apple pie

this little thing, a piece of hungarian apple pie, inspired me to bake (something i don't do too often, but when i do, i really enjoy it). this hungarian treat is good, believe me, i just had to have a slice of america.

i mentioned it to lisa (another american in this town) and soon we planned to bake the pie at her workplace because it has a good kitchen.

she made the dough

then we peeled and sliced some granny smiths

and added the good stuff
(some little kid was there and kept coming over
to ask if she could have one more piece of sugar apple)

it smelled so good even before it was cooked!

we had a weird idea to also make some kind of apple turnover... for no real reason, either. we whipped up some dough, eyeballed the amounts of sugar and spices, then wished it luck

um, yum

i made that lattice top! my first one ever :)

all in all, it was a good idea and a great dessert!

the real truth is i'm american, not hungarian... in fact, as american as apple pie :)

wine time

this weekend i went to tokaj (the white wine region of hungary) with 3 french girls, 3 american guys, and a canadian.

we went to a nice winery and sat outside for a while, sampling the edes szamorodni (mmm, mm, good sweet wine) with some bits of cheese and bread.

behold!

later we hiked up the 'mountain/hill' to see what we could see from the lookout. it's not really a mountain, but it passes for one around these parts. there are two paths up the mountain: the red (hard) one and the green (easy) one. we went up the hard one (fun, fun, fun) and down the easy one - maybe the reverse of the plan i would have suggested.

THE mountain/hill (see? it's not really either, but something in between)

i didn't take any real pictures of the hard path up the mountain (not something i'm dying to remember) but here is something kind of like it. imagine it being a bit darker, a bit steeper, no leaves - but just dirt, and ten billion more trees to the right.

tokaj is the most famous wine region in hungary. they make sweet, dry, and dessert wines there...all white or rose. here are some of the great grapes... which we may or may not have sampled illegally on the way down the mountain. :D

a vineyard on the way down the mountain (the easy path)

a view from the easy path

some frenchies in a vineyard
there are two main rivers in hungary (the danube in budapest and the tisza in the eastern part of the country... where i live). here is one of them - the mighty tisza (tee-suh)

we had some wine in a wine cellar or two - kind of like this one (those barrels are the signature look of hungarian cellars...red rimmed and full of delicious wine!)

there are also restaurants in many cellars there. so you and your party can have a hollowed out cave room all to yourselves for your own private wine tasting extravaganza. i'm game!

P.S. readers: this has been the 100th post! thank you for your continued readership and commentship. if it weren't for you, i wouldn't be blogging at all. thanks for giving me a reason!

around the house

this is what the outside of my accommodation looks like, just fyi

gábor, the handyman
it's a fun word in hungarian "ezermester" (ezz-eR-mesh-teR) roll the R

when i moved into this house/flat/place i was given a brand new washing machine. that, in itself, is pretty fancy and i was very excited about it. i ran the washing machine as needed but never more than that and never at night. that was because it shook and screeched and walked across the room! i told the handyman about it, mostly about the shaking, so he came over and put a folded up piece of paper under one of the corners. that did nothing for the beast, of course, as it was violently shaking not just wobbling. this week i went to a friend of a friend's house and saw that he had the exact same washing machine. i told him the issue with mine and to my utter amazement he told me i needed to remove three long screws from the back of the machine. he even showed me the screws he had removed from his own machine. i explained to the handyman what was needed and he was as skeptical as i was about it. he always wants to help though, so he begrudgingly removed the screws. i thanked him and told him i'm sure it would be ok now, but he instructed me to wash a load and tell him if it all fell apart.

it didn't.

now it works like a champ,
is quiet as a mouse,
and stays as still as a
... washing machine

here are the mangy screws responsible for disturbing me and my pup
all is well in my humble, and i really mean humble, abode :)

family day (at kossuth)

the other day i was walking through the school yard (where i live) and saw people setting up a lot of tents. i asked the priest lady who lives next to me what's going on and she said the next day would be "family day" and students will come with their families and have a cook-off at the school. she said i should come (or at least make an appearance, as i have been sick the past week or so) and enjoy the food. i dropped by for about an hour, taking pictures at will.

the sweetest table

fried apples... though after they're finished they salt them (i would have guessed sugar)

"grilled" chicken - um, delicious!

a typical table with goulash, noodles/dumplings, pickles, kids

and anotherthe food was then judged by 5 or 6 very lucky people

the winning class gets custody of this wooden spoon trophy? for a whole year

after i left there was some traditional hungarian folk dancing (of which i've seen more than my share)

here is a look around at family day (i was talking to some hungarian and had to speak slowly and clearly, just ignore, please)


some boy band was there and the girls were going a little nuts. i didn't recognize them, of course, but they may have been a big deal since news cameras were there. or maybe the news people just came because there was nothing else going on that day. i never know, plus, i don't have a t.v. and wouldn't watch the news if i did! :)


i went back home (on the other side of the school yard) and listened to the music and slept a while. the flu -weather swine or otherwise- has been limiting my activities and interest. hopefully i'll be back to normal this week. sorry about the long break from posting... did you even notice?

the start of school

yesterday i taught in the catholic school, szent imre. the students were well-behaved, helpful, good english speakers, and seemed interested in class for the most part. the teachers helped me find the right classrooms, gave me materials, asked if they could help me, and even told me which bus to take home, when it left, and where the stop was. nothing was really unexpected except that i'll usually have 6 classes on tuesdays but yesterday i only had 3.

today i taught in the evangelical school, kossuth. there were several unexpected things: the concert that took up almost two classes, the time i was teaching a class of 31 students though it should have been 15 or 16 and two other teachers came in to figure out what went wrong, the two classes i taught where no one spoke ANY english at all, and the classes where my hungarian is better than the students' english. most of the students were well-behaved, helpful if i asked anything, and ... kind of nervous/terrified. i don't understand the division of classes yet, but hopefully i'll get it soon. the schedules haven't been completed yet (it's the second day of school) so teachers and students alike are confused and wandering the halls. until 2pm all classes are mandatory, after that they are optional for students. you can imagine how many students will come to those classes. we'll see how that goes. i only have 2 such classes.:)

i met another lektor (native teacher)this afternoon. we were both sitting in empty classrooms waiting for our students. her name is amelie; she's the french native teacher. we're going out tonight as we are not hungarian and that's an instant bond. there is a big music festival in town this week (vidor fesztival! - joyous festival) where groups from all over come to play and sing. the city center is packed every night and the concerts go on until about 11. should be fun.