ah! the sights and sounds of budapest =)

ah! the sights and sounds of budapest =) 21 aug 2002 hi all, i'm writing this go around on my laptop in the apt. so that (a) i can write snippets about things after i see them and while they're fresh in my mind, (b) i spend less time paying for internet while i write, and (c) i can find all the right keys on the keyboard! =) over the course of the semester i'm guessing i'll write weeklyish, and go back to every other week in the spring when i'm not so much in europe anymore... but for this semester, soooo much new exciting stuff happens every day that i figure twice the usual frequency is worth it =) i will say that most of my emails won't be quite the multimedia presentation that this one is.... nor will they probably be quite as long text wise either... believe me though, this IS the condensed version for this week =P since what i've written is sooo long, here's an outline -- if you don't feel that ambitious, pick and choose what you like... =) even if you don't read everything, this should answer *everybody's* questions this time, plus some! =P ~language skills (or lack thereof!) ~transporation adventures ~goofy european contraptions.... ~hungarian food (goulash, fish bones, and more) =P ~water (yes, indeed, drinking water gets its own whole paragraph here) =P ~flooding (because sooo many of you keep asking me about it) ~my weekend: castle hill, folk art festival, and statue park ~international church of budapest ~language classes (kér egy kávét?) ~st. istván's day ~contact info (for the last time -- promise!) ~pictures, etc. language skills (or lack thereof!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ sooo... now that i've been here for a whole week plus some, new news.... language skills still need much work... but apparently i blend in just find on my own, because on occasions when i'm not in a large group of students speaking english, people come up to me and start speaking in hungarian all the time; as a result, last week, i got quite skilled at saying "nem értem!" = "i don't understand!" followed by "angolul?" (in english?) or "nem beszélek magyarul" (i don't speak hungarian)... this usually results in a game of charades that sometimes works sometimes doesn't, but as i learn more in my classes that should help a little at least... even after just 3 days of language classes, i'm getting a better handle on things, recognizing more signs and posters, and understanding more words people say in passing on the street... it's a good start =)... but LOTS to learn yet! transporation adventures ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ public transportation here in budapest covers EVERYWHERE you want to go plus some, and with the help of a map, i'm getting pretty good at it, so yay for that =) really, when they say public transportation here is excellent, they're not kidding... it's not just like the mata buses back in memphis that very few people use... here they have 3 subway lines, countless bus lines, trams (basically trolleys), commuter trains where the subways don't reach, etc... and you can get unlimited access to all of the above for a month for just 4050forint (between $16 and $17... if you're super careful and not honest, you could for free-- they very rarely check for tickets =P)... everything is always punctual and safe as well... you can't really walk 5 feet here without coming across some sort of metro/bus/tram line somewhere in the city =)... it's really something else... then again, i wouldn't want to drive here... as i've heard of other places, there aren't really jaywalking/other rules, and people do some *interesting* things as they drive/walk around... other random traffic observation... when traffic lights change from red to green they also turn yellow inbetween, just like when they go from green to red... i thought that was cool =P... while i'm still on the subject of transportation, there's 3 main subway lines here in budapest... i normally take the red line, but monday afternoon, i went somewhere on the yellow line -- this is big because the yellow line of the subway here was built in 1894 -- the first subway in all of europe!... it's literally one of the above ground buses modified to drive just a foot or two under the sidewalk (whereas the red and blue lines are more of "real" subways like ones i've been on in the states)... the yellow line stations are pretty classy looking too... it was just totally neat to think it's been around for so long and i was on it =P goofy european contraptions.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ for the record, i lit a gas stove for the first time ever yesterday -- considering i really really really hate matches and think i've lit on once before ever, this is MAJOR! =) in other news, we were told that clothes dryers don't exist in hungary before we came over... well, they lied -- our apt. has the most brilliant contraption ever... it's a washer/dryer in one... you don't even have to take your clothes out between the two cycles... after it spins all the water out, it automatically starts drying!.... i've never seen anything like it and thought it was pretty cool... that is, until i had to clean the filter... wet lint is NOT a party in a box, but yay for spiffy machines minus maintenance =) hungarian food (goulash, fish bones, and more) =P ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ now that more of us are here, we can trade tips on restaurants and find places that can help us until we learn at least some more basic words... we've been to a cheap but delicious pizza cafe in downtown pest where, although they don't speak english, they serve you based on you checking off boxes on a paper list of toppings, and when they hear us talk in not-hungarian, they happily hand over an english version of the list.... olives