birthday with aniko'

after school my good buddy aniko' (private student turned friend) took me to the christmas market. it was so festive and fun. i took a few pics, but it was rainy so i'll take some more another time.


oooh, here we tasted a hungarian delicacy. yum! too bad i didn't know the plans she had for us, or we would have skipped this treat. whoopsie!!

this picture has the name of the stuff...
(loosely translated is "some kind of musical instrument spiral pastry")

here are my videography talents at work

people waiting in line to see mikula's (santa claus). he was in there. i saw him!
after a walk through the christmas market, we took a bus (and a frigid walk) to her mom's flower shop. i had only met her mom for like 10 minutes before this, but now i'll never forget her. when we went into the back (employees only section) of the shop, there was a party set up for me! well, for us. it was such a surprise!

cake, cakes, sugar!

i even got to blow out a candle for my birthday. yay!! i didn't think i would do that this year.
aniko' and i sort of had a hard time cutting the cake. it got messy... but it tasted realllly good.

i even got presents!!

it's a fondue set, the kind with a candle. maybe i'll melt all my bday chocolate and dip fruit in it.

then aniko' and her mom showed me around the flower shop. there were so many kinds of plants and flowers and decorations!! it's not like your average american florist's. it was neat to see it all.

some advent wreaths....

oh i loved these plant stands with orchids all climbing up them.

i totally put my finger in that venus fly trap and he snapped at me but i survived.

a look around the shop....

ok, in the back room there were shelves and shelves of things to decorate with. we were there to make some wreaths for advent or christmas or just the holiday season. it was another first for me.

then the hot gluing started....

the finished products! aniko's is on the left, mine is on the right. we are sooo talented!!

here is my other gift from aniko' and her mom: a poinsettia (or christmas plant). i posed it with my new wreath to capture all my current christmas decorations in one shot. haha. hopefully i will get some more before LIZ comes. (on christmas eve!!)

THANK YOU ANIKO' FOR MAKING MY BIRTHDAY SO SPECIAL! IT WAS A GREAT SURPRISE!!

birthday at school

when i walked into my first class on my birthday, my precious 9th graders all stood and sang to me (in english). i was so happy they remembered. of course, i did mention in passing last week that my birthday was the 4th. i wouldn't normally have been so shameless in doing this, but i'm sure i would have been so bummed if no one told me happy birthday on my birthday.

in another class, this was on the board for me!

these students gave me a gift of chocolate and a small bear that smells like perfume or potporri or something. i love it and it's freshening up my living room we speak.
there is some magical chocolate in this region of the world. milka. mmmm. some kids gave it to me. my very first hungarian birthday present!
aniko' (colleague) gave me a clock radio because i mentioned i didn't have a radio. i'm pretty sure she wants me to listen to hungarian music all the time to learn the language. little does she know i'm just using this as an alarm clock. muahaha.an overwhelming percentage of the loot was/candy, so my sweet tooth is taken care of until christmas, i'm sure! there is also a black and white purse (from rita - coworker) and it's so cute!! i can't wait to use it, little cutie thing. don't be jalous of my chocolate, guys.here is a video of some birthday greetings students wrote on the board before i came to class. so sweet and thoughtful. :)

ice skating

aniko' (private student turned friend) called me today and invited me to come ice skating with her and some other people. she is a member of "animal friends foundation" and there was a little outing planned for those animal friends to meet up and skate. so, i tagged along.

she took my picture while we were waiting for the animal friends to arrive

we braved the ice! aniko' was pretty scared at the beginning, but she mustered some courage and even let her picture be taken! way to go, aniko'!

she took some "action shots" of me

i wasn't as cold as i thought i would be. maybe winter won't be so bad!

blurry but cute

for the first hour or so, aniko' sort of didn't want to let go of the wall. i think she even said "the wall is my best friend" at some point. but when she wanted to pass by other wall-clinging people, she had to let go and come out in the open. hahaha!

here i am with some animal friends. that red jacket girl is EH-MESH-EH and she was very helpful in getting aniko' and that brown jacket guy (YO-ZSEF) off the wall. yay, MESHI!

after we got used to the ice, we even picked up some speed. there were several laps around with all of us holding hands, some with just me and aniko', one or two with me and meshi, and some with me, aniko' and brown jacket jozsef. in the end, aniko' wasn't scared any more and i'm certain she was having fun too! of course i was having a blast, too. we both fell one time each, no major injuries though my ankles and one knee are a bit swollen. that's the price you pay for winter fun.

i walked xandy when i got home and he was just lookin' cute and i had a camera... so here ya go.


