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.