a big Haydn concert at Liszt Ferenc. Tomorrow night Hilary Hahn will play at MüPa, and I'll be watching from the stratosphere, clutching my 300 forint student ticket. Jack has two concerts this week, and mine is on Wednesday. I have 12 orchestral excerpts, 2 etudés, a Telemann fantasy and the Martin Ballade to perfect by the 22nd.

This is why I'm not posting a lot.

But in my free time, I like ice-cream, candlelit dinners and long walks on the beach.

Oh, mad props to Gov. Baldacci of Maine for legalizing same-sex marriage, by the way. I didn't see that coming.

The Fuzz

I made a big casserole dish a few weeks ago, and gave some of the leftovers to Gábor, our handyman/super. He's the guy who always comes to fix our internet when the other workers cut the lines. He's a really nice man. Yesterday, he returned the casserole dish, but first filled it with homecooked palecsintas (crêpes)! Delicious! Anyway, here he is!

Time is ticking down until the end of the semester. My final concert is on May 13th, almost 4 months after our arrival here, and my jury is on the 22nd. After that, I have no obligations until June 20th when I fly back to New York. One way I'm keeping my mind off the mountain of practicing I have to do is by baking bread - I accidentally used twice the amount of water, and thus twice the amount of flour, than necessary in this unfortunate batch. I'm also writing tons of postcards (you've probably gotten one). My nostalgic side has also gotten the better of me in the past few days. I've been watching episodes of Disney's Recess on YouTube. Looking back on it, it was a fantastic show.

I'm brainstorming places to go and things to do in that free month, and here are a few ideas:

- Germany again, to visit Jonas
- Temples of Damanhur, Italy
- Hiking in the Dolomites, Italy
- Zagreb and the Adriatic Sea, Croatia
- Szeged, Eger and Aggtelek, Hungary
- Transylvania, Romania
- Visit Tamás and family in southern Hungary
- Vienna again. It's amazing.

Another great hike

I returned to the Pilis Hills today (see the Esztergom és Visegrád post), this time with Emese. We took the suburban rail northward to Pómóz, and then a bus to Döbögökű. That is a small town on top of a hill in the middle of the Pilis National Park, from which branch tons of trails leading to surrounding towns. We headed to Dömös, a town on the Danube and halfway between Esztergom and Visegrád, and from there to Visegrád.

Coming back to the area a few months after I had first visited, I was stunned by how different the spring made it look. Here are a few before/after pictures.
It was a pretty tiring hike today, so this is all I'll write for now. Sorry for not writing much over the past couple days, but not much has happened. Kat told me she was accepted into NECCA for this fall - a huge accomplishment! I'm so proud of her for this :-)