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.
7 comments:
Hi! Interesting list! Here's some comments... :-)
- Not Hungary is closed on Sundays, only everything except Budapest. Apart from this, most of Europe is closed on Sundays, not just Hungary.
- Credit cards? Wary Hungarian want to see the cash.
- Dryers... beats me, no idea what this is. ;-)
- Paper works - see credit cards.
- Music: Try MR2.
- Housewives - I guess that's because of communism, they skipped the 60ies and 70ies, and everybody thinks it's alright this way.
- Who needs the FDA anyways, completely over-regulated.
- Cheap people go to the chinese market. And there are some flea-markets instead of garage sales. If you sell in front of your garage, everybody will see how you live and what you own, and that's not what a Hungarian likes.
- No money for state-of-the-art or other boards that chalkboards. I think they're fine, though.
- Missing air conditioning is not typical Hungarian. It's rather typical American to have it everywhere.
- My car has a CD-player, but unfortunately without MP3-function.
- Actually, all-weather-tires are not as good in very low temperatures than real winter tires. While the rubber mixture for summer tires becomes to hard below 7°C, winter tires go much deeper. All-year-tires are somewhere in the middle and supposed to be not too soft at higher temperatures, too, so they cannot go as low as winter tires. I'm not working with tires, but I'm working with rubber seals, same material, same problems.
- I hate feathers.
- Closets are American, wardrobes are European. No reasons for this.
- I noticed that the less foreigners you have, the stronger your prejudices are, and it's true, Hungarians have a lot of them. Prejudices, I mean.
- High fences are really typical. In other countries, they are smaller, in the US you hardly find any. I guess it's the mistrust of the last centuries, always new occupiers, new marauders.
- No customer service, Hungary is a service desert. Get used to it. :-)
- Who needs a mac?
- Tricking the government is sports since... well, I guess it has always been, because the government where nobles, Turks, Austrians, Nazis, Communists... hard to get rid of old habbits.
Budapest is closed on Sundays too - I never understood this.
Half of the things on your list were things I embraced while I was there. It was fun to live in such a strangely functioning country.
These are mainly european habits, not specifically Hungarian.
As an European (=not British) city Budapest is amazingly open on Sundays. Remember this is still (like all europe) Christian society. All malls are open on Sundays.
Dryers - only in US, not in Europe
Checks - most part of Europe got rid of them 20+ years ago (Scandinavia 30+). Considered stone age method for paying.
State-of-Art: no checks
In Scandinavia real winter tires are compulsory. They know something about winter. Using all weather tires in summer is waste of money as it consumes the rubber must faster and makes more noise.
Almost all my young friends in BP have ipods, macs and iphones, i rather have my Nokia. Way better phone.
Customer service has different concept in most Europe vs USA. Here you are supposed to be left in peace and not bothered by waiters. Last time i was staying in top hotel in New York, i had to tell the waiter during the breakfast that if i want her to talk to me, i will talk first and let me in piece meanwhile as i was getting seriously upset with her asking me continuosly if everything is ok. I will let her know if i am not happy. You can stay in restaurant for hours with just one cop of coffee. Customers don't want to get bills before they ask. The same in Italy, France, Spain etc. This is how it is supposed to work.
Fences are pretty typical european habit, almost all countries have those. In Southern Europe they can be really substantial, in scandiavia less so.
Forgot one thing :-)
Speedos are also typical european habit, in some countries they are compulsory in public swimming pools as any kind of shorts are considered unhygienic (i am not joking).
In continental europe buying fresh products daily is considered normal (like in France, Italy, Spain etc), not big amounts of industrially processed food. Flats are small so fridges are small and you eat rather fresh food.
hi- lived in S Korea for two years and as much as I loved it the cultural differences became overwhelming at times.
like your blog: a great viow into Hungary.
I was looking for another place to teach English. It seems that you'd recommend Hungary.
What's the best way to find EFL work in Hungary? If you have time...
thanks,
Matt
I just have one thing to say.
If you are an ignorent American then you might just stay in America.
Most people come to Europe to see the culture. Which USA with its 200years does not have.
let it be known: no matter how many people comment on this post with their "you ignorant american" (or 'ignorent' as the case may be) i'm not apologizing or removing this post. nor will i argue about my impressions, frustrations, and vent session of a country i dearly loved and lived in for three years.
as you're entitled to your opinion, so am i. you don't have to read my blog, whereas i basically have to read your comments - since they're emailed to me. ease up with the hate, racism, and arrogance.
ever had a bad day in a foreign country? ever had a place/conversation to vent and get out the negativity so you could get back to normal? THIS is my place for that. you're welcome to read and comment, but try not to be an asshole about it.
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