villages

a colleague of mine, gabi, has taken me on a couple of day trips around the county we live in. she has shown me cool villages and random sights that i wouldn't have otherwise known about. plus, she borrowed her dad's car so we didn't have to take trains!

here's gabi (she was the main photographer, so we won't see much of her in this post)here i am with french teacher anikó - we ate lunch in an italian restaurant in debrecen. it's was the best italian food i've had in hungary, that's for sure. made fresh in front of our very eyes! pasta, pizza, salads (with lettuce!), soups, and desserts. yum, yum, yum!

there was an old wooden bell tower in one of the places we visited. here it is from the front...

there is this a [whatever instrument] player statue and a guy playing a guitar.

we were there for a little while and soon we happened upon this wedding

gabi and i climbed some VERY steep and rickety old stairs to the top of the belfry (does that mean bell tower?) because there was an amazing view (and a bell) up there. anikó declined as she is afraid of heights.

the bell

the view (well, one side)

another view with gabi


the church attached to the bell tower

us chatting in the church

prayer time

gitározunk :)
(we are playing guitar)

in one of the villages, máriapócs, there is a church which houses a "weeping mary." it's a painting that wept like 300 years ago, was sold to someone in vienna, but several copies were made of it first, and a copy was returned to máriapócs and later the copy wept too. anyway, it hasn't wept since 1906 so it's due for a cry-fest, no? but, we got there only to find that the church is under construction and the weeper has been temporarily moved. whatev... we took this picture by the gift shop - which was closed.

some church

ooh, this little fun place called "your bell" was interesting to me 'cause they have festivals and dancing and hungarian events there all the time, like the traditional stuff. nice. cool buildings, old-hungary feeling

this anikó and i don't really hang out much, but i do like her a lot. her english is better than my hungarian, but we still speak in both languages. she even taught me a few words in french!
it's humbling that everyone here knows at least two languages (gabi knows 4!). it motivates me to a) speak english well b) learn hungarian c) not complain about learning hungarian

this is a fake lake - haha, well, it's manmade

we met some horses there

and the horse guys who basically keep old hungary alive with their clothes

here i am with the... oh, what's he called... uh, the cowboy, for lack of a better word

she totally pushed me but i hammed it up a bit

in one of our stops there was an insane asylum. niiiiice. you know i learned that word in hungarian, i simply had to!
here is the crazy house (it's the yellow building)

a couple weeks ago we went with some spanish ladies gabi knows to see some other villages. that was especially fun because there were three different mother tongues in the car. we spoke in english with some random hungarian and spanish mixed in. being silly comes across well in any language, though. that's really cool.

here they are (sadly i can't remember their names, but they were good fun company)

even xander got to come on that excursionthis is the first stop we made. that church was built in the 13th century.

we went on a sunday and there was a service going on, so we waited outside until it finished. then we saw some sweet old ladies walking home together.
we went in the church. the ceiling was low but ornate. i wouldn't mind sitting in there listening to a sermon for an hour or so. cozy.
here is its bell tower. very old. very wooden. very hungarian.
we found some kids playing around outside and invited them to join in on our photo-op.

back in the car and on the way to... somwhere esle. haha. and there was, you guessed it, a church there!some tour guide lady came and told us about the church. in a nutshell i remember this: it was built in the 14th century, was run by one denomination who painted it all pretty with murals of people, then later it was taken over/bought? by another denomination who painted over the murals with silly flower patterns. later another denomination (or perhaps the original denomination) got the church and held services there. one day they washed the walls and the flower pattern came off, revealing the original murals. also, the first denomination kept its important papers concerning the church in a box on the ceiling for safekeeping.

see the flowers?
here is the pulpit. i liked it because i can understand everything it says:
"i am the way, the truth, and the life"

here you can see the flowers and the murals underneath
murals are busting through! it was really cool in real life.
ok, then we went to another place that had a unique cemetery. something like 150 years ago the first people to be buried there wanted their graves to be boats for some reason. it started a tradition/trend and now there is a whole big cemetery with boat headstones.
boats with wreaths
boats boats everywhere... hungary is landlocked.... so what...
a cute little yard/garden on the way back to the car
i like the wagon

we stopped near a watermill and had a picnic for lunch. it was a beautiful day with fun-loving company. no stress, just life. good stuff.

here's the mill
this is me

gypsies

(so i'm at school right now during my first lesson of the week. i am, however, in the teacher's room because all but 3 of my students are taking the érettségi. that is like the national final exam. it's a big deal, with good reason. there are many of these tests, one in each subject. when a student is scheduled to take a test he is permitted to miss school in the days before so he can study. i was told these tests would last a few day but we are now in the third week of days when kids just aren't in class.)

