thanksgiving dinner

i thought i should document the thanksgiving dinner we cooked this year. i'm not in the pics, though. sorry!

glazed carrots: hungarians don't get this. they think carrots are only good if they're salted or buttered. a won a few of them over, though. ;)

my first ever batch of dressing... left half was made by a hungarian and has liver and sausage in it. the other half was my half and was just simple stuffing minus the celery (cause we didn't buy it)

gravy! this is a foreign thing here but was well-received. someone even asked for the recipe! haha

the birds!

we didn't have the energy to make a real apple pie, so i just did the filling and served it like that. no complaints.

(not pictured: green beans, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob)

there were like 15 - 18 people there, 2 americans and a bunch of hungarians. we ate and drank (palinka) and were merry. there were also cakes made by the receptionist and stuffed cabbage brought by the matriarch of the magic house family. not exactly the thanksgiving i grew up with, but it was still pretty great!

christmas program!

i teach in two elementary schools this year and one of them had a christmas program and invited me to be part of it. so, for the second time in hungary (and in my life) i donned a santa claus suit.

the kids all knew it was me and were overflowing with excitement about their performance in the program.
eniko (enn-ick-ew), the first grade english teacher, arranged their part in the program. as "frosty the snowman" played the children built a snowman on stage. they put on its hat and eyes and nose and mouth and scarf and buttons while having snowball fights and dancing around.

but before we were on stage there was a lot of waiting...

which meant a lot of restless 6 and 7 year olds...

it's traditional in hungary to put up your christmas tree on christmas eve. they don't overdo it with lights and it's rare to see houses decorated with lights. they could use a little help with the method of adding the lights, but it doesn't matter, really... 'cause it still turns out nice. see?here is eniko as she normally looks:

before and after the kids decorated her

some restless kids got curious about the audience and i caught them peeking out before we started

our kiddies were so great! they sang their guts out and danced around with glee. and they were surprisingly patient while waiting for their turn. eniko and i hung out backstage until the end of the program. aren't we adorable??

so, big hit! there were lots of familiar tunes translated into hungarian, lots of christmassy songs and costumes, lots of variety on the stage, including singing, lipsynching, drama, choreographed uh... movements, poetry, and running. the kids had a ball and the parents and friends clapped in rhythm, in true hungarian style. :)

mákos tészta

my dear hungarians do love their poppy seeds. you can find cakes, cookies, muffins, rolled up bread, bread pudding, and an array of other hungarian specialties chock full of poppy seeds. one thing that is a bit strange (though delicious) to me, however, is poppy seed pasta, or mákos tészta. it's made by combining pasta with ground up poppy seeds, sugar, and melted butter. it's often served with a piece of fruit like an apple, and is, of course, preceded by a bowl of a steaming hot hearty soup.

that's what i had today. while it seems a weird idea to have something sweet for lunch (to us americans) or perhaps a silly combination, it's actually quite fulfilling and good. you may need some time to get used to the not-so-sweet poppy seed flavor, but once you do, it's golden! i couldn't eat mine at school because of time constraints, so i was given a packed container of it, meaning i got a double portion of both soup and pasta. um, great! i'll eat it tomorrow too and feel a tad more hungarian. :)

no november

there are no posts for november because i'm going to pretend that horrible, no good month never happened.

oh, but i went to switzerland and holland. so i'll remember those a little.

sometimes hungary is so lame

what's the reason for these oddities? anyone who can tell me... will save my sanity.

is it because they're cheap? is it because they're an ex-communist country and so they're still 20 years behind? or is it just because they're hungarian. tell me! please.

-hungary is still closed on sundays

-some shops still don't accept debit/credit cards

LET ALONE offer cash back anywhere in the country

-checks? never heard of 'em. seriously.

-dryers are luxury items and even the few rich people who have them don't use them every time they launder

which means bring on the clothes lines, drying racks, and ironing

-everything is on PAPER and must be because no one trust electronic anything around here

like gift cards... or as hungarians would say, "what's that?"

-techno, seal, mariah carey and other top 10 music

-women are 50s housewives: cook, clean, take care of the kids single-handedly as well as work full/part time jobs (insanity!) while husband works a regular 9-5 then comes home and watches tv (there are exceptions, but not many)

-FDA regulations? huh? you can buy milk straight from the cow, eggs straight from a hen, or a live farm animal if you know the right people, you know, so you can have PIG KILLING or make homemade sausage... and DESK lamps heating food in buffet style restaurants instead of heat lamps

this stuff won't strike any hungarian as odd, by the way...

-for necessarily cheap people, there are no garage sales, craigslist-type sites, and the hungarian ebay-like site is not well trusted or often used

-i've never seen anything in hungary i'd call "state-of-the-art" ... in 2 years.

-chalkboards in schools, as well as minimal classroom computers, projectors, etc.

