Love-Hate Relationship - Working at the kindergarten

Tomorrow is my last day at Babaház Óvoda, so yesterday I got all sentimental and started reflecting on my past ten weeks there.
It was so hard at first - I remember the first several weeks I spent most of my time inside the kindergarten in some sort of survival mode and most of my time outside of it dreading the next work day. The kids intimidated me with their potential for (what seemed like) destruction considering my linguistic inability to control them. I didn't know their names, and then I couldn't say their names (thank you Hungarian language.) Lesson plans stressed me out - how do you teach a language without using language? It was frustrating for me and I'm sure it was frustrating for them. I wasn't even sure how to play without scaring them off talking English at them. Even my supervisor stressed me out because I was so worried she was going to notice how much I was struggling. It was the hate-part of our relationship and I wanted to go home.
Then it got easier...
I asked if I could teach the kids upstairs with a Hungarian teacher nearby for disciplinary purposes, instead of downstairs alone in the basement room (where, famously now for anyone I've talked to, one boy literally punched another and I was like WHAT??!). A brilliant move. I had a mold for lesson plans (song - lesson - game, usually Duck Duck Goose but they love it - and when all else failed, coloring until my time was up).
...but I still didn't like it
Honestly I lived for weekends and Tuesday/Thursday mornings for a lot of my time at the kindergarten. Even once my job didn't terrify me, it still stressed me out and I didn't enjoy it. The good news is now I know similar jobs are not my calling. I loved Budapest and my time here so I saw work, in a large part, as a means to that end.
But those kids :)
Then we warmed up to each other. The youngest ones (three year-olds) still forget sometimes and talk to me in Hungarian, which only adds to their already ridiculous cuteness. The older ones I love because they were at a level to answer my questions during the lesson and also talk to me in English throughout the day. Nothing warmed my heart more than when I heard them using English, even English I only used with them but never taught them. Zolan even translated for one of the Hungarian teachers outside when she couldn't think of how to say something to me in English... so cute. Recently they have started teaching me Hungarian! They'll grab my hand and point at stuff and say the word until I repeat it, but at a steady pace of 80 words a day I can tell you improvement is slow. I remember colors, numbers, and one of my favorite little boys taught me the Hungarian version of Rain, Rain, Go Away. You should see their faces when I say simple things in Hungarian like ("I don't know" and "tomorrow"). Their eyes pop out of their heads a little.
 To close, the past two weeks have been absolutely enjoyable. We smile and laugh, play, and learn from each other. Few things make me happier than when I arrive and they run up and hug me, or when all of them (at different but slightly overlapping intervals) said "Happy Birthday!", or when they try so hard with English or color pictures for me. I love it when they love the lesson or the craft (we made magic wands like the good fairy in Little Bunny Foo Foo and it was such a hit). They LOVE "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Baby Shark" and sing them all through the day. When my job is a success like that, I feel so happy to have been here and have had this experience. I will miss these kids and never forget them.
 

They are called Hungarians!

When Italian Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi was asked if he believed in extraterrestrials, he replied, "They are already here...they are called Hungarians!"

 

 Not to be weird, but I really really like Hungarians. They are really kind people, to each other (which is nice to see), but also even to foreigners, which I find uncommon everywhere else (especially when foreigners are generally clueless tourists who don't speak a lick of the local language). I wish I had been keeping more of a specific record of events instead of just thinking over and over to myself as things happen "wow, Hungarians are so nice".

Many Hungarians I have talked to, even just once or twice, seem to genuinely want to get to know me and hear about life in the US and, of course, what I think about Hungary. This has included friends who work at the hotels, teachers in the kindergarten, and of course AIESECers. Especially given I'm only here for a short time, I really appreciate the effort.

Tuesday morning on the metro I wasn't paying attention to what stop the train had arrived at and I couldn't see the name outside the window, so at the very last minute I started squirming trying to view the station name somewhere. A man across from me noticed and immediately told me where we were (Deák Ferenc) and looked very concerned as he asked if that was my stop (I'm assuming) and some other stuff in Hungarian. He kept smiling at me afterwards too.

That's something else that is refreshing - the language thing. I try really, really hard (oftentimes fruitlessly) to say basic things in Hungarian or at the very least ask for English in Hungarian. If possible, on some occasions (shout out to the Tesco Vodafone guy and the Tesco Posta guy) the Hungarians I'm talking to seem to be trying even harder to communicate with me in near-perfect English. And, in great contrast to my experiences in Russia and also, to a less severe degree other parts of Europe the reaction to the realization that I don't in fact speak Hungarian is not a look of disbelief or annoyance but often a kind smile. It is so nice.