on pizza here come whole with pits in them! i've been to the world's largest burger king as well, in pest, a little ways NE of downtown, complete with an internet cafe.... internet at burger king? - go figure! =P...i've also had some excellent chinese and turkish cuisine as well (yeah, i know, i go all the way to budapest, and i get asian food... =P).... but never fear, we've tried real hungarian food too -- if you ask around, some restaurants have servers who speak english and will assign them to your table... i had stuffed turkey that turned out to be stuffed with liver one night (i don't think i've ever had liver!) and it was actually really really good.... and i've tried goulash which is much more caserole-like than you'd expect -- or not even caserole like... it was more like a pile of pieces of meat, veggies, etc.... it's made of all kinds of stuff i wouldn't be able to name back to you, but really good =)... i've also tried a kind of hungarian carp soup (it was really good, but i didn't expect the meat in the soup to have bones... surprise!) and hungarian beer (and unlike american beer, i actually like it, but it's really strong, so not a lot of it at once!) =)... our first major grocery store excursion was a party and a half too -- paprika flavored pringles chips, for example, are the main flavor here... other things you just kinda of guess if they're what you want and get a surprise when you get home.... such as the next paragraph =P it's also nice that they don't card here and you can get a 0,5L of european beer for the equivalent of 50 to 75 cents... (not that i'm drinking that much of it, it's just interesting to see a totally different culture about drinking here)... anywho, other random facts: diet coke is called coca-cola light here and ice tea is common and comes in two varieties: peach and lemon =P,... and, speaking of drinks..... water (yes, indeed, drinking water gets its own whole paragraph here) =P ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ our main frustration so far is water... the water is harder/softer (i can't remember what means what) here, but so much that like the dishwasher comes with a separate box next to the place where you put soap, so that you can add salt so the soap can actually do its job.... we feel better boiling tap water first and then it tastes fine, but that's some extra work so amanda (apartment-mate) and i went grocery shopping one night and picked up 6 1,5L bottles of water (yes i meant to use the comma... here, they use commas and decimals reverse of how US numbers work)... turns out water isn't exactly what you'd expect here... apparently there's not much of a market for bottled tap water like in the US, so it comes as mineral water "with gas" or mineral water "without gas"... even the without gas version has this funny taste i can't quite explain and i haven't developed a real liking for it yet,... so for now it'll go to make lots of good ice cubes though and i'll work on getting over the taste! =) you CAN find real evian water if you know where to look, but it's not nearly as common. =P flooding (because sooo many of you keep asking me about it) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ while i'm on the topic of water, last week many of you asked about flooding and how bad it is here... obviously the danube river (Duna) runs right through the middle of the city and although our house is way up in a hill and not a chance the water will reach us, downtown it's pretty amazing... you'll find crowds of local people at any given point of day or night along the river just amazed.... basically there's a low road running right along the river with like a 4 foot dropoff to the water under normal conditions... wednesday when i arrived it was above water and full of traffic, thursday the road was level with the water; and by friday night the road was hidden, guardrails and all, and you could only see street signs above the water.... sunday when i went to church, the water level looked only a little higher, but the sewers on the next road up (right by a major subway station and bus route i use)were spouting off water and making huge puddles in the street.... they've barricaded the subway entrance on each side of the river banks with sandbags... and although the commuter train station closest to the river flooded, all the subways and other things in general are fine so far... especially since the buda side, where i live, is so hilly there's not a chance we'll be majorly affected by it, but if the river gets too terribly much higher, our metro (subway) line we take to school could be screwed up.... i don't know that that's an imminent concern though... so yeah, that's the scoop on that... i'm safe and not in real danger here. =)... on the other hand, as the water level rises, this is supposed to be the highest river level budapest has ever had... there are stains on buildings several blocks in on the pest side from flooding back in the 1800s, but the way the city is built along the water was a little different then.... still fascinating to keep tabs on... my weekend: castle hill, folk art festival, and statue park ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .... now on to more specific events =) this past weekend, all the people that managed to find each other before classes started basically split into two groups -- 4 people went out to see lake balaton, and the rest of us stayed in town to explore more of where we are.... i was in the latter group... on saturday we explored the castle district which is an awesome section of buda right along the river featuring... (dum dum dum) the hungarian royal castle!... we didn't plan on it, but we happened to be there on the first day of the festival of folk arts going on this past weekend, so we bought tickets and got to try fun food, listen