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Hi, everyone!
This week has been warm and sunny in Budapest, even though last week it
looked like fall was here to stay. Last Friday, Forrest, Pei Zhuan,
Melody, Vanessa, Ben, Mike R., and I went to the Opera House for the
opening night of the performance season. We saw a one-act ballet by
Bela Bartok and an operetta, "The Spinnery," by Zoltan Kodaly.
I
really liked the ballet--for the first time, it occurred to me that
dancing is a form of acting. I was nervous that I wouldn't like the
music, since Bartok is known for some very experimental, discordant
pieces, but this particular music was nicely melodius. I enjoyed the
operetta, too, but I couldn't follow the storyline well. Melody
bought
a program, which contained a brief synopsis in English, but it left out
quite a bit. Also, I was tired at the end of the evening, and to get
a
good view of the stage, I had to lean forward and turn my head, so
toward the end of the show I just sat back and listened to the music.
The French horn part was great!
As I mentioned, our seats were not the best, but that was okay, because
we only paid $4 apiece for them. We were sitting in the front row of
the 3rd balcony, on the far left-hand side. This meant that if we
just
sat back and looked straight ahead, we couldn't see anything, but by
leaning forward and looking down and left, we had a good view of the
stage, as well as the orchestra pit and all of the people in the rest
of the Opera House. The Opera House is beautiful! It's filled
with
marble, gold leaf, and statues. The ceiling is decorated with a
fresco
and a huge chandelier.
The rest of my weekend was tamer. On Saturday I went to an Analysis
study session that Vanessa organized (for refreshments, she provided
the cake that had been leftover from Natalie's birthday party a week
ago). A bunch of us went to dinner together, and in Deak Ferenc metro
station en route to the restaurant, Ben got caught without his metro
pass. The metros in Budapest aren't like the ones in Washington, DC,
where you need to have a ticket to get into the station (or else have
to hop a turnstile); in Budapest, you just walk into the station, and
show your ticket or monthly pass to the guards, if they happen to be
checking passes at that station. If you get caught without a ticket,
you have to pay a fine...instead, Ben immediately reversed his tracks
and went down the escalator! We were worried for awhile, afraid that
the metro guards would catch him and detain him, but he managed to
escape scot-free, and walked home instead of coming to dinner with us.
On Sunday I went to 2 gatherings: The first, in the afternoon, was a
party at Amanda and Alethea's apartment, and the theme was "Unusual
Food." I brought ketchup- and peanut-flavored Cheetohs.
(That's
ketchup-flavored Cheetohs and peanut-flavored Cheetohs, not ketchup-and-
peanut-flavored Cheetohs.) I thought the ketchup ones would be
disgusting, but they didn't really taste like ketchup; they were
actually quite good. Forrest brought Feherrepa, which look like white
carrots and which the dictionary says translates to "turnip"
or "parsley root." Melody, however, was the one who won the
prize for
the weirdest food. She brought a deli salad, consisting of whole,
hard-
boiled eggs, mayonnaise, and chopped-up vegetables, that looked so
slimy that no one would try it.
Then, on Sunday evening, Stephanie and I had dinner with our host
family to celebrate our host mom Eva's birthday. (Breakfast is the
only meal that's included in our rent, so we usually eat dinner in a
restaurant or as a picnic in a park, but for special occasions we join
the family.) In addition to our host mom and dad Eva and Pal, their
daughters Erika and Monika were there, as well as Monika's husband and
a woman whose name I don't know. I met this woman before I knew
enough
Hungarian to ask what her name was or whether she was a member of the
family, and now, since I've seen her several times before, I feel silly
asking who she is. If she shows up again, I'll probably ask Erika or
Monika.
The woman whose name I don't know seemed very amused at the improvement
Stephanie and I have made in speaking in Hungarian, and every time I
said something was delicious or asked for more food, she repeated it to
Pal and Eva in a delighted, "Isn't that cute!" tone of voice.
I felt a
little like a trained monkey, but ah well.
I've been quite busy doing math this week, and I'm enjoying it. On
Wednesday I went to the paper store that Erika Fallier, my prof for
Hungarian language, recommended. I got the Hungarian equivalent of
folders there. Instead of the 2-pocket folders you can get at Target
for 10 cents in the US, Hungarians use portfolios that don't have
pockets, just 3 cardboard flaps that hold the paper in place. I
didn't
trust the flaps to keep all my papers together, so I got 2 portfolios
that have elastic bands to hold the covers shut. They were 380
forints
each, almost $2!
On Wednesday evening, I had a picnic dinner with Forrest, Pei Zhuan,
Natalie, and Jonah on Margit Sziget (Margaret Island). The island is
in the Danube, about a 25 minute walk from where I live (though I could
take a bus), and it's a huge recreation center. Most of it is a park,
but it also has an athletic center, a couple of swimming pools, and
bicycle rentals. We sat on the grass by the central fountain--which
plays classical music!--and ate bread and turkey and apples. After
dinner, we took a tram to Ben's house and roasted marshmallows over his
host family's grill pit! Apparently, there's a section of Tesco, the
Walmart-like store in the suburbs of Budapest, that carries American
foods such as marshmallows. Ben said, "There's an aisle with a
huge
American flag and a Statue of Liberty." Imagine...an American
ethnic
food store.
That's my news for this week. I hope you are all doing well, and
I'll "talk" to you again soon!
Viszlat,
Abra
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