When a friend from UNC visited Budapest from Prague, one of the first things she pointed out was how kind people here were and what a contrast it was from people in Prague. It isn't just me, I promise! Anyway I really love it here, and the kindness of Hungarians is one of the main things I'm going to miss.

love from Pest,

Em

Romkocsmák and Pálinka - and another event update since I don't have time for anything else!

1. Ruin Bars - "Romkocsmák"
Unique to Budapest - these are alternative bars in the courtyards and rooms of abandoned warehouses or residential buildings. They are "ad-hoc" places, often in condemned buildings waiting to be leveled.
ANYWAY after reading about them and hearing about them, this weekend I hit two up with friends. We celebrated Canada Day with Canadians in Bar Instant on Friday, and on Saturday we ended a trail of good times at Szimpla Kert (now pretty much my favorite place).  

Szimpla Kert is very eclectic and thrown-together... with seats including a cushioned half of a bathtub and a bench covered with an egg crate (also normal chairs around tables and some nice couches). Lamps, cars, old films playing in the outdoor courtyard... a friend told me the decorations change but I don't see how anyone could pick up on that. I met an AIESEC friend from UNC (Katie Leung!) here last night!


Bar Instant is unique... its themed as an "enchanted forest" and apparently the DJs base their song choices on alignment of stars and the emotions of the crowd.

2. Paprika - Still the best restaurant I've been to in Budapest
Bryan and I went here in December on a lark (or rather on a great guidebook hint); apparently everyone has heard of it and it's one of the top Hungarian restaurants (plus oh-so-charming with country village decor). We went on Saturday to take Antony's friend from home! I talked Kiwi (Antony) into sharing the 2-person house specialty "Paprika Plate"...
PAPRIKA PLATE:
Gypsy pork + Goose + Ewe cheese-stuffed turkey + Beef of some sort + A final meat I forgot
More meat than I've eaten over the span of two months. Yes I ate all of it! (Except the quarter-pound of food I gave away to some of the fourteen people at our table.) It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite surprisingly was the goose leg. I now love goose.

3. Pálinka - Traditional Hungarian fruit brandy - very, very strong
In the video a few posts ago, the girl takes a shot of clear liquid and winces a little as it goes down... that was pálinka. It comes in all different flavors: apricot (which I tried), sour cherry, grape, blackberry, elderberry, peach, sometimes with honey... anyway for a strong shot, it's nice. Way better than the strong and disgusting Unicum, a bitter Hungarian herbal liqueur, which I also (unfortunately) tried.

4. Szechenyi Baths

  It's the largest of the baths in Budapest - 15 pools including three large outdoor ones; also some of the hottest and deepest in Hungary, apparently. We were there for four hours - there was so much to see and we kept pool hopping (hot-cold-hot-lazy river pool-medicinal-small-large-hot).

Anyway it was fun and I was glad to see it! The weather was chilly and rainy which actually was perfect for lazily bathing in hot water pools all day. Oddly we ran into a New Yorker we had met in Szimpla the night before... so a very popular bath.

I can't believe I only have 2.5 weeks left! It's gone by so fast. We are going to Vienna this weekend (3hrs by bus - so close!), and then I will have 10 work days and 5 weekend days left in this amazing country. I'm aiming for a few good blog posts before leaving on Jul 24... we'll see.

Thanks for reading. Happy (belated) Independence Day everyone!
Puszi!
Em

Notable Events from the Past Fortnight

1. Ruin Church:     ZSÁMBÉK, Hungary     (Djahm-bayk)

Celts and Romans once populated the city.

The church was built in 1220, destroyed in 1241 during the Mongolian invasion, rebuilt, and destroyed a final time in 1763 by an earthquake. 

Today it is one of Hungary's largest architectural ruins. Interestingly it is still holy and sanctified so you can marry on the church grounds!

2. Wine Festival:     PÁTY, Hungary     (Pahte)

,

On our way through the countryside (to the festival surrounding several private wine cellars in the hills in Paty), all 15 of us were invited into the small, open-air home of the most hospitable man I've ever met. He literally would not take no for an answer to anything and gave us all heaping portions of forest soup, meat and potatoes, homemade red wine, white wine -who wants more wine? you must have more wine!- even though his family was joined by several other Hungarian families already. We sat at his table and accepted his hospitality. It was so neat. I love the countryside and I love Hungarians. Then we went into the wine cellar of a friend of a friend----------->

3. Aquincum - Ruins of the Roman City 

 












Aquincum was the capital of the Roman province of Pannonia. It's in the north of Buda and was excavated in the 19th century. Many streets and foundations remain so it was very neat to explore! 