to live folk music, puppet shows, etc., and see people making things such as wooden carvings or stuffed dolls or metal work -- all right there in front of you... it was very impressive, and different kinds of stuff from what i've seen in american folk art festivals =)... after that, the 6 of us that were still out and about navigated our way to statue park.... this is this big park just outside the city limits way down to the SW where hungary has placed 41 statues that had prominent positions in the city while they were under communist rule (1945-1990).... it was fascinating just to get a taste of how the national sentiment towards communism was, and many of the statues were just hugely impressive (see attached photos)... the park is done up nicely... not like chris expected, just a bunch of broken statues in the middle of grass somewhere, and they have guide books treating things very seriously,... but then, on the other hand, the souvenir shop totally makes fun of communism -- they had some hilarious t-shirts, CDs, etc. i've forgotten already.... there was this underlying sentiment of yes, this is in our heritage and we're all about preserving our heritage, but no that's not who really are or want to be.... to me, it was impressive to halfway through, look around at everything and realize that within my lifetime even, this country was a communist state, polar opposite of what my country stands for, and i was just kinda in awe of the hugeness of it all... i can't think of how to better explain that thought.... but anyhow, if this fascinates you, i think you can find out more about it at www.szoborpark.hu.....altogether, a very educational and fun weekend =P -- and that was just on saturday!!! international church of budapest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ on sunday i made an easier day of things -- first i checked out the english speaking church i'd found online... then just chilled in my apt after all the walking and racing around of the several days before to get settled in here.... (a grand majority of stores, etc. are closed on sunday anyhow)... going to this church has to have been one of the best things i've done so far here - really!... it's the international church of budapest, and i'd guess that there's maybe 100 people that came... many are regulars and native hungarians who want to be a part of being welcoming to people from elsewhere, and lots of others are like me - temporarily here for a couple months/years, but wanting a place to worship, and still others are just traveling through for a week or two and stopped in.... people from all 6 inhabitable continents, and the main thing in common is that they all want to worship in english and are in budapest -- after that, the variety of people is amazing... i'd say the actual service was kinda like a european version of vineyard with a twist of baptist... but definitely in some ways unique to this kind of an international church body... these were some of the friendliest people i've ever met, and although i'm all about learning the langauge here, it was refreshing to worship in english and hear people who speak like me! =) it's really cool how you can find family in Christ *anywhere*... going there totally made my week, and i plan to stay involved the whole time while i'm in town here!... if you want to check it out online, www.church.hu =) language classes (kér egy kávét?) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ moving on to the rest of the week, language classes started monday, and they're intense to say the least... i think it makes it even more interesting that they're teaching complicated language lessons to 3 sections full of math majors!... it's hard to explain, but just that fact makes the whole thing kind of comical =P... every day except tuesday we were there from 9 til 16 or 17 (europe uses 24-hour clocks.... now my watch isn't out of place anymore!) =) leaving not much time for anything else at all... tuesday was a half day for st. istváns day... more on that in a minute.... my teacher for the language course is this huge motorcycle guy named ádám with a voice loud enough to shake the 6 story building we have class in! i think he's kinda amused by all of us american students but he likes to say YEEeees! and EEXcellent (the beginnings of those two words are especially loud when he says them) all the time.... we're learning lots, just very quickly!....(if you're really wondering, "kér egy kávét?", above, means "would you like a coffee?") =P i think i'm going to have a few spelling problems when i get back to the states.... i'm already having to think really hard about which spelling system i'm trying to use.... like here, s is pronouced like american 'sh', sz is like american 's', and cs is like american 'ch'.... ahhh!!!... we learned our first hungarian song this week too =) (because i never ever sing silly songs)... it goes "csipp-csepp, egy csepp, öt csepp, meg tíz, olvada jégcsap, csepereg a víz".... i'll let you wonder what on earth it says =P... we have a week and a half more of language classes and then a few days off before things really get rolling here... woohoo! =) quote of the week from my teacher (to another student): "no! you never say it like that... well, you could... we tell you word order doesn't matter too much, when really it does... what i just said, 'látok egy autót', means 'i see a car'.... but if you say it your way, 'egy autót látok', you're saying 'oh my &#^, a car!' like you've never seen one before -- you already will draw attention to yourself by having an accent... you don't need to make a fool of yourself!"