-air conditioning is rare and where available it's advertised in the window on a sign

-TAPE DECKS in cars

-still use winter tires and summer tires and say "all weather tires" are unreliable

-have "as seen on tv" shops.... can you think of anywhere else to buy that stuff?

-speedos

-small fridges/freezers means 3-4 trips to the store per week

-old (style) hard beds that open for storage, no box spring, no pillow tops, no reason to sleep in it

-heavy pillows stuffed with feathers that protrude and poke you and make you wonder if you just got some farm disease

-wardrobes instead of closets. why!? for the life of me, why?!

-SEVERE prejudice - gypsies, black people, asian people (or as hungarians say "chinese" as all asians are chinese to them and are ruining the world), and people with mental/physical disabilities/ailments

-fenced-in property, all the way around every square centimeter (to keep out aforementioned 'hooligans')

-toaster over? crock pot? ohhh, how i miss them.

-customer "service" ... guards follow you around in stores, they harass you at closing time, waiters come twice: to ask what you want (the millisecond you sit down) and to bring your food... if you want them after that, get ready for a nightmare

-itunes? ipod? mac? hahaha, what??

-doing business legally? that's for suckers.

-sandwich on your person 75% of your waking life. sure, why not.

add some if you have any i've left out.

p.s. i've had a really frustrating/infuriating couple of weeks and this is me venting. it's not meant to be (overly) mean to hungarians, though they've been overly mean to me lately! ugh.

October 23 - fall!

october 23 was a big deal in 1956 in hungary.

this weekend it was commemorated across the country.... with flags and wreaths.

having missed the all-hungarian poetry reading ceremony in the city center (i assume it was the same as last year) i decided to take a walk with my camera to capture some fall.

enjoy!

i did.

Zrínyi Gimnázium szalagavató bálja

though i haven't worked at ZIG since june 2009, i was invited to their ribbon-pining ceremony and ball for seniors again this year. it's always good to see my former colleagues, but this even was special for another reason.

when i began working at ZIG it took me a while to get to know the students. i took role everyday in every class - aloud - so i would learn the kids' names. i addressed them by name in the halls, too. i loved (most) of them a lot and i really missed that school last year.

the first ball i went to with ZIG kids was in november 2008. i had worked at the school for less than 2 months and NONE of the students i taught were seniors that year. so i went to the ball and ONLY knew the teachers, and i only knew them by sight and voice from the staffroom.

i was lucky enough to be invited to the ball again last year, but since i was working in two other high schools i had a duty to attend one of their balls that night first. i did make it to zrinyi's ball, but i only knew 2 classes of seniors graduating (and to be honest, they weren't my faves).

enter: this year. the kids i got to know and love in my first year of hungary, the ones who taught me hungarian and helped me learn to become a good classroom teacher, the ones who asked me about home and my dog and boyfriends and my opinions of hungary, lotttts of those kids are seniors this year. when i went to THIS ball of all the graduating seniors, i taught like 80%!

there was a time when the students toasted champagne with their teachers and offered cheek kisses. i was surprised and even moved when so many of my former students recognized and made an effort to greet me as well.

in extreme contrast to how i felt at kossuth all year last year, i didn't feel utterly forgotten and unappreciated at zrinyi.

we got dolled up...

we ate...

and we danced... a lot!

we had a ball. ;) (i just HAVE to say that!!)

the new place - video

vidor festival!

there is a festival in nyiregyhaza each year called VIDOR FESZTIVAL! it's about 'happy art' like theatre performances, street artists, bands, face painting, live statues, etc. and this year i'm both in town AND aware of it. so i went!

click the flower to watch a VIDEO of vidor festival - it's long but a good representation

there are mimes and actors in the streets for about a week!

they aren't camera shy at all! :)

the only band i know, have heard and liked their music, and is pretty popular around here (csik zenekar) was in town to perform this friday night... as a headliner. here they are, the little sweeties.

but there are also random unknown-looking bands in the city center as well

and people who seem to have just mpicked up instruments and started playing them for passersby

holding the progam, this little girl's dreams come true as she takes a picture with... some face painters?? haha.

i've always been intrigued by the living statues. they stand there for an hour without moving. i'd be fired at the first itch.

these entertainers are actually in town for theatre performances, but when they're not in plays they're out in the city luring in customers with all their charm (everything in the festival is free except the theatre stuff)

there are fire throwers, people balancing stuff, jugglers, the works.

and these type of people...

acrobats, bikers, stunt people...

of course, once in a while they get the crowds involved too

my favorite thing i saw was the caricaturist an his works of art

and he's pretty good (these portraits are free! but you have to wait in a long line full of teenagers to get yours)

scary

happy

tonight is the last night. the people are packing up and going home or to wherever they're going. and the city center is going back to normal, but it was a good happy-art week if you ask me. :)