this morning when i walked xander i saw a family of gypsies outside my apartment building. there was a mother, a learning-to-walk baby, and maybe a 2 year old. they were pushing around a stroller and divying up what they just got out of the dumpster. it was so sad. it kind of reminded me of aladdin when aladdin and abu stole food in the market and then shared it with two little kids. the whole state of gypsies here is a big mess and it looks like it will only get worse. they are uneducated for the most part (don't speak proper hungarian, don't know how to avoid disease, incest, common birth defects), unemployed for the most part (some are street sweepers or have other non-sustaining jobs), live off of government aid (like welfare) for the most part, and steal or go through garbage to get what they need for their families. they have a lot of kids so the government will give them more money and with those kids the whole cycle starts again. most hungarians are scared of, tired of, annoyed by, or just plain hate gypsies. while many hungarians appreciate gypsy music or culture, i haven't yet found one person here who admits he feels bad for them or for their situation. in fact on my apartment building there is a sentence spray painted: death to the gypsy.

note: i am certain there is a TON about this situation i don't know but this is how i see it right now. i learned about gyspsies mostly from my students. that is where i saw the callous attitude of intolerence and indifference most clearly. that is particularly disappointing since my students are 17 and younger. they are the next generation! maybe because i come from a country that has been trying hard for decades to overcome such prejudice and has already endured segregation, integration, riots, affirmative action, etc. it's easy for me to see this detestable injust cycle. i can that change is needed but not necessarily coming in hungary - and that makes me sad.

hungarian cities

hungarian cities have names that, when translated literally into english, make me laugh and understand this country better.

Békéscsaba = Peaceful Csaba (which is a male name)
Szombathely = Saturday Place
Hatvan = sixty
Lábatlan = Legless
Szentes = Saint S
Veresegyháza = Red One House
Balatonakarattya = Wish Of Balaton
Kistarcsa = Little Hold It
Diósd = Nutty D
Törökbálint = Turkish Valentine
Leanyfalu = Girl village
Békásmegyer = Froggy Goes R
Diósjenő = Nutty Eugene
Ajka = Her Lip
Érd = Reach It
Mogyoród = Your Peanut
Nagykovácsi = Big Smithy
Héviz = Hey Water
Tolna = He Would Push You
Várpalota = Castlecastle
Nemesvámos = Noble Customs
Martfű = Veered Grass
Csorna = He Would Steal
Baja = His Problem
Érsekvadkert = Archbishop Wild Garden
Nagybajom = My Big Problem

these are actual places. people live in these places. people there can say stuff like:

It's father's day in Girl Village.
I live in Your Peanut.
It's Wednesday in Saturday Place.
I lost my wallet in Her Lip.
What's your twenty? Sixty.


Can you think of any funny sentences with these places?

3 city tour

i had a 5 day weekend. friday (may 1) was a national holiday, so no school. then sat and sun. then monday, tuesday, and half of wednesday was the final exam for the seniors and i didn't have to go and supervise them like the other teachers did. muahahah. ergo, 5 day weekend.

i live here:
i wanted to leave my city and travel within hungary because if ever anyone comes to visit me here, they surely won't want to see different hungarian cities. so i'll do that on my own. plus, it's good practice for using the language. i pulled up a map online, perused a few city websites, found some places to stay in each city, and got on a train - with my dog.

first stop: Székesfehérvár (SAY-kesh-feh-hair-var)
it translates to something like "white castle with the chair/seat" but i think it should be called "town of creepy statues" or something.

here is the city center

a modern statue i'm sure hungarians hatecreepiest thing there

ok, it's a toss-up between these two

i'm sure this was cool at one time

a clock made of flowers

second stop: Vác (vats)

my favorite city in hungary (so far)

cutest city center ever

i ate lunch at a cute little sidewalk cafe. pea soup to start...

followed by bacon wrapped chicken, mashed potatoes, and a big grilled slice of cheese

in the city center there was a tourist information center. one of the brochures there suggested a walking tour. i went to 8 of the 10 places it recommended. here they are:

cathedral

the park of the danube bend

some cafe on the walk

"the sharpened tower"

the archway ("the stone gate")

the synagogue - very cool

statue of the holy trinityinside one of the many churches - can you imagine going to church and looking at this?

inside a different church

evening over the danube

along the riverwalk

some bishop who founded the city has a legend about finding a dear with a candle in its horns, so they erected this statue in his honor. i don't see any candles either.

final stop: Cegléd (tseg-laid) i had to change trains here anyway, so i decided to get out and look around for a few hours. a nice street to walk, ride a bike, or drive
the church statue at the end of the street
the lame city center statue
cathedral
lunch - "hamburger" and pineapple with ginger ale (that would be shredded cabbage on there)
this guy reminded me of grease. slicked back hair, short jeans... a fanny pack
your guess is as good as mine
a pretty church view (liz, i totally thought of lori when i was looking at all these churches)
xander enjoyed himself, too. i think i even wore him out one day because he kept trying to climb up my legs so i would hold him instead of make him walk. lazy bum. oh well, back to life.

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