 4. Pálvölgyi and Szemlöhegyi Caves

We took a trip to two caves in the Buda Hills, which turned out to be an excellent plan B on a rainy Sunday (even though both tours were in Hungarian.) 


Interestingly after 20 years lacking in cave experiences, I had 3 cave experiences in 7 days!

5. TÁNCHÁZ at Kobuci Kert

 

What could be better than minced sausage sandwiches with Soproni beer, live Hungarian folk music, and traditional circle and line dances?

I planned this event and was so worried it was going to be lame, but everyone really, really enjoyed it! The dances were so fun, it was packed, and the energy behind the music was something else. So fun!

6. MUZEUMOK (Night of Museums!)

One night a year in Budapest you can pay the entrance fee of one museum and go to nearly all of them for free between 6pm and 2:30am!

It was so fun! Some stalls surrounding different museums sell Hungarian spiral cakes, cherry beer, crafts; there are stage performances (like flame throwers); and the streets are packed with something like 400,000 people visiting museums and the festival parts.

We went to: the Hungarian National Museum; a concert at the Liszt Memorial Museum; the House of Terror; up in the tower of Varosliget Castle; around the stalls at the Agricultural Museum; and to the Hungarian House of Photography.   :)   :)

7. Gellért Hotel Baths

Built in 1918, they are the best known and most luxurious baths in Budapest (and there are a lot of thermal baths).

Think mosaics, fountains, marble sculptures - plus warm, sweet-smelling water, a gorgeous patio, a nice outdoor pool with artificial waves on the hour... we stayed there for over 3 :)

Well that about does it for notable events from the past two weeks! I am finally caught up. A nice short blog on my job or thoughts about Hungary will be coming soon hopefully; however I have to move hostels (this one will be renovated during July) so that means even less time to write in the next few days. Hope everyone is doing well at home!!!

Sziasztok! Puszi!

Em

Video about HUNGARY :D

HUNGARY: World of Potentials

Cute video (I promise it's more interesting than it looks!) about Hungary! And now I'm obsessed with the song played during it - it is a modern version of a Hungarian folk song. Anyway, enjoy!

-Em

Some thoughts:
Hungary in general seems very under-rated, at least from my American view. Budapest especially equals and possibly surpasses other major cultural/historical/tourist Central European cities like Prague and Vienna, yet so many people have barely even heard the name. Hungary, apparently, has gifted the world with a slew of inventions (were you surprised with any? I know I was). Anyway I think this video is part of a campaign to revamp Hungary's image (or, in my opinion, get foreigners up to speed). I hope it happens.

The song title translates as "Fly, bird, fly" and the band, Balkan Fanatik, has won awards for world music and for preserving Hungarian folk songs.

Loving My Time Here in Budapest!

Again I'm sorry for sparse updates! Still delightfully busy, but also the Internet at my accommodation was down for four days. I like to think I would have posted before now if I'd had less Internet trouble, but who knows.

Krakow, POLAND - Saturday, June 11 - Monday, June 13

In Hungary, the Monday following Pentecost Sunday is a national holiday, hooray!  So for the long weekend, a group of 10 of us decided to road trip (in tiny European cars!) north (some number of kilometers which escapes me, surprise) to Krakow.  To the amazement of  me and my fellow North Americans, we picked up and drove to another country (passing through a third country) in roughly the time it takes me to drive from Jacksonville to Chapel Hill - and only that long because we took it slowly!

We drove through mountains in Slovakia, which are very pretty, and had to use Euros to buy window passes just to be on the highway.  Every time we passed a castle, Sandra (Canadian), Kevin, and I would flip out, taking pictures out of our windows, and the Europeans would just laugh at us. And all of us jammed to some 90s Backstreet Boys song on the radio while driving through a Slovak village. The holiday would have been worth it even for the road trip alone, I think!

SAT: First thing I did in Poland was say "dzien dobry" (good day, which I remembered!) to the cutest little Polish girl in a shop. Moved into our large flat in Kasimierz district :); ate zapiekanki (half a baguette, layer with mushrooms, cheese, fried onions, meat, etc, toasted); free walking tour of the district (the Jewish quarter); drinks in main square (they put flavor shots like ginger and raspberry in beer there!); dinner at a Hungarian restaurant (I know... but our Polish friend said it was her favorite restaurant in Poland), think potato pancakes with goulash; and out in Kasimierz!