... trivia question of the week: what is the *only* word in the english language that comes from hungarian, and where did hungarian get this word from? first person with the right answer gets a gold star =P st. istván's day ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ and finally, tuesday was st. ishtvan's day, the national holiday of hungary (like american 4th of july)-- st. istván was the first king of hungary back in 1000ad... festivities normally include processing with his right hand (a national long treasured relic) through the streets, holy mass at st. ishtvan's basilica, and incredible fireworks over the river... however, this year was different... although the river flooding hasn't damanged more than the low streets in budapest, hungarian villages farther north have been totally destroyed. the government decided that it was just wrong to spend so lavishly on celebrating the nation when people outside of budapest are suffering so much, and so they cancelled most events for the evening except an open air concert and the all-weekend festival of folk arts and gave the $$ they were going to spend to relief efforts... it was a quieter day here, and definitely a holiday instead of a work day, but not quite what anyone expected, both visitors and locals.... i found it impressive that the government would make such a gesture, but was also amazed that out of one day a year they celebrate this and all the planning that goes in to it, that they would willingly give up some traditions for a year... so yeah, that's the thought on that. contact info (for the last time -- promise!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ now that i've typed lots and lots, wrapping up... contact info for real this time... like i've told you before, mailing address is deleted since this isn't valid info anymore anyhow... =P ..., and feel free to call anytime before 5pm central US time (midnight here) or after midnight/1am central US time (7/8 am here).... Aniko, my RA from valpo last year, says you only spend about 16 cents a minute if you use a sams club phone card to call hungary from the US, which is a pretty darn good rate for international calls, eh? from here going the other way, it's about 36 cents a minute, which adds up fast. we don't have an answering machine, but especially if you call between 10pm and midnight our time (3-5pm US central) we should be here and awake... you're also more likely to catch us sunday afternoon/evening since pretty much everything is closed on sunday =) (you can try other times, but we're out a LOT between classes, exploring, and just making sure we find food!) pictures, etc. ~~~~~~~~~~~ ok, so, finally, my mutimedia presentation, briefly referenced at the start of this novel.. thanks to mason (a fellow southerner here!... he actually asked our language teacher yesterday what the ending was for the 'formal y'all' (3rd person plural =P) conjugation of a verb... totally made my day =P), i have pictures and a 4 second sound clip... this won't happen every time, but since he has a digital camera that also records sounds to go with pictures, and we both went to pretty much the same places at the same time this week, *and* we both have laptops here, he's willing to share.... and i just thought it would be cool for y'all to actually *see* what it's like here for the majority of you who haven't been to eastern europe... so here goes... attachment 1: 4 pictures -- welcome to budapest! yes, the whole city is really this impressive and beautiful! =) (a) a group of hungarian singers playing folk music at the folk art festival in front of the hungarian royal castle on saturday (b) the chain bridge -- of the 7 or 8 bridges that span the danube here in budapest, this one's probably the most famous... it was originally built 1840s-ish and was the first permanent bridge built across the danube check out the lions guarding either end... mighty impressive =P (c) the parliament building, up close (on the pest side) (d) the parliament building, view from castle hill on the buda side... you can see how high the water is in this picture pretty well...normally there's a road in front of the building, that is now covered up, guardrails and all, in the water, but there's several feet to go before the water gets up to the next set of roads, etc. attachment 2: sound clip... it's a .wav file, so windows media player or equivalent sound program should play it... 4 seconds of music to go with the singers in picture (a) above for whatever it's worth =P... i attached it because it was there =) attachment 3: 4 pictures -- statue park (a) large hands with globe -- this statue is supposed to represent the future of the world in the hands of communism (b) statues -- the one on the left used to be along one of the major highways in downtown budapest... there was great national attachment to it as people saw it as the "welcoming statue" to know they were back home... now instead, it welcomes people to statue park, out of town, but the place where it used to be is still named after the statue (whose name i can't remember) (c) this was just a really cool shot of this statue reaching to the sun... if you saw more detail instead of just an outline, it's a man with a really grotesque look on his face, about to fall (d) mason, rahul, chris, me, andrei, and kevin in front of one of the most famous statues at the park -- just to show you how BIG this stuff really is! this statue was on a famous communist propaganda poster back in the day and is still used now in all the posters around town that advertise the park... it's a man running with his coat in his hand flying behind him... one word: HUGE! so yeah, that's about it, now you've *seen* and *heard* some of what i've been immersed in this week -- most excellent! (too bad i can't emaail some of the food!) =P.... promise not to be sooo long winded every week, but this was a very cool one =) hope you enjoyed! jo hét! lara =) hungarian_singers.wav not included due to harsh disagreements between geocities and my sound files =P