spring in nyiregyhaza

in the city center flowers are springing up everywhere!

here is something interesting in our city center. there is this weird jungle gym-like thing with a ton of padlocks on it. it seems that when people (many teenagers) begin a relationship they put a padlock on this. theoretically it might be meant to "lock" their love. some student said she and her boyfriend threw away the key to their lock. i suppose if you keep the key when the relationship ends you can go retrieve your lock. but i don't know anything, really.

here is the old train car that people sometimes reference as a landmark. in the background you can see the roman catholic church (... i think ...) which is uniquely Nyiregyhaza.

when the weather gets warmer the clothes come off. also, there is more PDA than there has been in recent months. spring is so cool.

there are a few other CETP teachers in my neck of the woods. these two, mike and judy, are married but judy lives and works in my town while mike lives and works in a nearby town and comes home on the weekends. whenever we can we get together and visit, swap stories, talk in american english, and practice hungarian (judy is fluent in it as her mother was hungarian). it's great! i'm glad to have them around when i need to hear someone say "pants" or "apartment" or "principal" or "elevator."

mike and judythe other day a recent addition to the CETP program came to our town to meet the three of us other americans. mostly she wanted to escape her tiny little village and have some company. the four of us (mike, judy, me, and penny) walked around the salt lake, ate at an adorable little restaurant, meandered all over the city by foot and by bus, even got some gelato from a real italian. it was a beautiful day and i enjoyed the company.

here i am with penny