SUN: Hiked with a friend up a hill for some great views of the city; explored a rock quarry; visited Massolit Books (English bookstore opened by an American grad student... I've been to the second store in Budapest and loved the large one in Krakow); for dinner, Milk Bar Polish restaurant (they didn't even speak English, thank goodness for our Polish friend Joanna); listened to a benefit concert in the square. Went to a neat bar called Alchemie - to go from room to room you have to open and step through a wardrobe, very Narnia-esque :)

MON: National Park to the north - we picnicked with a feast of Polish breakfast foods (my obsession with Central European cottage cheese continues); saw castle ruins; ate ice cream (we always squeeze in ice cream); and hiked up for a tour of a cave where a Polish king hid from Czech armies for 6 weeks before coming out to regain his throne! Possibly my first cave experience ever. Anyway went back to Krakow for more zapiekanki and didn't leave the city until 10pm... so we got back around 5am which was crazy.  It's kind of thrilling to be two countries from work at 10pm before a workday.

Hope it wasn't too long! Here are some pictures:

Kevin, Joanna (Asia), and Sandra sleeping in the back seat

Macier, our walking tour guide

Main Square, Old Town at night

bye for now!
em

Still Alive!

Happily I have had too much going on to keep up with blogging, but I still apologize. I am still here, still working, and still failing miserably at speaking Hungarian! Brief update on the past (wow) sixteen days:

1. Some nightlife, some potluck
Now this will sound silly, but having some good friends has been the best. From listening to a live Hungarian band to trying New Zealand food at Antony's apartment to celebrating an ex-pat magazine's fifth birthday with free cake... getting out in the city at night has been an adventure. 

We had an international potluck dinner! Kevin (from Arizona) and I wanted to make apple pie - amusingly it wasn't until I starting looking around Tesco for ingredients that it struck me that I didn't know flour/cinnamon/shortening/etc in Hungarian, so I spent forever walking down every aisle peering at ingredients trying not to buy baking powder instead of flour, for example. I couldn't find anything important, so we made bacon bbq burgers with cheddar cheese (which I found!- me to the skeptical woman behind the cheese counter: "cheddar. ched-dar. *pointing*). Unfortunately we overcooked the burgers but they still tasted like heaven/home when smothered with the bacon/cheese/barbeque-sauce combo.
Anyway my favorite thing was Hilmi's Kurdish fried vegetable things, yum. From Spain we had bread with olive oil and tomatoes; from Hungary pasta with paprika and chilled cherry soup; from New Zealand some sugary, poof-y fruit dessert - I'm forgetting some, but I know the Romanians brought wine and the Canadian brought cake.

2. 05/29: MISKOLC, Hungary             (Mee-shh-colts)
3hr train through Hungarian countryside - ate a lot of paprika chips and played a hundred games of Mafia
Arrived in a sleepy town with some closed shops, rode a city bus for quite some time - skeptical...

BAM we found the awesome Castle of Diósgyőr up against some beautiful hills:

 
 We also went to a lake and the (apparently) tallest waterfall in Hungary, which was actually not that tall. But still very cool!

The coolest thing we did in Miskolc (technically Miskolc-Tapolca) was swim in these thermal waters in a cave.  It was actually a network of tunnels - different rooms, a lazy river, some waterfalls... an outdoor pool part. It was so cool! Here's a picture I took from Google ----------->

So Miskolc was fun! If nothing else, it was really awesome to scavenge outside of Budapest with some really cool friends all day. And other parts of Hungary are really beautiful too.


2. Last weekend: VISÉGRAD, Hungary             (Vee-shay-grad)

This time a boat ride down the Danube! I was in heaven. Unbelievable views of Buda and Pest and some sun - such a good way to spend a few hours. There was another castle here - a more important one because Viségrad used to be the "royal seat" of Hungary, until the 15th century.  The majority of the day, however, we spent hiking up the steepest, muddiest, worst non-mountain ever on the hottest day since I got to Hungary. Really, check this hill out:

The tower you see is Solomon Tower, which is only a quarter of the way to the top. If you squint you can almost see the castle, which is on the very top of the hill. And you can't even see the bottom of the hill. It was ridiculous. Awesome views from the top though!

We also rode bobsleds ("luges"?) on this track somewhere around the castle.  That was fun too. 

Funny story: on the way up the track, before getting to the drop, my luge started getting rather close to Ralph the Brazilian guy's in front of me. 

Ralph (nervously pointing to sign): Keep twenty meters back!

Me (just before the collision): I'm an American - I don't know what that means!!

Anyway Ralph helpfully put a conversion calculator on my Facebook wall. 

Thanks, Ralph.

So much for being brief! I will save stories from Babahaz Ovoda, progress in my first Ugric-group language, and thoughts on life in Hungary for another post. Thanks for reading so many words, and I hope everyone is doing well at home!!

love

Emily