Fulbright Orientation

Warning! This blog presentation will be very long, covering adventures for four days!

Monday, February 1

Since I had made the mistake of sleeping late on my first Saturday morning in Pecs, I didn't have a cell phone, so I couldn't phone a taxi. I finally came up with the strategy of walking about two blocks over to the American Corner and ask if a taxi could be called for me. This was a wise strategy. Not only were they helpful, but I was all set for later understanding some presentations by U.S. Embassy staff. We Fulbrighters are highly encouraged to work with the American Corners and there will be much more about American Corners later in blog statements. I got to the train station. The snow, from Snowy Sunday, was mostly melted and one could feel the warmth of the sun while waiting for the train. I enjoyed watching the railroad workers engage in a snow ball fight.

The first 30 minutes of the trip are almost as if going through mountains. There are cliffs and rock slides and little bubbling brooks. This scenery, plus the snow decoration, made this breath-taking beautiful. The car was very empty. At Domobvar two others got on. Later a women came along with a trolley of snacks. I bought a candy bar, and misunderstood the price. I said something like, "Oh, it's 280, not 230." That caused the two people to ask if I spoke English, and if I was going to the Fulbright orientation, and that's how I met Richard and Wendy from Utah. They were only on this train because they had missed an earlier connection.

What luck! It was so much easier finding our way in Budapest in group. Upon arrival Richard suggested we buy a weekly pass for the public transportation. What a great suggestion that was! While we weren't there for a full seven days, we surely got our money's worth, and from that point on never had to worry to about having a ticket to ride anything. We found our way to the hotel and got checked in. Then we took a trip on the tram to find the Fulbright office, so we knew what we were doing the next morning. We found the project officer for American grantees, AnnaMaria, busy posting signs to help us find our way the following morning. We introduced ourselves, finding all meeting after much exchange of e-mail messages during the past year. We returned to the hotel area and had a nice dinner in a restaurant just down the street.

February 2

Here's my room in the hotel before I messed it up too much. A hotel in Europe often comes with breakfast included. Here are views of the breakfast room and a typical breakfast of my choice. The hotel does a good job of having breakfast choices that fit the food patterns of the various countries of Europe. An American coming to Europe for the first time might have a bit of culture shock, but certainly wouldn't starve.

At the orientation we met two other couples who will be here for a Fulbright experience. Harry and Teri will be based in Budapest while Harry teaches at Semmelweis University. Thad and Anna are based in Veseprem, while Thad teaches at a unversity there. Thad comes from a Polish-American family and Anna is Polish, now a neonatalogist in California. Thus, I had someone to talk with about Poland! Also, I found one can't discuss Hungarian history without discussing Polish history. The two countries are quite inter-related.

Bruce from Washington State, a creative writer will also be based in Budapest, logically enough teaching writing at one of the universities in Budapest. We have one student in our spring semester group. Amerrah is doing a PhD in mathematics and is studying a special kind of Hungarian math called combinatics.

I would call our orientation Hungary 101. We learned about Hungarian history, politics, music, and current events. The speakers were true and gracious experts. For example, the music lecture was given by a professor who has been the director of the Hungarian Folk Ensemble since 1971. The final lecture was about architechture, given by a very young man who is both an expert and in love with the subject. He began with the Romans and ended with the most modern building designs. After his presentations we went on a sight seeing tour so we could see the real examples. Here are some views from that trip.

We saw the Hungarian National Museum which is of the neo-classical style, the same style in which many buildings were done in the United States during the same century. We also saw a view of the city park on a snowy afternoon.

I was knocked out by seeing the Szechenyi Baths. I had no idea how huge it was. This photo show perhaps only 1/10th of the building. It is huge. Perhaps you can see what looks like steam rising from the ground. These are small bath areas outside of the building, warm enough that they were indeed steamy on a day when the temperature was in the high 20s. AnnaMaria said, "You can't imagine how wonderful it is to go there in the evening and watch the stars from the bath."

Two evenings we had very special treats. The first evening we were taken to the Citadel for dinner. As it is winter, darkness comes early and we were treated with a splendid view of Budapest. If I have learned things correctly above is the Chain Bridge, as we would call it in English. At the right is the Hungarian Parliament building. Both photos were taken about 6 PM.

I learned later the Citadel was constructed by the Austrians after the Hungarian revolution of 1848 with the goal of intimidating the residents of Pest. It doesn't serve as any defensive structure at all. Now, of course, the space is used entirely differently as you can see.

Our second special evening was at the Opera. I've never been to a real opera, so this was quite a treat. First, the Opera House is beautiful. Secondly, the opera itself was wonderful. We saw Eugene Onegin, sung in Russian, with Hungarain subtitles! The set was minimal and modern. The combination of the music and wondering what would happen next with the set kept me quite entertained. Example, a swinging light is not usually part of an artistic production; most often that would be a mistake. I was intrigued to see elementary parts of the Polish Polannaise in the Russian ballroom dance that was part of the third act.

The first act of the opera was more than one hour long. When we got to the interval, we were directed to follow the Fulbright Director. When we arrived at the bar, I thought I knew what was happening. However, not quite. We actually went to a nearby private room where special refreshments had been prepared for us. This was my first introduction to Hungarian champagne -- well I suppose the French would want me to say sparkling wine-- but let's go with champagne. It is very, very nice, and frankly better than any champagne I have had!  You will find Hungarian champagne turning up again in another day. Oh good!

One of my fellow Fulbrighters said, "do you think I can call this Boot Camp in my blog?" Our days were packed from 8 AM in the morning -- oh I never mentioned Hungarian lessons from a fabulous teacher-- until about 10 PM in the evening. What I think now, though, is that I can put many things I see and experience into context, and I'm very glad to have had this experience.

I'm also surprised at how much of Budapest I managed to see. With the intensive schedule we had, I thought there wouldn't be much time for sight-seeing. Well maybe I didn't actually do sight-seeing. I learned more about how to get around. For example, riding the trams. It's just easy. And the Metro is wonderful. On my last day in Budapest, our group was up on Castle Hill  in Buda (more about this later) at 3:30 PM. AnnaMaria took us to a bus stop that would get us to Moskova Ter. From there we caught the Metro, and I was in the hotel over in Pest at 4 PM picking up my luggage from storage. No stress in traffic jams, safe and warm transportation. It's great.

Watch for a future posting about our cultural activities on the March First Friday meeting.