a brief eclectic history in statues =)

a brief eclectic history in statues =) 7 oct 2002 sziasztok! hope this email finds all of you doing excellently -- fyi, i'm going to make a conscientious effort to not be quite as long winded -- we'll see how well it works =P three main highlights of my week this go around #1 - tuesday night... i absolutely love my church here, but their 18-35 year old Bible study has been defunct since about may, since the people who were leading it moved.... however, last sunday, there was an announcement in the bulletin for a new bible study starting, and i asked, shalom, the pastor's daughter who is my age, about it -- from what she said i assumed mekdsz, the place where i was going, was a family's apartment whose name i just couldn't place; however, after i arrived and met many new people, hungarian and otherwise, it was explained that mekdsz is actually the hungarian version of ivcf (intervarsity christian fellowship, the campus christian fellowship we have at valpo!)... mekdsz stands more or less for hungarian (magyar) evangelical (evangéliumi) christian (keresztyén) student (díak) alliance (szövetség) -- they've been around since about 1990 (when hungary went back to demcracy from communism), and the apt. we had Bible study in is the Hungarian national headquarters for mekdsz... the hungarian students that put this study together decided as one of their current goals that they're really interested in getting to know more international students, and so there you have it!... what's even more, réka, the girl who led the study, attended cedar campus (a place in michigan where valpo's ivcf chapter and many other schools in the greater in/mi/etc. area go for chapter camp the week after school each summer) in 2000, and while i wasn't there, there were valpo people, and she's bringing pictures next week so we can see what mutual friends we have!... to me, it was (a) incredibly exciting to fnd an english language international bible study here, and (b) without planning on it at all to find hungarian intervarsity! -- it's an incredibly good feeling to just know you're where you're supposed to be for the time being =) exciting event #2 -- over a month ago now, mom sent me my flute and some piano and flute music to go along with -- given, packages take awhile to get here from the states, but this one was starting to get ridiculous... finally, while i was in romania, a notice came to school that the package had arrived, *but*, customs decided to charge me nearly $80 (20.000 ft.) to get it! i visited the bsm office and asked them what was going on with that, and they made a day of calling around and giving people a hard time until they agreed i could get my package for a mere 420 ft. (between $1 and $2... much much better!) -- finally, after another week plus of waiting, i got a notice last wednesday that i could pick up my package at the post office near school, and so i did -- amanda, my one roommate, is brilliant at playing piano, so besides the stuff she already chose to work on, she's learning the piano parts on some of my piano/flute duet pieces so we can play together =) -- party in a box! exciting event #3 -- this weekend, catalina and i went on a statue hunt -- wanting to do something fun, but not spend too much $$, we made a day of looking for famous statues that are all over postcards and guidebooks galore that we just hadn't spotted before, with a few detours!.... *first stop was an old roman ampitheater that i pass every week on my way to and from church, but had never stopped to look at more closely -- acquincum, an old roman city, was just north of budapest and lots of old ruins can be found there, but the area around my church is also rich in ruins as well -- this ampitheater was built mid-2nd century and designed to hold 14000 people! (i.e. it's big!) -- later on, in the 9th century it became a fortress to defend against the invading magyars, who obviously made a stronghold and stayed anyhow to found hungary =)... *next, in locating the house of gyula krúdy, famous 20th century novelist, we discovered that it's right across the street from my church! -- like the guidebook pictures of it were practically taken from the window of my church and i just never noticed the plaque on the front of the house there before!!! how cool is that? *after this, we tracked down a set of famous statues of "women with umbrellas" by hungarian sculptor imre varga (see attachment #1)... he's a contemporary scultor and there's a whole museum full of his work nearby -- there's pictures of these statues though everywhere, and they were just *asking* for some creative poses, so i should have some funny pictures on this roll of film =) *next we took the bus back down towards the center of town and checked out two very ornate churches near the river, and then went over to the pest side of town -- there we found a statue of attila jószef, a radical poet from the early 1900s, whose statue is basically sitting next to parliament near the river, pondering, and another section of the statue has huge metal script words with a couple lines from one of his poems about the duna (danube) -- it's a mighty impressive display.... *nearby, we also found a statue of imre nagy on a bridge (see attachment #2)... nagy was prime minister in hungary in 1956 (the year of the hungarian revolution against russia)... jános kádar, leader of hungary from 1956 to 1989 under russian rule, had nagy arrested after the uprising, put through a bogus political trial, and killed in 1958 along with 5 other revolutionaries -- it was a major event in 1989 when nagy and these other revolutionaries were re-burried in marked graves, signaling the end of the communist regime was near. (how's that for a history lesson and a half?... makes you think indeed... for half of you, this is all within your lifetime!)... *finally, we ended the day on a lighter note, locating little princess (attachment #3) -- this statue is of a little girl, sitting on a railing near the river... prince charles of wales was so enamoured by the statue that he invited the designer, lászló marton, to exhibit some of his works in london -- this statue is all over postcards etc. everywhere here, and it was really spiffy to be able to say now that i've seen the actual statue... *and *that*, at last, is the end of our journey -- how's that for a mini history lesson of the week? onward... things lara has learned this week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *getting your hand scalded by hot oil is NOT a party in a box, nuf said *when i get to take the putnam [big annual college level math contest], instead of the usual 9am til noon ad 2pm til 5pm slot i take it in at valpo, we'll be taking it 4pm to 7pm and 9pm til midnight so that we match up with when everyone back in the states is taking it -- saturday night math party? -- aaah!! =P *brother is officially coming to visit the week of thanksgiving -- major major party in a box =) quotes of the week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ so, learning a new language teaches you the ins and outs of how weird the rest of the world thinks... for example, have you noticed what storekeepers tell you when you ask 'mennyibe kerül?' [how much does it cost?]... it's not '548 forint'... it's '548 forintba'.. 548 within the forint? what's within the forint? i have yet to figure that out, but that's the way we do it here! ~erika, hungarian prof but you're not loud and obnoxious, you're loud and funny! ~catalina [re: the next two quotes, the war continues -- i think my side's winning =) ] party in a parallelpiped just sounds like it belongs in a chem lab -- what fun is that? ~jessica warnier The word "box" contains the letter X, which earns it bonus points right there, whereas "parallelpiped" hardly contains any rare or interesting letters. Furthermore, "box" rhymes with more words than does "parallelpiped." In fact, nothing rhymes with "parallelpiped," thus precluding the possibility of a creative rhyming advertisement for the party in the said parallelpiped.....These factors, among others, clearly lead to the conclusion that a "party in a parallelpiped" is inherently inferior to a "party in a box." ~ian renner so maybe we didn't believe you when you said you taught poncho [our green winged macaw, i.e. talking parrot back in memphis] to say 'la la la' this summer, but apparently you did because now, not only does he say 'la la la' a lot, he says 'la' about 40 times in a row, takes a break, and starts again! ~brother la de da... hope you all have a most excellent week! vislát! la(ra) =)