Hungarian Class

Instead of having actual Hungarian class on Wednesday afternoon, my teacher took us all to Kádár, an old Hungarian eatery in the middle of the Jewish quarter. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was intensely Hungarian. This is probably the only restaurant in Budapest that still has gas bottles on the table, expecting customers to serve themselves fizzy water and then report how much they drank when the meal is over. The ‘accounting of sins’ is done at the door, the white-coated owner adding up the total cost of the meal (slices of bread and all) as you read them out to him.

Rain and the Way Back

It started out bright and lovely Sunday but while we sat in a cafe eating a bread-and-jam breakfast it got a bit darker.

Plans

Vienna. This weekend. It’s going to be awesome! Turns out that Vienna is no more than three hours away, and pretty easy to get around. I hardly remember the last time I was there so it will be fun to check it out again. I will update with photos as soon as I am back.

Tonight was Ash Wednesday, so no meat for my roommate. Instead we made lemon-parsley quinoa cakes and served them with a lemon-sour cream sauce on salad greens. I had also visited the Lehel market behind the Western Train station on the recommendation of a fellow blogger (thanks, Zita!) and somehow wound up with half a kilo of beautiful, tiny brussels sprouts. Hannah was kind of cagey about trying them, but I think she’s converted–she went back for seconds! The recipe is here, and you can leave out the bacon as we did this evening, but it does add a nice salty kick against the sweet glaze of the reduced balsamic.

I am finally all registered for courses– four math and Hungarian. Should be pretty fun…although that means I really need to do my homework on the train Friday.

PS, new favorite Hungarian word: fényképezőgép, lit. light-picture-taking-machine aka camera. So excellent, this additive language.

A Tearózsa

Jared, I know you wondered how singing sounded in Hungarian. Wonder no more:

Bőrönd Ödön a Köröndön
Ül a kövön, ül a kövön fekete színű bőröndön.

Arra jár egy helikopter,
Lerádióz a riporter:
Bőrönd Ödön, Bőrönd Ödön,
Miért is ülsz itt a Köröndön feketeszín bőröndödön?

Azért ülök a Köröndön
Feketeszín bőröndömön,
Várom, hogy a tearózsa
Kinyíljon az aszfaltkövön,
S a 4-es busz begörögjön.

In English:

Suitcase Eugene on the Circus*
Sitting on the stone on the black suitcase.

There comes a helicopter.
The reporter radios down:
‘Suitcase Eugene, Suitcase Eugene,
Why do you sit here in the Circus on your black suitcase?”

“I’m sitting here in the Circus
on my black suitcase
Looking forward to the tea-roses
which will  grow up from the asphalt
and waiting for the #4 bus** to arrive.”

*The Circus is a large circular roundabout on Andrassy Utca, about halfway between downtown and city park

**The #4 bus was discontinued because it never ran on time. So Suitcase Eugene is waiting for flowers to bloom in the Circus and for a bus that will never arrive.

Q + A with Mom

Did you bring enough warm clothes? Yes, although it would be really nice to have some gloves that are warmer, perferably glittens. My hands get so cold! Also really glad to have the silk pajamas and sleeping bag liner because our house is definitely not warm at night

How are your new sneakers working out? They are awesome. I wear them almost every day, and they blend right in. Hungarians totally do wear trainers, though. So there.

Do you like your roommates? I only have one so far, from St. Olaf. She is really nice! She is an excellent cook and exactly as neat as I am. We will get a third next week when she comes back from her vacation.

Have you met students from other colleges or other countries? There is a girl from India who is really cool, and a boy from Bulgaria who I don’t know well, but they are all students at American colleges. Claremont is definitely the biggest representative, with 6 students (three from Mudd, two from Pomona, and yrs. truly). Upstate New York’s colleges sent a bunch of students too. It’s a great group of people–we’re all getting together tonight, which should be great.

When will you take a cooking class? I signed up for one on Saturday! We are going to go to the Vasarcsarnok to buy ingredients, and then head over to the cooking teacher’s apartment on the Buda side by taxi. We’re making potato soup, beef stew, and dessert dumplings. More on that Saturday.

Have you rented a violin? Working on it. One of our pianists literally walked into the Lizst Academy and asked to be directed to the practice rooms, so he’s doing ok. The other musicians are still figuring out what to do. I might try to split a violin with the other violinist.

Does already knowing Spanish help you learn Hungarian? Yes, in that I know what to expect of verb conjugation. But otherwise, it’s totally unrelated.

Have you learned enough to help you grocery shop yet? Nope. Definitely spent half an hour looking for capers today and never found them. I did buy more delicious cheese, though.

Do many people speak English? About 70% of the people I have met speak English really well, which is great. I hope to get better at Hungarian though.

Why is Hungarian difficult and other questions

Hungarian is crazy. But it also makes a whole lot more sense than the other languages I know. Yes, there are irregular verbs, but only 3 really irregular ones (to go, to come and to be), and then 15 ‘irregulareesh’ as my Hungarian teacher says, ie irregular but predictably so. It’s also really, awesomely specific. There is a verb for ‘to drink’ and a totally different one for ‘to drink beer’.

Castle Hill

Today we walked up to Castle Hill on the Buda side.

The views are incredible. The Buda hills rise straight up from the western river bank and roll off to the horizon. I’m sure they will be beautiful in the spring.

Amerikai vagyok

On Tuesday, we walked downtown and visited the Great Synagogue in the old Jewish quarter.

It was really impressive. The synagogue, which is the biggest in Europe, was built in the 1850s, used as a stable and radio station by the Germans during WWII, and then repaired within the last ten years.

Here’s a detail of the cupola:

We then went to the largest open market in Budapest, the Vasarcsarnok, and bought food for dinner. They sell everything you could possibly want there, if ‘everything you could possibly want’ includes cabbage and tripe, and excludes Asian condiments (no soy sauce in the whole city! darn.)

Today I had to go to Hungarian class. There are about fifty students from the BSM taking the class, and they’re all really nice. The classes are great, too- Hungarian (dispite not being an indo-european language) is not quite as insane as you might think, with the exception of some of the more ancient words–ie ‘goodbye’ lit. ‘until we meet again:’ Viszontlátásra!

(photos in this post from google images; my camera was broken.)