LIFE-CHANGING EVENT! aniko' (colleague) took me shopping last week and guess what i bought!! that's right: a microwave! welcome back to the 21st century, crumb! it's not like this is a rare thing to have here or anything, it's just that my flat didn't have one. i had been cooking on the stovetop and even *gasp* in the oven! well, never again. now i can heat up leftovers with just a touch of a button. happy and thankful, that's what i am!

MORE MONEY! MORE MONEY!

there is something horrible happening in hungary. civil servants, including teachers, police, firemen, etc. will be bearing the brunt of the economic crisis alone as the prime minister and the other powers that be decided to freeze the current salaries and withhold the 13th month salary (which is what most of these people depend on to make ends meet). everyone is outraged. so, they staged a protest in budapest this weekend. and i was among the protesters!

a few teachers from my school and a bunch from my city met and boarded some buses for the 3 hour ride to the capital. we met at 6:30am... so, no pictures of that.

don't worry. teachers brought palinka (really strong hungarian liquor) for the bus

we stopped a couple times at gas stations for the facilities and to get hot coffee or whatever.
aniko' and i waited outside in the snow/rain for the ladies' room with a million other ladies.
ooooh, taking pictures in line. it was all we could to to keep from freezing.
we drove past parliament before the big demonstration. see how it's all empty? remember that.
aw, these are some coworkers of mine. margo' and miklos (no relation) were jolly protesters.
when we arrived at the starting point (oh, there was a short march which ended at parliament) they gave us little flags that said civil servants' union or something like that. our flags also said something about teachers. here we are not yet frozen. aren't we cute?

we were so cute, in fact, that some camera man was video taping what can only be described as ... well, me. so i took his picture, too... to return the love. too bad it's blury. he seemed annoyed.THEN they (the ministry of education people... i think) gave alllllllllll the teachers these precious little smocks! i wore it proudly because it said teachers' union or whatever on it... and plus... free smock! (someone may or may not have kept her smock and gave it to me as a keepsake.)
here is smock-ed up aniko' with her little flag and umbrella.
aniko' (2) and tama's (thomash), some engaged coworkers of mine. they are so fun!
some people brought their own signs. this one says something like what else can you take, or something. i forget. but there is a saying in hungarian about people's pay being so low the frog can crap it out, or something. so, haha. clever magyars.
teachers civil service, NYIREHYHA'ZA (my city) city and surrounding - i took these strangers' pictures, and look, some of them even smiled!!! look even more closely and you will see the guy in the middle is wearing a tamba bay lightning cap. WHOA. 2 florida things in one week.
so, we stood around listening to speeches for a while. aniko' 1 got bored and stuffed people's flags into aniko' 2's smock. she didn't know, and when we told her she was not amused. i was.... :)
ahhh, this is parliament when we were there! it was nowhere near empty now! there were probably 5,000 people there. ok, i have no idea how many, but it seemed like a million.










well, who WOULDN'T take a picture with hungarian firefighters, i ask you!?!?
more emergency people...
more... with their own little smocks... so organized.
and some more nice fellas posed with me... making an american girl's dreams come true.
there were buses and people from all over hungary! none of these are our buses. :(
while we waited tama's suggested he take my picture in front of the danube. so, sure. why not.

parliament, firemen, me, danube

heroes square - it's sort of a big deal tourist spot in budapest. statues of hungarian heroes. in fact, i can name like 10 hungarian heroes because EVERYthing is named after the same people.
aniko' refused to let me sleep on the bus home, so i made her take pictures. i think it's fair. i'm pretty sure she's not gonna like this one of her (she doesn't like any of her pics). oh well.
who knows what will come of this demonstration. we are supposed to hear the response tonight, if there is one. as of right now, though, there is a STRIKE scheduled for january 12th. woohoo, my first protest and my first strike! i love hungary!

you can read about it HERE